IBT Staff Reporter

The roller-coaster ride for Asian currencies, which saw only the yen and yuan post significant gains for the year against the U.S. dollar, is set to continue in 2012.

Asian factory output remained weak in December, with Chinese manufacturers narrowly avoiding contraction and South Korea's industrial production shrinking the most in almost three years, while Europe data this week is expected to point to a recession.

British police have found evidence that private investigators working for newspapers hacked into the email account of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown while he was finance minister, The Independent newspaper reported on Monday.

European shares inched higher on Monday with trading light due to British markets being shut and gains expected to be limited as worries about the euro zone debt crisis remained.

Euro zone manufacturing activity declined for a fifth consecutive month in December, although at a slightly slower rate than November's 28-month record low, a survey showed on Monday, suggesting the decline would continue in the early months of 2012.

European shares edged higher on Monday after making their biggest annual fall since 2008, with trading light due to British markets being shut for a bank holiday and defensive safe haven stocks the main performers on the index.

Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent does not expect deep job cuts like those announced by rival Nokia Siemens Networks , Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen said in an interview published on Monday in French daily Les Echos.

European shares were set to fall on Monday in the first trading day of the year after making their biggest yearly fall since 2008, as global growth worries hit investor sentiment with Chinese purchasing managers' index data suggesting factories in the world's second largest economy were struggling.

Hyundai Motor <005380.KS> and affiliate Kia Motors <000270.KS> aim to boost global vehicle sales by 6 percent this year to a combined 7 million vehicles, which would mark a slowdown for a duo that has enjoyed double-digit sales rises in recent years.

South Korea's manufacturing sector shrank the most in nearly three years in December as global demand cooled, a survey showed on Monday, but President Lee Myung-bak cited inflation as a bigger risk in a year of big elections.

India will allow individual foreign investors direct access to its stock market from January 15, the government said on Sunday, the latest step to liberalize Asia's third-largest economy after a year of big losses on the benchmark Sensex index.

Workers at Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc's Indonesia unit delayed their return after a three-month strike because 500 employees of sub-contractors lack job security, a senior union official said Monday.

South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries <009540.KS>, the world's biggest shipbuilder, said on Monday order growth was expected to more than halve to 20 percent this year as a sputtering global economy threatens to reduce seaborne trade.

An arbitration panel has awarded U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp $908 million in compensation for Venezuela's 2007 nationalization of its assets, less than 10 percent of what the company sought in a long legal battle with the OPEC nation.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored on a first-period penalty shot and assisted on David Clarkson's goal minutes later as the New Jersey Devils defeated the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins 3-1 in an Eastern Conference matchup on Saturday.

Caterpillar Inc is unilaterally implementing lower wage and benefit terms for locomotive manufacturing workers in London, Ontario after Canadian Auto Workers negotiations failed in the days leading up to a contract expiration.

South Korea has taken a major step to ending an eight-year-old ban on imports of Canadian beef, Canada's agriculture and trade ministers said on Friday.

Rio Tinto Alcan will shut down about a third of the production at its 438,000-tonne Alma aluminum smelter in the Canadian province of Quebec after locking out hundreds of unionized workers in a contract dispute, it said on Sunday.

Hyundai Motor <005380.KS> and affiliate Kia Motors <000270.KS> aim to boost global vehicle sales by 6 percent this year to a combined 7 million units, which would mark a slowdown for a duo that has enjoyed double-digit sales rises in recent years.

It's up to the consumer to drive the U.S. economy and lift world growth in 2012, and the outlook is far from encouraging.

It's up to the consumer to drive the U.S. economy and lift world growth in 2012, and the outlook is far from encouraging.

Shaky Europe. Political gridlock. Volatile markets.

The United States will remain the top choice of most global commercial real estate investors in 2012, but the country has lost ground to Brazil which ranked No. 2 this year, according to a survey released Sunday.

An international arbitration panel has awarded U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) $908 million in compensation for Venezuela's 2007 nationalization of assets, less than 10 percent of what it sought in a dispute that pitted a top global oil company against one of the world's largest oil exporters.

The United States will remain the top choice of most global commercial real estate investors in 2012, but the country has lost ground to Brazil which ranked No. 2 this year, according to a survey released Sunday.

China's big manufacturers narrowly avoided a contraction in December a survey showed on Sunday, but downward risks persist and suggest the world's second's second-largest economy will need fresh policy support to counter a slowdown in growth.

An international arbitration panel has reached a verdict in a dispute over Venezuela's nationalization of Exxon Mobil assets, Venezuelan sources said on Saturday, adding they saw the decision as favorable to the South American nation.

Occupy this: the trash bin. At least, so say students at Michigan's Lake Superior State University who released an annual list of words they deem so misused, overused and cliched they should be banished in the year ahead.

Celebrities may resist the urge to send a stream of consciousness on Twitter in the new year, after famous people tweeted their way into trouble on everything from boxer briefs to breast-feeding in 2011.