UNITED STATES

BHP Billiton has lined up a $70 billion financing package to bolster its $140 billion takeover approach for rival miner Rio Tinto, the Financial Times said on Saturday.

A downgrade of Citigroup Inc's nearly pristine credit ratings will not impede its thriving business, new acting Chief Executive Win Bischoff wrote in an internal memo to employees sent on Saturday.

British grocer Tesco made its U.S. debut on Wednesday by throwing open the doors of a sleek, modern Los Angeles store stocked with a larger helping of fresh, ready-to-eat meals than at traditional supermarkets.

A younger generation of chief executives in many boardrooms is set to spur the strategic overhaul.

Visa Inc, the world's largest credit card network, filed with regulators on Friday to raise up to $10 billion in an initial public offering, in one of the largest and most eagerly awaited U.S. stock offerings. Visa announced the offering two days after agreeing to pay $2.1 billion to settle a three-year-old antitrust lawsuit with rival American Express Co.

The credit crisis deepened on Friday as Wachovia Corp reported a potential $1.7 billion loss on mortgage-related debt, while credit card company Capital One Financial Corp said more customers are missing payments.

The pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc. said on Friday that it had settled Vioxx litigation for $4.85 billion.

The head of the agency charged with ensuring smooth transition of the television industry into digital broadcasting quit the Bush administration late Friday.

Stocks fell for a third session on Friday after a disappointing outlook from Qualcomm Inc triggered more weakness in technology shares and helped send the Nasdaq down to its biggest weekly point loss since the September 11, 2001, attacks. The wireless technology developer late Thursday forecast 2008 earnings and revenue below analysts' expectations, a day after Cisco Systems Inc warned about demand from its customers in the banking sector.

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was freed from house arrest late on Friday, hours after she was stopped from leaving her Islamabad home to lead a rally against the president's imposition of emergency rule.

Gold gained on Friday, with investors keen to drive the metal to a record high of $850 an ounce as the dollar tumbled to an all-time low and oil rallied.

Stocks fell on Friday, hit by a drop in technology shares, including Microsoft Corp, on concern about the profit outlook, while news of more credit losses dragged on financial services companies.

Oil rose above $96 on Friday, supported by a weak dollar, but gains were limited by concerns over the U.S. economy after another bank warned of large credit losses.

The dollar fell to 1-1/2 year lows versus the yen on Friday as fears of wider credit-related losses at U.S. financial institutions had investors dumping risky assets and anticipating more Federal Reserve rate cuts.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said on Friday it will take a fourth-quarter writedown of C$463 million ($493 million) before tax on various securities tied to the U.S. mortgage market, and analysts said they would not be surprised to see further writedowns.

Morgan Stanley Chairman and Chief Executive John Mack has tapped co-President Zoe Cruz, a long-time lieutenant who oversees trading and banking, as the leading candidate to succeed him, a person familiar with the situation said on Friday.

Fannie Mae posted a third-quarter net loss that was double its loss from a year earlier because of slumping home prices and the squeeze in credit markets that drove values of mortgage securities lower.

Japanese stocks ended at a nearly three-month closing low on Friday after a wave of late selling on a report that Mizuho Securities, the unlisted brokerage arm of Mizuho Financial Group, may post a subprime-related loss of over 100 billion yen and delay a merger.

Japan's Health Ministry, eager to trim swelling health-care costs, proposed changes to prescription forms on Friday in a bid to boost the use of cheaper generic drugs, sending shares in the nation's generic drug makers soaring.

Consumer sentiment posted a surprisingly sharp fall in early November, hitting its lowest in two years as high energy costs and falling home prices pummeled confidence, a survey released on Friday showed. The bleak sentiment could also be complicated by a spike in price expectations, which may make an inflation-wary Federal Reserve less likely to cut interest rates to shore up the consumer-driven economy.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said on Thursday that 12 films would be eligible to compete for the best animated feature Oscar next year, including such crowd-pleasers as Ratatouille, Shrek the Third and Bee Movie.