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As well as grounding its planes, Thomas Cook has been forced to shut travel agencies, leaving the group's 22,000 global employees out of a job

Shares and the euro will likely face more turmoil in 2012, after a year in which markets and the currency slumped on fears over the debt crisis.

Opec is due to hold a meeting to decide on oil production levels, with markets expecting it to keep it's target of 24.84 million barrels per day.

British energy giant BP announced a return to profit on Tuesday but revealed new shock estimates for the cost of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) left unchanged its oil-production ceiling on Friday, snubbing United States demands for an increase as the cartel focuses on supporting prices that have fallen 10% since the start of the year. Explaining its decision, Opec said that stockpiles of crude were likely to increase in the first half of 2008.

Global share prices rocketed on Thursday, though fears of an economic slowdown lingered as Société Générale revealed a massive €4,9-billion fraud-related loss it attributed to one of its traders. Europe's leading share indices surged in morning deals, with gains of between 4% and more than 5% after a recovery on the Japanese market.

Gold struck a new all-time peak of almost $868 dollars on Thursday as the precious metal benefited from its safe-haven status amid record high oil, a struggling dollar and Pakistan tensions, analysts said. The price of gold reached a historic $867,90 an ounce on the London Bullion Market. It later slipped slightly to stand at $866,90.

United States sportswear giant Nike ventured further into the British football market on Tuesday after agreeing to buy rival Umbro, maker of the England soccer strip, for $582-million. The cash bid, worth 195 pence per Umbro share, values the British group at £285-million, a joint statement said.

Shares in British bank Northern Rock plunged by a quarter on Friday as clients rushed to withdraw their savings following an emergency bail-out of the lender by the Bank of England. The central bank came to the rescue of Britain's fifth-biggest home-loan provider, which is facing severe difficulties raising cash on money markets amid the ongoing global credit squeeze.

European group Airbus will on Monday unveil new design plans for its troubled long-haul A350 plane, Thomas Enders, co-chief executive of Airbus's parent company EADS, told reporters. The cost of developing the mid-sized jet could meanwhile more than double to about $10-billion, added the German boss.