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Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) announced a partnership yesterday, ending what the New York Times calls a "bumpy, marathon mating dance" between the two companies. Under the new 10-year deal, Microsoft's Bing will be used as the Internet search service on Yahoo Web sites, and Yahoo will sell ads alongside search results to large companies on behalf of both Microsoft and Yahoo.

While a few of the nation's big banks have taken most of the blame for the economic crisis, plans to overhaul the financial industry may depend on thousands of small banks, the Washington Post reports. Each of the 8,000 U.S. community banks may be small on its own, but together they represent a "powerful lobbying force" with something that the "sullied banks of Wall Street" lack—a good reputation. "The larger financial institutions have the opposite of political clout today.

The Obama administration's antitrust division is keeping itself busy these days in efforts to reign in various major industries from railroad giants to food processors. Because the officials have stepped up enforcement, the New York Times reports, they're facing resistance even from within the administration. One argument against the crackdown is that it's ill-timed, as corporate America has yet to recover from the recession.

Stock markets soared Thursday on better-than-expected quarterly earning news, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average leaping 188.03 points to 9069.29, the first time it has broken through the 9,000 mark since January, the Wall Street Journal writes. That caps a remarkable rally that has seen the Dow gain 38.5 percent in less than five months—"the biggest percentage gain in such a short time since 1975," notes the paper.

Spurned by lawmakers and regulators in Washington, D.C., CIT Group finally may have grabbed a lifeline late last night when it "appear[ed] to have reached an agreement securing $3 billion in last-minute rescue financing from its bondholders," the Wall Street Journal reports.

This week Goldman Sachs (GS), Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) each announced second-quarter profits totaling $13.6 billion. Turns out much of it was based on one-time gains, says the Washington Post.

Sound the alarms! China's foreign currency reserves have now topped the $2 trillion mark—$2.13 trillion to be exact—most of which is held in U.S. dollar assets "despite Beijing’s recent criticism of the dominant role of the dollar as a global reserve currency," the Financial Times reports. China's foreign currency reserves increased a whopping $177.9 billion in the second quarter, up from just a $7.7 billion hike in Q1.

The Wall Street Journal leads its coverage this morning with news that CIT Group (CIT), a venerable if low-key financial institution, is on the brink of collapse and is scrambling to survive.

The Wall Street Journal leads its Business & Finance news box with word that "tentative signs of life in global trade" have begun to buoy growth forecasts in the United States and China, as Bloomberg and Reuters report that stock indices closed the week down, marking the fourth straight week of declines. The Commerce Department said Friday that U.S.

Three stories this morning illustrate just how much the financial fallout over the last year continues to dog the U.S. economy. The Wall Street Journal reports on the Obama administration's frustration with the pace at which mortgage companies are reworking troubled loans even though they were given incentives to do so by the government's housing rescue plan.

The Wall Street Journal leads and the New York Times off-leads with a look at the trouble facing commodities traders as regulators in the United States and abroad seek to curb speculation in oil markets in an attempt to keep oil prices low.