French banking giant Societe Generale said Thursday its 2011 net profit slumped 39 percent after taking provisions of 890 million euros on its Greek exposure and a weaker investment bank performance.

Net profit for the year came in at 2.38 billion euros ($3.70 billion), well below analyst estimates for 2.72 billion euros.

World oil prices spiked on Wednesday after Iran warned that it may suspend crude exports to six European Union countries amid escalating tensions over Tehran's nuclear program.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for delivery in March, climbed $1.06 to close at $101.80 a barrel.

Kellogg Company will buy Procter & Gamble's Pringles potato chip business for $2.7 billion as the cereal maker seeks to extend its global snacks reach, the companies said Wednesday.

The all-cash deal came after a plan to sell Pringles to Diamond Foods was scotched amid a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into another side of Diamond's business.

Moody's said Thursday it was reviewing some 114 European banks and financial groups, including many of the top firms, for a possible ratings downgrade because of the Eurozone debt crisis.

Germany's Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank were among two of the largest groups named, alongside Britain's HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland, ING of the Netherlands, Spain's Santander and Italy's Unicredit.

The Eurozone debt crisis brought the German economy, Europe's biggest, to a standstill at the end of last year, data showed Wednesday, but the pause in growth will prove only temporary, analysts said.

According to preliminary figures from the national statistics office, Destatis, gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with the preceding three months.

Dutch brewing giant Heineken announced a 1.2-percent dip in net profit for 2011, saying on Wednesday it expected input costs to rise on a surge in the price of a main ingredient, barley.

Last year year's profits stood at 1.43 billion euros ($1.88 billion) while revenue topped 17.12 billion euros, a 3.6-percent rise of internal growth from the level in 2010.

European shares rose on Wednesday as a Greek bailout hung in the balance after Eurozone finance ministers delayed a key meeting until next week but supportive Chinese comments lifted sentiment.

Equities moved higher after the head of the Chinese central bank pledged to continue buying European sovereign debt as the Asian giant seeks to shore up support for its biggest trading partner.

Dubai's economy will continue to grow in 2012, despite persistent contraction in its once rapidly-booming construction sector, thanks to healthy trade and tourism, an official and economists said Wednesday.

Growth in the gross domestic product of the debt-laden emirate is "expected to be over 4.5 percent this year," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, the head of the Dubai Economic Sector Committee.

World stock markets sagged Tuesday after ratings agency Moody's slapped credit downgrades on six European Union countries due to the region's weak economic outlook and uncertain attempts to implement reforms.

Benchmark oil hovered above $100 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro and the yen.

A strike over pension reforms by harbor pilots has largely paralyzed traffic to the Belgian ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge.

The pilots who have to lead ships into the two ports demand that their profession be exempted from the government plans to add two years to the retirement age.