Moody's cut Russia's credit rating outlook to "negative" Friday, a sign of a possible coming downgrade, citing the threat to the Russian economy from its involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

Moody's held Russia's overall rating at Baa1, in the low range for investment-grade bonds.

The dollar slipped against the euro Friday after dreary data on the US economy this week had traders expecting the Federal Reserve will keep ultra-low interest rates well into 2015.

On Thursday US consumer spending data for May showed a mere 0.2 percent increase from April, but adjusted for inflation, spending actually fell 0.1 percent.

A power outage hit a wide area of eastern Caracas and several cities in the interior of Venezuela for at least two hours Friday.

The outage started at 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) and service began being restored about two hours later. 

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim has bought out US telephone operator AT&T's $5.6 billion stake in telecommunications firm America Movil, the companies announced Friday.

The acquisition of AT&T's shares in the company represent 8.27 percent of America Movil's capital stock, according to a company statement.

The U.S. aviation regulator upgraded Serbia's safety rating Friday, giving the country's airlines the right to fly into the United States.

The Federal Aviation Administration raised Serbia's rating for complying with safety standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization to category 1, after holding the country at a category 2 level of non-compliance since 2006.

Inflation hit a three-decade high and unemployment dipped further in Japan, data showed Friday, as the government's bid to jumpstart the economy takes hold, but analysts warned it was too early for celebrations.

Japanese consumer inflation, stripping out volatile fresh food prices, rose 3.4 percent year-on-year in May, the fastest pace in 32 years, according to data from the internal affairs ministry.

Before the fast, let there be a shopping feast.

From Harrods in Knightsbridge to the glittering diamond stores in Mayfair, London has long attracted big spenders. But every year around the holy month of Ramadan, which starts this weekend, a wave of spectacularly rich Middle Eastern shoppers arrives and takes retail therapy to a whole new level — complete with an entourage of bodyguards, chauffeurs, and Gulf-registered Rolls-Royces and Ferraris flown in just for the occasion.

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel suggested on Thursday that the EU could ease its rules on co-financing investment projects, but insisted that he was not seeking to undermine the wider budget framework. 

"Nobody is attacking the Growth and Stability Pact," Gabriel told the German parliament's low house, referring to the European Union's budget rules requiring member states to keep a lid on their public deficits.

Is Britain's economy heading for bubble trouble?

Concerns are mounting that the country's housing market is overinflated, with London house prices rising almost 19 percent in the year to April. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has described the situation as the greatest risk to the economy. The International Monetary Fund is worried. Ditto European Union officials.

Japan's top e-commerce site operator Rakuten will enter the air travel business by allying with Asia's biggest budget carrier, Malaysia-based AirAsia, a report said Thursday.

Rakuten is preparing to make a capital injection in AisAsia's Japanese unit, possibly in 2015, the Toyo Keizai economic magazine said on its online edition.