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European stocks slipped Friday on weak Chinese economic data and persistent tensions in eurozone debt markets, while Asian markets were buoyed by a botched North Korean missle test.

Concerns about the prospects for global groth remained the market focus after official data in China showed its economy grew at an 8.1 percent pace in January-March, its slowest in nearly three years.

Although Asian investors brushed off the news on hopes the country would provide more economic stimulus, European markets gave it more weight. As the world’s largest exporter, China is a bellwhether for global economic growth, which European countries desperately need to heal their public finances.

France’s CAC-40 dropped 1.1 percent to 3,233.49, while Germany’s DAX shed 0.99 percent to 6,676.32. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell 0.57 percent to 5,677.95.

“Unimpressive macro newsflow continued, which has kept concerns about global economic prospects at the forefront of the market’s mindset,” Credit Agricole analysts said.

Helping to weigh on European stocks was continued pressure in bond markets, with yields on Spanish debt inching higher, a sign of investor unease over the country’s financial future.

U.S. stocks were also poised to fall on the open. Dow futures were down 0.4 percent to 12,904 while the broader S&P 500 futures fell 0.4 percent to 1,381.10.

In Asia, markets mostly closed higher as traders were reassured by news that a North Korean rocket exploded soon after takeoff. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.1 percent to 2,008.91.

Tensions had risen as North Korea pushed ahead with the launch despite protests from the U.S., South Korea and other countries that deemed it a test of missile technology. Pyongyang said it was to put into orbit a satellite commemorating the anniversary of its founder’s birth.

Mainland Chinese shares were higher as regional investors saw the GDP figures as proof that the economy would avoid a brusk slowdown and that authorities might clear further measures to boost growth. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.3 percent to 2,359.16. The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.6 percent to 950.91.

“The GDP data is within earlier expectations and both policy and the economy are stable. Even if the slowdown is obvious, growth is still above the government’s target,” said Li Jianfeng, an analyst at Caida Securities, based in Shanghai. The government’s annual growth target is 7.5 percent.

Overall, there was a sense of confidence that China is managing to steer the economy into a slower growth track without veering toward a ‘hard landing.’

“Chinese policymakers likely are neither as asleep at the wheel nor as paralyzed by political indecision as global investors seem recently to be fearing,” Michael Kurtz of Nomura in Hong Kong said in a report.

In currency markets, the euro fell 0.2 percent to $1.3154 and the dollar inched up to 80.94 Japanese yen.

Concerns persist that high energy prices _ driven in part by unrest in the Middle East _ could weigh on any economic recovery. Benchmark oil was down 45 cents to $103.19 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose by 94 cents to finish at $103.64 on Thursday.

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Private companies continued to add jobs in March, albeit at a slightly slower pace than in February.

Businesses added 209,000 jobs in March, according to a report issued Wednesday by payroll-processing company ADP. Those job gains were slightly lower than forecasts for 217,000, and marked a slowdown from 230,000 private sector jobs added in February.

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Obama battles job crisis

Before Obama even took office, America had lost 4.4 million jobs. Track his progress since then.

Strong jobs data throughout the winter has been partially attributed to unseasonably warm weather, which allows some firms — in construction, for example — to remain fully operational during colder months. Once that effect fades, economists are bracing for weaker job creation.

But Wednesday’s report showed no sign of a sharp slowdown.

"Today’s number doesn’t show such a weakening," said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers payday advance. "It’s pretty much in line with the last several months of increases."

The economy needs about 125,000 new jobs each month just to keep the unemployment rate steady. To fully dig out of the jobs hole left by the financial crisis, it needs far more.

Will we ever see 5% unemployment again?

Prakken forecasts that it could take another three or four years for the unemployment rate to fall back to a pre-recession level of around 5%.

"I’m pleased with today’s number, but I’m left with this concern that we aren’t stepping up to the next level," Prakken said. "We would need 300,000 or 400,000 in order to push the unemployment rate down as people jump back into the labor force."

Small businesses continued to drive job growth in March, according to ADP.

Companies with fewer than 50 employees made up about half of all private sector job gains, hiring 100,000 people.

Large companies with 500 or more employees hired 22,000 new workers, and medium-sized businesses added 87,000 to their payrolls.

Check the unemployment rate in your state

The ADP report typically sets the tone for the government’s highly anticipated monthly jobs report, due Friday. While the reports tend to show the same trends over the long term, their figures can diverge from month to month.

Economists surveyed by CNNMoney expect the Labor Department’s data to show 200,000 jobs added in March, including 210,000 from the private sector and a loss of 10,000 government jobs. 

