MARKETS / FINANCE

Germany will stick to its target to borrow about 65 billion euros ($83.19 billion) this year despite record economic growth and billions in extra tax revenue, the country's finance ministry said on Saturday.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the yen's sudden rise against the dollar had become a concern and he would continue to watch it carefully, Japanese media reported on Saturday.

Crude oil prices slumped below $80 a barrel again this week as the Federal Reserve and other official forecasters took a dimmer view of the economic recovery. Friday's closing price for the benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures contract of $75.39 a barrel marked a retreat from the contract's short-lived foray outside the $70 to $80 a barrel range it has been trapped in for months. Prices fell nearly 7% from last Friday's close of $80.70 a barrel.

The Federal Reserve is undertaking a dangerous gamble by keeping rates at near zero for so long, and it must start raising rates or risk damaging the nascent U.S. recovery, a top Federal Reserve official said on Friday.

U.S. stock investors will brace for further signs of weakness in the U.S. recovery next week as earnings from key retailers are expected.

U.S. stock investors will brace for further signs of weakness in the U.S. recovery next week as earnings from key retailers are expected.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc on Friday said several top company officials, including Chairman and Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, exercised stock options this week and obtained millions of dollars of profits by selling the resulting shares, regulatory filings show.

U.S. stocks closed out their worst week in six with a whimper on Friday, slumping toward the close as economic data gave little reason to reverse a string of sell-offs.

Sandra was kind enough to contact me to let me know she was successful-and extremely excited-about being offered a job with one of her target employers-one of the region's largest healthcare systems.

General Motors Co has delayed its IPO filing until early next week as it updates its prospectus with the recent CEO change and a management risk factor, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.

Stocks were little changed on Friday, with all three indexes on track for their worst week in six weeks as mixed economic data did little to convince investors of the recovery's strength.

Blockbuster Inc has won its second debt-payment deadline extension in as many months, but the struggling video rental chain reported a wider loss and warned it might have to liquidate, sending its shares plummeting more than 20 percent on Friday.

European economic growth accelerated sharply in the second quarter of 2010 as Germany's best performance since reunification more than made up for the struggles of Spain, Ireland and recession-ravaged Greece.

Russia is keen to create a national potash mining champion via the merger of its two biggest companies in the sector and may allow a small stake to be bought by an overseas player, analysts said on Friday.

Stocks edged lower on Friday, building on three days of losses as data showed consumers saw little improvement ahead for the economy.

U.S. retail sales rose in July in a hopeful sign for the economy, but the gains were concentrated in auto and gasoline station sales, suggesting underlying momentum in consumer spending remains tame.

U.S. retail sales rose in July in a hopeful sign for the economy, but the gains were concentrated in auto and gasoline station sales, suggesting underlying momentum in consumer spending remains tame.

Gold retreated from the one-month high it hit in earlier trade as the dollar, European equities and U.S. stock futures all lifted from lows after U.S. retail sales and inflation data. It remained supported by overall jitters over the outlook for the global economy, however, as investors spooked by disappointing U.S. economic data turned to the metal as a safe store of value. Spot gold was bid at $1,213.10 an ounce at 9:06 a.m. EDT, against $1,211.20 late in New York on Thursday. Earlier it rose...

Blockbuster Inc posted a wider quarterly loss but said it had extended a debt-payment deadline to the end of September to give it time for recapitalization talks with debtors and strategic parties.

The euro fell on Friday after lackluster results in an Italian bond auction renewed worries about the euro zone peripheral economies and offset strong German growth data. The U.S. dollar headed for its best weekly performance since early 2009 against a basket of currencies after concerns about the U.S. and global economic outlook prompted investors to dump riskier assets and seek safety in the greenback.

The dollar may bounce from a 15-year trough against the yen in the near term due to technical factors and overstretched speculative positioning, but the options market shows potential for a grind toward fresh lows.

Access to market funding got tougher for Spanish banks in July, Bank of Spain data showed, though conditions were said to have improved after health checks on the country's lenders were published on July 23.

Caribbean Petroleum Corp filed for bankruptcy protection in a Delaware court late on Thursday, nearly ten months after a massive explosion at its major Puerto Rican fuel storage depot virtually shut down the company's operations.

Wall Street was headed for a lower open on Friday after retail sales data suggested momentum in consumer spending remained limp, heightening concerns about the fragile economic recovery.

U.S. retail sales rebounded in July but showed hints of lingering economic softness underscored by separate figures indicating underlying inflation pressures stuck at their lowest level since the 1960s.

Nationalized German lender Hypo Real Estate , which failed a pan-European stress test in July, expects to complete the planned move of around $270 billion of toxic assets into a bad bank during the fourth quarter.

Considering the fact that gold prices have gone up so fast in the recent past that almost all investors in gold and gold mining companies' stocks must be thinking that the gold diggers are making huge profits.

ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management Co, the Chinese fund venture of Swiss bank Credit Suisse , said on Friday it raised more than 14 billion yuan ($2 billion) in China's biggest bond fund ever, as investors sidestep a weak stock market.

Retail sales rose in July in a hopeful sign for the economy, but the gains were concentrated in auto and gasoline station sales, suggesting underlying momentum in consumer spending remains tame.