(Reuters) - South Africa's Trevor Manuel ruled himself out of the race for the IMF's top job on Friday, making French finance minister Christine Lagarde an even firmer favorite, although the threat of a judicial inquiry remains. Emerging market powers like Russia, India and China have declared they want an end to Europe's grip on the top job at the international lender, calling time on a pact that puts the IMF in European hands while the World Bank is run by an American.

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(Reuters) - European paymaster Germany stuck to its guns on Friday in demanding that private investors contribute to a second bailout for Greece despite a European Central Bank warning against triggering market turmoil. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble urged parliament to back additional aid for the heavily indebted euro zone country but said private creditor participation in a new package was "unavoidable" and reiterated he favored a bond swap that would push out Greek debt maturities by seven years.

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(Reuters) - A federal judge said Toyota owners outside California who seek to recover losses in their vehicles' value resulting from unintended acceleration cannot pursue their claims under that state's laws. Wednesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge James Selna is a setback for the owners, because California consumer protection laws would give them a better chance than most states' laws to recover on their "economic loss" claims.

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(Reuters) - Travelers Cos Inc (TRV.N) is slowing down its share buybacks and will post a second-quarter operating loss because of more than $1 billion in catastrophe losses, the property insurer said on Friday. The company also warned of worst-case scenario industry losses on recent tornadoes in the United States.

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(Reuters) - Wall Street edged higher on Thursday after six days of losses as a narrowed U.S. trade deficit was seen as one positive point for growth in a recent avalanche of weak economic data. But the mood remained fragile with many analysts expecting the S&P 500 to retest its March 2010 lows after falling more than 6 percent since a peak in May, and the latest data from the labor market provided little room for optimism.

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(Reuters) - Record U.S. exports in April tempered fears that the economic recovery was running off the rails, even though first-time claims for jobless benefits edged higher last week. A Commerce Department report on Thursday showed the U.S. trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly in April, as exports rose to a new record and imports from Japan tumbled more than 25 percent after its earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

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(Reuters) - France could back a private sector rollover of Greek debt as part of a new EU-IMF bailout if a voluntary formula can be found to avoid wider damage in euro zone markets, sources familiar with government thinking said. Euro zone governments have edged closer to a compromise this week on a second Greek rescue program, with increased official funding, under which private creditors would be asked to swap their sovereign debt for longer-dated bonds.

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(Reuters) - The European Central Bank is in "strong vigilance" mode over inflation pressures, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday, using code words to indicate an interest rate increase is probably only a month away. "Strong vigilance is warranted," Trichet told a news conference after the bank kept interest rates at 1.25 percent. He said evidence since the ECB's May meeting confirmed "continued upward pressure on overall inflation mainly owing to commodities and energy prices."

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(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc said computer hackers breached the bank's network and accessed the data of about 200,000 bank card holders in North America, the latest of a string of cyber attacks on high-profile companies. Citi said the names of customers, account numbers and contact information, including email addresses, were viewed in the breach, which the Financial Times said was discovered by the bank in early May.

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(Reuters) - The debate over whether the United States should stage a mini-debt default is largely a political one, although action must be taken on the country's fiscal situation, a top Federal Reserve official said on Thursday. An increasing number of U.S. Republicans do not believe the Obama administration's dire predictions of economic "catastrophe" if the U.S. debt limit is not increased, arguing that a period of technical default can be managed without plunging markets into chaos.

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