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European shares fell for a fourth straight day on Thursday, with investors moving away from riskier assets on concerns about deeper fiscal cuts in Ireland and as Moody's downgraded Spain's government bond ratings.

At 0901 GMT (5:01 a.m. EDT), the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was down 0.4 percent at 1,060.82 points after hitting a three-week closing low on Wednesday.

Later in the session, investors will closely watch U.S. second quarter final GDP. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a 1.6 percent annualized pace of growth, a repeat of the second estimate.

Also on the macro economic front is the latest U.S. weekly jobless claims and the September ISM New York report will also be released at 1230 GMT, with September's Chicago PMI data due at 1345 GMT.

In corporate news, Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) massive recall of faulty medicines, including a quiet buyback of its Motrin painkiller, has angered U.S. lawmakers who will question the company's chief executive and a senior health regulator on Thursday.

McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) may cut health insurance for its nearly 30,000 hourly workers unless U.S. regulators waive a requirement of new health care legislation championed by President Barack Obama, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a company memo.

Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) is losing another three executives, including U.S. head Hilary Schneider, All Things Digital reported on Wednesday, citing sources close to the situation.

Car rental company Avis Budget Group Inc (CAR.N) said on Wednesday it would be willing to include a break-up fee in its offer for Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTG.N) if rival Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ.N) walks away from its own takeover bid for Dollar Thrifty.

JPMorgan Chase and Co (JPM.N) said on Wednesday it is delaying current foreclosure proceedings, adding to worries U.S. mortgage servicers are struggling to deal with the millions of homeowners unable to pay their mortgages.

The U.S. Senate approved two of President Barack Obama's three nominees to the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, including San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank chief Janet Yellen to serve as vice chairman.

Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration's new consumer financial czar, offered an olive branch to the largest U.S. banks on Wednesday, saying she wanted their help in developing a principles-based approach to rulemaking.

The euro extended its losses against the dollar and yen on Thursday after Ireland's central bank put the price of bailing out Anglo Irish Bank at 34 billion euros ($46 billion).

Wall Street took a breather from a month-long rally on Wednesday, with investors bracing for higher volatility going forward as the best quarter in a year nears its end. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI shed 0.2 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX dipped 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC fell 0.1 percent.

(Reporting by Joanne Frearson; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

The sale of AIG Star Life Insurance Co Ltd and AIG Edison Life Insurance Company comprises $4.2 billion in cash and $0.6 billion in the assumption of third-party debt, AIG said in a statement.

The deal will make Prudential the biggest foreign life insurer in Japan and should give it enough scale to take on domestic firms that still dominate the world's second biggest life insurance market.

"The acquisitions of the two companies will strengthen Prudential's client base in Japan. This could be a threat to domestic life insurers and other foreign insurers here," said Kenji Kawada, a director at credit rating company Fitch Ratings.

The Japanese market is mature but still offers growth potential due to its demographic profile, analysts say.

Nearly a quarter of all Japanese are already over 65 and with a tsunami of baby boomers heading into retirement the ranks of retirees is swelling and with it demand for medical insurance and pension planning.

"There's this feeling that the Japanese market is completely dead and it certainly is very mature from a traditional life insurer perspective," said Makarim Salman, an insurance industry analyst at Macquarie Securities in Tokyo.

"But an aging population leads to potential growth in terms of medical and savings provisions and that's the angle I think they're approaching it from," added Salman.

AIG said it will retain and continue to grow its general insurance business in Japan.

AIG expects to take a non-cash pretax goodwill impairment charge of about $1.2 billion in the third quarter.

The sale marks progress for AIG in disentangling itself from the U.s. government, although it still has a long way to go before the taxpayers get paid back in full for their $182.3 billion rescue package.

(Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo, James Topham, Junko Fujita in Japan, Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Nathan Layne)

J&J has recalled millions of bottles of potentially contaminated over-the-counter medicines such as Children's Tylenol and Benadryl, forcing one of its plants to shut down well into next year, and prompting a criminal probe and civil lawsuits.

The House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee called the hearing after a session in May that some members said just raised more questions.

"During the course of its investigation, the Committee has been concerned about the inconsistencies that it has uncovered," Democratic staffers on the panel said in a memo released ahead of the hearing.

J&J CEO William Weldon plans to say his company "let the public down," according to written testimony released on Wednesday.

He is announcing $100 million to improve facilities and operations and said at least one recalled product would be back on the market next week.

In April, J&J's McNeil consumer unit recalled 40 children's and infant products -- affecting 135 million bottles -- after Food and Drug Administration inspectors found filthy equipment and contaminated ingredients at a Pennsylvania factory.

Company and FDA officials say there have been no reported injuries from the recalled products.

Other witnesses at the hearing include FDA Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein and Colleen Goggins, the head of the McNeil unit, who is due to leave March 1.

Weldon has not announced any plans to retire but the recalls have tarnished J&J's reputation with consumers and marred his largely successful eight years at the helm.

MOTRIN RECALL

In probing the April recall of children's medicines, the committee discovered that J&J hired outside contractors in 2009 to buy packages of adult Motrin sold at convenience stores that had dissolving problems.

Lawmakers want to determine if the FDA knew about the stealth recall as J&J asserts. The FDA denies it approved the company's action.

FDA's Sharfstein plans to acknowledge that, overall, the recall was hampered by delays on all sides.

While FDA knew about some of McNeil's plans, the company "did not fully disclose the likely scale of the action or the way that the company was intending to proceed," according to Sharfstein's written testimony.