AP Business Highlights

G-20 fallout: Trade barriers, tensions could rise

WASHINGTON (AP) — The world's most important economies are going home to look after themselves. They left their summit without any meaningful agreement, finding it ever harder to cooperate and more likely that they will erect trade barriers to protect their own interests.

The Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations ended Friday in South Korea with no solutions to long-standing tensions over trade and currency, and with the cooperation of the 2008 financial crisis now a distant memory.

The U.S. couldn't persuade other countries to pressure China to stop manipulating its currency or limit their own trade surpluses and deficits. The Americans faced charges of doing some currency manipulation of their own by pumping $600 billion into their economy.

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EU seeks to calm Irish creditors but doubts linger

LONDON (AP) — European leaders sought to reassure Ireland's panicky creditors Friday by promising that tougher new terms for future bailouts of indebted countries will not harm them.

But nerves remained frayed as some expect the country to follow Greece in grasping for a financial lifeline sooner rather than later.

Speculation about a bailout for Ireland pushed the Dublin government's borrowing costs to record highs this week, the latest indication that the Continentwide crisis over governments with too much debt is still festering and clouding prospects for a hesitant economic recovery.

In a statement that helped calm market fears and lowered Irish bond yields, the finance ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Britain said the EU's proposed new bailout mechanism "does not apply to any outstanding debt." That means current lenders to governments would not be liable for extra costs in case of a bailout by Ireland's partners in the 16-country euro currency.

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Big stock offerings next week could boost markets

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the world of new stock offerings, everything about next week is big: The number of deals, the amount of money expected to be raised and the profiles of the companies going public.

The action is likely to draw a wide range of investors into the U.S. stock markets. If investors snap up stock of companies such as General Motors Co. and casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp., that could win over skittish traders who have taken refuge in the relative safety of bonds.

Stock in the week's biggest deal, General Motors, already may be scarce. Investment bankers handling the GM sale have more orders than stock for both the 365 million common shares and 60 million preferred shares that will be sold on next week, a person briefed on the sale said Friday.

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Stocks, commodities drop on China slowdown worries

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks and commodities took a nosedive Friday on worries that China might put the brakes on its surging economy.

Any slowdown in the Chinese economy will likely reduce global demand for oil, metals and grains, which sent prices of those commodities lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 90.52, or 0.80 to 11,192.58, led by sharp losses in energy and materials stocks. Construction giant Caterpillar Inc., which has huge operations in China, fell 1.40 percent to $81.04 and oil company ExxonMobil Corp. fell 0.84 percent to $70.99.

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J.C. Penney's 3Q profit rises on exclusives

NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney reported Friday that its earnings rose 63 percent in the third quarter, as the department store chain says it saw strong reception to new exclusive brands such as Liz Claiborne and MNG by Mango.

But the company's gross profit margin slipped as the chain had to aggressively discount, sending shares down more than 3 percent.

The company also offered a solid profit outlook for the holiday quarter, though it acknowledged it will be heavily competitive. The company is pushing free shipping on orders of $69 and other come-ons. Like everyone else, Penney aims to steal customers from rivals at a time when overall spending still remains sluggish.

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FDA scrutinizes benefit of long-awaited lupus drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials said Friday that the first new drug developed to treat lupus in decades does relieve disease symptoms, but they questioned the significance of its benefits, which varied across different patient groups.

Human Genome Sciences is asking the Food and Drug Administration to approve Benlysta to relieve symptoms of lupus, a difficult-to-treat ailment in which the body attacks its own tissue and organs. If approved, the drug — which is being codeveloped with GlaxoSmithKline — would be the first new lupus treatment in about 50 years.

Two of three studies submitted by the companies show Benlysta improved patients' scores on a test that measures lupus symptoms. However, FDA reviewers raised a number of questions about the strength of Benlysta's effect in briefing documents posted online Friday.

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Rolls-Royce back from brink but future uncertain

LONDON (AP) — Rolls Royce Group PLC edged back from the brink Friday as investors accepted its assurances that a problem with its engines for the world's largest airliner was isolated and being repaired.

But the crisis appears far from over for the world's second-largest civil aircraft engine manufacturer. An Airbus executive suggested that Rolls-Royce knew about the problem before the mid-air disintegration of a Trent 900 engine last week, raising the question of long-term damage to the reputation of one of Britain's last globally important industrial manufacturing companies.

And there are no answers yet on how much the incident will cost Rolls-Royce, particularly if the company is forced to pay out compensation to affected airlines and undergo a complete overhaul of the faulty engine series.

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Intel hikes dividend again despite tech worries

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Intel Corp. is confident enough in the stability of its moneymaking skills to raise its dividend by 15 percent, even as Wall Street braces for a bumpy ride for the technology industry.

The chipmaker's announcement Friday comes on the heels of a downcast description of the technology market by Cisco Systems Inc. Many investors are worried that other technology companies are in line for a beating over the next several quarters and that the problems will spread to other industries.

Intel's dividend hike, the fourth since the Great Recession started in late 2007, is less a reflection of the company's optimism about the market than a reminder of its unique advantages in the computing industry. It also underscores the fact that many large companies have been sitting on piles of cash for the past three years and have been pouring some of the money back into their dividends to appease skittish shareholders.

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Daily Beast, Newsweek reach deal to join

NEW YORK (AP) — Newsweek, a 77-year-old magazine that once helped set the national news agenda, is linking its future with a startup website just two years in the making.

Three months after agreeing to buy the money-losing weekly for $1, audio equipment magnate Sidney Harman has completed on-again, off-again negotiations to merge it with The Daily Beast.

It is not just a marriage between old and new media. Harman will also be getting magazine veteran Tina Brown as editor-in-chief of Newsweek. Brown, who was a co-founder of The Daily Beast, had led both Vanity Fair and The New Yorker before deciding to give Web publishing a try.

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By The Associated Press

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 90.52, or 0.80 to 11,192.58, led by sharp losses in energy and materials stocks. Construction giant Caterpillar Inc., which has huge operations in China, fell 1.4 percent to $81.04 and oil company ExxonMobil Corp. fell 0.84 percent to $70.99.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 14.43, or 1.2 percent, to 1,199.21, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 37.31, or 1.5 percent, to 2,518.21.

Benchmark oil for December delivery dropped $2.93, or 3.3 percent, to settle at $84.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop erased nearly half of this month's increase in the price of oil. Other commodities experienced a sell off, as did stocks.

In other Nymex trading in December contracts, heating oil fell 6.34 cents to settle at $2.3632 a gallon and gasoline futures fell 2.58 cents to settle at $2.2099 a gallon. Natural gas dropped 12.8 cents to settle at $3.799 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude slid $2.47 to settle at $86.34 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.