Euro Zone's unemployment rate remained steady at the record high of 10.3% seasonally adjusted in November, reported Eurostat. The number of people unemployed jumped by 45,000 in November to 16.372 million. The unemployment rate was in compliance with expectations.
HTC Corp announced the 26% drop in profit to NT$11.02 billion in Q4 citing increased competition and weak global demand. The revenue for the period decreased by 2.5% to NT$101.42 billion from NT$104.01 billion in 2010. The company has not commented the results.
Japan Airlines is planning to relist its shares to the Tokyo Stock Exchange as one of the steps towards recovery after bankruptcy. JAL is likely to sell shares totaling between 500B yen and 1Tn yen and in case relisting is successful the company will become the world's largest listed carrier, reports say.
Gasoline prices started 2012 with the all-time high of $3.28 per gallon, reported AAA Daily Fuel Gauge. Analysts expect the commodity to be extremely volatile this year. The record high price will negatively impact customers as gasoline price tends to peak later, usually between April and July, said Tom Kloza, economist from Oil Price Information Service.
The Yuan is expected to face large fluctuations in 2012 but mainly appreciate by 2%-3% against the USD over the year, said professor at Fudan University. The central bank of China essentially increased a daily reference rate to 6.3 Yuan per one USD. The Chinese currency is allowed to fluctuate by 0.5% above or below the reference rate. Wider currency fluctuations will positively affect
Belgium's budget for this year was rejected by the EC that assessed Belgian projections as overoptimistic. The country expects the deficit to narrow to 2.8% of GDP with the GDP expansion of 0.8% while the EC projects a deficit of 3.1% of GDP with the same expected growth figure.
Crude oil fell during the electronic trade, but remained above $101 a barrel as investors anticipate US employment report due today. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil futures for delivery in February declined by 24 cents to $101.57 a barrel at the Asian trade. The drop follows a 1.4% decline after data on the last week's increase in the US inventories issued
Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. may face difficulties in acquiring Yahoo Inc. after it hired a new CEO. Yahoo appointed Scott Thomson; the move indicates Yahoo's unwillingness to sell its assets in the nearest future, said Xie Wen. Thompson's prime objective is to focus on the core business, innovation and revenue growth.
PricewaterhouseCoopers was fined £1.4m by the AADB for audit of the JP Morgan bank. JP Morgan was fined £33.3m in 2010 as the company failed to protect money of the clients by adding them to its own. The PwC was fined for not spotting this practice conducted by the bank between 2002 and 2008.
Greece's latest bailout package is likely to be bigger than EUR130 billion initially planned taken the deteriorated financial situation in the country, reported Financial Times Deutschland. The planned amount will be insufficient as the sum eventually will depend on the probable private participation, the FTD added.
Lifting of the China's domestic demand will be of critical importance for the government this year, said Chen Deming, Commerce Minister. Despite global downturn, China's economic expansion sees favourable conditions for boosting domestic consumption, he added. Recently, the government announced tax rebates and subsidies for purchases of appliances and vehicles and analysts expect officials to design more policies for consumption increase.
Canada's Ivey PMI increased more than expected in December. The Ivey PMI added 3.6 points approaching 63.5 last month from November's reading of 59.9. Experts predicted a decrease in the indicator by 0.8 points to 59.1. However, after the data release, the Canadian Dollar continued to see loses against the USD with the pair USD/CAD traded at 1.0204, gaining 0.75%.
On Friday Australia's and New Zealand's Dollar enlarged their losses against US Dollar for a third consecutive day as European debt anxiety damped demand for more risky assets. Australian Dollar lost 0.6% reaching $1.0208 in Sydney while its New Zealand peer gave up 0.4% to $0.7779. Currently AUD/USD is trading at $1.0233 and NZD/USD is trading at $0.7796.
Copper futures tumbled to one-week low on the persistent worries over the Euro Zone financial difficulties after French bond auction. COMEX copper for delivery in March traded at USD3.413 a pound during the early European Thursday's trade, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, decreasing by 0.61% since opening.
US production of gold declined slightly in October to 20,500 kg from the revised September's figure. Daily October's production approached 661 kg as compared to 690 kg in September, reported the Institute U.S. Geological Survey. The average price per one ounce of gold was $1,668.70 in October, indicating 6% decline on a monthly basis.
17-nation currency traded 0.2% from 11-year record low on Friday morning as expectations about fading spending and consumer confidence amid surging French yields boosted anxiety among investors. The Euro depreciated to $1.2784 in London and tumbled against Japanese Yen to ¥98.70. Currently EUR/USD is trading at $1.2778 and EUR/JPY is trading at ¥98.60.
Germany has to support more financing to boost emergency bailout fund and rescue the Euro Zone, said Klaas Knut, the member of ECB Governing Council. German officials are likely to refuse increasing financing for the Euro Zone bailouts. Angela Merkel has refused calls to intensify bailout funding, instead emphasizing the role of budget discipline as a tool for curtailing debt crisis.
Japanese recovery from earthquake may have slowed down in November and October, suggest the Japan Center of Economic Research. The analysts predict country's GDP fell in two previous months creating 0.1% contraction for the last quarter. The main reasons for slowdown in growth are the strengthening of Japanese Yen and the drop in European demand.
Asia shares experienced a further decline on Friday on rebounded worries about deepening European debt crisis and disappointing US mortgage aid program. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average finished 1.2% down, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 1.3% while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.8%. Shanghai Composite traded almost flat giving up 0.1% and South Korea's Kospi tumbled 1.5%.
European shares saw a drop on Thursday session as Deutsche Bank, UniCredit and Santander reported sharp losses. Stoxx 600 index gave up 0.9% or 2.23 points and closed at 247.39, French CAC 40 lost 1.5% or 48.74 points reaching 3,144.91. UK's FTSE 100 index tumbled 0.8% or 44.19 points at 5,624.26 while DAX 30 index experienced a smaller decline of 0.25% or 15.56 points to
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC may reduce its payroll by 10,000 jobs in line with its strategy of investment banking sector contraction, reported Financial Times. Redundancies will focus on equities segment of investment division as it was unable to compete with major rivals in the sector. However, the bank's representative said that the number of 10,000 was exaggerated.
Crude oil futures declined after supply news from the US but Iranian issue limited losses. Crude oil inventories decreased to 4.4 million barrels last week while gasoline inventories jumped to 3.4 million barrels, announced American Petroleum Institute. Crude oil futures for February contract lost 72 cents and currently traded at $102.50 a barrel at the electronic trade.
China's largest carriers will not pay the EU carbon tax aimed at reducing carbon emissions as China's Air Transport Association refused to cooperate with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, said one official. The new carbon tax that was severely criticized by the US, Canada, India and China came in force on January 1.
New industrial orders index increased by 1.8% in the Euro Area in October on a monthly basis after decline by 7.8% in September. In the EU new orders rose by 0.5% in October after 2.1% decrease in September. Excluding railway, aerospace and ships, the orders on which appear to be more volatile, new orders in the Euro Area fell by 0.5% and in the