Japan on Thursday took steps to weaken the yen in an effort to help safeguard the nation's post-quake recovery after the unit's recent surge towards a post-war high.

The government intervened unilaterally in currency markets to counter "one-sided" and "excessive" speculator-driven movements in the yen that it said threatened Japan's recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Italy's leading trade unions and the main employers group presented Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with requests to boost economic growth at talks Thursday aimed at shoring up market confidence.

No details of the five-point plan were immediately available but Italy's main economic players last month asked for "a pact for growth" to fend off pressure from investors worried about high debt in the Eurozone’s third largest economy.

French insurance giant AXA said on Thursday that first-half net profit had surged more than fourfold to 3.99 billion euros ($5.71 billion), beating forecasts as the company avoided being hit hard by a Greek debt charge.

AXA said its earnings were up 324 percent from the equivalent figure last year while analysts had expected a net profit of about 3.7 billion euros.

Oil prices fell on Wednesday, dragged down by concerns that demand will weaken due to slowing economic growth and the Eurozone debt crisis as traders awaited data on U.S. crude inventory levels.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, slipped 39 cents to $93.40 a barrel.

Japanese high-tech maker Hitachi said Wednesday it is considering shifting all television production to foreign outsourcing firms by March as part of a broad strategy to increase profitability.

Hitachi, whose products range from microchips to nuclear power equipment, has not made a final decision about the plan, a spokesman added.

Procter & Gamble Corp. Chief Executive Robert McDonald says his company is preparing for a period of little or no economic growth in developed countries.

McDonald told reporters Wednesday in Singapore that he's concerned about the lack of growth in the U.S. He said his company's sales from October last year through to March this year in North America, Western Europe and Japan were flat.

Standard Chartered bank reported first half profits for the ninth consecutive year Wednesday and said it was successfully reaching out to burgeoning middle classes in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The bank reported a 20 jump in net profits to $2.5 billion, up from $2.1 billion the year before.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved legislation to avert a disastrous debt default and cut trillions in government spending, sending the contentious bill to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

Lawmakers voted 74-26 to pass the measure -- which cleared the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 269-161 margin a day earlier -- with just hours to spare before a midnight (0400 Wednesday) deadline.

Global banking giant HSBC said Tuesday it would hire thousands of people in emerging markets by 2014 as it looked particularly to Asia's booming financial sector to power future growth.

"We are planning to hire up to 15,000 people in emerging markets over the next three years," the bank's Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver told a press briefing in Hong Kong Tuesday.

German luxury car group Porsche posted Tuesday a first-half net profit of 149 million euros ($212 million), bouncing back from a heavy loss as it slashed massive debt with a capital increase.

In the first half of 2010, Porsche SE, the group that controls Porsche AG, the maker of the iconic 911 sports car, suffered a net loss of 1.62 billion euros.