Japan's central bank said Friday that wholesale prices fell 6.6 percent in June from a year earlier, the biggest fall on record and the latest sign that deflation is returning to the country.

Oil prices slid below $60 a barrel Friday as investors braced for company earnings reports next week that will provide clues on the strength of crude demand.

President Barack Obama said Friday the world apparently has averted economic collapse but "full recovery is still a ways off."

China's exports and imports fell again in June but declines were less severe than in May, data showed Friday, adding to signs the world's third-largest economy is recovering from its slump.

Toys R Us Inc. said Friday that one of its subsidiaries has completed an offering of $950 million in senior unsecured notes due 2017.

China has proof four detained employees of miner Rio Tinto Ltd. stole state secrets for foreign countries, the government said Thursday, following their detention amid contentious iron ore price talks.

Battered by drought, a late freeze and flooding rain, Oklahoma's winter wheat harvest may produce only half of what was yielded last year, officials said.

World leaders said Friday that they want to provide $20 billion over the next three years to increase food production in developing countries and help the poor feed themselves.

Discount retailer Target says its same-store sales fell 6.2 percent in June as customers continued to shop sparingly and spend mainly on necessities such as healthcare products and food.

Owners of shopping malls, hotels and offices are defaulting on their loans at an alarming rate, and the commercial real estate market is not expected to hit bottom for three more years, industry experts warned Thursday.

Escalating job worries and rainy weather dampened shoppers' appetite for buying summer staples like shorts and dresses, resulting in sharper-than-expected sales declines for many merchants in June and increasing concerns about the back-to-school shopping season.

The stock market headed toward a lower start Friday as investor anxiety about the economy increases.

Ticketmaster and Priceline.com Inc. said Thursday that they will team up in order to give the ticket seller's online customers access to various travel services.

Starting Friday, most state government offices will begin closing three days a month to save California some money.

Citigroup Inc. shuffled its top management again Thursday, naming its third chief financial officer of the year and bringing in a new head of its Citibank division as it returns its focus to traditional banking.

Wholesale inventories fell for a ninth consecutive month in May, a decline that has contributed to the longest recession since World War II as factories have been forced to slash production amid crimped demand.

Debt-laden trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc. and the Teamsters Union said Thursday they have reached a tentative deal on concessions they say will address the company's immediate need for cash while protecting union jobs.

Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff will not appeal his 150-year sentence for a fraud that unraveled overnight last December when Madoff confessed to his sons that nearly $65 billion he promised investors was safe was actually only worth a few hundred million dollars.

The recipients of billions of dollars in IOUs being issued by California soon may be able to sell them on a regulated market, following action taken Thursday by federal regulators.

Even though new claims for jobless benefits fell more than expected last week, dipping below 600,000 for the first time since early January, the number of Americans seeking this safety net points to an economy that is still very weak.

Investors moved money back into commodities Thursday, sending prices for gold, copper and soybeans higher as they stepped up their willingness to take on risk.

GM sale cleared, path opens to exit Chapter 11

Banks trimmed borrowing from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending facility over the past week and cut back on other programs designed to ease the financial crisis, promising signs that some credit problems are easing.

The Bank of England kept its key interest rate on hold at a record low 0.5 percent Thursday and surprise markets by saying it would not for the moment seek to expand its 125 billion pound cash injection into the British economy.