MEXICO

Oil rose on Friday due to concerns that a storm in the Caribbean may move toward the Gulf of Mexico, where oil facilities are clustered and BP continues to fight an oil spill.

Oil slipped on Friday, heading for a weekly drop of 1.3 percent, as falling equity markets tempered an early boost from indications that the first storm of the Atlantic hurricane season might be developing. Asian stocks slid on Friday for a fourth straight session, driven by expectations of tighter financial regulation and uncertainty about the global economic recovery ahead of the weekend G20 meeting. Concerns about the Greek debt crisis had also sent Wall Street lower on Thursday.

European policymakers defended budget austerity plans on Thursday ahead of a G20 summit set to pit calls for fiscal restraint against warnings that heavy cost-cutting threatens recovery.

Latin American currencies firmed on Tuesday as stronger-than-expected German economic data offset concerns that Europe's efforts to confront debt troubles may crimp global economic growth.

Blunt, brash, brainy and occasionally self-mocking. Larry Summers, the White House economic adviser, is all of these things. In a career spanning academia, government and finance, he has rubbed some people the wrong way and infuriated others.

Latin American currencies struggled for direction early on Tuesday as investors became more skeptical of China's vow to ease control over its foreign exchange rate.

Once engorged to peak levels, the sugar prices have recently bottomed out at ten-month low levels on weak demand due to monsoon season and anticipation of higher-than-expected sugar production this year trimming the gains of the sugar stocks on the bourses.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Monday, adding to last week's gains and tracking gains in global equities, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.6 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.4 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.6 percent at 0821 GMT.

Mexico's peso slipped from a three-week high on Friday after an unexpected drop in May U.S. retail sales dented the outlook for Mexican exports. The peso MXN=MEX01 lost 0.36 percent to 12.7309 per U.S. dollar.

It is difficult to forecast the impact of severe tropical weather in the Gulf of Mexico region on crude oil production, because shut-in production in any particular year varies depending on the overall level of severe weather and the specific track of each storm (see Figure 1). The 2008 and 2009 hurricane seasons illustrate a wide range of oil production impacts.

Spain's Santander shrugged off concerns of a debt crisis at home and showed its overseas expansion ambitions are still intact with the buyout of its Mexican division for $2.5 billion.

Banco Santander said it was to pay $2.5 billion for the 24.9 percent of Santander Mexico it does not own, showing the Spanish bank's expansion ambitions have not been dampened by a raft of buys in the past 18 months.

General Motors Co on Tuesday announced a recall of about 1.5 million trucks, crossovers and cars from model years 2006-2009 because the unit that heats the windshield washer fluid could catch fire.

Employers in most economies are more likely to add workers than three months ago, including those in the United States, but big gains are limited to booming emerging economies like Brazil, India and China, according to a quarterly survey by Manpower Inc .

Here are developments in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the largest in U.S. history:

President Barack Obama will meet with the leaders of a panel he created to probe the worst oil spill in U.S. history on Tuesday, as a giant slick from BP's blown-out Gulf of Mexico well poses a new threat to the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama.

Oil from BP's out-of-control Gulf of Mexico oil spill could threaten the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this week, U.S. forecasters said on Monday, as public anger surged over the country's worst environmental disaster.

Apple Inc said it sold 2 million iPads since launching the touch-screen tablet in the United States nearly two months ago and taking it to nine international markets this past weekend.

Brazil's Ultrapar is set to submit an offer for Royal Dutch Shell's European liquefied petroleum gas arm alongside a string of private equity bidders, the Financial Times reported.

Gold has exploded recently, making new highs against every major currency in the world.

Josephine Jimenez has a chunk of money to invest and she is hunting for opportunities in the usual places -- Zimbabwe, Tunisia, Sri Lanka, among others. Jimenez is a specialist in so-called frontier markets. She stacked up a million air miles long ago.