(Reuters) - France and Germany agreed on Thursday to stop arguing in public over whether the European Central Bank should do more to rescue the euro zone from a deepening sovereign debt crisis. President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel said after talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti that they trusted the independent central bank and would not touch its inflation-fighting mandate when they propose changes of the European Union's treaty to achieve closer fiscal union.

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(Reuters) - AT&T said it would take a $4 billion charge in case its takeover of T-Mobile USA fails, reflecting the dwindling chances for the deal seen as job-destroying by powerful political opponents. The U.S. telecoms group and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, said they would continue to pursue anti-trust approval for the $39 billion takeover from the U.S. Department of Justice but withdrew for now applications to the industry regulator.

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(Reuters) - Three executives of Japan's Olympus Corp resigned on Thursday ahead of a boardroom showdown with ousted CEO Michael Woodford, as the British whistleblower said he would not be surprised if "some criminality" were involved in the scandal engulfing the once-venerable firm. The camera and endoscope maker admitted this month it hid losses on securities investments for two decades, blaming former president and chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former vice-president Hisashi Mori and internal auditor Hideo Yamada for the cover-up.

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(Reuters) - Rating agency Fitch downgraded Portugal's rating to junk status on Thursday, citing large fiscal imbalances, high debts and the risks to its EU-mandated austerity program from a worsening economic outlook. Fitch cut Portugal to BB+ from BBB-, which is still one notch higher than Moody's rating of Ba2. S&P still rates Portugal investment grade.

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(Reuters) - Stocks tumbled on Wednesday, with the benchmark S&P 500 sliding 2 percent and on pace for a sixth day of declines on anxiety over the euro zone crisis and weak Chinese data. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 209.79 points, or 1.83 percent, to 11,283.93. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX fell 24.02 points, or 2.02 percent, to 1,164.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC tumbling 52.99 points, or 2.10 percent, to 2,468.29.

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(Reuters) - A "disastrous" German bond sale on Wednesday sparked fears that Europe's debt crisis was even starting to threaten Berlin, with the leaders of the euro zone's two biggest economies still firmly at odds over a longer-term structural solution. Investors were also unnerved by reports that Belgium is leaning on France to pay more into emergency support for failed lender Dexia under a 90-billion-euro ($120 billion) rescue deal that had appeared done and dusted.

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(Reuters) - Consumer sentiment held up in late November as some of the gloom over the economic outlook ebbed, a survey released on Wednesday showed. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 64.1, up from 60.9 the month before.

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(Reuters) - Shares of Groupon Inc fell for a third day on Wednesday, sinking below the company's initial public offering price of $20 less than three weeks after the daily deal company went public. Groupon's shares fell 14.8 percent to $17.11 on Nasdaq, bringing its decline over the last three days to about 34 percent.

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(Reuters) - Deere & Co (DE.N) reported a 46 percent rise in quarterly earnings and projected "substantial growth" for 2012 amid strong global farming conditions and higher prices, sending its shares higher in an otherwise weak stock market. The world's largest farm machinery maker said hefty incomes of the world's farmers -- driving record 2011 results -- are expected to be stable in 2012. Demand for agricultural commodities, such as grain, will remain high.

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(Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Tuesday as persistent concerns over Europe and a weaker reading on U.S. economic growth kept investors on edge, although the downside was limited after four days of losses. The U.S. economy grew at a slower pace than previously estimated in the third quarter, a troubling sign as investors worry about the pace of expansion. Gross domestic product grew at a 2 percent annual rate, down from a previous estimate of 2.5 percent.

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