Some highlights from the day's business news:

Stocks followed commodities Thursday, rebounding from their lows to end higher in the afternoon.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 66 points, or 0.5%, the S&P 500 rose 7 points, or 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 18 points, or 0.6%. Earlier in the session, all three indexes were down as much as 0.7%.

Stocks had started the day in sell mode, weighed down by lower commodity prices and a dour outlook from Cisco Systems. But the momentum shifted midday as commodities erased earlier losses and the dollar pulled back against the euro.

Oil prices rose about 1% to settle at $98.97 a barrel. Earlier, crude had sold off more than 3%. Gold prices also turned higher, rising 0.4% to $1.507.40 an ounce. Silver remained in the red, but was only off 2% to $34.80 an ounce.

Facebook vs. Google turns nasty

"Google quietly launches sweeping violation of user privacy!" screamed the all-caps headline of an e-mail that popped into journalists' and bloggers' inboxes last week.

The e-mails were meant to whip media outlets into a frenzy - but the effort backfired when journalists found out that that the anti-Google campaign, conducted by PR giant Burson-Marsteller, was paid for by Facebook.

Welcome to a new level skullduggery in the growing war between Facebook and Google.

At stake is one of the most valuable data sets in existence: The social graph. It's a map of the connections between you and everyone you interact with. Facebook has it. Google has pieces of it, and wants more. That puts the two companies on a collision course.

Sprint offers $175 credit to switch carriers

Sprint is offering up to $175 to customers who switch from other wireless carriers.

The credit is meant to "give customers a chance to try Sprint without having to worry about fees or charges for terminating their contracts with their current carriers," Sprint spokesman Lloyd Karnes said in an e-mail.

The offer is $175 for business customers who switch and buy any Sprint phone; $125 for individual customers who buy a smartphone; or $75 for individuals who buy a low-end "feature phone."

To get the credit, all accounts must be ported from existing contracts, and they must remain active for 61 days. A two-year contract is required.

CNNMoney.com's Hibah Yousuf and Julianne Pepitone contributed to this report.