MARKETS / FINANCE

Gold hit a one-month low on Friday and was set to post its sharpest weekly drop since May, hit by a sell-off in the commodities complex and with some traders citing selling in the precious metal to cover losses in other asset classes.

The vast majority of South Africa's gold lies deep underground but atop the mine dumps scattered around Johannesburg, you can actually walk on the stuff.

Freeport Indonesia's labour union may extend its strike at the Grasberg copper mine beyond one month, since talks with management were deadlocked, union official Juli Parorrongan told Reuters on Friday.

Finance officials from the Group of 20 nations on Thursday pledged to preserve financial stability and said central banks were ready to provide liquidity as needed, but a communique after the meeting offered few hints of fresh action to contain Europe's raging debt crisis or revive the faltering global economy.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Friday after steep declines the previous session, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 up by between 0.6 and 0.8 percent.

U.S. gold futures posted their steepest losses in a month on Thursday, dragged down by a global flight from risk that raises new questions about bullion's value as a safe haven and the sustainability of its long rally.

The board of UBS met on Friday amid the glamour of Singapore's Grand Prix event to decide the future of its scandal-hit investment bank and CEO Oswald Gruebel, on whose watch it lost $2.3 billion in alleged rogue trading.

Letting the yuan appreciate cannot solve the U.S. trade imbalance with China, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, hitting back at planned U.S. Senate legislation aimed at forcing Beijing to loosen controls on its currency.

Greece's finance minister has told lawmakers he sees three scenarios to resolve the debt crisis, including one involving an orderly default with a 50 percent haircut for bondholders, two Greek newspapers reported on Friday.

European shares inched up from 26-month lows on Friday and the euro rose after the G20 major economies pledged to preserve financial stability, but risk sentiment remained fragile on fears of renewed recession in the developed world.

The world's major economies on Thursday pledged to prevent Europe's debt crisis from undermining banks and financial markets, and said the euro zone's rescue fund could be bolstered.

World leaders and finance chiefs on Thursday pushed Europe to quell its debt crisis and big emerging economies said they might provide more money to help stop the chaos from spreading.

A situation where Greece cannot pay back its public debt can no longer be excluded, European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaas Knot was quoted as saying on Friday.

Asian stocks slid to a 16-month low and emerging market currencies fell on Friday amid fears that the developed world is stumbling back into recession, while a pledge from the G20 to preserve financial stability left investors largely unimpressed.

Finance officials from the Group of 20 nations on Thursday pledged to preserve financial stability and said central banks were ready to provide liquidity as needed, but a communique after the meeting offered few hints of fresh action to contain Europe's raging debt crisis or revive the faltering global economy.

The following are highlights of comments by finance ministers and central bankers in Washington this week for a meeting of the Group of 20 and the semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

The euro rose briefly early on Friday on talk of a G20 emergency statement to address the euro zone crisis, but the prospect of a global recession kept Asian stocks firmly on track for their worst weekly drop since November 2008.

The world's major economies on Thursday pledged to prevent Europe's debt crisis from undermining banks and financial markets, and said the euro zone's rescue fund could be bolstered.

Alibaba.com shares rose as much as 7 percent on Friday after three private equity firms said they were looking to buy shares in its parent, Alibaba Group, a move analysts say takes the heat off Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma for a speedy IPO.

Asian stocks fell to a 16-month low and emerging market currencies tumbled on Friday amid fears of a global recession, but a pledge from the G20 to preserve financial stability helped stem the scale of losses.

Pat Hughes left the bar he owns in New York City, flew across the country and showed up at 4:45 a.m. Wednesday morning to stand in line.

The son of a U.S. government chemist charged in an insider trading case pleaded guilty on Thursday to an unrelated charge of possessing several child pornography that included hundreds of graphic sexual images.

Two Republican lawmakers urged the top U.S. communications regulator to resist political pressure for allowing broadband start-up LightSquared to deploy a network that could interfere with the global positioning system.

Missteps by Netflix Inc have opened the door to competitors seeking to grab disgruntled customers who are looking for new options for video rentals and instant online streaming.

Borders Group Inc's plan to sell customer information to former rival Barnes & Noble Inc hit a snag on Thursday when a judge raised questions about the company's privacy policy.

Clearwire Corp is in talks with U.S. wireless operators, including AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless, about selling network capacity while it also eyes raising new funding through equity, debt and vendor financing, according to top company executives.

Major banks are working to provide more complex commodity investment products that offer diversification after the asset class as a whole has tracked other markets recently, a seminar heard on Thursday.

Morningstar Inc. is poised to start ranking exchange-traded fund model portfolios, the Chicago-based research firm said at its annual ETF Invest Conference on Thursday.

Europe's banking regulator said there were no plans to force more than a dozen weaker mid-tier banks to raise capital quickly, saying an original time table remained in place despite pressure building for action.