The nation's retailers are ushering in the traditional start of the holiday shopping season with expanded hours and deep discounts on everything from toys to TVs to lure crowds of shoppers.

ING priced a rights issue intended to raise 7.5 billion euros ($11.2 billion) at 4.24 euros per share, luring shareholders with a hefty discount of close to 40 percent as it looks to pay back state aid.

Oil prices extended their decline from the previous day to a six-week low of below $74 a barrel on Friday, as nervous investors, roiled by debt problems in Dubai, pared positions and shifted to safe-haven assets.

Asian stock markets tumbled on Friday as concerns about a new international banking crisis erupting in Dubai rattled investor confidence. Hong Kong led the way with a 4.8 percent dive, other major indices in Tokyo, Taipei and Seoul declined over 3 percent each.

Japan's Nikkei average is likely to fall broadly on Friday after debt problems in Dubai hit financial markets, dragging European shares down to their worst daily loss in seven months.

Share trading on the London Stock Exchange has resumed after having been halted by technical difficulties for nearly three hours.

Lloyds Banking Group investors on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the bank's record rights issue but gave executives a grilling for mistakes made during the financial crisis.

China's ballooning stock market bubble, fuelled by excessive liquidity, is likely to burst in the first half of 2010, punctured by economic concerns arising from higher-than-expected inflation, Morgan Stanley Asia Executive Director Jerry Lou said on Thursday.

Global stocks were lower on Thursday, with China's Shanghai Composite closing 3.6 percent lower, while gold hit another new record to $1,194.90 an ounce, as Debt problems in Dubai curbed investors' risk appetite.

Banks must disclose how much they pay top employees, a UK government sponsored report recommended on Thursday in a bid to quell public anger over "bonuses as usual" in a sector shored up by taxpayer bailouts.

Social enterprises — companies which hope to have a social impact and at the same time make a profit — are becoming a new asset class for pioneer investors who are more ethically-minded, especially after the financial crisis.

Oil fell towards $77 on Thursday in line with falls across financial markets and as weak demand for fuel offset potential support from a weak dollar.

Asia's major stock indexes finished lower across the board in a volatile, holiday-thin session Thursday, despite Wall Street posting modest gains overnight.

Stocks posted modest gains Wednesday, but it was enough to propel the Dow and S&P to new 13-month closing highs, as economic data buoyed recovery hopes.

Every year, at least one turkey is pardoned by the president for Thanksgiving. But after the giant sigh of relief, where do the turkeys go?