At least 12 people have been killed and dozens more are awaiting rescue as a huge fire engulfed a high-rise residential building in Shanghai. Several residents including elderly citizens are believed to be trapped in the 28-storey building located in the Jing'an district. Reports in the Chinese media state that the witnesses have spoken of hearing loud explosions.
Futures on major U.S. indices point to a small rebound on Monday ahead of key monthly retail sales data.
After being dethroned by China as the world's fastest supercomputer maker, US has upped the ante and is creating two 20-petaflop supercomputers to reclaim the top position for the most powerful supercomputer.
Equity capital market transactions totaled $23.3 billion last week, with 59 deals in the Asia Pacific region in the last week, a report by Dealogic said.
Concerns over Europe's debt risks felled Australian and New Zealand dollars - Asia Pacific's major risky currencies - on Monday, while growing fears that China may raise rates further dampened the sentiment. Market is keen on any fresh developments from Europe, with many important EU officials, including Alex Weber of ECB, scheduled to speak on the first day of the Euro Finance Week held November 15-19 in Frankfurt, Germany.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick is the most high-profile person in recent history to bring up the gold standard. However, his endorsement was almost universally dismissed as too archaic and impractical.
Gold registered new all-time highs over and over again in the past few weeks and hit a record high of $1424.30 on Tuesday as investors stepped up buying the yellow metal as an effective tool to avoid the risks of inflation and the uncertainties in the global economy.
The dust of G-20 has settled. World leaders sat around a large table set this time in South Korea, searched for that magic wand in their suit pockets, and then looked at each other's face with disappointment. They didn't get one to 'calm down' the emerging fears of a 'world war' on trade and currencies. They did not 'direct' China and/or US as some hoped.
IB Times interviewed Michael Yoshikami, president of YCMnet Advisors of Walnut Creek, Cal. To get his views on the recently completed G20 summit in Seoul, Korea.
U.S. economic policy is stuck in the pre-1970s era, which had higher population growth. Before 2008, this outdated policy caused boom-and-bust cycles. Now, it is failing to boost economic growth and possibly endangering the world financial system.
Dumb money is beginning to pour into gold. However, gold fever has not yet taken over the public imagination and there are still many potential buyers on the sidelines. The rally is therefore likely to continue.
A major question emerging here in Seoul on the final day of the G-20 Summit, as world leaders personally powwow on global dilemmas, is this: Can the U.S. and China play nice?
Rebalancing will also mean moving focus from the financial sector.
U.S. stocks fell in early trade on Friday as speculation over interest rate hike in China and concerns about euro-zone sovereign debt weighed on the sentiment.
The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Dynavox, L & L Energy, China MediaExpress Holdings, Fuqi International, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Mentor Graphics, American Capital Agency, Ascent Solar Technologies, Solarfun Power Holdings, and Power-One.
A study on charts shows that silver may not continue to enjoy the status of being better investment alternative over gold in the short-to-medium-term period. And not only that, any correction in both the metals will happen with the white metal falling much steeper than its yellow counterpart.
Leaders at the G20 spent as much time promoting the process itself as the real accomplishments of the summit. Most said that while there was little in the way of concrete rules, there were a number of steps in the right direction.
France and the International Monetary Fund will work together to develop criteria for the establishment of an international monetary mechanism to establish equity among currencies, and will have something tangible to present to the G-20 nations, and the rest of the world, next year, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a press briefing at the close of the Seoul G-20 Summit.
Replying to a question whether his relationship with other G20 leaders suffered because of some electoral setbacks back home, he said his relationship with some of the leaders was far better now than two years ago when he first took over the office.
Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega touted the voice developing nations had in the G20 process and getting the Chinese delegation to change its mind. But he was hit with tough questions about the G20 process and whether it made any real difference to the world economy.
U.S. President Barack Obama said the G20 economies have been successful in putting the world economy back on the path of recovery, but admitted that the progress was not fast enough as expected, especially in creating more jobs.
Commodities dropped on Friday as higher-than-expected Chinese inflation triggered rate hike worries in the world's second largest economy pushing gold, copper and platinum to 1-week lows and cutting December crude by more than $2 on the day.
