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Gold prices fell for the third day in a row Wednesday as grim news from Europe offset mildly encouraging economic news from the U.S.

Interestingly, overall unemployment among females -- now at 1.09 million -- is at a 23-year high.

Britain is on the brink of a contraction as the euro crisis weighs heavy, and inflation w ill fall well below target, Bank of England forecasts showed on Wednesday, leaving the door wide open for more stimulus to boost growth.

Italian borrowing costs reached breaking point on Wednesday after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's promise to resign failed to raise optimism about the country's ability to deliver on long-promised economic reforms.

Italian borrowing costs reached the breaking point Wednesday after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's promise to resign failed to raise optimism about the country's ability to deliver on long-promised economic reforms.

Europe has a new informal leadership directorate intent on finding a solution to the euro zone's debt crisis, but it has yet to prove its ability to come up with a lasting formula.

The head of the European Financial Stability Facility sought to entice China on Saturday to invest in the bailout fund by saying investors may be protected against as much as one-fifth of initial losses.

Gold prices booked two gains in a row Thursday and silver surged after the European Central Bank and Britain's central bank acted to protect the continent's staggering banks.

South Africa's rand fell as much as 1.4 percent against the dollar on Thursday as a survey pointed to a decline in business confidence and in line with a weaker euro, before recouping those losses in volatile trade.

Gold fell in choppy trade on Thursday after the European Central Bank held off flagging an imminent cut in interest rates, deflating an earlier rally in assets seen as higher risk, such as equities and the euro.

Twelve years after German Chancellor Helmut Kohl pushed through the monetary union over the objections of a majority of his country's citizens, the bloc is crumbling under the burden of huge debts. And the one institution that Germans were told would ensure stability, the ECB, is in deep crisis itself. In the absence of decisive action from Europe's leaders, the bank has come under enormous pressure to fill the gap.

The Bank of England voted on Thursday to buy 75 billion pounds ($115 billion) more in assets to shield Britain's economy from the euro zone debt crisis and keep the faltering recovery going.

Stock futures pointed to Wall Street rising Thursday, extending a rally into a third day, on optimism that European policymakers are making progress in their efforts to help shore up troubled banks.

Although the global economy is struggling to avert a recession, we also know that central banks are working very hard to provide sufficient liquidity to ensure a smooth ride through year-end.

Regulators are still trying to figure out how 31-year-old trader Kweku Adoboli caused $2 billion in bad bets over three tears. But as the probe continues analysts and politicians say UBS trading losses has strengthened the case for separating retail banks from their investment arm, according to The Associated Press.

Gold and silver prices moved higher late Thursday after posting big losses in the New York futures market.

The world's major central banks, led by the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve, in a coordinated effort Thursday intervened to provide dollar loans to commercial banks in an effort to maintain liquidity in Europe and check institutional investor concern about Europe's private sector banks. What will be the impact on U.S. stocks?

South Africa's stocks fell more than 2 percent on Monday and the rand hit one-week lows to the dollar, with further losses seen this week as worries about the global economy and euro zone debt crisis persist.

Billionaire Investor/Philanthropist George Soros has provided more thought-provoking commentary on the markets, and he says a U.s. double-dip recession is more likely now.

Robert Gibbs, a former spokesman for President Barack Obama, on Wednesday sought to clarify the role in public policy the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party is playing: counter-productive, to put it diplomatically.

Record-low borrowing costs in Great Britain are partly behind a small but scrappy real estate boom.

One of the world's leading economists says don't get giddy over the July jobs report, which indicated the U.S. economy created a better-than-expected 117,000 jobs. NYU Professor Nouriel "Dr. Doom" Roubini, who accurately predicted the housing crisis four years ago, says U.S. GDP will be sub-par in 2011 and the risk of a recession is real.

The two large banks decided to keep interests rates steady.

The yen tumbled from near record highs on Monday after Japan intervened to curb the currency's export-damaging strength, while world stocks held above 2011 lows as expectations grew for more policy action in developed countries.

South African government bonds rose on Tuesday, boosted by an auction which saw the strongest demand in a year with foreign buying a key feature.

South Korea's central bank bought 25 tonnes of gold over the past two months in its first purchase in more than a decade, saying the time was ripe to boost its gold holding, but markets barely moved on the news.

Assuming President Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans can not resolve the debt deal dispute in eight days, the unfathomable will happen -- a default by the U.S. Government. But that begs the question: what will the U.S. Federal Reserve do, if the U.S. Government defaults?

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee judged that recent economic weakness had reduced the chance that interest rates would need to rise in the near term, minutes to the BoE's July meeting showed on Wednesday.

U.S. consumer prices fell 0.2 percent in June, the first monthly fall in a year, with the annual inflation rate unchanged at 3.6 percent, still the highest the Labor Department said.