SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced in a televised statement that she would be stepping down, handing the office over to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell. Palin was the running mate to 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The state-run China Investment Corp. is going to take a C$1.7 billion ($1.5 billion) stake in Teck Cominco , a deal that will give it a 17% equity stake with 6.7% voting interest in the Vancouver miner, according to a statement released Friday. The miner said the deal will have a "very positive effect" on its balance sheet and give it a deeper understanding of China, its top consumer. CIC plans to be a "long-term passive financial investor" and hold the stake for at least one year and then won't sell it to any other rival or material customer of Teck.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Tesco said Friday that 22 out of 23 resolutions were passed by shareholders at its annual general meeting, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The vote was close on resolution 21 with 57% voting in favor of the supermarket group changing the rules of its 2004 share option plan, the news service said. Resolution 23, which called for Tesco to improve the treatment and pay of meat workers employed by its suppliers, was rejected by shareholders as recommended by the company. Tesco shares rose 0.4% in London.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- British Airways , Europe's third-largest transatlantic airline, on Friday said June passenger traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometers fell by 3.8% compared to the same period last year. Non-premiun traffic declined 1.3% while premium traffic slumped 14.9%. Load factor, a measure of how full an airline's jets are, fell 1.8 percentage points to 79.6%. Cargo traffic, meanwhile, declined 9.8%. The company said it now plans to reduce capacity by 3.5% in the summer, compared to an earlier plan of a 2.5% slash. In the winter it will cut capacity by 5%. The airline also said it's delayed the delivery of its first six Airbus A380s by an average of five months and that of the remaining six by roughly 2 years. BA will receive its first A 380 in 2012 and its last one in 2016.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- General Motors has received a non-binding approach from China's Beijing Automotive (BAIC) for its European Adam Opel unit. The company is also in discussions with Belgian industrial holding company RHJ, a spokeswoman said Friday. GM has already signed a memorandum of understanding over the possible sale of a majority stake in Opel to Canada's Magna International Inc. . GM and Magna are continuing to work to close that deal, the spokeswoman said.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Ryanair Holdings , Europe's largest low-cost airline, on Friday said it carried a record 5.8 million passengers in June, up 13% from the same month last year. The airline said the June figured smashed its previous traffic record of 5.7 million passengers last August. Load factor, a measure of how full an airplane is, improved to 85% from 84%.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Steelmaker Rautaruukki said it's going to cut shifts at its Norway plant for shipbuilding and windmill towers in a move that will result in 137 job losses. The move will result in a 1.2 million euro restructuring plant.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Rolls-Royce said it's won an order worth $470 million at list prices to provide its Trent engines for seven Airbus A330s from Turkish Airlines.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Insurer Friends Provident said Friday that it had received court approval to hand its stake in F&C Asset Management direct to shareholders. Shares in the group rose as much as 10% Friday, when taking account of the value of F&C shares distributed to shareholders. Under the terms of the deal, which was first announced last year, shareholders will receive 1 F&C share for every 10 Friends Provident shares held. Shares in F&C rose 1.5%. [Updated to show the price move is adjusted for the distribution of F&C shares.]

