Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

Having fallen continually throughout the previous 16 months, Eurozone retail sales stabilised in October. The Markit Eurozone Retail PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index), based on a mid-month survey of more than 1,000 executives in the retail sector, rose from 48.6 in September to 50.0, signalling no change in the total value of like-for-like store sales compared to one month ago. In Germany, data for September from the national statistics office Destatis, which was issued today, shows that retail sales dipped 0.5% from August. There was an annual fall of 3.9%.

Growth of the Japanese manufacturing sector was registered for the fourth consecutive month in October. Despite falling slightly from September’s three-year high, the seasonally adjusted headline Nomura/JMMA Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which posted 54.3, continued to point to a solid improvement in operating conditions that was the second-fastest since September 2006. Japanese consumer prices continued to fall sharply in September and the jobless rate also declined, according to data published Friday.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil.

US real GDP (gross domestic product) — the output of goods and services produced by labour and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter (Q3) of 2009, (that is, from the second quarter to the third quarter), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the second quarter, real GDP decreased 0.7 percent.

The Eurozone Business Climate Indicator and the Economic Sentiment Indicator both rose for seventh consecutive month in October.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities; German unemployment dipped in October; Irish bank shares rise in Dublin.

Global investors and analysts are concerned about taking on more risk due to skepticism over US economic policies and its banking system despite an eight-month 68% rally in the global stock markets, according to the Bloomberg Global Poll, a quarterly survey of economic, financial and political attitudes among Bloomberg Professional service users worldwide.

Independent News & Media said today that advertising revenue is stabilising and that it expects its total revenues in constant currency terms to be down 14% compared with 2008.

The European Central Bank (ECB) said on Wednesday in its quarterly lending survey of Eurozone banks that credit conditions have eased. Meanwhile, Irish banks in the survey reported that they tightened their rules/criteria for lending to mortgage customers and businesses in the third quarter of 2009, while demand for loans also fell, according to the results.