MARKETS / FINANCE

Bank of America Corp and Capital One Financial Corp reported jumps in U.S. credit card charge-offs for December, suggesting consumers were stressed through the holiday shopping season.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday it will soon give China a formal diplomatic message expressing its concern about cyber attacks that prompted Google Inc to threaten to pull out of China.

JPMorgan Chase & Co reported deep losses on mortgage and credit card loans in the fourth quarter, dashing hopes that consumer credit is on the mend and sending the bank's shares down 2.1 percent.

A crisis tax proposed by the Obama administration would cut substantially into bank earnings across Europe and could sidetrack the sector's recovery, analysts and industry officials said Friday.

Wall Street stumbled on Friday, weighed by banking stocks after disappointing results from JPMorgan Chase & Co set a gloomy tone for the coming week's earnings.

U.S. consumer prices rose modestly last month while a cold snap lifted industrial output, suggesting the economy was growing but not generating enough inflation to trouble the Federal Reserve.

The head of the Senate Banking Committee may scrap the idea of creating a consumer financial protection agency, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday citing people familiar with the matter.

Technology company Intel Corp will receive some additional business from the German car industry and heavy machinery sector in the coming years, its head of German operations said.

Google Inc jolted investors and China this week by threatening to quit the Communist Party-run nation over censorship and hacking, and both sides are tight-lipped about what they expect to happen next.

China's population of Internet users jumped by nearly a third to 384 million at the end of last year, an official report showed on Friday, days after Google threatened to retreat from the expanding market.

U.S. industrial production rose in line with expectations in December as electric and gas utilities stepped up output in an unusually cold month, a Federal Reserve report showed on Friday.

Chinese commercial banks' non-performing loans fell by 62.98 billion yuan to 497.33 billion yuan ($72.85 billion) in 2009, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a statement on Friday.

U.S. consumer sentiment was little changed in early January, as worries over income and high unemployment offset news of an improving economy, a survey released on Friday showed.

U.S. consumer prices rose modestly last month while a cold snap lifted industrial output, suggesting the economy was growing but not generating enough inflation to trouble the Federal Reserve.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Friday as disappointing results from JPMorgan Chase & Co pressured banking stocks.

S&P 500 index futures are trading down 5.2 points from yesterday's close and JPMorgan shares are down 0.67% in pre-market trading.

U.S. hedge fund firm Citadel Investment Group, which is run by Kenneth Griffin, hired Jake Walthour as head of U.S. distribution for its asset management subsidiary, a company spokesman said on Friday.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday after disappointing results from JPMorgan Chase & Co pressured banking stocks.

JPMorgan Chase & Co reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Friday, but losses on mortgages and commercial loans continued to rise and its shares fell nearly 2 percent in premarket trading.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc has claimed that at least five members of rival Hilton Hotels executive committee knew of the alleged theft of trade secrets last year, court papers filed on Thursday showed.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday after disappointing results from JPMorgan Chase & Co pressured banking stocks.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.02 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.22 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.17 percent at 4.40 a.m. EST.

Persistent worries over the world economy, fueled by tepid U.S. data and a relatively lackluster start to the earnings season, kept a lid on equity gains on Friday, boosting safe-haven trades like the dollar and yen.

Kenneth Griffin's hedge fund firm Citadel Investment Group is in advanced talks to hire Jake Walthour, co-founder of Aksia LLC, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Technology shares jumped in Asia on Friday after better-than-expected earnings from sector bellwether Intel, but stocks elsewhere in the region were largely subdued amid fresh doubts about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.

In a bid to make India Solar and Wind Valley on lines of Silicon Valley, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has urged the Finance Minister to completely exempt imported equipment from levy of import duty for setting up of Solar and Wind Power plants.

National Food Authority (NFA) of the Philippines said it will allow private firms to import 163,000 tons of rice this year. With this the total imports by the world's biggest buyer for 2010 to a new record high of over 2.4 million tons, the state-run food agency said in a statement.

Gold edged higher in Asian trade Friday as the dollar dropped against major currencies. Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $1,144.40 per ounce at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while U.S. gold futures for February delivery were at $1,144.60 per ounce.

Most Asian stocks gave up early gains on Friday as weak U.S. retail sales and a rise in jobless claims made investors wary about the strength of its economic recovery, offsetting better-than-expected earnings from technology bellwether Intel.