HOUSE OF STICKS: After a `Chicken Little' mentality took over from the `Goldilocks' economy, some analysts say `The Three Little Pigs' best describes current conditions
Wall Street is struggling in search of a new script as market pundits debate the importance of Goldilocks, Chicken Little and the potential of some vicious market bears.

[ FULL STORY ]

NERVES: After three straight sessions of a technical rebound, and with a phase of consolidation expected, Taiwanese investors hesitated to push gains further
Asian stock markets closed with mostly modest gains on Friday, consolidating a solid performance ahead of a key US employment report that was due later in the day and was expected to set the near-term direction, dealers said.

[ FULL STORY ]

The US dollar traded mainly higher on Friday as strong US job and trade data reduced the likelihood of the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates any time soon.

[ FULL STORY ]

World oil prices slumped on Friday, retreating from hefty gains made this week on a surprise drop in US energy inventories.

[ FULL STORY ]

European stock exchanges advanced on Friday for the third straight day as investors took heart from US job creation figures suggesting there was still some punch left in the US economy.

[ FULL STORY ]

`SPECULATION': Investors drew their own negative conclusions about an unconfirmed `Wall Street Journal' report that AT&T might try to edge Yahoo out of a co-branding deal
Yahoo Inc's recently resurgent stock retreated by more than 5 percent on Friday amid fears that a setback in a lucrative partnership with AT&T Inc will undercut the anticipated gains from an overhaul of the Web portal's advertising platform.

[ FULL STORY ]

DRUGSTORE CHAIN: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Stefano Pessina's offer makes the UK retailer the latest group to be targeted in a sector awash with buyout talk
The private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) said on Friday that it was teaming up with Italian billionaire Stefano Pessina to make a takeover bid for Alliance Boots, Britain's largest drugstore chain.

[ FULL STORY ]

It was too much of an opportunity for Asia's shopping paradise to miss: the grand opening yesterday of Hong Kong's first branch of a major worldwide clothing chain.

[ FULL STORY ]

The US on Friday welcomed China's decision to scrap a perk for exporters that formed part of a landmark WTO case filed by Washington against Beijing.

[ FULL STORY ]

Russian prosecutors and Interior Ministry officers searched the Moscow office of auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers on Friday in connection with its work with Yukos, the bankrupt oil company, and with PricewaterhouseCoopers' own tax filings.

[ FULL STORY ]

US investment funds Texas Pacific Group and Cerberus Capital Management are believed to have made bids for control of JVC, a money-losing subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, news reports said.

[ FULL STORY ]

■ Electronics
[ FULL STORY ]