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A credit card hack attack on Global Payments is hitting the headlines. Here are answers to some of the key questions it raises.

What happened in the Global Payments breach?

Global Payments, a company that processes card transactions, discovered an unauthorized intrusion into its servers in early March. The company says it "promptly" notified others in the industry. It didn’t publicly announce the breach until Friday.

The breach affects all major credit and debit card brands, because Global Payments is one link in the long chain involved in card transactions.

When a customer swipes a credit card, the data is sent to a payment processor like Global Payments, which coordinates the steps involved in authorizing the charge and submitting the transaction details to card networks like Visa (, Fortune 500) and MasterCard (, Fortune 500). It’s a quick but complicated process, with lots of players in the mix.

What kind of information was stolen? What can the hackers do with it?

Global Payments () released a statement late Sunday saying that around 1.5 million card numbers may have been compromised. That’s a big breach, but the odds are good that your card wasn’t among them. There are more than 1 billion credit and debit cards currently in circulation in the U.S., according to the Nilson Report, an industry trade publication.

Card numbers were stolen, but that’s all the thieves got fast cash online. Cardholder names, addresses and Social Security numbers were not affected, according to Global Payments.

That’s good news. Stolen numbers can be used create to fraudulent cards, but they’re not enough for full-fledged identity theft.

Global Payments is still investigating how the breach happened. The U.S. Secret Service has launched its own inquiry.

What does this mean for me? Should I be worried?

While the threat of a compromised card is upsetting, customers should sit tight. If your card issuer thinks your account may have been compromised, they’ll contact you. Some may need to reissue credit cards or take other steps to contain the damage.

No matter what, you’re not liable for unauthorized charges made on your account.

As Visa (, Fortune 500) put it in a response to the Global Payments debacle: "It’s important for U.S. Visa consumer cardholders to know they are protected against fraudulent purchases with Visa’s zero liability fraud protection policy, which exceeds federal safeguards. As always, Visa encourages cardholders to regularly monitor their accounts and to notify their issuing financial institution promptly of any unusual activity." 

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South Korea

AstraZeneca PLC says it has won a judgment in a U.S. court protecting its patent on the extended release version of Seroquel, its blockbuster drug for treating bipolar disorder.

AstraZeneca said Friday that U.S. District Court in New Jersey upheld the formulation patent for Seroquel XR, which expires in 2017.

The company said the court also ruled that Anchen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Osmotica Pharmaceutical Corp., Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Torrent Pharma Inc., Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc saving account payday loan. and Mylan Inc. have infringed the patent.

AstraZeneca has also been fighting legal battles to protect its patent on quetiapine, the active ingredient in Seroquel, which expires in December. Seroquel is the company’s second-largest-selling brand, accounting for 17 percent of sales last year.

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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda

A former MF Global executive is contradicting testimony from Jon Corzine, saying the former senator ordered the transfer of $200 million out of a customer account days before the firm collapsed, according to an e-mail obtained by congressional investigators.

Edith O’Brien, the former assistant treasurer, says Corzine ordered the money shifted to one of the firm’s bank accounts overseas, according to a memo that cited the e-mail.

A House Financial Services subcommittee released the memo Friday in advance of a hearing Wednesday. O’Brien has been subpoenaed to testify.

In December, Corzine told the panel: “I did not instruct anyone to lend customer funds to MF Global or any of its affiliates.” Corzine also said he didn’t know about “the use of customer funds on any loan or transfer.”

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U.K. jobless claims rose more than economists forecast in February and a broader measure of unemployment remained at the highest rate in 16 years, underscoring the weakness of the labor market even as the economy shows some signs of recovery.

Unemployment-benefit claims climbed by 7,200 from January to 1.612 million, a 12th straight monthly increase, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. The median forecast of 28 economists in a Bloomberg News Survey was for a gain of 5,000. Unemployment (UKUEILOR) measured by International Labour Organization methods held at 8.4 percent in the three months through January, the highest since 1995.

The data may fuel arguments from opposition politicians that Prime Minister David Cameron is cutting government spending too fast to tackle the deficit and comes after the economy contracted in the fourth quarter. While some indicators signal the economy returned to growth this quarter, consumer confidence remains weak on concern that job cuts may continue.

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It affects everything from mortgages to credit cards to student loans, and now some of the world’s biggest banks are at the center of a criminal investigation into whether they manipulated it for their own benefit.

The London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, is a measure of the cost of borrowing between banks that serves as a benchmark for over $350 trillion worth of financial products worldwide.

