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A decision is likely to emerge in the next few days, with Yahoo facing a weekend deadline to accept the offer. Although the deadline expires Saturday, Microsoft has indicated it probably won't reveal its next move until early next week.

The tense mating dance is at a standstill because Yahoo's board has repeatedly said it won't sell to Microsoft for less than $45 billion, even though the bid hoisted its stock shortly after it hit a four-year low in late January. The impasse has left most analysts predicting Microsoft will either sweeten its offer or attempt to replace Yahoo's board with a slate of directors who will embrace a takeover.

But the architects of Microsoft's bid -- Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell -- have been signaling that the company might abandon the bid.

The public remarks of Ballmer and Liddell could be just part of a negotiating ploy aimed at pressuring Yahoo to the negotiating table.

The latest price surge -- pushing crude to record heights in recent weeks, and to nearly double its level a year ago -- has some key components of a classic bubble, when market prices climb far above their intrinsic value. The burst comes when investors realize the assets are overvalued.

Oil came close to $120 a barrel Friday on news that a ship under contract to the U.S. Defense Department fired warning shots at two Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf. The markets were also weighing the effects of a pipeline attack in Nigeria and a looming refinery strike in Scotland.

Retail gas prices, which at times rise in tandem with crude oil, are near $3.60 a gallon.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- which supplies about 40 percent of the world's crude -- insists it's supplying more than enough oil.

Massey is positioning itself to take advantage of soaring demand and prices for Appalachian coal. The expansion is centered on underground coal mines, giving Massey alternatives if a court decision that would make it more difficult and time consuming to get federal permits for surface mines is upheld.

"We have all the permits," Chief Executive Don Blankenship told Wall Street analysts during a conference call Friday. "We have a line of equipment that's set up that takes us beyond these currently announced expansion plans."

Labor is another matter.

Massey needs 300 to 400 additional miners and Blankenship said that will be a challenge. The market for coal miners is already tight in Appalachia and expansion plans by Massey and others are making it tighter. Massey, for instance, recently started giving miners multiyear contracts to reduce poaching by rivals. That has helped cut voluntary turnover to 14.8 percent in the first quarter from 21.4 percent last year, Blankenship said.

But you can avoid paying those extra fees. Kiplinger magazine's Joan Goldwasser explains how:

• Look on the back of your ATM card for a logo indicating the network your bank is in. If you use an in-network ATM, you may still pay to use that machine, but avoid an out-of-network fee.

• Look for a bank or credit union that participates in a network that doesn't levy surcharges and does not charge you if you withdraw cash from another bank's ATM. Among such surcharge-free networks are Allpoint, Co-op Financial, CU HERE Premium network and STAR.

• Open an account at an Internet bank, such as Bank of Internet, First Internet Bank of Indiana or Everbank, that will reimburse you for fees up to a specified dollar amount, usually $6 or $7 a month. Or sign up with Metropolitan National Bank or Schwab Bank, both of which reimburse all ATM fees worldwide. Reluctant to switch? See if your bank offers an account with free ATM transactions if you maintain a minimum balance.

NEW LEADER FOR STATE'S GLOBAL BUSINESS GROUP

Louisville businessman J. Edwin Webb has been named president and chief executive officer of the Kentucky World Trade Center. Webb was selected by the Kentucky World Trade Center's executive committee, headed by the center's chairwoman, former Kentucky Gov. Martha Layne Collins. Marking its 20th anniversary this year, the center is a non-profit membership organization that helps Kentucky do business worldwide with counseling, market research and training programs.

NATIONAL

BLACK & DECKER TO CUT 700 JOBS

Just about halfway through the first-quarter reporting season, most of the blue chips that make up the Standard & Poor's 500 index have not pulled any surprises. In fact, stripping out the gloom coming from financial companies like Merrill Lynch & Co. or Citigroup Inc., profits are up 11 percent year-over-year.

With this generally good performance, the market hasn't had the kind of turbulence that some feared before the start of earnings season, and the S&P 500 index has risen about 4 percent in the past two weeks.

But the coming week might change the market's dynamics, as a string of consumer-oriented companies including electronics stores and food companies are scheduled to release their results. Wall Street is worried about slowing consumer spending, and these companies might give investors their best indication yet about how much Americans are willing to spend these days.

"We've pieced together a decent earnings season so far, and everybody handicapped the financials out of the market," said Chris Johnson, president of Johnson Research Group. "Now the companies that represent the activities of the consumer are going to fall in the crosshairs, and that can tell us more about where this economy is heading."

With only 21,000 miles on it, he's advertising the six-cylinder vehicle with the online network Craigslist for $13,991 - about $200 less than Kelley Blue Book's suggested retail value. Hoyos' mom purchased a Mazda 5, a smaller crossover vehicle with plenty of interior room but better gas economy - up to 28 miles per gallon as opposed to about 20 for the Mitsubishi.

"Nobody is buying used SUVs," said Hoyos, 35, who stopped accepting them six months ago. "The truth is more and more dealers are staying away from used SUVs and large trucks ... It doesn't pay. You can't have a unit sitting on the lot forever."

As gas prices pass $3.50 a gallon nationally and the economy teeters on recession, independent used car dealers like Hoyos and massive chains like AutoNation Inc. are having trouble selling used SUVs as buyers prefer smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles likes hybrids and crossovers (CUVs). Crossovers such as the Ford Edge, Honda CR-V, and Toyota RAV4 have more interior room and more rugged styling that the average car, but with a lighter chassis and generally better gas economy than an SUV.

Used SUV sales in March were down 14 percent nationally compared to last year, according to data compiled by CNW Marketing Research. That follows drops in used SUV sales of more than 8 percent for the first two months of the year, compared to the same months in 2007.

With no background in medicine, pharmacology or biology, she was determined to find treatments for the disease that literally took the breath away from her young daughter Jenesis. Her success at biotech came on the heels of recognition as one of the inventors of satellite radio.

And she accomplished much of this during a time of personal transformation, undergoing a sex change in the early '90s.

These days, while still running United Therapeutics, Rothblatt devotes much of her spare time and energy to perhaps the ultimate challenge: defeating death itself. She has established a foundation dedicated to preparing humanity for the upheaval that will come when immortality becomes a reality.

She is unfazed when people scoff at the notion.

It's the country's cheapest rate for compressed gas, according to the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, and far less than the $3.56 national average price for a gallon of gasoline.

"I'm totally celebrating," crowed Anderson, a 44-year-old social worker, who picked up a used Honda Civic GX two months ago. "This is the greatest thing. I can't believe more people aren't talking about it. This is practically free."

Personal ownership of natural gas-fueled vehicles in Utah soared from practically nothing a few years ago to an estimated 5,000 vehicles today, overwhelming a growing refueling network, where compressors sometimes can't maintain enough pressure to fill tanks completely for every customer.

"Nobody expected this kind of growth. We got caught by the demand," said Gordon Larsen, a supervisor at Utah utility Questar Gas.