AP
Business Highlights
Friday November 28, 6:00 pm ET

Black Friday shoppers out in force, but cautious

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shoppers, who had snapped their wallets shut since September, turned out in force Friday to grab early morning deals and hard-to-find toys like Elmo Live, but many said worries about the economy have them focusing on fewer gifts and less expensive, more practical items.

Meanwhile, the start of the shopping season proved deadly at both a Wal-Mart store in Valley Stream, N.Y., and a Toys "R" Us store in Palm Desert, Calif.

Elsewhere at malls and stores, it was the usual hectic start of the season, as crowds of shoppers frantically picked through piles of discounted merchandise.

Stocks end short session with 5th straight gain

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street wrapped up its biggest five-day rally in more than 75 years Friday, even as investors digested signs of a bleak holiday season for retailers and fears that a flurry of reports next week will show more economic distress.

On the short trading day, investors snapped up the battered shares of blue-chip stalwarts Citigroup Inc. and General Motors Corp., sustaining a rally that has surprised many market experts whipsawed by wild swings during the past three months.

The Dow Jones industrials rose 102.43, or 1.17 percent, Friday to 8,829.04.

Carl Icahn raises his stake in Yahoo

NEW YORK (AP) -- In a move likely to fuel speculation over Yahoo Inc.'s search for a new chief executive, activist investor Carl Icahn has bought up close to 7 million additional shares of the Internet company, according to regulatory filings.

Icahn, a billionaire hedge-fund manager who threatened to oust Yahoo's board this summer after it rejected a deal with Microsoft Inc., snapped up about $67 million worth of shares over three days this week, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Icahn bought 6.8 million shares for an average of $9.92 each in three batches from Monday through Wednesday, bringing his total stake to 75.6 million, or nearly 5.5 percent of the company, according to the filing made Wednesday.

Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down

NEW YORK (AP) -- A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when "out-of-control" shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries, and the store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.

Shoppers stepped over the man on the ground and streamed into the store. When told to leave, they complained that they had been in line since Thursday morning.

Fed's emergency loan program increases activity

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve boosted its lending to commercial banks and investment firms over the past week, indicating that a severe credit crisis was still squeezing the financial system.

The Fed released a report Friday saying commercial banks averaged $93.6 billion in daily borrowing for the week ending Wednesday. That was up from an average of $91.6 billion for the week ending Nov. 19.

The report also said investment firms borrowed an average of $52.4 billion from the Fed's emergency loan program over the week ending Wednesday, up from an average of $50.2 billion the previous week.

FDA sets safe level for infant formula contaminant

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators set a safety threshold Friday for the industrial chemical melamine that is greater than the amount of contamination found so far in U.S.-made infant formula.

Food and Drug Administration officials set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula so long as a related chemical isn't also present. They said they are continuing to analyze the results of tests on 87 samples of infant formula, but of the 74 samples analyzed so far, one had traces of melamine below the new threshold and another had traces of cyanuric acid, a related contaminant. None had both contaminants.

That's key because studies so far show dangerous health effects only when both chemicals are present, said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, FDA's director of food safety.

Both the safety level and the amount of the chemical found in U.S.-made infant formula are far below the amounts of melamine added to infant formula in China that have been blamed for killing at least three babies and making thousands ill.

OPEC struggles to find balance in oil market

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- OPEC oil ministers on Friday downplayed expectations of, but didn't dismiss outright, an immediate output cut as they faced a third test in as many months of their ability to engineer a rebound in oil prices.

The outcome of the hastily convened Cairo meeting Saturday, billed as a consultative gathering to assess the impact of earlier production cuts, likely hinges on a key issue with which the cartel has had a checkered past: unity.

The diverging of opinion oncutting oil production now highlighted the difficulty of the task facing producers of almost 40 percent of the world's oil.

RBS to be taken over by British government

LONDON (AP) -- The British government will take over Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC with a majority stake of almost 60 percent after the shareholders of the nation's second-largest bank shunned an emergency share issue.

The 20 billion pound ($31 billion) rescue takeover, the result of a plan announced last month, means that dividends on common shares will be scrapped and top executives' bonuses will be canceled. Chief Executive Fred Goodwin has resigned and Chairman Tom McKillop, who last week personally apologized to shareholders for the 85 percent fall in the bank's share value, has said he will retire next year.

Oil ends week on a flat note as OPEC gathers

HOUSTON (AP) -- Oil prices ended flat Friday with OPEC officials sending mixed messages about a production cut before a regularly scheduled meeting in December.

Meanwhile, gasoline prices continued their free fall and are now at levels not seen since Jan. 21, 2005 -- good news for travelers heading home after Thanksgiving getaways.

Pump prices fell a penny overnight to a national average of $1.835 for regular unleaded, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

By The Associated Press

The Dow Jones industries rose 102.43, or 1.17 percent, Friday to 8,829.04.

The broader S&P 500 index advanced 8.56, or 0.96 percent, to 896.24, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 3.47, or 0.23 percent, to 1,535.57. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 4.28, or 0.91 percent, to 473.14.

After tumbling earlier in the day during an abbreviated session on the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude for January delivery settled down a penny at $54.43.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures for January rose less than a penny to settle at $1.2096. Heating oil dropped 3.335 cents to $1.7271 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery fell 36.8 cents to settle at $6.51 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, January Brent crude rose 36 cents to settle at $53.49 on the ICE Futures exchange.