Higher Libor rates translate into higher borrowing costs for businesses and consumers, while lower rates could make lenders reluctant to lend since they can’t charge as much in interest. In addition to consumer loans, certain bonds and interest rate swaps also use it as a benchmark.

With all the different loans and investments tied to Libor, there are serious consequences if the process is tampered with.

"If you move it even a little bit, it can cause massive redistribution of resources because it’s so extensively used," said Rosa Abrantes-Metz, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a former economist with the Federal Trade Commission.

Last week, the Justice Department said in a letter to a federal judge that it was conducting a criminal investigation of alleged Libor manipulation. Officials in Switzerland, Canada and the United Kingdom are also looking into the issue, according to disclosures in several banks’ public filings.

In addition, a number of banks, including Bank of America (, Fortune 500), Citigroup (, Fortune 500), HSBC, JPMorgan (, Fortune 500) and Credit Suisse (), are defendants in a U.S. civil case brought by investors — ranging from mutual funds to individual traders to the city of Baltimore — who say they lost profits due to Libor distortion as far back as 2006.

Law enforcement officials and the banks targeted in the suit either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

How Libor works: Libor rates are set each business day through a process overseen by the British Bankers’ Association.

Between seven and 18 large banks are asked what interest rate they would have to pay to borrow money for a certain period of time and in a certain currency. In all, the process generates rates for 10 currencies across 15 different time periods, ranging from one day to one year.

The responses are collected by Thomson Reuters, which removes a certain percentage of the highest and lowest figures before calculating the averages and creating the Libor quotes.

BofA to slash mortgage balances

Banks trying to appear stronger and more creditworthy may have been tempted to submit lower numbers, particularly during the financial crisis.

In addition, if the banks coordinated their submissions, they could adjust trading positions tied to Libor in order to profit from their advanced knowledge of its movements.

"The banks involved in this were largely trusted by the public to be setting these rates in a fair way — it was supposed to be a transparent measure of the cost of borrowing," said Arun Subramanian, a lawyer representing plaintiffs involved in the civil litigation. "To the extent that the banks were colluding to manipulate these rates, everyone was harmed and the public trust was violated."

Key Wall Street reform rule under fire

No banks have been formally accused of wrongdoing in the United States.

However, Japanese regulators temporarily suspended some transactions by UBS () and Citi in December after it was revealed that traders at both banks attempted to influence yen Libor rates and the related Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate, or Tibor.

UBS also recently revealed in public documents that it was providing information to U.S. and Swiss officials investigating possible Libor manipulation in exchange for leniency and conditional immunity, depending on the jurisdiction.

There’s no telling how long all the various probes will take to resolve, but if the allegations are proven, liabilities could be in the billions, said Jonathan Macey, a professor at Yale Law School. There’s also the possibility of criminal charges should conspiracy among traders be established, as well as the potential for more lawsuits from private plaintiffs.

"It’s a very serious issue when you’re talking about banks manipulating these rates across the globe," Subramanian said. "I think the liability for the banks is going to be staggering." 

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About 100 students protested Friday ahead of a speech at Cambridge University by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief whose career collapsed after he was charged with sexual assault.

The 62-year-old French politician, often called DSK, was scheduled to speak on Europe’s financial crisis at the university’s debating society later Friday despite calls for the event to be canceled. The protesters said the university should not give a platform to a man with such a troubling attitude toward women.

“It’s got nothing to do with freedom of speech,” said student Francesca Williams, 21. “They’re inviting a man who hates women. I don’t think DSK should be given the privilege of speaking in front of a private audience.”

Earlier, police arrested a man and a woman, both in their early 20s, on suspicion of vandalizing The Cambridge Union Society building. The Cambridge News website displayed photos showing its walls defaced with messages including “DSK GO AWAY” and “WOMEN DESERVE BETTER.”

Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the IMF after allegations last May that he sexually assaulted New York hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo no fax payday advances. Prosecutors later dropped criminal charges against him, but Diallo has brought a civil case against him.

In an unrelated case, he was questioned by police in Lille, France, last month about a suspected hotel prostitution ring.

Diallo’s lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, spoke to about 100 Cambridge students and journalists on her behalf at a rival event earlier Friday. Letting Strauss-Kahn speak at the prestigious university was “giving him a platform to use Cambridge University to help his publicity campaign,” Wigdor said.

A statement posted Friday on the debating union’s website states that the invitation was made well before Strauss-Kahn’s controversial departure from the IMF. His experience in French politics mean that he was “exceptionally well qualified” to speak on the financial crisis and the French presidential election, it said.

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