Bill Gates to give up on daily job involvement in 2008
Bill Gates plans to step down from his day-to-day role at Microsoft Corp from July 2008. Even though Gates will remain chairman after that, Ray Ozzie will immediately assume Gates's job of chief software architect and Craig Mundie will become chief research and strategy officer Microsoft said today in a statement.

Gates first realized the potential of selling software for new personal computers in 1975, a business that propelled Microsoft to dominance and made him the world's richest man.

Microsoft shares fell 11 cents to $21.96 in extended trading. They earlier rose 19 cents to $22.07 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The stock has been the second-worst performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average behind Intel Corp.

Gates founded Microsoft in 1975 and stepped down as CEO in January 2000, handing the job to Ballmer, a 23-year Microsoft veteran. In recent years, Gates has become concerned with philanthropy in education and world health. He and wife Melinda endowed a foundation with more than $26 billion to provide vaccinations in poor countries, research cures for the AIDS virus and install computers in libraries and schools.
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Us stocks zoom
New York: U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke did not voice inflation concerns, and on strong earnings from investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. Tech shares like Qualcomm Inc. Apple Computer Inc. and Yahoo Inc. helped push the Nasdaq Composite Index to its biggest one-day gain in more than two years.

Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI - news) rose 198.27 points, or 1.83 percent, to 11,015.19, closing above the 11,000 level for the first time in more than a week. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (^SPX - news) made its biggest one-day gain in more than 2-1/2 years, rising 26.12 points, or 2.12 percent, at 1,256.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC - news) was up 58.15 points, or 2.79 percent, at 2,144.15.

Speaking before the Economic Club of Chicago, Bernanke said inflation expectations had "fallen back somewhat" and that the impact of high energy prices on the economy has been limited.

That offset worries from earlier this week when core consumer and producer price data rose above expectations.

This could mean that the Fed may pause in its two-year-long cycle of interest rate hikes in the next few months, investors said. About 1.9 billion shares were traded on the NYSE, above the 1.61 billion daily average for last year. On Nasdaq, about 2.3 billion shares changed hands, above the 1.8 billion daily average last year.
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