(Reuters) - Core OPEC ministers said on Friday they saw no need to supply the world with more crude as oil prices traded near a two-year high and some consumers said they fear a rally above $100 per barrel would spur inflation. OPEC's most influential oil minister, Saudi Arabia's Ali al-Naimi, said he was still happy with an oil price of $70-80 per barrel and there was no need for an extra OPEC meeting before the next scheduled one June.

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(Reuters) - Credit rating agencies have yet to overcome underlying conflicts of interest that have contributed to the current crisis and their approach was a reason for concern, an ECB Executive Board member said. "I am concerned about one development and that's the pro-cyclical attitude of rating agencies," Juergen Stark told German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung in an interview published on Friday.

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(Reuters) - China's central bank kept up its rhetoric against inflation and excess liquidity on Friday, saying it will deploy a range of policy tools to head off inflationary pressure and asset bubbles. Hu Xiaolian, a deputy governor at the People's Bank of China, said monetary policy in the world's second-largest economy needs to be prudent to tame inflation, which hit a 28-month high of 5.1 percent in November.

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(Reuters) - Toyota has agreed to pay $10 million to settle legal claims from the family of a California state trooper and three relatives whose fatal car wreck helped spark the automaker's wide-ranging safety recall, lawyers said on Thursday. The family's lawsuit, filed in March in San Diego Superior Court, was part of a wave of product-liability and wrongful-death actions brought against Toyota Motor Corp and subsidiaries over complaints of sudden, unintended acceleration in its vehicles.

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(Reuters) - Private equity firm Apollo Management APOLO.UL is buying a $2.8 billion portfolio of commercial real estate loans from Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) for $1.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Thursday. Credit Suisse is providing Apollo with debt financing for the deal, the paper reported, adding that the bank has already written down the portfolio to well below its face value. Credit Suisse and Apollo could not be reached immediately for comment.

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(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, has invested in China's top online seller of consumer electronics and communication products, in a push to extend its reach to more Chinese buyers. Chinese online business-to-consumer (B2C) company 360buy Jingdong Mall secured $500 million in funding from six strategic partners, including Wal-Mart, a 360buy spokeswoman said on Friday.

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(Reuters) - Investors managed to keep an upbeat outlook in light preholiday trade on Thursday as data buttressed views of steady economic growth, with stocks on track for a fourth straight week of gains. New home sales and prices edged up in November, while consumer sentiment rose in December to its highest level since June, reports showed.

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(Reuters) - Arab OPEC ministers began arriving in Cairo on Thursday ahead of talks expected to broach how high an oil price the world economy can stand as crude jumped to a more than two-year high above $91 a barrel. A full conference of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries earlier this month elected to make no change to an output policy it has stuck to since December 2008.

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(Reuters) - Shares surged in Scandinavian carrier SAS (SAS.ST) on Thursday after a report that Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) planned a takeover, giving new buzz to a long talked-of match. The idea of a takeover has been a recurring theme as SAS, half owned by Denmark, Norway and Sweden, continued to struggle with losses after a series of costly restructuring plans.

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(Reuters) - New U.S. claims for jobless benefits dipped last week and consumer spending increased in November for a fifth straight month, reinforcing views of a solid economic growth pace in the fourth quarter. Initial claims fell 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 420,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, matching economists' expectations. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed spending rose 0.4 percent after increasing by an upwardly revised 0.7 percent in October.

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