IT’S an old line on Wall Street: If you can get your hands on a hot new stock, you probably don’t want it. This bit of Street wisdom came to mind last week, as Facebook went public amid so much fanfare. The stock eked out a 23-cent gain on its Day 1, to $ 38.23. [...]

??????Bono, U2′s lead singer and rocker-in-chief, has a reason to break out in song today: his investment in Facebook could make him one of the richest musicians on the planet, potentially eclipsing Paul McCartney, depending on how the social network’s stock performs after its first day of trading Friday. The musician, however, demurred when asked about how [...]

NEW YORK – The big pop in Facebook Inc. shares never came. Buyers did not rush into the market to snap up shares of the social networker. And the big Wall Street banks that brought Facebook public scrambled to prevent the stock from collapsing into declines. The underwriters averted a potential debacle by scooping up shares of [...]

First it was Sheldon Adelson, a casino mogul who helped finance Newt Gingrich’s presidential ambitions. Then it was Foster Friess, a multimillionaire with the propensity for off-color jokes who threw his money behind Rick Santorum. The latest wealthy businessman to grab headlines in this year’s presidential contest is someone less splashy, who made a splash [...]

The Obama administration will ease restrictions on U.S. investment in Burma, its latest and furthest-reaching step yet to encourage the long-isolated country’s reforms during the past year. The policy change — announced Thursday afternoon after a meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Burma’s foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin — includes some safeguards [...]