(Reuters) - New single-family home sales rose in October and the supply of homes on the market fell to its lowest level since April of last year, showing some healing in the battered housing sector. The Commerce Department on Monday said that sales edged up 1.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted 307,000-unit annual rate, which was the fastest pace in five months yet still below analysts' expectations. The supply of new homes in the market would last 6.3 months at the current pace of sales.

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TOKYO/HONG KONG (Reuters)- Documents unearthed by Reuters show a new link between Japan's Olympus Corp and a veteran banker at the center of an accounting scandal engulfing the firm, as attention focuses on the role he played in the company's deal-making. The Japanese banker, Akio Nakagawa, is already known to have worked for an obscure, boutique U.S. financial firm that won a massive $687 million advisory fee from Olympus relating to its purchase of British medical equipment firm Gyrus in 2008.

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(Reuters) - Germany and France stepped up a drive on Monday for coercive powers to reject euro zone members' budgets that breach EU rules, as a market rout of European debt eased temporarily on hopes of outside help for Italy and Spain. The OECD rich nations' economic think-tank said the European Central Bank should cut interest rates and abandon its reluctance to step up purchases of government bonds to restore confidence in the euro area, which now posed the main risk to the world economy.

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(Reuters) - The euro zone's debt crisis has become the biggest threat to the global economy and a break up of the currency zone can no longer be ruled out, the OECD said on Monday, slashing its forecasts and urging the ECB to play a bigger role in defusing the crisis. The euro zone has already entered a mild recession but much worse could follow unless policy makers take decisive action to get ahead of the market, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a stark warning.

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(Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday, on course to snap a six-session losing streak, as a buoyant start to the holiday shopping season helped offset fears about the euro zone's debt crisis after another leap in Italian bond yields. Reinforcing what some see as recent signs of strength in the U.S. economy, shoppers stateside flocked to stores, which opened early to offer a jumpstart to "Black Friday," the traditional beginning to the U.S. holiday shopping season. The S&P Retail index .RLX rose 0.4 percent.

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(Reuters) - Retailers may not reap hefty gains from the longer lines of shoppers snaked around malls across the U.S. at the traditional post-Thanksgiving start of the holiday shopping season; broader bargain hunting driven by budgetary fears may depress overall holiday spending. Eager shoppers hunted for bargains on big-screen televisions, video games and toys while fretting about their own shaky economic well-being, suggesting they may pull out their wallets for bargains but not for much else.

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(Reuters) - Italy paid a record 6.5 percent to borrow money over six months on Friday and its longer-term funding costs soared far above levels seen as sustainable for public finances, raising the pressure on Rome's new emergency government. The auction yield on the six-month paper almost doubled compared to a month earlier, capping a week in which a German bond auction came close to failing and the leaders of Germany, France and Italy failed to make progress on crisis resolution measures.

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(Reuters) - Euro zone member states, mindful of flagging market confidence in euro zone debt, are considering dropping private sector involvement in the region's permanent bailout fund due to come into force in 2013, four EU officials said on Friday. The discussions are taking place as part of wider negotiations over changing the EU treaty to introduce stricter fiscal rules, which Germany insists on as a precondition for deeper integration among euro zone states.

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(Reuters) - A behind-the-scenes tussle for control over a 7.5 billion euro ($10 billion) share sale by Italy's Unicredit (CRDI.MI) has shown how increasingly tense market conditions are driving a wedge between investment banks. When the opportunity to be involved in a big deal comes along, banks are usually quick to pile in, with fees, league table credit and client relationships to play for, as well as all-important kudos.

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(Reuters) - German government bond yields hit their highest in nearly a month and world stocks held near 7-week lows Thursday, a day after a weak debt sale in Berlin fanned fears the euro zone debt crisis is starting to threaten its biggest > falling 115 ticks on the day to 134.66, the lowest since October 31. Ten-year German government bond yields rose as high as 2.14 percent compared with economy.

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