IBT Staff Reporter

Archer Daniels Midland Co., the largest U.S. ethanol producer, is considering a purchase of Brazil's Cosan SA as ADM prepares to enter Brazil's sugarcane ethanol business, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Friday.

Zimbabwe's currency plunged to new depths on Friday as the U.S. ambassador to Harare predicted galloping inflation will force President Robert Mugabe from office before the end of the year.

Jones Apparel Group Inc. is near a deal to sell the Barneys New York high-end clothing chain for $825 million to Dubai's private equity firm Istithmar, The New York Times reported on Friday.

The yen weakened further on Friday, hitting a record low versus the euro and a 4-1/2 year trough against the dollar as investors chased high return assets at the expense of the low-yielding Japanese currency.

Blackstone Group LP priced its initial public offering at the top end of the range on Thursday, even as lawmakers pushed for its delay, raising $4.13 billion in the largest U.S. IPO since 2002.

Blackstone Group LP's (NYSE: BX) initial public offering raised billions of dollars for its employees, but the private equity firm's shares might have performed even better if it weren't for the potential tax headaches, analysts said on Friday.

If Boeing Co. has been rocked by this week's stack of new plane deals announced by rival Airbus, it certainly isn't showing it.

Hundreds of Japanese companies have erected takeover defenses to protect themselves from hostile takeovers in recent months, but the courts may tear some of them down, breaching the walls of fortress Japan for outsiders to acquire underperforming firms.

NYSE Euronext Inc. has entered the competition for the Borsa Italiana by submitting a preliminary bid to rival the London Stock Exchange Group's offer, according to the online edition of the Wall Street Journal.

The London Stock Exchange's offer for Borsa Italiana is worth about 1.6 billion euros ($2.14 billion), sources close to the situation said on Friday, a shade above a reported rival bid from NYSE Euronext and giving Borsa heavy board representation.

The governor of the Chinese province shaken by a slave labor scandal publicly apologized on Friday, as officials described farmers, children and mentally impaired people snatched into a grim rural underworld.

Despite slow sales in the past four years, Americans believe their homes are worth more now than a year ago.

Gold held steady on Friday after falling to a one-week low the previous day, while bullion contracts in Tokyo extended losses as cautious investors digested a plan by the Japanese exchange to boost liquidity.

U.S. officials said India and Brazil were to blame for the breakdown on Thursday of trade talks that some were billing as a final chance to spur the Doha round toward completion.

Oil jumped more than a dollar to top $71 a barrel on Friday on fears a strike by Nigerian unions could intensify and disrupt shipments from the world's eighth-largest exporter.

A sustained push above 5 percent on the yield of the benchmark 10-year Treasury note could roil markets, deepen housing woes and slow the U.S. economy.

The head of U.S. Air Force intelligence and surveillance on Thursday said data available commercially through online mapping software such as Google Earth posed a danger to security but could not be rolled back.

AT&T Inc. said on Thursday it has hired 2,000 temporary store workers to handle its much-hyped introduction of the iPhone, the first cell phone from iPod music player maker Apple Inc.

U.S. farmers need rain to help them cash in on demand for ethanol, the alternative fuel made from corn.

When Kansas-based real estate investor Phil Ruffin paid $165 million for 41 acres on the famed Las Vegas Strip in 1998, his critics said he overpaid by $15 million.

For online advertisers, your name, address or age is far less important than the record of what you were looking for online.

Blackstone Group LP, the largest private equity firm to go public, said on Thursday it raised $4.13 billion in an initial public offering priced at the top of a forecast range in the biggest U.S. IPO in five years.

Consumer groups urged the Federal Reserve on Thursday to make minor changes to a proposal requiring more disclosures by credit card companies to help consumers understand various fees and interest rates.

News Corp.'s $5 billion bid for Dow Jones & Co. Inc. may have fueled a modest rally among newspaper stocks but it's unlikely to spark similar deals or push publishing sector takeover values higher, analysts say.

The dollar gained against the Swiss franc on Thursday and approached a four-and-a-half-year high against the yen as investors continued to punish low-yielding currencies in a quest for higher returns.

China’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) may rise by 3.3 percent this year, surpassing the government’s annual 3 percent target rate, according to a government report.

Stocks rebounded on Thursday after brokerage upgrades sent the semiconductor sector to a 13-month high and fresh data pointed to a growing economy.

Consumers in Japan may be feeling increasingly uneasy as the weakening yen and recent rises in the price of crude oil and raw material costs are making commodities in Japan more expensive.

Gas exploration talks between Japan and China over a disputed area in the East China Sea will be held next Tuesday, Japan's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.