IBT Staff Reporter

Stocks were little changed on Friday as financial shares fell after the tepid debut of a Federal Reserve measure to revive lending, offsetting investors' bets that mergers could heat up after reports IBM was in talks to buy rival Sun Microsystems.

Xerox Corp chopped its first-quarter earnings forecast by as much as 85 percent, as the slowdown in office equipment spending badly hurt revenue and thwarted its cost-cutting efforts.

Stocks fell on Friday, dragged down by financial shares after a tepid debut of a Federal Reserve measure to revive lending.

Oil hovered above a four-month high on Friday at $52 a barrel, recouping earlier losses as the market sought a new base above $50 and after news of a ship collision in the key Strait of Hormuz shipping lane.

Xerox Corp chopped its first-quarter earnings forecast by as much as 85 percent, as the slowdown in office equipment spending badly hurt revenue and thwarted its cost-cutting efforts.

Opposition fears of an unfair election in Afghanistan this year are well-founded, and a rigged poll would fuel political instability and undermine support for democracy, a top U.N. envoy has warned.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar is not hiding in Pakistan's Baluchistan province whose people will resist any U.S. attempt to extend its war against militancy there, the province's chief minister said on Friday.

Israel's right-wing Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu was given two more weeks on Friday to form a government, allowing further time to try to balance his coalition by including the center-left Labor party.

Jordan's King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad held talks in Amman Friday, part of a flurry of diplomatic moves to close Arab ranks ahead of a summit later this month in Qatar, officials said.

North Korea said on Friday it will reopen a military hotline with the South, a move suggesting the secretive state may be tempering recent harsh rhetoric ahead of a widely condemned missile launch expected early next month.

U.S. President Barack Obama sent Iran an unprecedented videotaped message on Friday offering a new beginning of diplomatic engagement after decades of U.S. hostility to the Islamic Republic.

President Barack Obama issued an unprecedented videotaped appeal to Iran on Friday offering a new beginning of diplomatic engagement to turn the page on decades of U.S. policy toward America's longtime foe.

European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide 75 billion euros ($103 billion) in new loans to the International Monetary Fund as part of a G20 effort to boost the lender's firepower for fighting global recession.

By Huw Jones

By Gilles Castonguay

Americans fear home prices will drop more sharply in the coming year, despite government efforts to resuscitate the battered real estate sector, according to a poll released on Friday. U.S. homeowners predicted their home values would fall by 2.2 percent in the year ahead, the biggest anticipated decline in the past few years.

Stocks rose on Friday as a further rebound in shares of natural resources companies offset bleak corporate outlooks and fears of inflation.

UAL Corp , parent of United Airlines, said on Friday it expects an $80 million cash loss related to fuel hedge contracts that settled in the first quarter.

By Ellis Mnyandu

A crash in oil prices has confirmed the dominance of fossil fuels, OPEC ministers and other energy producers said on Thursday, but they also stated their commitment to fighting the pollution they generate.

European Union member states hit by the global economic crisis urged the bloc Thursday not to promise the developing world more money to combat climate change than they can afford.

Xerox Corp , the world's top supplier of digital printer and document management services, warned first-quarter earnings will fall far short of its earlier forecast as a slowdown in technology spending undercuts revenue.

Italy's Fiat SpA denied on Friday it would assume any current or future debt from Chrysler LLC , the troubled U.S. car maker with which it plans to form a partnership.

By Ellis Mnyandu

By Chris Baldwin

Citigroup Inc named Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden as chairman of troubled banking unit Citi Holdings on Friday, and elevated Edward Kelly to replace him as CFO.

Xerox Corp, the world's top supplier of digital printer and document management services, warned on Friday that first-quarter earnings will fall far short of its earlier expectations, as a slowdown in technology spending undercuts revenue.

Dutch navigation device maker TomTom said on Friday it had launched a court case against Microsoft Corp a few weeks after the American software giant launched a patent lawsuit against it in the United States.

Bank of America Corp was involved in accounting for fourth-quarter writedowns at Merrill Lynch & Co before it acquired the brokerage firm, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.