Japan's Emperor Akihito is eager to abdicate on April 30 in 2019, after spending about three decades on the Japanese throne.
On Friday, Tesla switched on its world's biggest lithium ion battery to shore up Australia's grid for summer's first day, meeting Elon Musk's promise to construct it in 100 days.
Japan's automaker Nissan Motor started international arbitration versus India, seeking more than $700M over the issue on unpaid state incentives.
Some progress in the UK negotiations to quit the European Union ceased the likelihood of disorderly Brexit, raising the chances to result in a free trade agreement.
Western Digital and Toshiba were nearing a deal to settle a legal dispute, which threatened plans to sell Japan conglomerate's semiconductor unit for $18B.
One of Genera Motor's ventures in China is set to recall more than 938K of cars due to fuel tank issues, the country's quality watchdog stated.
Japan's Manufacturing PMI was at 53.6 in November, the strongest reading in more than three years, as new orders and output accelerated gains, indicating the economy's steady expansion.
Qualcomm filled new complaints against Apple over patent infringement, saying that there were 16 of the company's patents used by Apple in its iPhones.
Chinese Manufacturing PMI fell to the five-month low of 50.8 in November, as high input costs and tough pollution measures weakened business confidence, a private survey revealed.
Japanese core CPI rose 0.8% year-on-year in October, the tenth straight month of increase, while its narrower measure showed no acceleration in inflation for three months in succession.
The United Nations reported on Thursday that it would extend the Geneva peace talks on Syria until December 15, adding that the presidency was still on the agenda.
On Thursday, General Motors said it planned a launch of self-driving taxi fleet in several dense urban areas in 2019.
The Congressional Budget Office warned on Thursday that the US Treasury would run out of cash by late March or early April, unless the Congress raised the debt ceiling.
The EIA reported US natural gas inventories dropped 33B cubic feet in the week ended November 24, following the prior week's fall of 46B cubic feet.
The Federal Reserve's Vice Chair Randal Quarles warned that bitcoin and other digital currencies could pose a heavy risk to financial stability if adopted widely.
OPEC agreed to expand oil production cuts by the end of 2018, as it attempts to finish the clearance of crude global glut, but ready quit the deal earlier in case the market overheats.
The Finance Ministers of Portugal, Slovakia, Latvia would bid to replace Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup, ahead of the vote among the 19-country bloc next week.
US consumer spending slowed growth in October to mark a 0.3% increase after a 0.9% gain in the prior month, strengthening expectations for the Fed to raise rates in December.
Euro zone consumer inflation rose at a weaker-than-anticipated pace of 1.5% in November, suggesting that price growth was still soft reinforcing ECB projections for a further dip.
The ISM said that manufacturing activity in the area of Chicago with the PMI index rebounding to the 63.9 mark this month from a three-year high of 66.2 registered in October.
Russian consumer inflation is expected to grow 2.9% by the end of the year, compared with the 3.3% seen in the prior month, before hitting the central bank's 4% target in 2018.
The UK house prices increased 0.1% in November, missing expectations for a 0.2% gain, as house price inflation continued weakening since the Brexit vote, Nationwide said.
The Volkswagen car brand forecast the record sales of more than 6M models in 2017, exceeding the last year's reading of 5.99M, the company stated on Thursday.
The number of applications for US unemployment benefits plunged 2K to 238K in the week ending November 25, missing analysts' expectations for a 241K rise.