IBT Staff Reporter

Americans headed to department stores in droves in the dead of night on Friday to kick off the holiday shopping season, though many said they had pared back how much they would spend on family members and on themselves.

Asian stocks slumped on Friday as the Dubai-debt shockwaves hit the region, shaking banking shares and pushing the yen to a fresh 14-year high against a struggling dollar as investors unwound risky trades.

Japanese consumer price index excluding volatile food and energy prices slid in the year to October at the fastest rate since 2001 with increasing signs that weak demand is weighing on prices, while a tumbling dollar adds to price pressures.

Dubai struggled to ease fears of debt default on Thursday after its move to delay repayments at two flagship firms shook confidence in the Middle East as a center for investment and a source of capital.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would lobby for support for his plan to make banks pay for any future bailout at a Commonwealth summit this week.

U.S. shoppers may stretch tight budgets this year to reward loved ones after months of thrift, a softening of heart that store chains hope will erase the holiday season sales debacle of 2008.

The Australian Dollar opens lower today at 0.9140 after a volatile local session on Thursday. The Aussie's foray above US93 cents due to a weak greenback was short-lived after the release of third-quarter capital expenditure data which fell 3.9 per cent. The unit fell sharply to an intraday low of 0.9230 ahead of a move back up to 0.9245 heading into European trade. In offshore trade, the unit moved between a high of 0.9245 down to 0.9100 on renewed risk aversion, however volumes were far thinn...

A second of Sony Ericsson's new smartphones, key to its strategy for returning to profit next year, has been hit by software problems in Britain ahead of a critical sales period.

Dubai struggled to ease fears of debt default on Thursday after its move to delay repayments at two flagship firms shook confidence in the Middle East as a center for investment and a source of capital.

UK bank Lloyds' army of small investors grilled executives for over three hours on Thursday over secret central bank loans and mistakes made during the crisis, but agreed to back a record-breaking rights issue.

Chi-X Europe criticized the London Stock Exchange for adopting a procedure that prevented trades being routed to rival venues when glitches halted trading for more than three hours on Thursday.

U.S. congress has begun investigating climate scientists whose emails and documents were hacked into to see if their global warming theories have misrepresented the truth behind the cause of climate change.

Debt problems in Dubai struck financial markets hard on Thursday, sinking global stocks, lifting safe-haven bonds and driving the dollar higher.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Thursday it had loaned South African state owned utility Eskom 1.86 billion euros ($2.81 billion) to finance the construction of the Medupi power project.

British tool maker 600 Group Plc posted a much wider loss in the first-half as like-for-like sales fell 39 percent on lower order intake, but said it expected level of orders to improve in the second half.

Thailand's long-awaited auction of third-generation mobile phone licences could take place in the second quarter of 2010 rather than the first as suggested by regulators, two mobile phone operators said on Thursday.

News that Danish telecoms operator TDC and its majority owner Nordic Telephone Company will merge indicates NTC plans to float the operator, the second-biggest owner said on Thursday.

China Minsheng Banking Corp fell a disappointing 3 percent in its Hong Kong debut on Thursday after raising $3.9 billion in the world's fifth largest IPO this year, underscoring how sentiment for Chinese banks has soured recently.

Canadian Energy Services said it would acquire U.S.-based Champion Drilling Fluids Inc in a deal valued at about $16.7 million to strengthen its foothold in the United States.

China is preparing to unveil a target to curb carbon emissions ahead of a major climate summit in Copenhagen next month, but experts and negotiators worry Beijing's much-anticipated figure may disappoint.

Taiwan regulators suggested on Thursday that Chinatrust Financial think carefully about its plan to buy a stake in AIG's Taiwan Nan Shan unit from China Strategic.

South Korea has launched a dispute at the World Trade Organization against the United States over U.S. measures to raise prices on imports of steel, a South Korean embassy official said on Thursday.

A U.S. debt that is topping $12 trillion is raising fresh questions about the cost of President Barack Obama's proposed healthcare overhaul, but those concerns are unlikely to sink the legislation.

Debt problems in Dubai hit financial markets across the board on Thursday, sinking global stocks, helping lift safe-haven bonds and taking the dollar up from a 14-year low against the yen.

Sumitomo Trust and Banking has hired Daiwa Securities SMBC and UBS AG to advise on its planned merger with Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

Dubai struggled to ease fears of debt default on Thursday after its move to delay repayments at two flagship firms shook confidence in the Middle East as a center for investment and a source of capital.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2009 will be held on Thursday marching through a new route for the first time in 82 years.

LinkedIn, the world's biggest professional social network, will probably pursue an initial public offering some time but not in the near future, co-founder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman told Reuters.

Lloyds Banking Group investors on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the bank's record rights issue but gave executives a grilling for mistakes made during the financial crisis.