European stock markets had a shaky start on Friday as concern continued over Greece and Spain.

Spain's main share index fell more than 2% before recovering, while shares in London fell by as much as 1%.

Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port car factory will build at least 160,000 Astra vehicles a year in a deal that secures the future of the plant and should protect and create thousands of jobs.

Owner General Motors announced it will invest £125m in the plant and spend about £1bn in the UK supply chain.

France's new finance minister has reiterated that the country's new socialist government will not ratify the European Union's (EU) fiscal pact.

Pierre Moscovici said the pact would have to include provisions for growth before France signed up.

US car giant General Motors (GM) has said it will stop advertising on Facebook, days ahead of the social networking site's share flotation.

GM does not believe paid-for advertising on Facebook influences many people's choice of car.

The euro has hit a fresh four-month low against the dollar as political uncertainty in Greece fuels speculation the country could be forced to leave the single currency.

The euro fell more than a half a cent to $1.27. Against the pound, the euro slipped slightly to 79.6 pence.

UK unemployment fell by 45,000 between January and March to 2.63 million, according to official figures.

The jobless rate fell to 8.2%, the Office for National Statistics said.

Telecoms giant Bharti Airtel is being investigated by Indian authorities for money laundering and breaking foreign exchange rules, a minister has said.

Junior Finance Minister S Palanimanickam said the Directorate of Enforcement was investigating the case, but gave no further details.

Facebook has raised the price at which it hopes to sell its shares from $28-$35 to $34-$38, potentially putting its total value above $100bn (£62.2bn).

The company said strong demand had pushed up the price. Trading in the shares is expected to begin on Friday.

The eurozone has narrowly avoided returning to recession after recording zero growth in the first three months of the year, figures have shown.

The stronger-than-expected performance was in large part due to growth of 0.5% in the German economy.

Top executives at JPMorgan Chase are expected to resign this week following $2bn (£1.2bn) of losses at the bank's London trading desk, reports suggest.

They include chief investment officer Ina Drew, the New York Times said. Two other high-ranking executives are also set to leave, according to US media.

Yahoo has stepped down, amid accusations that a fake computer science degree was included on his CV.

The California-based company confirmed media reports that Scott Thompson had quit his post.

The eurozone economy is forecast to shrink this year as its debt crisis continues to bite.

The European Commission's spring forecast confirmed its prediction of a 0.3% contraction in 2012 in the economies of the 17 countries that use the euro.

China's export and import growth slowed in April raising fears about a sharp slowdown in its economy and triggering calls for monetary policy easing.

Exports rose by 4.9% in April from a year earlier, down from the 8.9% annual growth seen in the previous month, a sign that global demand may be slowing.

Insurance firm Aviva has announced that chief executive Andrew Moss will be leaving with immediate effect.

The move comes after the firm suffered the embarrassment of losing a shareholder vote on executive pay at its annual meeting last week.

Unemployment in most parts of the UK is likely to continue to rise over the next five years, according to an economic forecasting group.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) says the overall jobless rate could hit 10.7% by 2016, the highest for more than a decade.

The eurozone's private sector contracted sharply in April and by more than initially thought, a survey says.

The Markit eurozone composite purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 46.7 in April from March's 49.2. Any figure below 50 suggests contraction.

Diageo, the world's biggest producer of spirits, has reported rising sales for the first three months of the year.

Organic sales, which exclude the impact of acquisitions, rose by 6% in the quarter.

Spain, which many investors worry will be the next eurozone country to need help, has successfully sold 2.52bn euros ($3.3bn, £2bn) of debt but at much higher interest rates.

The Bank of Spain sold three-year bonds at average yields of 4.04%, up from 2.6% at its last sale on 1 March.

The governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, has rejected blame for the financial crisis.

"My main point was not to try to blame anyone - this was a failure of the system," he told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.

Greece has had its government debt rating raised out of default by credit rating agency Standard & Poor's.

S&P upgraded the crisis-hit nation to "CCC" from "selective default" after the country completed the biggest debt restructuring in history earlier this year.