NEW YORK, April 5- Brent crude fell to an eight-month low near $104 a barrel on Friday and was on course for the biggest weekly slide since June, as a weak U.S. jobs report fed worries about the economy in the world's largest oil consumer. The U.S. Labor Department reported that employers added just 88,000 jobs in March, the slowest pace of hiring in nine months.
CHICAGO, April 5- Caterpillar Inc said on Friday it was laying off 460 workers at a U.S. plant that makes mining equipment. Caterpillar, which had already implemented temporary layoffs and line shutdowns as well as a shortened work week in Decatur, said the permanent layoffs were needed to "bring production in line with demand."
April 5- Yankee Candle Co Inc has attracted offers from several private equity firms in a sale process that could value the largest scented candle maker in the United States at about $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said. Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, another buyout firm, acquired Yankee Candle in 2006 for $1.6 billion.
CHICAGO, April 5- Early corn plantings will be delayed in the drought-stricken U.S.
MILWAUKEE-- The parents of an American journalist kidnapped in Syria more than four months ago said Thursday that his latest disappearance is more upsetting than an earlier one in Libya because they don't know who is holding him.
NEW YORK-- New York City's mayor met Thursday with the parents of a Chicago girl killed just days after performing at President Barack Obama's inaugural festivities, then suggested that places interested in reducing gun violence might want to emulate the Big Apple, where studies have found teenagers are less likely to carry weapons than in any other major U.S. city.
*F5 Networks plunges after weak outlook, weighs on peers. NEW YORK, April 5- U.S. stocks fell on Friday, setting the S&P 500 for its worst weekly performance of the year, in the wake of a payrolls report that was much weaker than expected, the latest in a series of data to indicate economic growth may be losing momentum.
TOKYO, April 5- Japan's Nikkei share average is expected to scale new heights on Friday, possibly head above 13,000 for the first time in nearly 5 years, after the Bank Of Japan announced a bold plan the previous day to pump well over $1 trillion dollars into the economy to reignite growth.
NEW YORK, April 4- Brent crude prices hit a five-month low near $105 a barrel on Thursday as a jump in U.S. jobless claims triggered a second day of widespread selling in oil markets, but the benchmark crude pared losses late in New York as the euro strengthened. Brent crude settled down 77 cents at $106.34 a barrel.
*Corn market struggles to find a bottom after USDA stocks data. CHICAGO, April 4- U.S. corn futures fell to a nine-month low Thursday on continued technical selling and fund liquidation, while soybeans hit a 10- month low on worries that bird flu cases in China may slow feed demand there, traders said.
NEW YORK, April 4- Brent crude prices fell to a five-month low near $105 a barrel on Thursday as a jump in U.S. jobless claims sparked a second day of heavy selling across oil markets. "Data has been disappointing all week long, and the oversupply of crude just confirmed that," said Bill Baruch, senior market strategist at iitrader.com LLC in Chicago.
"The jobless claims added to the pressure after the Bank of Japan's decision to pump money created a big rally in the dollar and U.S. debt in a safe-haven play," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
CHICAGO-- Roger Ebert will be writing fewer of his famed movie reviews because of a recurrence of cancer, but the movie critic promises his illness will give him other topics to write about. The Pulitzer Prize winner announced on his blog that he is undergoing radiation treatment for cancer that was discovered after he fractured his hip last year.
From Colorado to Connecticut, a handful of very different states have advanced new gun control laws over opposition that has made such legislation a struggle nationally and a non-starter in most legislatures. All three helped drive new gun control measures in New York, Colorado and in Connecticut, where Gov.
CHICAGO, April 4- Cold and wet weather in the U.S. "Temperatures will remain cold and it definitely will keep soil temperatures low, so plantings will remain behind normal," said Don Keeney, a meteorologist for MDA Weather Services. Texas and southwest Oklahoma will remain dry, "Keeney said.
SINGAPORE, April 4- Unable to decide if Pyongyang's military threats are real or mere rhetoric, some fund managers and other investors exposed to South Korean stocks and bonds are buying financial protection in the form of cheap options and credit insurance.
CHICAGO-- Boeing Co. said Thursday that it delivered 137 commercial planes during the first quarter, the same as a year earlier, and it booked orders for 209 more planes. Boeing has been speeding deliveries of those planes. It's Boeing's smallest commercial plane and in the U.S. is generally used on domestic routes.
*Wheat choppy, USDA fails to confirm China rumors. CHICAGO, April 4- U.S. soybean futures fell to a 10- month low and corn set a nine-month low Thursday on worries about a potential slowdown in feed demand from China due to bird flu, and pressure from a surging dollar, traders said.
*Sugar aided by potential for rising inflation in Far East. NEW YORK/ LONDON, April 4- Raw sugar futures on ICE turned higher on Thursday as hopes that monetary stimulus in Japan will spur more buying lifted prices that had dropped to nearly three-year lows on the expectation that more Indian supplies will reach the global market.
TOKYO, April 4- The Nikkei average is expected to open lower on Thursday, ahead of the outcome of the Bank of Japan's policy-setting meeting, on concerns over the U.S. recovery after weak service sector data and a slowdown in job hiring by private employers.