IBT Staff Reporter

The Bank of Japan raised its outlook for the economy by a notch on Friday and announced a loan scheme targeting growth industries, but also warned that Europe's debt debacle posed a risk to the global economy.

Toyota Motor Corp said it would take a $50 million stake in U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Motors, a move that gives the Japanese automaker a chance to repair its dented public image and vaults the California start-up on to the world stage.

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Wall Street on Friday, following the previous session's steep sell-off, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.4 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.29 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.15 percent at 0800 GMT (4 a.m. ET).

Stocks slid further around the world on Friday on fears Europe's debt crisis and tougher financial regulation will hurt a global economic recovery, as Germany prepared to vote on a massive standby package to stabilize the euro.

Abbott Laboratories Inc agreed to acquire India's Piramal Healthcare's healthcare solutions business for an up-front payment of $2.12 billion, in a deal it said would make it the largest pharmaceuticals company in India.

Good morning dear traders, EURUSD kept its strength and did not leave the morning range until 6:27 GMT when news of the FED according to EU policy and bad news from Wallstreet were published.

Dell Inc's quarterly sales and profit beat expectations but its gross margin fell short of analysts' forecasts and the computer maker warned that components supply will remain tight.

Lush green fields greet visitors to the agricultural heartland in India's northwest, some dotted with tall bundles of paddy covered with black tarpaulin, exposed to the sun, the occasional thundershower and rodents.

British Airways on Friday predicted a return to breakeven next year, helped by recovering business-class traffic, after it posted a record 531 million pounds full-year loss, hit by strikes and winter snow.

Web search king Google Inc on Thursday showed off a risky attempt to marry the Web to television and reach the $70 billion TV advertising market, chasing a dream that has eluded even archrival Apple Inc.

Asian stock markets slid on Friday as worries about the euro zone and the flare-up in market volatility prompted investors to sell shares and keep cash until calm returns.

British Airways posted a record 531 million pounds ($762 million) full-year loss, hit by strikes and winter snow, though said it had managed to cut costs by around 1 billion pounds due to restructuring efforts.

U.S. oil prices dropped to near $70 on Friday, after falling the previous day for a seventh time in eight sessions, on unabated fears that Europe's debt crisis could hurt global economic growth and slow energy demand.

Germany is poised to approve on Friday the lion's share of a $1 trillion safety net for financially troubled euro zone nations as an EU task force looks to toughen regulations within the bloc blighted by a debt crisis that has cast a pall over global economic health.

Dell Inc's quarterly sales and profit beat expectations but its gross margin fell short of analysts' forecasts and the computer maker warned that components supply will remain tight.

Chrysler will probably launch its public offering in 2011 and expects that 2010 will be a better year than it originally had forecast, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.

France and Germany pledged on Thursday to work together to solve a European debt crisis and support the euro, patching up a public rift that had rattled markets around the world.

With U.S. Senate passage on Thursday of a landmark bill to crack down on Wall Street, lawmakers must resolve differences between that measure and one approved in December by the House of Representatives.

The Australian Dollar is trading in very wide ranges as we write this report. The low of the day so far is USD 0.8072.

Stocks sank nearly 4 percent on Thursday on growing fears the euro zone's efforts to tackle its sovereign debt crisis will fall short, jeopardizing the global economic recovery.

The Senate will pass a sweeping reform of financial regulation on Thursday night, said an aide to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, capping months of wrangling over the biggest overhaul of financial rules since the 1930s.

Listening to Mozart does not make you smarter, researchers from the Austrian composer's homeland say, contradicting a popular 1993 study that first coined the Mozart effect.

Frustrated lawmakers pressed regulators to move faster to pinpoint the cause of the mysterious May 6 market crash, with two weeks of investigation producing few answers.

Biosecurity Queensland has hurried to a Sunshine Coast property amid fears of an outbreak of Hendra virus.

Assumptions by a sufferer that they'll be okay and won't need their life saving medication, local restaurant staff assuming there are no nuts in a menu item, or doctors assuming that patients with a food allergy understand the full extent of their condition, can all have tragic consequences, said AA President Maria Said.

The Senate was expected by the end of the week to approve the biggest overhaul of financial regulations since the 1930s after the measure finally cleared a procedural hurdle on Thursday.

Computer maker Dell Inc reported a stronger-than-expected profit, but warned of volatile global currencies and components shortages, and the company's shares stumbled in after-hours trade.

Stocks sank nearly 4 percent on Thursday on growing fears the euro zone's efforts to tackle its sovereign debt crisis will fall short, jeopardizing the global economic recovery.

With the market extra sensitive to any negative news at present yesterdays shock 7% drop in the Westpac Consumer Confidence report for May sent the Aussie plummeting in local trade.