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Facebook’s long-awaited IPO filing is imminent, according to several news reports.

The Wall Street Journal kicked off the hoopla on Friday, citing anonymous sources who said that Facebook may file for an initial public offering as early as this Wednesday.

The New York Times and CNBC echoed that with their own unnamed sources in articles posted late Tuesday, saying that the filing will land Wednesday. Facebook is seeking to raise up to $5 billion in its offering, they added.

If that number is correct, Facebook would represent by far the largest global IPO ever by an Internet-focused company, according to data from Dealogic. Google’s (, Fortune 500) $1.9 billion debut is currently the largest U.S. Internet IPO.

But Facebook would still lag behind blockbuster U.S. IPOs like those from Visa (, Fortune 500), which raised more than $19 billion in 2008, and General Motors (, Fortune 500), which raised $18 billion last year.

Facebook’s IPO filing won’t answer one burning question: What’s the company worth? For that, Wall Street will have to wait until Facebook starts trading, which typically happens several months after companies file their first round of regulatory paperwork.

Some experts have suggested that the social network could valued between $75 billion and $100 billion once it starts trading. No matter what the market cap, Facebook’s IPO is undeniably hot, says Max Wolff, chief economist at GreenCrest Capital.

But there’s a lot more riding on Facebook’s paperwork than wealth creation. The social network has become an entire ecosystem, supporting independent app makers and gaming platforms like Zynga ().

Facebook’s filing will have implications for companies that depend on it, as well as the social media landscape at large. Until then, analysts are left to speculate about Facebook’s revenue streams and profitability — and whether it really deserves a $100 billion market value.

Michael Pachter, a research analyst at Wedbush Securities, says the rumored valuation range is reasonable — though he won’t cite a specific estimate of his own.

How Facebook makes money — and could make more: The vast majority of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising: a combination of search and display ads. And the sales growth is incredibly robust.

Research firm eMarketer estimated last September that Facebook’s ad revenue would more than double in 2011 to $3.8 billion and increase another 52% to $5.78 billion in 2012.

Facebook has grown by grabbing market share from Google and Yahoo. Last year Facebook comprised 16.3% of the so-called display (i.e. banners and other graphical ads) market, eMarketer estimates — compared with Yahoo’s (, Fortune 500) 13.1% and Google’s (, Fortune 500) 9.3%.

Martin Pyykkonen, analyst at Wedge Partners, says Facebook is highly appealing to advertisers because about two-thirds of its users fall into the coveted age demographic of 18-49. He thinks Facebook’s ad targeting will become even more effective over time.

"The ‘Like’ button option is a basic example of targeting," Pyykkonen wrote in a note to clients Monday. "[It’s] likely that advertisers will be able to even better target their audiences as Facebook goes deeper with integrating apps, games, movies, music."

Facebook’s other revenue stream is its payment system for purchases within apps and games: Facebook Credits. Facebook keeps 30% of the revenue from those payments, and passes the remaining 70% on to the app developer.

Facebook Credits now comprises 10% of the company’s total revenue, up from 5% in early 2010, Pyykkonen estimates.

Those estimates will soon be backed up — or refuted — by hard numbers from Facebook. Once its IPO filing does finally land, it will help answer questions about the overall social media market.

"People are extrapolating outcomes into an environment that’s hungry for missing details," said Wolff. "It’s like all the guys in the class spreading rumors about the prettiest girl in the school."

– CNNMoney’s Maureen Farrell contributed reporting. 

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Debt-crippled Greece’s budget deficit is expected to hit 9.6 percent of economic output in 2011, about half a percentage point above target, the development minister said Wednesday.

Michalis Chryssochoidis said that an increase in the use of European Union structural development funds had contributed to lowering government overspending from 10.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2010.

“The good news is that absorption of European Union funds has exceeded all expectations,” Chryssochoidis said at an economic forum where the government hopes to attract investment from the United Arab Emirates.

But Greece, which is relying on billions in rescue loans from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund to keep afloat, had pledged to cut the 2011 deficit to 9 percent of GDP.

Greece ran up high budget deficits for years, building a suffocating debt load set to exceed 160 percent of GDP in 2011. In exchange for a vital euro110 billion ($140 billion) international bailout in May 2010, the country implemented a harsh austerity program, slashing pensions and salaries while repeatedly hiking taxes and raising retirement ages.

The country’s interim coalition government is rushing to pass a new batch of reforms and cutbacks, to secure a second, euro130 billion bailout package approved in October but not yet finalized instant personal loans guaranteed.

Fitch Ratings warned on Wednesday that Greece’s financial troubles could still worsen the eurozone crisis if it can’t work out a debt reduction deal with creditors, part of the second bailout package.

Fitch’s head of sovereign ratings David Riley said Greece “still has lots of potential to plunge Europe into crisis” and that “time is running out.”

