LONDON (AFP) - London shares finished higher on Friday, with oil stocks making the biggest gains.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday, led lower by tech shares after computer maker Dell warned that companies worldwide are cutting back on technology spending.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese central government departments misused or mismanaged more than 46 billion yuan ($6.73 billion) last year, including using disaster relief money to build government offices and diverting funds to speculate in stocks, the National Audit Office said on Thursday.

LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets steadied on Thursday in subdued trade that focused on the banking sector after overnight gains in New York and earlier in Tokyo, dealers said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of MBIA Inc. jumped before the open on Thursday after the bond insurer agreed in a deal to reinsure $184 billion of municipal bonds backed by its rival FGIC Corp.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose sharply on Thursday as the government reported the economy grew at a surprisingly robust clip in the second quarter and oil prices eased, driving gains in major industrial and financial companies.

NEW YORK - Wall Street barreled higher Thursday after a better-than-expected reading on the gross domestic product and a drop in jobless claims gave investors some reassurance that the economy is holding up. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped more than 200 points.

Investors yanked $26.36 billion from stock funds in July -- the most since $44.84 billion in January. July trumps June's outflow figure of $4.82 billion, according to the Investment Company Institute.