(Reuters) - Oil rose more than $1 on Friday, taking benchmark U.S. crude futures back above $100 per barrel, after much higher-than-expected growth in Germany and France and a rebound in the euro against the dollar. Energy markets have been on a roller-coaster ride over the last week as investors have reassessed the outlook for global growth and the risk of supply disruptions in the Middle East.

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(Reuters) - Commodities trader Glencore will close the books for its planned $11 billion initial public offering a day ahead of schedule, underscoring strong investor demand for its shares despite volatile commodity markets. According to details in a term sheet seen by Thomson Reuters IFR and confirmed by sources close to the deal, subscriptions to the IPO will now close on May 17, though pricing will still go ahead as planned on May 19, the day conditional trading begins.

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CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) -U.S. bank failures in 2010 cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp $2 billion, or 9 percent, more than initially forecast, according to a new analysis by SNL Financial. The rise exceeds in the increase seen in 2009, and highlights the higher-than-expected costs related to the failure of three Puerto Rico-based banks.

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(Reuters) - U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as falling commodity prices prompted an unwinding of bets on risky assets and raised questions about the strength of the economic recovery, while a sour outlook from Cisco hurt technology stocks. Commodities pared some losses after U.S. data showed a decline in jobless benefit claims last week and a revision to retail sales data suggested consumer spending in the first quarter might have been stronger than initially thought. Wholesale prices, however, rose above expectations .

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(Reuters) - The economy struggled to gain momentum early in the second quarter, with retail sales posting their smallest rise in nine months in April and wholesale prices increasing more than expected. Other data on Thursday showed new claims for unemployment benefits fell 44,000 last week to 434,000, but they remained too high to signal a strong labor market recovery.

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(Reuters) - Japan's largest drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical is in talks to buy privately-held Swiss rival Nycomed for more than $12 billion in a bid to extend its global reach into Europe and emerging markets, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The purchase would offer the mainly Asia and U.S-focused maker of drugs for diabetes and heart disease access to a lung disease drug, Daxas, just approved in the United States, and a portfolio of over-the-counter consumer products.

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(Reuters) - China lifted bank reserve requirements by 50 basis points on Thursday, signaling that containing inflation and soaking up excess cash remained its top priority even after signs the economy was slowing down. The announcement of more tightening came as a surprise to some analysts who had expected the People's Bank of China to tap the monetary brakes more gently after a host of data from industrial output to imports were weaker than expected in April.

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(Reuters) - Private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC's (APO.N) first-quarter earnings rose fivefold from a year earlier as the value of its investments increased, in its first quarterly report since its March IPO. Private equity firms have been benefiting from an improving economy and rising stock market valuations and have seen the value of their portfolios increase. They have also taken advantage of a rebound in M&A and stronger IPO markets to exit some of their investments.

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(Reuters) - A Senate panel on Thursday approved for the third time the nomination of Nobel laureate Peter Diamond to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board over the opposition of Republicans, setting up a tough fight to win approval in the full Senate. The Senate Banking Committee backed Diamond twice last year, but the nomination was blocked by the panel's top Republican, Richard Shelby. The committee vote on Thursday was 12-10, with all the support coming from Democrats.

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(Reuters) - Allstate Corp (ALL.N) said it suffered $1.4 billion in catastrophe losses from April tornadoes, and the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer said it will now make a regular practice of releasing such loss figures. The change in stance is likely to comfort analysts, who pressured the company earlier this year for more disclosure on its exposure to disasters. At that time, Allstate executives said it had been hard to come up with a way to report such losses.

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