Greece is in talks with private investors about a voluntary 50 percent reduction in their Greek bond holdings.

It needs to agree the deal before it can get another installment in its rescue loans, which it will need to repay euro14 billion in bonds that come due in March.

Riley said one complicating factor in the private creditors’ deal was the European Central Bank’s refusal to write down its estimated euro45 billion in Greek bonds. That means private bondholders have to be asked to take on more losses to reach a given reduction in Greece’s debt load.

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Construction spending surged to a near 1-1/2 year high in November as investment in public and private projects rose solidly, cementing expectations of

strong economic growth in the fourth quarter.

Construction spending increased 1.2 percent to an annual rate of $807.1 billion, the highest level since June 2010, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.

Spending in October was revised to a 0.2 percent fall, after initially reported as a 0.8 percent rise.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected construction spending to rise 0.5 percent in November.

Overall construction spending was up 0.5 percent compared to November 2010.

Private construction spending rose 1.0 percent, advancing for a fourth straight month. Spending on residential projects increased 2.0 percent, with solid gains in both multifamily and single family homes.

The housing market is showing some signs of recovery, with builders breaking more ground on new projects to meet growing demand for rental apartments. It is becoming less of a drag on the economy and is expected to significantly add to growth in 2012.

Private nonresidential construction was flat in November after declining 0.6 percent the prior month.

Spending on public sector construction rebounded 1.7 percent in November as outlays on federal projects jumped 5.3 percent after dropping 7.5 percent in October.

State and local government spending rose 1.3 percent after falling 1.2 percent the prior month.

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A coalition of retail groups sued the Federal Reserve on Tuesday, claiming the regulator ignored the law by setting too high a cap on the fees that banks can charge merchants for handling debit card purchases.

The National Retail Federation and other groups claimed in U.S. District Court in Washington that the Fed buckled under pressure from bank lobbyists when it set the cap at an average of about 24 cents per transaction in late June. The previously unregulated fees used to average around 44 cents.

The cap, which took effect Oct. 1, was initially proposed at 12 cents.

American Bankers Association CEO Frank Keating accused retailers of ’seeking more profits from government price controls” by filing the suit, and maintained that retailers have not passed on the savings that resulted from the cap to their customers.

The merchant groups, which included National Association of Convenience Stores and the Food Marketing Institute, said that in raising the cap, the Fed considered expenses that the law did not allow.

Their lawsuit maintains that the board dropped its earlier view that the only costs that should be considered in the fee were those involving the authorization, clearing and settlement of a transaction. Instead, the retailers claim, the Fed added costs, such as fraud losses, associated with a bank’s debit card operations that were not included in the law faxless payday loans.

The suit maintains the cap is an “unreasonable interpretation” that exceeds the authority delegated to the Fed under the law. And it complains the Fed wrongly interpreted another provision of the law that requires merchants have a choice of which network handles their transaction.

The law, commonly known as the Durbin Amendment for Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who championed it, is part of the financial regulatory reform passed in July 2010.

Banks lobbied hard against the fee cap. They maintain it will cost them about $7 billion in annual revenue.

Attempts to compensate for the loss to this and other regulations by charging customers monthly fees for using debit cards sparked a nationwide furor in recent months, leading the banks to drop their plans.

Minnesota-based TCF Bank dropped an earlier lawsuit challenging the legality of the Durbin Amendment a day after the Fed set the cap above its original proposal.

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Stocks stumbled Wednesday as a rare earnings miss by Apple pulled down technology stocks. Indexes turned lower in late afternoon trading on reports of an impasse in talks aimed at resolving the European debt crisis.

The leaders of Germany, France, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank met Wednesday to prepare for a European summit this weekend to find a solution to the region’s debt troubles. Rising and falling expectations for the meeting have rattled markets every day this week.

“The big theme this week is what’s going to happen in Europe over the weekend,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. “If a Greece or another country defaults, it could do real damage to Europe. If that pushes Europe into a recession, it will further clip the pace of global growth.”

Apple Inc. slumped 5 percent after the company’s income and revenue fell short of forecasts. It was a rare miss for the company, which had jumped 31 percent this year through Tuesday. Apple blamed the shortfall on a later-than-usual release of its newest iPhone.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 99 points, or 0.9 percent, 11,478 at 3:05 p.m. Eastern. The Dow had spent much of the day edging higher, led by Travelers Cos., a major insurer. Travelers jumped 5.8 percent after reporting revenue that beat analysts’ expectations.

The Dow’s second-best stock was Intel, which rose 3.2 percent. Intel Corp. said its net income rose 17 percent last quarter, beating Wall Street’s target.

Other technology stocks were lower. The Nasdaq composite slid 52, or 2 percent, to 2,604. The S&P 500 fell 16, or 1.3 percent, to 1,208.