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Retail sales volume in the 16-nation euro zone fell by a larger-than-expected 0.4% in May, following a revised 0.1% increase in April, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat reported Friday. Compared to May 2008, sales fell 3.3%. Economists had forecast a 0.2% monthly decline and a 2.7% annual fall.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Novo Nordisk said the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for Victoza, or liraglutide, for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in adults. Novo Nordisk will launch Victoza in the UK, Germany and Denmark during the summer and in other European markets during the second half of 2009 and throughout 2010. The launch won't affect 2009 financial expectations, and the company will update its view on Aug. 6.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Deutsche Telekom AG would prefer to swap an asset, perhaps in Central or Eastern Europe, for its T-Mobile U.K. business, to cushion the blow of pulling out of a big market, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the German telecoms giant's thinking. According to the report Deutsche Telekom is particularly interested in Vodafone Turkey, because it would nicely complement its OTE business in Greece. As for a straight sale of the business, a price tag of 3 billion euros would be the absolute minimum, the report said. Earlier this week the Financial Times reported that both Vodafone and Telefonica are mulling a bid for T-Mobile U.K. while France Telecom's Orange is thinking of a joint venture.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Purchasing managers reported smaller-than-expected growth in activity in the British service sector in June, according to the CIPS/Markit services purchasing managers index released Friday. The index slipped to 51.6 in June from a reading of 51.7 in May. Economists had forecast a rise to 52.5. A reading of more than 50 means a majority of managers saw a rise in activity, while a figure of less than 50 signals a contraction. The June reading marked the second consecutive month the index indicated growth in the sector. "The services sector is showing signs of life but it is still too early to tell if this is the start of a full blown recovery," said David Noble, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Morgan Stanley downgraded Electricite de France to equal-weight from overweight, saying it believes the stock will continue to trade at a discount to net asset value until there is more clarity on the new tariff system. The broker added, however, that the proposed new French rules could be a long-term positive for shareholders by making EDF "a largely regulated nuclear generator with higher visibility on earnings and cash flows than most liberalized generators, but reduced exposure to wholesale power prices."

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The June Markit euro-zone composite purchasing managers index rose to 44.6 in June from 44.0 in May, exceeding a preliminary estimate of a rise to 44.4. The reading still indicates a contraction in activity. A figure of less than 50 signals a majority of managers saw a drop in activity, while a figure of more than 50 signals expansion. The June reading marked the smallest decline in output since September, Markit said.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- UBS downgraded France Telecom to sell from neutral, citing rising competition in France and concerns about growth in other countries including Spain and Poland. UBS said competition is rising as Bouygues becomes more aggressive in both fixed-line and mobile telecoms via the launch of its ideo discounted bundle. "We worry that the combination of France Telecom's large balance sheet, ease of debt issuance and the prospect of weakening French cash flow could see a return of M&A," the broker added. The downgrade was part of a quarterly update on the telecoms sector in which UBS cut earnings estimates by around 2% citing a reduction in mobile service revenue and foreign exchange moves.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares edged higher on Friday, taking back some of the previous session's steep losses. Investors pushed financials higher early on Friday, with shares of insurance group Friends Provident up 7.3% in London after it released details about the separation of Foreign & Colonial , up 1.5%. Overall, the U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.3% to 4,248.65, the German DAX index advanced 0.4% to 4,737.96 and the French CAC-40 index climbed 0.4% to 3,127.28.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Bank of Ireland said Friday that trading conditions remain challenging in its main markets and its primary objective continues to be maintaining the stability of the bank. The group said demand for new lending remains muted and that the lower interest rate environment and higher wholesale funding costs are having a significant negative impact on net interest margin. The economic trends that led the bank to forecast around 6 billion euros ($8.4 billion) of impairments through March 2011 are broadly as expected. The bank said it's also continuing "to engage positively" with the National Asset Management Agency, which will inject funding into the Irish banking system when new legislation is agreed later this year. Including recent moves to strengthen its capital, the bank's previously announced 9.5% Core Tier 1 ratio would have been around 10.5%, it added.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Mining group BHP Billiton siad Friday it will sell its Yabulu nickel refinery in Queensland Australia to companies wholly owned by Professor Clive Palmer. The terms of the sale are confidential. BHP Billiton will write-down the carrying value of Yabulu by an estimated $500 million and a further estimated $175 million of unrecoverable tax benefits. These write downs will be reported as exceptional items in the results of for the year ended June 30.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Engineering group Balfour Beatty said Friday that its fiscal-year trading performance continues to be in line with expectations set out in May, underpinned by continued infrastructure expenditure by customers, acquisitions and cost control. The firm said that its order book at the half year stage is expected to be broadly in line with the 12.8 billion pounds reported for 31 December 2008. The firm said that its cash position remains strong with average net cash in excess of 200 million pounds for the first six months of 2009.

