IBT Staff Reporter

The hot real estate market brought huge windfalls for the heads of U.S. home builders. But while the boom times are over, shareholder critics say CEO paychecks are not fully reflecting the gloom.

Apartment Investment and Management Co, one of the largest U.S. apartment landlords, said on Friday that quarterly funds from operations rose 8 percent, but Florida dragged down results, and its shares fell 6.5 percent.

Employers added about twice as many new employees last month than expected, while factory orders edged up, according to government reports on Friday that implied the economy was strong enough to avoid recession. The Labor Department said 166,000 non-farm jobs were added in October, enough to support consumer incomes and spending in the approaching holiday shopping season.

The rate of foreclosures in the United States will remain higher than normal for the next 18 months as the current home loan crisis plays itself out, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Friday.

Leading European bank stocks tumbled on Friday as worries mounted that the U.S. subprime crisis has taken a sharp turn for the worse and will force another round of hefty writedowns of bank exposures.

Japan's Casio Computer Co Ltd said it planned to launch W-CDMA cell phones in Japan sometime during the six months from October 2008 to March 2009, reaching out for a wider range of potential customers.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd, India's top consumer goods maker, said on Friday it will set up a joint venture with Smollan Holdings of South Africa to service the Indian firm's retail customers.

Shares in PetroChina, which raised $9 billion in the world's biggest initial public offer this year, are set to double their price when they list in Shanghai on Monday, buoyed by the company's position in the world's second biggest energy market.

Oil climbed more than $1 on Friday, holding near $94 a barrel as concerns about tight supplies in the run up to winter prevented a major sell-off.

The dollar dropped to a record low against the euro and a major currency basket on Friday, on persistent worries about credit and unreported losses at financial firms, which overshadowed a strong U.S. payrolls report.

Stocks fell on Friday as gains from an unexpectedly strong jobs report were quickly overwhelmed by fears of more fallout from the credit crisis.

Large U.S. banks and brokerages will suffer additional write-downs of more than $10 billion in the fourth quarter as deteriorating credit trends continue to undercut the value of subprime mortgages and related securities, a Deutsche Bank analyst said.

Chevron Corp's third-quarter earnings fell more than 25 percent, missing analyst estimates on sharply lower profits from gasoline production.

Oil's rally to record price highs has sparked a rush of bets on just how far it can go -- from workers in London's East End to Manhattan industry gurus.

The economy grew at a healthy clip in the third quarter despite a heavy weight from housing, but the strong consumer spending and export performance that held it aloft now look set to fade.

In a bid to cut its exposure to mortgage-backed securities, Merrill Lynch & Co engaged in deals with hedge funds possibly designed to delay its heavy losses, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday in its online edition, citing sources close to the matter. Shares of Merrill, which ousted Chief Executive Stan O'Neal earlier this week, fell 6 percent on Friday in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares are down 37 percent this year.

Negotiators representing Hollywood's screenwriters have recommended the union go on strike for the first time in two decades, a move that could fill U.S. television screens with reruns and reality shows.

Nokia's move into Internet operations faced headwinds on Friday, as the cell phone maker postponed the start of its gaming service due to software testing delays, and Warner pulled its songs from Nokia's music shop.

Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii game console outsold Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 by 2-to-1 in Japan in October, a game magazine publisher said, but its lead over the PS3 shrank for the fourth consecutive month.

The last time the Writers Guild of America went on strike, restless viewers turned to cable, sending the category into a growth spurt that continues to this day.

A fox-like alien and his robot sidekick on a mission to save the galaxy could also help save sales of Sony's PlayStation 3, which has struggled to find a game so good that it gives people reason to buy the pricey console.

Google Inc has lured MySpace, the world's largest online social network, to its system courting independent software developers, raising its challenge to fast-growing Facebook

The dollar fell to a record low against the euro on Friday, but gained ground versus the yen after strong data on the U.S. job market encouraged investors to wade back into risky carry trades.

Oil climbed $1 on Friday, heading towards $95 as concerns over tight fuel supplies in the run up to winter returned to the fore.

Wall Street looked set to open on the upside on Friday after government data showed that more than twice as many jobs were created in October as economists had expected.

Negotiators for Ford Motor Co and the United Auto Workers talked into Friday morning as the two sides closed in on a labor deal that would cap a historic round of bargaining between the union and the embattled U.S. auto industry.

Viacom Inc said on Friday its quarterly profit rose 80 percent, boosted by the sale of its music publishing unit, strong cable advertising and blockbuster turnout for the alien robots movie Transformers.

Mazda Motor Corp posted a 1.5 percent rise in quarterly operating profit as a weaker yen, cost cuts and sales growth offset a cutback in shipments to North America, and kept its full-year profit forecast unchanged.

British Airways reported record first-half profit on Friday, up 26 percent due to cost cutting, but its shares fell by as much as 5 percent after it cut its full-year revenue guidance due to the weak U.S. dollar.