Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Swiss officials Friday in Bern to ink a free trade pact with Switzerland, after three years of talks, marking China’s first comprehensive agreement with a Western country.

In an op-ed published by Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung Thursday, Li said the agreement showed China is committed to free trade.

The two nations’ trade volume last year topped $26 billion US.

Switzerland is the first European stop on Li’s inaugural trip abroad since taking office in March. He travels to Germany on Saturday for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Yahoo Inc. has made an offer to acquire Hulu, a media report said Friday, joining a number of other companies in the mix for the popular online video-streaming site.

Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported that private-equity firms KKR & Co. and Silver Lake Management LLC announced separate bids for Hulu.

Now AllThingsD reported that Yahoo, which just announced a deal to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion, has joined the auction and wants to acquire Hulu to better compete with Google’s YouTube service.

Other companies vying for Hulu include DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, Guggenheim Digital, and the Chernin Group.

Private-equity firms KKR & Co. and Silver Lake Management LLC are said to be making separate bids to acquire the online video-streaming service Hulu.

On Friday, Bloomberg reported that the two buyout firms are joining in an auction that already includes DirecTV, Time Warner Cable Inc., Guggenheim Digital and the Chernin Group.

Hulu is owned by Walt Disney Co., News Corp. and Comcast Corp.

Electronics giant Sony Corp. plans to raise 150 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in its first sale of bonds targeting retail investors.

The five-year notes will be priced to yield 0.8 percent to 1.4 percent, the Tokyo-based company said in a filing with Japan’s Finance Ministry Friday. Terms will be set on June 7 before Sony offers the debt to investors from June 10 to June 18, it said.

Sony joins SoftBank Corp. in planning to market bonds to Japan’s retail investors as it seeks to capitalize on its brand name to diversify funding.

Shares of Sony have more than doubled since the start of 2013 with support coming from a slumping yen, billionaire investor Daniel Loeb’s proposal to spinoff Sony’s entertainment assets, and anticipation for a new PlayStation gaming console.

The Federal Statistics Office confirmed Friday a previous estimate of first-quarter GDP growth of 0.1 percent in the Eurozone’s largest economy Germany.

While Germany returned to growth, the economy has stagnated due to declines in construction activity and investment as a severe winter and recession in the broader European market damped demand.

Construction slid 2.1 percent from the fourth quarter and capital investment fell 1.5 percent, the FSO said.

Meanwhile, household spending rose 0.8 percent in the first quarter, while public spending fell 0.1 percent. Exports declined 1.8 percent and imports dropped 2.1 percent.

From a year earlier, the German economy shrank 0.2 percent when adjusted for working days.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated Thursday the total cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, including mortgage grants that haven’t yet been made, will be $21 billion – $3 billion less from its last estimate.

The CBO says $428 billion of the initially authorized $700 billion will be disbursed through the TARP, including $419 billion that has already been disbursed and $9 billion in additional projected disbursements.

The estimated cost of the TARP stems largely from assistance to American International Group, aid to the automotive industry, and grant programs aimed at avoiding home mortgage foreclosures.

 

As U.S. home prices increased over the last few months, the number of owners who owed more on a home than the property was worth fell to about 13 million in the first quarter from 15.7 million during the same period in the prior year, according to data released Thursday by Zillow.

On a percentage basis, 25.4% of all homeowners with a mortgage had negative equity in the first quarter, down from 31.4% during the same period in the prior year.

“The only cure is patience, as rising home values continue to build equity to the point where more homeowners can realistically sell,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist.

Creditors of low-cost wireless provider Mobilicity approved a deal Thursday that would see the mobile upstart sold to Telus for $380 million.

The approval is the first of several hurdles the company must clear before the sale can go ahead. The acquisition plan must also be approved by Industry Canada, the Competition Bureau and the Ontario Superior Court, which is overseeing Mobilicity’s restructuring and issued the orders allowing it to seek potential buyers as a way to avoid bankruptcy.

“This is a significant step towards final approval of the plan through which the business, combined with the financial strength of Telus, can be continued in a way that will benefit our customers and employees,” said Mobilicity president and CEO Stewart Lyons in a press release.

J.P. Morgan International Bank Limited, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., was fined 3.1 million pounds ($4.7 million) on Thursday by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority for systems and controls failings related to its provision of retail-investment advice and portfolio-investment services.

The issues lasted for two years and were not fixed until the FCA mentioned it to the company, according to a news release.

The FCA said it identified issues such as failure to keep client files up to date and problems with computer systems that did not allow sufficient information to be retained.

Private-sector activity in the 17-nation Eurozone continued to shrink in May, but at a slower pace than in previous months, according to the preliminary Markit composite purchasing managers’ index released on Thursday.

The index rose to a three-month high of 47.7 from 46.9 in April, beating expectations, but still well below the 50-mark that separates expansion from contraction.

Meanwhile, the manufacturing PMI climbed to 47.8 from 46.7 in April.

“The Eurozone’s second recession in five years looks set to drag on into a seventh successive quarter,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

“Although the Eurozone PMI rose for a second successive month in May, the survey remains firmly in contraction territory and indicates that the economy is likely to contract in the second quarter at a similar rate to the 0.2% decline seen in the first three months of the year,” he said.