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HONG KONG (MarketWatch)- Bawang International Group's shares jumped 24% in their debut in Hong Kong late morning Friday, in an otherwise flat session for the Hang Seng Index. Shares of the Chinese herbal shampoo manufacturer and retailer were traded at 3.06 Hong Kong dollars (40 U.S. cents), just a notch below the day's high of 3.08 Hong Kong dollars and well up from its initial public offering at 2.38 Hong Kong dollars. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's other initial public offering Friday, coal trader China Qinfa , managed a 10.3% rise in morning action.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Prosecutors in the U.S., U.K. and Austria are investigating a former Austrian fund manager who they believe was paid more than $40 million to funnel billions of dollars in investments to disgraced financier Bernard Madoff, according to a report published Thursday in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors believe Madoff paid the kickbacks to Sonja Kohn when she was chairwoman of Austria's Bank Medici AG, according to the report. Earlier this week, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for fraud.

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HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian markets staged a retreat Friday after U.S. stocks tumbled in reaction to higher-than-expected job losses in June. Japanese stocks fell sharply, with exporters and financials leading the decline. The Nikkei 225 Average lost 1.7% to 9,710.28 and the broader Topix gave up 1.5% to 910.62. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 1.7%, South Korea's Kospi slid 1.1% and New Zealand's NZX 50 dropped 0.5%.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. added three more failed banks to their tally late Thursday, bringing the day's total to six, and the year's total to 51. First National Bank of Danville of Danville, Ill., will have its deposits assumed by First Financial Bank of Terre Haute, Ind., which will also purchase $148 million in assets. As of April 30, First National had about $147 million in deposits. Elizabeth State Bank of Elizabeth, Ill. also closed with total deposits of about $50.4 million. Galena State Bank and Trust of Galena, Ill. will assume all of the deposits and purchase about $52.3 million in assets. The failures bring the total number of Illinois bank failures to 11 for the year. Dallas-based Millennium State Bank of Texas failed, the FDIC said, making it the first Texas bank of the year to fail. State Bank of Texas in Irving, Texas, will assume deposits of about $115 million and buy assets of about $118 million. The failures bring the total number of banks that have failed since the beginning of the recession to 76.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Rock River Bank of Oregon, Ill. became the 48th bank failure of 2009, and the ninth Illinois bank failure of the year, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. late Thursday. Harvard State Bank of Harvard, Ill. will assume the deposits and purchase about $72.9 million of assets. As of April 30, Rock River Bank had total assets of $77 million and total deposits of about $75.8 million. Rock River also marks the 73rd bank to fail since the beginning of the recession.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- First State Bank of Winchester of Winchester, Ill. became the 47th bank failure of the year and the eighth bank to close in Illinois, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said Thursday. First National Bank of Beardstown, Beardstown, Ill. will assume all deposits of the failed bank. As of April 30, First State Bank of Winchester had total assets of $36 million and deposits of about $34 million. The closure also marks the 72nd bank failure since the start of the financial crisis.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks made a sharp retreat Thursday, with losses steepening after the New York Stock Exchange extended the trading session by 15 minutes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 registered their third straight weekly loss, the longest weekly losing streak since early March, when stocks began their roughly four-month rally. The Dow average closed down 223 points, or 2.6%, at 8,281. The S&P 500 sank 27 points, or 2.9%, to 896 points. The Nasdaq Composite fell 49 points, or 2.7%, to 1,797. For the week, the Dow closed off 1.9%, the S&P 500 sank 2.5%, and the Nasdaq fell 2.3%. Markets are closed Friday for the Independence Day holiday. [Corrects closing values.]

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- LDK Solar Co. said late Thursday that it estimates revenue of $215 million to $225 million in the second quarter. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research estimate revenue of $253.4 million.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America Corp. said Thursday its board approved about $713 million in dividend payments to the government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The dividend payment is related to $15 billion in government funds that Bank of America received from the Capital Purchase Program, which is part of TARP.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- John Warner Bank of Clinton, Ill. became the 46th bank failure of 2009, and the seventh Illinois bank to fail this year, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. late Thursday. State Bank of Lincoln of Lincoln, Ill., will assume deposits and purchase about $63 million in assets. As of April 30, John Warner Bank had total deposits of about $64 million.

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