IBT Staff Reporter

Insurer Coventry Health Care Inc on Friday posted a 14 percent increase in third-quarter profit, in line with forecasts, but shares fell on a slightly lower-than-expected 2008 profit forecast.

Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd said its first-half net profit would beat its initial estimate by 36 percent aided by strong drug sales overseas, but it only nudged its annual outlook higher as it will likely spend more to buy rights to new drug candidates.

Nissan Motor Co posted a surprise gain of 12 percent in quarterly operating profit on Friday as a pickup in its global car sales outweighed rising commodity prices, and it kept its full-year forecasts unchanged.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel aims to boost business ties with India on her first trip to the world's biggest democracy starting on Monday.

Shares in LG.Philips LCD Co Ltd surged on Friday on market talk Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial was buying a stake in the South Korean flat screen maker, but both firms poured cold water on the talk.

Nintendo Co Ltd said it aims to launch its Wii game console in China and South Korea next year, helping accelerate its break-neck growth and cement its recent lead over Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp.

Insurer Pearl made a 4.9 billion pound ($10.1 billion) cash offer for rival Resolution on Friday, in a dramatic move aimed at thwarting a deal between Resolution and Standard Life agreed just hours earlier.

Gold climbed to a 28-year peak on Friday and platinum traded just below an all-time high, as a record low dollar and lifetime-high oil spurred buying.

Stocks jumped on Friday, driving the Nasdaq up 2 percent briefly and S&P 500 up 1 percent, after lender Countrywide Financial Corp. said it expects to return to profitability this quarter, easing some fears about financial sector losses.

Merrill Lynch & Co Inc Chairman and Chief Executive Stan O'Neal has told friends he expects to be ousted by the end of the weekend, CNBC television reported on Friday.

Microsoft Corp has made progress in getting its Windows software to work on a low-cost laptop computer for poor children that currently runs on rival Linux software, an executive said on Thursday.

Saving the galaxy from annihilation has to be emotional, according to a Canadian video game developer who wants players of action role playing title Mass Effect to weigh their choices carefully as they fight for the future.

Singer-guitarist Walter de Castro couldn't believe his luck when he found out his band's song The Core would be featured on FIFA 2008, the Electronic Arts popular soccer game.

Activision Inc is set to launch Guitar Hero 3 amid expectations that the latest installment of its music-themed franchise will be a platinum hit for the second-biggest U.S. video game publisher.

The Senate has approved legislation extending a moratorium on state Internet access taxes for seven years.

Countrywide Financial Corp posted a $1.2 billion third-quarter loss on Friday as the housing market slumped, but its shares soared after the largest U.S. mortgage lender projected a return to profit this quarter as it slashes jobs and regains its footing. Shares of Countrywide rose $2.87, or 22 percent, to $15.94 in pre-market trading. Stock futures also moved higher.

Institutional money flows into oil are playing a big part in its advance to record peaks, a portfolio manager at commodities hedge fund Tiberius said on Friday.

U.S. oil surged to a nominal all-time high of $92.22 a barrel on Friday, boosting the annual average price to $67.87.

Chinese Internet search company Baidu.com Inc beat forecasts by more than doubling its quarterly profit, but its shares fell 4 percent as its profit guidance fell short of some investors' expectations.

More than a year ago, Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer stood in front a group of skeptical Wall Street analysts and insisted that the software maker was still a growth company.

Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive Stan O'Neal broached the idea of merging with Wachovia Corp. without first getting board approval, angering some members so much they considered replacements for O'Neal, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The dollar fell to fresh record lows against the euro and a basket of currencies on Friday as investors, faced with a run of weak U.S. economic data, anticipated a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next week.

Investors bet on Friday on a U.S. interest rate cut to spur slowing economic growth, lifting most world stock markets and dragging the dollar to record lows, but the price of oil hit an all-time high, adding more strains.

Microsoft Corp lifted its full-year forecasts and posted 23 percent quarterly profit growth on Thursday, topping analysts' estimates on strong sales of Halo 3 and Vista, and sending its shares up 11 percent.

Insurer Standard Life has agreed to buy rival Resolution for 4.9 billion pounds ($10.1 billion), topping a competing offer and breaking up Resolution's planned merger with Friends Provident.

Turkish helicopters ferried more troops to the border with Iraq on Friday as diplomatic efforts got underway in Ankara to avert a major offensive against Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is worried about Iran's nuclear program but hopes a stand-off with the international community can be resolved through dialogue, he said in comments published in Italy on Friday.

Oil rallied to a fresh record high above $92 a barrel on Friday as the dollar tumbled to a record low, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran and gunmen shut more oil production in Nigeria. Oil's bullish momentum has pulled in increasing amounts of speculative investment and waves of technical buying have been triggered as U.S. oil pierced successive lines of resistance.

Four burned bodies found in the path of California's fierce wildfires raised the death toll to at least 12 people, even as firefighters won the upper hand and officials turned on Friday toward assessing the damage.