Worries that Europe’s troubles could get worse have driven many of the market’s big swings lately. The Greek government is widely expected to go through some kind of default or restructuring of its debt. If that process becomes messy, European banks that hold Greek government bonds may find it difficult to raise money from other banks. That, in turn, could trigger a freeze in credit markets and deliver a blow to an already weak European economy.

Investors had plenty of corporate news to digest on Wednesday. Abbott Laboratories announced plans to spin off its drug business. Abbott’s stock rose 1 percent.

Large banks that were trading higher dropped in the late afternoon. Morgan Stanley fell less than 1 percent. The bank said a jump in investment banking revenue helped it earn $1.15 a share, well above analyst expectations of 30 cents per share.

Citigroup slipped 1.7 percent. The bank agreed to pay $285 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of complex mortgage investments just as the housing market was starting to collapse.

BlackRock Inc. dropped 4.2 percent after the money management giant said its assets under management fell 3 percent.

Airlines fell. AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, slid 5 percent after reporting a loss that was worse than Wall Street analysts predicted. The company said its fuel spending jumped 40 percent, wiping out revenue gains from higher fares and fees. JetBlue Airways Corp. dropped 6.2 percent after the company said its chief financial officer has resigned.

American Express and eBay will report their results from the last quarter after the market closes.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering taking civil action against Standard & Poor’s for its rating of a 2007 mortgage debt offering low rates payday advance. Such action could be just the first shot in a legal assault against the major credit rating agencies.

The three major agencies

A magnitude-6.6 earthquake shook the east coast of Japan off Honshu early Saturday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. No tsunami warning was issued, and no damage or casualties were immediately reported.

The 4:26 a.m. Friday (1926 GMT Thursday) quake was shallow, at 22.6 miles (36.3 kilometers) beneath the surface, the USGS said.

The USGS said the quake hit some 67 miles (108 kilometers) southeast of Hachinohe, in Honshu, Japan, and about 356 miles (574 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, Japan

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Greece’s cash-strapped government said Sunday that it would impose a new property tax on top of existing austerity measures in order to combat a revenue shortfall.

The government also decided, in a symbolic move aimed at a public angry at politicians, to dock a month’s pay from all elected central and local government officials.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the tax will be levied over the next two years and will cost citizens an average of euro4 ($5.53) per square meter (10.76 sq. feet).

Debt-crippled Greece urgently needs to keep a program of cutbacks on track to secure the continued flow of international rescue loans _ worth euro219 billion ($302.6 billion) _ protecting it from catastrophic bankruptcy.

Over the past 20 months, the Socialist government has cut pensions and salaries while raising taxes and retirement ages. But its efforts to cut back while reviving a fast-contracting economy amid record unemployment have faltered, sparking new market distress.

Speaking after a three-hour cabinet meeting in Greece’s second-largest city of Thessaloniki, Venizelos said the new property levy _ in addition to public sector reforms announced last week _ will make up for lagging revenues this year by providing more than euro2 billion ($2.76 billion), about 1 percent of annual gross domestic product.

Venizelos added that top Greek officials from the head of state to senior ministry executives will lose one month’s pay.

“The levy and the reforms are enough for us to pull through, but that also depends on the response of Greek society,” he said. “It will be sufficient for us to achieve our targets.”

Venizelos added that, if the measures work, Greece can expect a 2012 budget deficit of euro17.1 billion, about 8 percent of GDP, higher than the previously predicted 7.6 percent.

He warned, however, that the economy was expected to shrink at an even faster pace than expected, contracting 5.3 percent in 2011.

On Saturday, Prime Minister George Papandreou, in a keynote speech on the economy in Thessaloniki, pledged to meet fiscal targets despite the economic slowdown.

As the prime minister spoke, riots raged on the streets outside during an anti-austerity protest by some 25,000 people. Police arrested nine suspected rioters, while nine officers and 10 demonstrators were injured.

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Here’s something to sink your teeth into: discounted rates for dental work.

That’s the promise of Brighter.com, a new Santa Monica, Calif.-based online company that offers discounts of up to 60 percent off everything from root canals to teeth whitening. Even your kid’s braces.

Launched in May, it’s aimed at giving consumers more choices when choosing

OTTAWA—The Bank of Canada has left the key overnight interest rate unchanged at one per cent amid slower than expected U.S. growth, but acknowledged that it will “eventually” have to go higher.

Economists had widely expected the Bank of Canada to leave rates unchanged in the announcement.

The latest decision on interest rates comes amid a growing credit crisis in Europe and fiscal gridlock in the United States.

However, the Canadian economy has appeared to be on track with three consecutive months of job growth and signs of inflation.

The bank’s overnight target rate affects the prime lending rate at Canada’s big banks and in turn the rates for variable rate mortgages and lines of credit.

The central bank last raised rates in September 2010.

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