In Hong Kong, gains in some major companies offset a fall in Hutchison, which has fallen for two straight sessions on an uncertain 3G outlook. Hutchison fell 0.9%, after shedding 2.4% in the previous session. HSBC edged up 0.7%, while China Mobile closed 1.2% higher. China''s shares finished flat, as profit-taking in some banks erased gains in other large-capitalized companies that had been oversold recently. Shanghai-listed China United Telecommunications gained 0.9%, China Yangtze Power advanced 0.8%, and Daqin Railway increased 0.7%.

6:30AM European banks advanced Friday on merger speculations.
[European markets were mostly flat by mid-morning on Friday. The FTSE 100 index in U.K. climbed 0.3% at 5,886 the French CAC 40 index added 0.3% at 5,128 and the German DAX 30 index rose 0.2% at 5,826. Italian banking mergers remained in focus after Credit Agricole, the largest shareholder in Italy’s Banca Intesa, gave its approval to the possible merger between Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI. The board members of both banks were scheduled to meet on Saturday to discuss the merger. Shares in Intesa were up 1.6%, while Sanpaolo gained 3.7%.

Vodafone Group and Belgacom both gained after they announced that Vodafone will sell its 25% stake in Proximus to the Belgian group, which already owns the other 75%. Shares in Vodafone rose 0.7% and Belgacom climbed 1.6%. Other European banks also advanced, with Commerzbank gaining 4% in Frankfurt and ABN Amro up 0.9% in Amsterdam.

Oil prices gained Friday as the market closely observed the Iran nuclear stand-off and the potential of tropical storms threatening the U.S. Gulf coast oil refineries. Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 63 cents to $72.99 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYME. On London''s ICE Futures exchange, October Brent crude rose 46 cents to $73.14 a barrel.

Gold opened Friday at a bid price of $621.80 a troy ounce, down from $622.60 late Thursday. The euro was almost flat against the U.S. dollar Friday ahead of planned remarks on inflation by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The euro bought $1.2761 in early European trading, marginally above its level of $1.2758 in New York late Thursday. The British pound slid to $1.8847 from $1.8874. The dollar strengthened against the Japanese currency, rising to 117.11 yen from 116.47 yen after Japanese consumer price inflation didn’t live up to expectations.

5:30AM Gold futures fell Thursday due to stronger dollar.
December gold closed down $4.50 at $628.50 a troy ounce and September silver lost 20.5 cents to end at $12.31 an ounce. October platinum settled up $1.20 at $1,237.70 an ounce, while September palladium settled $2.40 lower at $344.45 an ounce. The September copper contract shed 3.65 cents to finish at $3.4285 per pound.

The front-month October light, sweet crude-oil contract finished up 60 cents at $72.36 a barrel. September gasoline rose 0.21 cent to $1.8615 a gallon and September heating oil gained 2.68 cents to $2.0294 a gallon. September natural gas moved up 20.4 cents at $7.079 a million British thermal units. On the New York Board of Trade, September Arabica coffee closed down 0.30 cent at $1.0705 a pound while December lost 0.20 cent to $1.1115. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for October closed down 0.11 cent at 12.30 cents a pound.