The International Monetary Fund said on Saturday it would dispatch a team to Ukraine to determine how much extra aid the war-wrecked and energy-starved nation will need to make it through winter.

The nine-day visit due to start on Tuesday comes as Ukraine suffers rolling blackouts and resentment grows over severe IMF-prescribed austerity measures.

Standard and Poor's has lowered the outlook for the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia to stable from positive and its Gulf partner Oman to negative on sliding oil prices.

However, the ratings agency affirmed the strong "AA-/A-1+" long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings for Riyadh over the "strong external and fiscal positions" it has built up in the past decade when oil prices were too high.

A surprisingly strong U.S. jobs report for November powered U.S. stocks to another record performance Friday, with the S&P 500 registering its seventh straight weekly gain.

Wall Street shares continued to take the good news as good for all -- more jobs, cheaper oil, stronger growth -- even as it raised the chance of earlier and sharper interest rate rises next year.

The United Nations voted Friday to begin negotiations on a legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring with a view to clamping down on "vulture funds" at the center of Argentina's July debt default.

The General Assembly's committee on economic and financial matters voted by 128 to 16 to set up a new body to create, over the next nine months, new international standards to govern debt restructuring.

Oil struck fresh five-year low points this week on the back of the strong dollar, oversupply fears and major producer Saudi Arabia slashing its export prices.

The market had already dived last week after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) left its output ceiling unchanged, despite a global supply glut.

Malaysia Airlines said its shares will be suspended from the country's stock exchange on December 15 under a government plan to rescue the beleaguered carrier after two devastating aviation tragedies this year.

The national flag carrier, whose loss of both flight MH370 and MH17 compounded years of hefty financial bleeding, said the stock's final day of trading would be December 12, followed three days later by the full suspension.

Qatar's improved "final offer" to buy London's landmark Canary Wharf office quarter has been rejected, its owner said Friday, seemingly putting an end to a deal.

Songbird, a property firm which controls 69 percent of Canary Wharf Group, said the offer worth £2.6 billion ($4.1 billion, 3.3 billion euros) undervalued Songbird and its growth prospects.

German industrial orders, a key measure of demand for German-made goods both at home and abroad, rose strongly in October, suggesting Germany's period of economic weakness could be over, data showed Friday.

Industrial orders rose by 2.5 percent in October compared with the previous month, the economy ministry said in a statement.

U.S. microprocessor maker Intel plans to invest $1.6 billion over the next 15 years to upgrade an existing facility in China's western city of Chengdu, the company said in a statement provided to Agence France Presse on Thursday.

It it the company's latest move in China, after it said in September it would invest $1.5 billion in two Chinese cell phone component firms by acquiring a 20 percent stake in the holding company that owns Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics.

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the central bank and government on Thursday to take 'tough action' to stop speculation on the ruble after the currency hit new all-time lows this week.

"I ask the Bank of Russia and the government to carry out tough coordinated actions to discourage the so-called speculators from trading on the fluctuations of the Russian currency," he said during his annual state of the nation speech in Moscow.