IBT Staff Reporter

With global economic growth waning and a credit crunch threatening, finance chiefs from rich nations were gathering on Friday to mull how to control strains in financial markets and keep expansion going.

Wachovia Corp posted on Friday a 10 percent decline in third-quarter profit, missing forecasts, as the fourth-largest U.S. bank suffered $1.3 billion of write-downs at its investment banking unit.

Caterpillar Inc, the world's top maker of earth-moving equipment, diesel engines and gas turbines, posted disappointing quarterly earnings on Friday and cut its full-year forecast, sending its shares down 3.5 percent.

Bear Stearns Cos is being investigated by Massachusetts securities regulators over whether the bank improperly traded with two in-house hedge funds that collapsed last summer, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The dollar slid to a fresh record low against the euro and a basket of currencies on Friday, pressured by the growing view that a slowdown in the U.S. economy will force another cut in interest rates this month.

The twin blast which killed 133 people as opposition leader Benazir Bhutto drove through masses of supporters in Karachi has been blamed on Islamist militants.

Oil surged beyond $90 to a new peak on Friday as tight fuel stocks ahead of winter and a softening dollar spurred investor buying. Oil's rally -- which has seen six straight days of record highs for U.S. crude -- has been fuelled by unprecedented weakness in the dollar, a factor that has supported all dollar-denominated commodities.

A suspected suicide bomber killed 115 people on Friday in an attack targeting a vehicle carrying former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto through Karachi on her return from eight years in exile.

Web search leader Google Inc reported on Thursday a 46 percent rise in profit that topped Wall Street expectations, fueled by accelerating market share gains and tighter cost controls.

After more than a decade on the air, Comedy Central's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart has its own online home.

Robust demand for cheaper phones boosted third-quarter earnings at Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, with the better than expected result sending its shares sharply higher.

The U.S. factory sector and the job market showed surprising weakness in data released on Thursday, raising concerns the Federal Reserve may need to deliver more interest rate cuts to shore up the economy.

Global sales from clean energy sources like wind, solar and geothermal power and biofuels could grow to as much as $1 trillion a year by 2030, U.S. bank Morgan Stanley has estimated.

Talks to resolve a standoff in Sudan's national coalition government adjourned on Thursday without agreement, prolonging the crisis threatening a fragile peace agreement that ended two decades of war.

Financial companies led Wall Street lower on Thursday after a sharp drop in Bank of America Corp's earnings stoked worries about the extent the credit crunch has hurt the economy and profits.Bank of America, the No. 2 U.S. bank, said profit plummeted 32 percent as it took large write-downs for leveraged and other loans and recorded losses from structured products, including mortgage debt.

Copper touched a one-month low on Thursday, dragged down by poor U.S. data triggering technical selling while dwindling stocks sent aluminium to a seven-week high.

Stocks fell on Thursday, hit by losses in financial companies after Bank of America Corp reported a sharp drop in earnings, stoking concern the credit crunch was dragging on profits and the economy.

The dollar dropped to a record low against a basket of currencies and the euro on Thursday after Bank of America's third-quarter earnings results missed estimates and renewed concerns of a U.S. economic slowdown.

Oil resumed its upward march on Thursday, its sights set on a new record high above $89 that would deepen economic worries in the United States and unease among some OPEC producers.

Media companies including Viacom, Microsoft Corp., News Corp.'s Fox and MySpace units and others have agreed to guidelines aimed at protecting copyrights online, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Google Inc aims to apply Web search technology to a general set of health information problems and remains committed to the market despite slow initial progress, an executive said on Wednesday.

Video game developers, eager to please all consumers, are increasingly including features that let gamers play with or against their friends.

Robust demand for cheaper phones boosted third-quarter earnings at Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest maker of cell phones, with the better than expected profits sending its shares higher.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc, a fast-growing Northeast U.S. regional bank, on Thursday said quarterly net income fell from a year earlier when it recorded a $1.3 billion gain from its BlackRock Inc money management affiliate.

Shares of E*Trade Financial Corp plunged more than 7 percent on Thursday, a day after the online brokerage posted a third-quarter loss and lowered its full-year forecast for the fourth time this year.

Insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc posted a better-than-expected 15 percent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by its plans serving low-income and older Americans.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless aid shot up last week with its biggest increase in nine months, raising expectations the Federal Reserve will further reduce interest rates to stimulate the economy.

Pfizer Inc, Novartis AG and Wyeth all saw quarterly earnings hit by charges on Thursday, while Eli Lilly and Co exceeded Wall Street expectations as third-quarter sales of several of its drugs outpaced analysts' estimates. Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, took a $2.8 billion charge to cut its ties to the inhaled insulin drug Exubera, a sensational failure of a product once touted as a can't-miss blockbuster.

Virgin Atlantic is considering buying 10 longhaul aircraft worth about $3 billion to enter service around 2012.