NEW YORK (Reuters) - The 2007 holiday shopping season kicked off on Friday with crowds of shoppers, many braving the bitter cold, snagging early bargains on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Bid target Rio Tinto is likely to focus on trumpeting its prospects as an independent firm rather than revealing defense tactics as it gives its first detailed response on Monday to an all-share takeover proposal from mining rival BHP Billiton .
LONDON (Reuters) - Stock futures rose on Friday after European and Asian markets advanced but volumes might be lacklustre due to absentees on Wall Street as trading resumes after the Thanksgiving holiday.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A North Carolina state judge rejected an attempt by Wal-Mart Stores Inc to block public access to certain court documents in a tax dispute with state authorities, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday in its online edition.
PARIS (Reuters) - Naguib Sawiris, the billionaire head of Egyptian cell phone group Orascom Telecom , has approached Vivendi about a possible telecoms tie-up but the pair failed to agree on price, Les Echos said on Friday.
LONDON (Reuters) - Stricken British bank Northern Rock denied a newspaper report on Friday of a "massive hole" in its assets and said it had more than enough assets to cover its borrowings from the Bank of England.
LONDON (Reuters) - The credit crisis is putting pressure on investors -- even those who do not have to mark assets to market every quarter -- to cope with valuing complex securities when they cannot rely on market prices.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil edged back up above $97 a barrel in thin trade on Friday, buoyed by the unrelenting decline in the U.S. dollar, while some OPEC members showed signs of stepping up output ahead of their policy meeting in two weeks.
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's parliament voted on Friday to allow an independent counsel investigate the Samsung Group after a former top legal executive accused the country's largest conglomerate of bribing public officials.
