a Quick Glance at News

v  Asian shares retreated from a two-week high on Friday as investors scaled back their expectations of strong stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve and fretted about economic growth after manufacturing surveys from the euro zone and China depicted a bleak outlook.

v  U.S. manufacturing activity improved slightly in August, but weekly jobless claims unexpectedly ticked higher last week, and such a mixed picture kept alive expectations for some kind of monetary easing other than the QE3 at the Fed's September meeting.

v  The ECB earlier this month indicated it may resume buying government bonds to drive down borrowing costs in Spain, and investors were hoping the ECB would provide details of its bond-buying scheme as early as at its September 6 meeting.

v  Japan's Nikkei average shed 1.2 percent on Friday, retreating from Thursday's three-month closing high as investors locked in gains as expectations for quick stimulus measures from the U.S. Federal Reserve began to dim.

v  Gold eased from a 4-1/2 month high on Friday but was still poised for its biggest weekly rise in more than two months as investor expectations of imminent bond buying by the U.S. Federal Reserve cooled slightly.

v  Brent crude futures fell below $115 per barrel in Asia on Friday on signs of economic weakness across the globe, with doubts about more easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve and renewed worries over Europe's debt crisis sapping confidence in the outlook for demand.

v  A senior Iranian envoy said he expected progress at talks on Friday with the U.N. nuclear watchdog about the Islamic state's atomic activities.

v  The $62 million compensation plan proposed by Nasdaq OMX Group for fallout from Face book’s botched IPO is "inadequate to address the magnitude of Nasdaq's unprecedented failures", UBS Securities LLC said in a letter to U.S. regulators.

v  European stock markets opened mostly lower on Friday, tracking sharp losses in Asia as investors grew wary of the potential for more monetary easing.

v  The dollar rose against major rivals in Asian trading hours on Friday, with Greece’s prime minister set to meet Germany’s leader later in the day.

v  Australian miners have been taking a deteriorating commodity marketplace into their own hands recently, cutting production in a move that may help place a floor under commodity prices and even support the economy. According to one Financial Times report, anything below $120 a tone is uneconomical for the ore extractors, and many miners appear to be feeling the pain from the recent price weakness

v  Sony Corp. plans to cut about 1,000 jobs at its former Sony Ericsson joint venture -- now fully owned -- as it seeks to cut costs at the Smartphone market, the Nikkei business daily reported late Thursday.

v  Salesforce.com Inc. shares fell as much as 4.6% in after-hours trading Thursday as the on-demand software company gave a fiscal third-quarter earnings forecast that fell short of analysts' estimates. Sales force said that it expects to lose 26 to 27 cents a share, on revenue in a range of $773 million to $777 million.