IBT Staff Reporter

Swiss Re reported a shock 1.2 billion Swiss franc ($1.07 billion) writedown due to the subprime crisis, sending its shares down sharply and making it the first reinsurer to suffer a big, direct hit from the crisis.

The yen strengthened on Monday, as investors' appetite for risk was dented by worries of more trouble in the global financial sector and consequent falls in equity markets.

World stock markets fell on Monday, with European shares slipping into losing territory for the year in another tremor over the credit crunch, while Japan's yen gained as investors cut back on their riskier holdings.

The Dubai government agency that bought into Deutsche Bank this year said on Monday it was considering investing in U.S. financial services firms affected by the mortgage-market crisis.

BHP Billiton Chief Executive Marius Kloppers has told investors the firm is not adding a cash sweetener to its current all-share takeover proposal for mining rival Rio Tinto, a South African BHP shareholder said on Monday.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Gary Stern said on Monday he expected the U.S. housing market to weaken further because of a large pool of unsold homes. But employment and incomes were still rising, Stern said, and that would underpin consumption.

PayPal, the payments service arm of online auction leader eBay Inc, is set to release on Tuesday a convenient way for its customers to make payments on Web sites that don't accept PayPal directly.

Goldman Sachs & Co analysts downgraded Citigroup to sell and said the largest U.S. bank may have to write off $15 billion for debt losses over the next two quarters, and it placed it on Americas Sell List. The report came after Citigroup's own chief strategist upgraded the nation's banking sector, calling selling pressure overdone.

Stock futures fell on Monday after Goldman Sachs added Citigroup Inc to its sell list, citing prospects for more credit losses at the No. 1 U.S. bank.

Britain said it may offer financial help to potential rescuers of Northern Rock, even though this would need to be approved by the European Union, as it emerged proposals put forward so far were pitched low. Northern Rock shares tumbled over 20 percent to a new low on Monday after the bank said interest from potential suitors valued it at materially below Friday's share price.

U.S. officials' effort to talk up the dollar comes amid lower expectations in financial markets

The party set to win a big majority in Russia's parliamentary election next month has boiled down its central idea to two words: Vladimir Putin.

Pharmaceutical companies see U.S. regulators applying a tougher standard to some new medicines by looking for evidence they are better than drugs already on the market, officials told Reuters this week.

Grieving survivors and rescuers picked through the rubble left in the wake of a cyclone that battered Bangladesh as the death toll reached over 2,300 on Sunday and a government official declared the disaster a national calamity.

At least 17 people were killed by explosions in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities on Sunday, Iraqi police and officials said.

Rifle-toting Cambodian police arrested ex-Khmer Rouge President Khieu Samphan on Monday, the latest member of Pol Pot's inner circle to be detained by the U.N.-backed Killing Fields tribunal.

A methane explosion ripped through a mine in Ukraine's Donbass coalfield on Sunday, killing at least 63 miners and leaving 37 missing in underground shafts engulfed by fire and smoke.

Oil extended gains on Monday, nearing $95 a barrel as the dollar fell and some OPEC members pushed for action to stem their declining purchasing power.

U.S. light vehicle sales industrywide were likely to slip below 16 million vehicles next year as the housing market continues to slow through 2008, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross said on Sunday.

Siam Cement, Thailand's top industrial conglomerate, plans to invest $3.7 billion in a major petrochemical complex in southern Vietnam, state media reported on Monday.

AT&T Inc is trying to put together a bid for EchoStar Communications Corp before the end of the year, whetted by the satellite operator's recent stock dip, according to Barron's financial newspaper.

An OPEC summit ended on Sunday in sharp political division over whether to take action over the weak dollar, as heads of state vowed to keep providing Western consumers with an adequate supply of oil.

Three top investors in the automotive industry painted a grim picture on Sunday for the sector in 2008, with one executive predicting a possible slump in U.S. sales to levels not seen in 15 years. The weakest forecast is for a possible 9.4 percent decline. But all three -- Jerry York, an adviser to billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian; financier Wilbur Ross; and Thomas Stallkamp, a former Chrysler president -- were more pessimistic than many in the battered industry.

Asian stocks made a cautious advance on Monday following a recovery on Wall Street, with gains for oil prices shoring up demand for energy shares.

AT&T completed a $2.8 billion cash deal to acquire Dobson Communications on Thursday, adding 1.7 million subscribers the.

Citigroup Inc. appointed a new Chief Risk Officer on Friday amid speculation that bank write-downs due to mortgage-related investments may lead to the company’s first quarterly loss.

NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Friday after a day of sharp price swings, helping the S&P 500 narrowly avert a third straight week of losses as bargain-hunting lifted the beaten-down technology sector while shares of oil companies advanced on buoyant crude prices.

U.S. stocks are likely to be volatile next week in trade thinned by the Thanksgiving holiday, with investors focused on an expanded look at the Federal Reserve's view of interest rates and the economy.

DreamWorks principals David Geffen and Steven Spielberg have been negotiating to move their studio to NBC Universal from Paramount Pictures, the New York Times reported on Saturday.