The ash cloud from Iceland’s volcanic eruption brushed up against Canada’s Eastern seaboard Monday, but airlines said domestic flight cancellations were mostly because of fog.

Toys are increasingly making their way back into parents’ budgets, Hasbro Inc.’s results showed Monday. loadposition in-article A big spike in sales of girls’ toys and strong sales across the board helped Hasbro’s first-quarter profit nearly triple. Revenue from girls’ toys, including Littlest Pet Shop, My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake, rose 16 percent. The second-largest U.S. toymaker also said Monday that it is starting a $625 million share buyback program. Shares rose $1.06, or 2.7 percent, to close at $40.91 Monday after touching a 52-week high of $41 earlier in the session. Both Hasbro and Mattel Inc., the largest U.S. toy maker, reported strong first quarters, indicating parents are beginning to spend more on their children as fears about jobs and the economy ease. Toys are usually one of the first categories to recover after an economic downturn because many parents spend on their children…

IBM reported strong earnings Monday and boosted its outlook for the rest of the year, citing a double-digit increase in software sales. loadposition in-article The Armonk, N.Y.-based tech giant said its profit for the first quarter rose to $2.6 billion, up 13% from last year. The company earned $1.97 per share, beating expectations and jumping 16% from the same quarter last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for earnings of $1.93 per share. Sales rose in the first quarter by 5% to $22.9 billion, beating analysts’ forecast of $22.75 billion. Revenue was boosted by growth in the company’s software sector, which increased 11%. “We had a very good start to the year,” Mark Loughridge, IBM chief financial officer, said in an earnings call. “Our best growth came from software, which is our most profitable and highest value area.” The company’s systems and…

Asia stocks rebounded from the biggest slump in two months as U.S. regulators were split on suing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The yen fell as signs of a recovery damped demand for the Japanese currency as a refuge. loadposition in-article The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.5 percent to 126.25 as of 12:32 p.m. in Tokyo after plunging 2.1 percent yesterday. The yen slid against 15 of 16 major counterparts. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. Banking shares in the U.S. and Asia jumped after a Bloomberg News report said the Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 to sue Goldman Sachs for fraud. Japan’s demand for services fell less than economists estimated in February, highlighting the recovery is starting to benefit households, and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said in a televised interview that the U.S. recession is “definitely over,” following news that the…