BUSINESS

Retailers were hoping for more shoppers like Shawn Elzia as the annual Black Friday bargain stampede marked the unofficial start of what is widely expected to be a middling holiday shopping season.

Italy paid a record 6.5 percent to borrow money over six months on Friday and its longer-term funding costs soared far above levels seen as sustainable for public finances, raising the pressure on Rome's new emergency government.

Stocks rose in thin trade on Friday, rebounding from six days of losses as a buoyant start to the holiday shopping season offset some concerns about the euro zone's debt crisis.

A behind-the-scenes tussle for control over a 7.5 billion euro ($10 billion) share sale by Italy's Unicredit has shown how increasingly tense market conditions are driving a wedge between investment banks.

Retailers may not reap hefty gains from the longer lines of shoppers snaked around malls across the U.S. at the traditional post-Thanksgiving start of the holiday shopping season; broader bargain hunting driven by budgetary fears may depress overall holiday spending.

Europe has still not found a solution to its sovereign debt crisis that would restore investor confidence, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday, advocating greater integration as the way to move forward.

Stocks rose on Friday, on course to snap a six-session losing streak, as a buoyant start to the holiday shopping season helped offset fears about the euro zone's debt crisis after another leap in Italian bond yields.

Euro zone member states are discussing dropping private sector involvement from the permanent bailout mechanism that is due to come into force in 2013, four EU officials said on Friday.

Stock index futures pointed to a seventh straight session of losses on Friday, their longest losing streak in four months, as fears about the euro zone's debt crisis overshadowed what appeared to be a buoyant start to the holiday shopping season.

AT&T said it would take a $4 billion charge in case its takeover of T-Mobile USA fails, a tacit recognition of the dwindling chances that the deal will get through U.S. regulators who say it would destroy jobs and curb competition.

A global accounting rule that was rehashed under pressure from policymakers in the financial crisis has to be revised, sparking industry fears it could make standard setters vulnerable again to political influence.

Stock index futures fell on Friday with equities eyeing a seventh straight session of losses, their longest losing streak in four months, as investor fret about global growth and the euro zone's debt crisis.

Fund managers keen to cash in on the cult of celebrity are being warned high-profile, pricey marketing campaigns in today's tough economic times could lose them more business than they win.

The year 2011 is coming on an end and as the year comes closer to its last days; it’s time for us to look back at the happenings in the previous 12 months.

Japan's core consumer prices fell for the first time in four months in the year to October after a cigarette tax hike a year ago dropped out from calculations revealing persistent deflation caused by chronically weak domestic demand.

European shares fell and the euro hit a seven-week low on Friday, as a spiraling debt crisis and the lack of a comprehensive policy to contain the damage sapped investor confidence.

France and Germany agreed on Thursday to stop arguing in public over whether the European Central Bank should do more to rescue the euro zone from a deepening sovereign debt crisis.

Bargain hunters flocked to U.S. stores late Thursday and overnight Friday, searching for deals while fretting about their own shaky economic well-being.

Asian shares and the euro fell to seven-week lows on Friday as European officials failed to soothe investor fears that the euro zone's debt crisis could trigger a damaging credit crunch if funding costs run out of control.

One of the worst cash crunches in decades is hitting Chinese companies, but for Pan Zhengqiang, borrowing money recently has been as smooth as the well-oiled machines at his widget factory in the farmlands surrounding Suzhou.

U.S. lawmakers plan to look into the relationship between bankrupt mid-size brokerage firm MF Global Holdings Ltd's former CEO Jon Corzine and the major credit-rating agencies, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

From Alice in Wonderland to Cars, hundreds of Disney movies are now available for rent on YouTube, the Google-owned site announced on Wednesday.

A multi-million-dollar class action lawsuit against Netflix and Walmart that alleged the two companies had conspired to carve up the DVD rental and sales market between them has been dismissed.

France has nominated Treasury Chief Economist Benoit Coeure as a candidate for the executive board of the European Central Bank, to replace outgoing board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.

Weak demand at a German debt auction suggests investors are starting to shun even the euro zone's strongest economy, which could trigger more losses in the shared currency as many shift from euro-denominated assets to safe havens outside the region.

A Canadian consortium aiming to buy the operator of the country's largest exchanges said the C$3.8 billion deal would likely win regulatory approval, its hopes boosted by a first day of hearings on Thursday.

Banks are redoubling efforts to sell the 465 million euro ($619.50 million) leveraged loan backing private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.'s buyout of German telecoms company Versatel before year-end, sources said on Thursday.

Accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young said chairman and chief executive James Turley will retire in June 2013.

European shares fell for the sixth consecutive session in low volume on Thursday after German Chancellor Angela Merkel restated her position against changing the role of the European Central Bank to ease the euro zone debt crisis.