IBT Staff Reporter

A number of money managers are up in arms over a plan by several central banks to thaw frozen credit markets because it will stop investors from feeling the pain of failed bets.

New passenger car registrations in the European Union in November fell 1.3 percent to 1.217 million vehicles from a year ago but were up 0.9 percent over the first 11 months, the ACEA European car association said on Friday.

The sizzling pace of Chinese capital spending barely slowed in November despite curbs on lending, showing why the authorities intend to tighten monetary policy further in 2008.

Business sentiment among big Japanese manufacturers has sunk to a two-year low, a Bank of Japan survey showed on Friday, reinforcing expectations that any rise in interest rates will be delayed to late next year. Rising material costs, lower construction and concerns over a possible U.S. recession contributed to the slide in optimism.

Google’s proposed buyout of DoubleClick is at the margins of a conflict of interest claim by two non-profit privacy groups who say that a top U.S. antitrust regulator has links to the law firm representing DoubleClick before the Federal Trade Commission.

Facebook, the popular social networking web site, will license the software used to run its site to others, a move that will help developers expand the use of their software beyond Facebook.

Opera Software, a smaller competitor in the web browser business, asked European Commission regulators on Thursday to investigate the possibility of anti-competitive conduct by Microsoft Corp over the inclusion of the Internet Explorer browser with the Windows operating system.

Treasuries fell on Thursday after two U.S. government reports showed stronger than expected retail sales and inflation in wholesale prices, reducing the chance that the Federal Reserve will need to cut interest rates to give a boost to the economy.

The dollar advanced against the yen and euro on Friday on new data easing concern over a possible recession and reducing the need for an additional interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve to give the economy a jolt.

Germany’s Lufthansa said on Thursday that it will buy a 19 percent stake in the low-cost U.S airline, Jet Blue, in a deal worth nearly $300 million.

Dow Jones & Co. shareholders approved the company's $5.6 billion sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. on Thursday, the company reported.

Crude oil fell nearly $2 on Thursday on concern whether yesterday’s plan by central banks around the world to lend more money to commercial banks would do enough to prevent an economic slowdown.

Gold futures dropped 2 percent on Thursday to trade under $800 an ounce after the dollar gained against most other major currencies, lowering investors’ interest in the precious metal.

U.S. Stocks ended lower on Thursday following a mixed batch of economic readings, including a sharp rise in wholesale prices which failed to ease doubts about whether recent moves by the Federal Reserve would improve the economy.

Copper fell on Thursday on investor concern that a slowing U.S. economy will mean reduced demand for the metal.

Nintendo Wii is the top searched product for this holiday season overall and in the electronics category ahead of rivals Microsoft Xbox and Sony PSP3, while Barbie dominates in searched toy items, an internet data monitor reported on Thursday.

Countrywide Financial Corp said on Thursday that mortgage loan funding tumbled 40 percent to $23 billion in November, sending its shares down nearly 4 percent before the market opened.

Sprint Nextel Corp. said on Thursday it will partner with MySpace, an online social networking site, to link its cell phone customers to the free MySpace Mobile Web site which is due to launch early next year.

Saving money tops the list of 2008 resolutions for young people, taking priority over more common vows like dieting and exercising, research shows.

Internet chatroom romantics beware: your next chat may be with a clinical computer, not a passionate person, trying to win your personal data and not your heart, an online security firm says.

A small Norwegian maker of Web browsers, backed by an industry coalition, has filed the first complaint against Microsoft to the European Commission since the software giant lost a landmark antitrust case earlier this year.

Sales at retailers posted a much stronger-than-expected 1.2 percent rise in November, government data showed on Thursday, as holiday shoppers coped with high energy costs and the fallout from a housing slump. Excluding autos, retail sales gained 1.8 percent, the Commerce Department said. Economists polled forecast retail sales to rise 0.6 percent while sales ex autos were also projected to increase by 0.6 percent, according to Reuters.

The European Union threatened on Thursday to boycott U.S. talks among top greenhouse gas emitting nations, accusing Washington of blocking goals for fighting climate change at U.N. talks in Bali.

In this booming Gulf emirate, home to soaring personal wealth, hundreds of new skyscrapers and a ski slope plugged into a shopping mall, U.S. private equity investors are pouring in to check out potential investments.

The European Central Bank's policymakers will act in a firm and timely manner to ensure that knock-on effects from higher oil prices do not appear, the ECB said in the editorial of its December bulletin.

Switzerland's Novartis AG will slash 2.5 percent of its global workforce, aiming for annual savings of $1.6 billion in 2010, becoming the latest major drugmaker to undertake a deep restructuring. Novartis said on Thursday it would take a charge of $450 million in the fourth quarter for the measures, which aim to combat price pressures on drugs, higher research costs, tighter regulations and more generic competition.

The major currency pairs moved sharply in early Wednesday trading following the announcement of a concerted central bank move, consisting of the Fed, BoE, ECB, SNB and BoC, to alleviate global liquidity concerns and inject much-needed cash into the credit-tight financial markets.

Crude oil futures on Wednesday hit the highest gain in about 11 months pushing oil prices high.

The word w00t, an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year on Tuesday by the publisher of a leading U.S. dictionary.