MarketWatch

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Asian shares seesawed in volatile trade Friday ahead of key U.S. employment data due out later in the global day. In afternoon trading in Japan, the benchmark Nikkei Stock Average managed to stay in positive territory, up 0.1% and off highs earlier in the session, while the Topix was 0.2% higher. [...]

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Hong Kong shares slipped slightly in choppy early trading as the market reopened after Thursday’s holiday, with resource shares fronting the market decline on softer commodity prices. The Hang Seng Index dropped 0.3% to 20,074.42 after a brief attempt to rise, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 0.6% to [...]

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered that many state workers start receiving minimum wage in the absence of a state budget, according to reports Thursday, though California’s state controller has in the past refused to comply with such orders. In a letter from Schwarzenegger’s Department of Personnel Administration published online by [...]

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Japanese shares edged higher in Friday morning trading, as some technology issues rose, but weakness in financial shares continued. The Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.5% at 9235.60, and the broader Topix gained 0.3% to 830.61. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. was down 0.3% and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. skidded 1.4%. Toshiba [...]

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Toshiba Corp. will supply lithium ion batteries for an electric vehicle that Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plans to release, according to a report published Friday. PSA Peugeot Citroen Group is also expected to obtain the batteries through Mitsubishi, according to the report in the Nikkei business daily. Toshiba’s foray is expected to [...]

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Australia’s prime minister announced a deal Friday with the mining industry on the resource-tax plan, which was partly responsible for pushing the nation’s previous leader out of office last month. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the agreement on the resources-profit tax will cut the headline rate to 30% from an originally [...]

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Blockbuster Inc. said late Thursday it entered a forbearance agreement with some of its bondholders as it holds talks to recapitalize the company. Under the agreement, some holders of Blockbuster’s 11.75% senior secured notes due 2014 have agreed not to exercise certain rights and remedies following Blockbuster’s failure to make July [...]

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Moody’s Investors Service said late Thursday it downgraded the corporate family and probability of default ratings of Dynegy Holdings Inc. to B3 from B2 because of a weak outlook. The outlook is negative. Moody’s said it expects very weak financial metrics from Dynegy given a poor outlook based on reduced power [...]

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Dell said late Thursday that it will buy privately-held Scalent, a software company that specializes in making data center infrastructures more efficient. Dell plans to integrate Scalent technology into its advanced infrastructure manager solution after the acquisition is finalized in its fiscal second quarter. Financial details were not disclosed. Read the [...]

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Google Inc. said late Thursday it is buying ITA Software Inc., a flight information software company, for about $700 million in cash. The deal will allow Google to provide new tools for users to find flight information more easily on the Internet. Google plans to honor all existing agreements. Read the [...]