Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank, agreed to buy Bankers Trust Corp. for about $9.7 billion in cash, creating the world's largest financial-services company by assets and giving the German lender a substantial U.S. investment-banking platform.

The combined company will have more than $830 billion of assets, eclipsing UBS AG. Deutsche Bank Chairman Rolf-Ernst Breuer said the deal will close in the first quarter of 1999, subject to regulatory approval in the U.S. and Germany. The transaction values Bankers Trust shares at $93 each.

U.S. Treasury securities advanced for a third consecutive session as investors sought refuge from renewed friction between United Nations weapons inspectors and Iraqi authorities. The benchmark 30-year bond yielded 5.21 percent, the lowest level since the Federal Reserve cut rates in October.

America Online Inc. is in late-stage discussions to acquire Netscape Communications Corp. in a stock transaction valued at more than $4 billion, three people familiar with the negotiations said. Sun Microsystems Inc. is expected to take over Netscape's enterprise server software unit as part of a separate three-year alliance.

Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso secured congressional support for the fiscal austerity measures required to unlock a $41.5 billion International Monetary Fund-led rescue package, designed to insulate Latin America's largest economy from contagion following Russia's August default and the September collapse of Long-Term Capital Management.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, addressing the Securities Industry Association, indicated the central bank may hold the federal funds target at 4.75 percent through the December 22 Federal Open Market Committee meeting, citing improving credit conditions and reduced risk of recession.