The United States signed a three-year textile-trade deal with China that limits imports on 34 categories of Chinese products. The EU reached a similar agreement with China during the summer. A dispute has been rumbling since January, when World Trade Organization rules lifting barriers to entry on Chinese clothes came into effect, causing a surge in imports.
The euro fell to a two-year low against the dollar. Trading in the currency was affected by a plea from European finance ministers to the European Central Bank not to raise interest rates. But the rioting in France also knocked down confidence in the euro.
The Summit of the Americas, in Mar del Plata, Argentina, was a flop, as expected. The continent's squabbling leaders made little progress on the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas or anything else. Venezuela's populist president, Hugo Ch?ez, also addressed a big "anti-summit" of anti-American protesters.
Platinum prices hit $956 an ounce, their highest level since March 1980. Platinum's price is considered to be the most speculative in commodity trading, and demand has been fueled by tougher worldwide pollution standards for vehicles. The metal is used in catalytic converters to clean exhaust fumes.
In a move to comply with South Africa's new Black Economic Empowerment laws, De Beers announced that it would sell a 26 percent stake, worth $562 million, in its South African diamond-mining operations to a company that will be half-owned by its employees and pensioners and half by an investment firm managed by blacks.
A record number of countries voted in the United Nations General Assembly for the United States to end its decades-old economic embargo on Cuba. While 182 countries backed the motion, only Israel, Palau, the Marshall Islands and the United States voted against.
Germany's planned "grand coalition" political partners agreed to raise the value-added tax, cut public spending and relax rules that make it hard to fire unwanted workers. Critics said the plans would knock Germany's hesitant economic recovery on the head.
global business
Shares in General Motors fell to their lowest level since 1992. The troubled carmaker announced that it would restate its earnings for 2001 and possibly other years.
Liberty Media appointed Greg Maffei, who is stepping down as Oracle's chief financial officer, as its new chief executive. John Malone, who in effect controls the firm and remains chairman, also said the firm was creating tracking shares as a precursor to a possible spin-off of some units, including its QVC home-shopping business.
Vietnam said it had obtained a license from Roche to begin local production of Tamiflu, an antiviral drug touted as the best defense against bird flu. The Swiss drug group, which will choose the local firms involved, had had said it was on track to make a 10-fold increase from 2004 levels in Tamiflu production by 2007.
VNU, a Dutch business-information group, confirmed that it was discussing "possible alternatives" to its $7 billion takeover offer for IMS Health, a U.S. firm that collects information for the drug industry. VNU, which owns the Nielsen ratings service, made the bid in July but now says key investors oppose the deal.
