AP - Asian stock markets faltered Friday, dragged down by a sell-off in Tokyo as new data underlined the severity of Japan's economic slump and quarterly reports from leading companies like Sony and Toshiba showed profits tumbling.

AP - Honda Motor Co. slashed its annual profit target by over half Friday as quarterly profit tumbled 90 percent, hit by rising costs, a stronger yen and falling sales in key markets.

AP - Mexico's Cemex SAB, the world's third-largest cement company, lost $707 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 — its first quarterly loss in a decade, the company said Thursday.

AFP - London stocks extended losses at the start of trade on Friday following sharp falls in Japan and overnight on Wall Street as the global economic picture darkens.

AP - Asian stock markets faltered Friday, dragged down by a sell-off in Tokyo as new data underlined the severity of Japan's economic slump and quarterly reports from leading companies like Sony and Honda showed profits tumbling.

AP - Honda Motor Co. slashed its annual profit target by over half Friday as profit tumbled 90 percent in the latest quarter, hit by rising costs, a stronger yen and falling sales in key markets.

AP - Wall Street pointed toward a slightly lower open Friday, as investors awaited a reading on just how weak the economy was during the fourth quarter.

AP - European markets were mixed Friday, after sharp losses in Japan, amid more dismal economic numbers and quarterly reports from leading companies like Sony and Honda showing plunging profits.

AP - Consumer products maker Procter & Gamble Co. says profits jumped 53 percent in its second quarter, boosted by its sale of the Folgers coffee business.

AFP - Massive losses and cutbacks struck top Japanese companies on Friday, with electronics giant NEC alone shedding 20,000 jobs, as more dire earnings and unemployment data poured in from Europe.

AP - Honeywell International Inc. says its fourth-quarter earnings rose slightly as it cut costs.

Reuters - Procter & Gamble Co on Friday said its quarterly profit jumped 53 percent, as a gain from the sale of its Folgers coffee business helped to offset the impact of weaker demand and the stronger dollar.

AP - Stocks advanced modestly Friday after the government said the economy wasn't as troubled in late 2008 as many investors feared.

Reuters - Toronto's main stock index shot higher at the open on Friday in a broad-based rally led by the weighty energy sector, which rose along with the price of oil, a key Canadian export.

Reuters - Exxon Mobil Corp reported a 33 percent drop in quarterly profit on a steep decline in crude oil prices, but the U.S. oil major and peer Chevron Corp both saw shares climb after topping Wall Street estimates.

AP - Gannett Co. is reporting lower preliminary fourth-quarter earnings, and says it expects to take writedowns of as much as $5.9 billion to reflect the declining value of its newspapers.

AP - Consumer products maker Procter & Gamble Co. reported Friday that its second-quarter profit jumped 53 percent, boosted by its sale of the Folgers coffee business, but said that sales are slowing in the tough economy.

Reuters - Chevron Corp , the second-largest U.S. oil company, said on Friday its fourth quarter profit rose slightly as a gain from an asset swap offset lower oil prices and production.

AP - Chevron Corp. says it earned $4.9 billion in the fourth quarter though revenues plunged 28 percent with oil prices in sharp decline.

AP - Honeywell International Inc.' quarterly earnings rose 2.6 percent, as lower costs offset falling sales in most of its divisions amid a worsening recession.

AP - Stocks are falling for a second straight day as investors worry that the economy is rapidly getting worse.

Reuters - Toronto's main stock index turned negative on Friday morning as an early rush into commodity issues unwound and economic worries took hold.

AP - USA Today publisher Gannett Co. reported lower preliminary fourth-quarter earnings Friday, but even those profits will be wiped out once the company takes pretax write-downs of as much as $5.9 billion to reflect the declining value of its newspapers.

AFP - The economic crisis tightened its grip on the United States which posted its sharpest contraction since 1982 on Friday, as more dire jobs and earnings data poured in from Japan and Europe.

AP - Stocks slumped for a second straight day Friday as investors worried that the economy, though perhaps not as troubled as feared, is only getting worse.

AP - Even Procter & Gamble Co., the world's largest consumer products maker, is getting dragged down by the spreading recession that has households around the globe looking for ways to tighten their budgets.

AP - It's been an unusually cold January on Wall Street.

Reuters - Five top Securities and Exchange Commission officials are expected to testify at a Congressional hearing into why regulators missed Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud.

Reuters - Toronto's main stock index fell more than 100 points on Friday afternoon as commodity-related stocks unwound earlier gains and economic worries took hold after data showed the Canadian economy shrank in the November.

Reuters - Procter & Gamble Co lowered its expectations for the year on Friday after sales slowed in its second quarter, the latest signal that consumers and retailers are cutting spending in the recession.

AP - It's been an unusually cold January on Wall Street.

Reuters - Toronto's main stock index fell more than 1 percent on Friday in broad-based weakness, as economic worries weighed on nearly all sectors.

AP - The extraordinary profits for Exxon Mobil may be over for now, but opportunities abound even in a year that's expected to be miserable for the entire oil and gas industry.

Reuters - Win or lose on Sunday, having Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl could be a good luck charm for the U.S. stock market, according to a light-hearted analysis done to coincide with the biggest NFL game of the year.

AP - Merrill Lynch on Friday agreed to pay a $1 million civil fine to settle with federal regulators who accused the company of misleading pension consulting clients and failing to disclose conflicts of interest in recommending the use of its affiliated services.

AFP - Wall Street kicks off the month of February with confidence still shaky and investors hoping for a quick government stimulus to counter the worst recession in decades.