French cosmetics giant L'Oreal is making an $843 million takeover offer for skincare company Magic Holdings to help it expand in China's fast-growing beauty market.

Magic Holdings International Ltd. is the "ideal fit" for L'Oreal SA's existing China business and the deal also gives Magic an "ideal partner" to expand into new markets, the companies said in a joint filing Thursday.

Oil prices eased on profit-taking in Asia on Friday but remain supported by concerns about turmoil in Egypt after a crackdown on protesters killed nearly 600 people nationwide, analysts said.

Investors are closely watching whether the latest unrest in Egypt will escalate and affect stability in the oil-rich and politically volatile Middle East region.

New claims for U.S. unemployment insurance benefits fell last week to their lowest level in six years, a fresh sign of labor market tightening, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Initial jobless claims totaled 320,000 in the week ending August 10, compared to 335,000 the previous week.

Bailed-out Portugal broke free from recession in the second quarter, data showed on Wednesday, as the government struggles to restore market confidence by pushing through deeply unpopular austerity reforms.

After shrinking for 10 months in a row, gross domestic product grew by 1.1 percent in the second quarter from output in the first quarter, but shrank by 2.0 percent on a 12-month basis, national statistics office Ine said.

Information technology giant Cisco announced Wednesday that it will cut 4,000 jobs, equal to five percent of its workforce.

Cisco executives said the cuts were necessitated by a weaker-than-expected economic recovery, with conditions especially disappointing in emerging markets.

Oil prices rose in Asian trade Thursday on concerns that escalating violence in Egypt will disrupt supplies from the Middle East, analysts said.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in September, was up 42 cents at $107.27 a barrel in afternoon trade, and Brent North Sea crude for September gained 38 cents to $110.58.

The eurozone climbed out of recession at last with surprisingly strong growth of 0.3 percent in the second quarter led by Germany and France, the European Union said on Wednesday.

But the European Commission warned that tough structural reforms must be pursued without let-up and in the long term if the fruits of sustained growth are to be reaped.

Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, lost about 1.2 billion dollars to oil thieves in a single month of the first quarter of 2013, an official statement said Tuesday.

"At average January-March prices of $121 per barrel, this theft resulted in a loss of $1.2bn to Nigeria in one month alone," President Goodluck Jonathan's special adviser on oil-rich Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku, said in the statement. Official figures indicate that the trade in stolen oil led to a 17 percent fall in official oil sales in the first quarter of 2013, estimated at 400,000 barrels per day, it said. The International Energy Agency said last month that the theft of oil from pipelines in Nigeria had damaged infrastructure, and was one factor in a fall of output by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) of which Nigeria is a member. Such theft involves thieves tapping pipelines to syphon crude for sale on the lucrative black market. It often leads to explosions, fires and oil pollution. Kuku said that his office would on Thursday organize in Lagos a conference on oil theft and sea piracy in the Niger Delta.

The central bank in war-torn Syria has lifted restrictions on the sale of dollars to individuals, state news agency SANA said Wednesday, in a bid to curb black market trade.

"Citizens may purchase foreign currency at banks, for non-commercial purposes, according to the rates fixed by the central bank," the bank's governor Adib Mayaleh said, quoted by SANA.

The White House released a report Tuesday indicating that naturalization of undocumented immigrants would be a boon for the U.S. economy as it pressed the House to approve immigration reform.

The bill, already passed by the Senate, would provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, an act the White House says would boost U.S. GDP by $1.4 trillion over 10 years, citing outside estimates.