MARKETS / FINANCE

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.

India gold prices are likely to fall more than 3.5 percent from its peak after a 16 percent rally last quarter as investors resort to year-end profit-taking while tepid wedding demand weighed, a Reuters poll of banks and brokerages found.

Australia's Newcrest Mining was assessing damage from a rock slip that was blocking access to part of its Cadia gold and copper mine, one of the largest of its kind in Australia.

Foes of the biggest mining investment in Peruvian history accused President Ollanta Humala on Thursday of abandoning his leftist roots to support Newmont's proposed $4.8 billion Conga gold mine.

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.

Chilean miner Antofagasta posted a 28 percent rise in nine-month profit, lifted by improved production and an increase in gold sales that helped offset bad weather and an accountancy hit after copper prices fell steeply in the third quarter.

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.

Zimbabwe's economy is likely to continue its strong recovery next year from a decade of decline to expand by 9.4 percent, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Thursday, but a hike in mining royalties could impede growth.

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.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa says his government is within days of signing contracts with mining companies set to develop large copper and gold projects in the mineral-rich Andean nation.

Canada's Dundee Precious Metals Inc said it received environmental approval from the Bulgarian government for its Krumovgrad gold project, sending its shares up as much as 8 percent.

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.

India gold futures fell half a percent on Friday afternoon, retracing to a level seen earlier in the week following a similar trend overseas, though a weaker rupee cushioned the fall.

Gold prices fell Friday in what appeared to be their second straight weekly retreat in the face of a Eurozone crisis, which after two years has yet to be contained, let alone solved, and now threatens Europe's financial liquidity.

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.

India gold prices are likely to fall more than 3.5 percent from its peak after a 16 percent rally last quarter as investors resort to year-end profit-taking while tepid wedding demand weighed.

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.

The biofuels industry could get a big boost after scientists in Georgia revealed Thursday a strain of yeast that can efficiently produce ethanol.

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.

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.