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LONDON (MarketWatch) — The IntercontinentalExchange is probing trades in U.S. dollar index futures that briefly showed a massive 9% jump on Friday morning.
The lead contract surged as high as 82.18, up from a 75.38 close on Thursday. Such a move was improbable given that in spot markets, the dollar’s moves against major […]

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HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Shares of China Strategic Holdings soared Wednesday after it announced plans to trade a part of its newly acquired stake in American International Group Inc.’s Taiwan unit for a wider presence in the Taiwanese financial-services sector.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Hong Kong-listed investment company China Strategic said it […]

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LONDON – World stock markets pushed higher Monday after figures showed U.S. retail sales — which are crucial for the global economic recovery — rose more strongly than anticipated in October.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 90.71 points, or 1.7 percent, at 5,387.09. Germany’s DAX rose 116.96 points, or […]

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LONDON — Kraft took its $16.3 billion bid for Cadbury, the British chocolate and chewing gum maker, directly to shareholders on Monday after the Cadbury board rejected the offer as too low.
But Kraft did not raise its offer, sticking with its original proposal from September. Kraft, which makes of Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies, […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Comcast Corp's quarterly profit rose 22 percent, beating expectations, as it sold more phone and Internet subscriptions, helping the top U.S. cable operator fight competition from phone and satellite companies for video subscribers.
Shares of Comcast jumped 5.1 percent in premarket trading as it reported 361,000 new high-speed Internet customers and […]

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Filed at 9:36 a.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) — The Washington Post Co. reported a 69 percent jump in third-quarter profit Friday as its newspapers trimmed their losses and its cable TV and education divisions held steady.
The company, which owns Newsweek magazine, Kaplan education services and television properties along with The Washington Post newspaper, earned $17.1 […]

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A U.N. report forecasts a return to growth in Asian economies and trade in 2010. But U.N. economists recommend Asian governments increase trade within the region and become less dependent on markets such as the United States and Europe. The report by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific says Asia’s […]

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(Reuters) – Blackstone Group (BX.N) is finding it difficult to raise money for a new leveraged buyout fund, the New York Post said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The private equity firm, which hoped to raise a fund as large as $20 billion, has raised $9 billion at most since fundraising began in early […]

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BRUSSELS — The European Union and South Korea took a major step Thursday toward a free trade deal aimed at generating billions of euros in new trade flows.
With the global trade talks deadlocked and amid concerns over a rise in protectionism, analysts said that the deal could send a powerful signal to other nations, […]

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LONDON (AFP) – Tidjane Thiam began his role as head of insurance group Prudential on Thursday, becoming the first black chief executive of a company listed on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index.
Frenchman Thiam, who was handed the job in March, replaced Mark Tucker. Born in the Ivory Coast, but with French nationality, Thiam was […]

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Orders for manufactured goods like airplanes and machinery fell unexpectedly in August, the government reported on Friday, providing another sign that the recovery could be long and uneven.
New orders of durable goods slid by a seasonally adjusted 2.4 percent from July, reflecting a 40 percent monthly decrease in orders of civilian aircraft. Orders of computers, […]

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World trade and climate change are the two most prominent issues at the summit talks in Pittsburgh Thursday and Friday of the G-20, the influential group that brings together key members of the developing world and the big economic powers. Agreements on trade and global warming have been out of reach so far, at least […]

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — For more than a year, prosecutors have been cracking down on the corruption and kickbacks that thrived during the boom years in this Persian Gulf city-state. Dozens of executives have been arrested and charged in a high-profile effort to show that fraud will no longer be tolerated. Investigators say their […]

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LONDON — The Bank of England decided Thursday to leave its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 0.5 percent, amid signs that the country’s economy is recovering more slowly than in many other parts of Europe.
The central bank also left its £175 billion, or $290 billion, program of buying bonds intact, following an […]

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TAIPEI (Reuters) – Chinatrust Financial (2891.TW) said on Monday it was planning to raise more cash on top of a $1.34 billion private placement announced on Friday, but declined to comment on reports it had outbid rivals for AIG's (AIG.N) Taiwan unit.
A source with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters on Saturday that […]

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BEIJING — Chinese officials said on Thursday that they would not entirely ban exports of two minerals vital to manufacturing hybrid cars, cellphones, large wind turbines, missiles and computer monitors, although they would tightly regulate production.
China produces more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of dysprosium and terbium, two rare minerals essential to […]

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PARIS — The European Central Bank upgraded its growth outlook for the euro zone on Thursday, but sought to temper optimism by warning that the nascent economic recovery would be patchy.
In another note of caution, the central bank president, Jean-Claude Trichet, also refused to specify when the bank might begin unwinding the extraordinary steps […]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, said he plans legislation to restrict the Federal Reserve's emergency lending powers and subject the central bank to a "complete audit."
At a recent town hall meeting, Frank said the House would pass a bill to use an […]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of previously owned U.S. homes notched their fastest pace in nearly two years in July, an industry survey showed on Friday, the strongest sign yet that housing was pulling out of a three-year slump.
The National Association of Realtors said that sales jumped 7.2 percent to an annual rate of 5.24 […]

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil rose nearly $1 toward $74 a barrel on Friday, after earlier hitting 2009 highs, as data in the United States promised economic recovery and a potential revival in energy demand.
Home sales data for July showed recovery in the U.S. housing market, while Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that […]

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