BUSINESS

Third-quarter earnings season will be in full swing next week. Results will indicate how much the global slowdown affects U.S. companies.

Asian stocks were mixed Friday as concerns over global growth and weak corporate earnings outweighed upbeat U.S. jobs data.

Spain's Telefonica (TEF) has reached an agreement with investment firm Bain Capital to sell Atento Call Center for 1 billion euro ($ 1.3 billion) as part of plan to sell assets and cut debt.

The U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open Friday ahead of the Labor Department's Producer Price Index and the Treasury Department’s Federal budget report.

India's industrial output grew at a modest 2.7 percent in August, beating the analysts' expectation of a 1.1 percent growth as compared to the same period a year ago. The data was released by the government of India on Friday. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had recorded a flat 0.1 percent growth in July 2012.

Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's second largest software services firm, reported Friday a 24 percent rise in the net profit for the second fiscal quarter ending June 31, 2012, meeting market expectations. However, the Bangalore-based company gave a weaker-than-expected earnings forecast for the third quarter, sending its shares down by 5 percent in the morning trade.

The top after-market NYSE gainers Thursday were Endeavor International Corp, Teekay Tankers Ltd, Dean Foods Co, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp and Gamestop Corp. The top after-market NYSE losers were Advanced Micro Devices, Inc, Quicksilver Resources Inc, Office Depot, Inc, Hertz Global Holdings, Inc and Range Resources Corp.

The top after-market Nasdaq gainers Thursday were J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc, Photronics Inc, FormFactor Inc, Oclaro Inc and Glu Mobile Inc. The top after-market Nasdaq losers were AEterna Zentaris Inc Ltd, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc, Popular Inc and Blucora Inc.

Most of the Asian stocks rose Friday with investor sentiment turning positive as a drop in the U.S. jobless claims indicated an improvement in the labor market in the world’s largest economy.

Asian stocks and the euro steadied Friday, but were on course for a losing week as worries about weak corporate earnings and slowing global economic growth limit the appeal of riskier assets.

A bus driver in Cleveland knocks out a teen girl after a verbal altercation becomes violent.

Animal rights groups are zeroing in on some of the nation’s biggest fast food companies after an undercover video surfaced earlier this week that recorded Idaho dairy workers stomping on and dragging live cattle

The Kellogg Company issued a voluntary recall on its Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats cereal after metal fragments were found inside.

Nationwide, foreclosures have declined to 2007 levels. States like New Jersey and Florida are still reeling, however.

Shares of Realogy Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq: RLGY) vaulted nearly 30 percent after its $1.09 billion initial public offering.

WWE "SmackDown" results for the Cot. 12 edition, pre-taped on Oct. 8

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) could get a big boost from capital markets activity this quarter. But dangers lurk.

Despite high hopes for Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows 8, three new reports show a gloomy financial forecast for the personal computer.

Wells Fargo and Co. (NYSE: WFC) may get a substantial boost from the housing recovery.

The Labor Dept. said the number of Americans lining up for new jobless benefits fell sharply in the last week to their lowest level since February 2008.

Deal would give troubled U.S. telecom momentum in deploying its next-gen network.

Turkish jet fighters intercepted a Syrian passenger airplane on Wednesday night, according to reports.

Australia is losing jobs to other countries, and the reason may be surprising: China isn't growing as fast as it used to.

Sprint Nextel Corp, Tata Motors Ltd, Deutsche Bank AG, ABB Ltd, Nokia Corp, Higher One Holdings, Banco Santander and Siemens AG are among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Thursday.

IT spending in India is estimated to touch $71.5 billion in 2013, a 7.7 percent increase from the $66.4 billion forecast for 2012, according to a report by IT research firm Gartner.

Asian stock markets declined Thursday as weak machine orders data from Japan and the Spanish debt downgrade by Standard & Poor’s weighed on the sentiment.

The U.S. stock index futures point to a slightly higher open Thursday ahead of the Labor Department's weekly jobless claims data and the Bureau of Economic Analysis's trade deficit report.

Most of the European markets fell Thursday as investor sentiment turned negative amid the revived concerns about the debt crisis affecting the euro zone as the economic and financial instability faced by Spain continued to deepen.

The worldwide PC market experienced sharp decline in the third quarter of 2012 with shipments totaling 87.5 million units during the period, a drop of 8.3 percent compared with the third quarter of 2011, according to latest data from Gartner.