IBT Staff Reporter

The number of workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance fell slightly more than expected last week, offering hope the fragile economic recovery remained intact.

Stocks fell on Thursday, with bank shares pressured as negotiations over a financial reform bill approached the final hours, while investors remained skittish about the pace of the economic recovery.

Brain scans may be able to predict what you will do better than you can yourself, and might offer a powerful tool for advertisers or health officials seeking to motivate consumers, researchers said on Tuesday.

With the historic overhaul of financial rules nearly complete, lawmakers have waited until the final, frantic hours to sort out the most controversial provisions in the bill.

The 10-year-old Human Genome Project has only just begun to bring to fruition its promise to transform medicine, its founders said on Thursday.

The dollar and yen rose against the euro on Thursday as a less optimistic outlook on growth from the U.S. Federal Reserve dented investors' appetite for risk, with the euro further hampered by Greek debt markets. Concerns over Greece were hanging over the euro zone, as the cost of protecting its government debt against default hit a record high.

Senators said on Wednesday they were unmoved by China's steps to partly free the yuan and vowed to push forward legislation to punish a Chinese currency misalignment they say distorts trade and steals jobs.

Wall Street was set to open lower on Thursday as investors fretted about the pace of the economic recovery, though a better-than-expected drop in initial jobless claims provided comfort.

New claims for jobless benefits fell last week, while orders for long-lasting manufactured goods excluding transportation rose in May, offering hope the fragile economic recovery remained intact.

Gold prices are soaring to new heights but who is buying. It seems nobody is interested in gold at least in India. If you take note of India's import data for April and May months, the quantity of gold imported to the country has come down heavily.

Oil prices fell for a third day to beneath $76 a barrel on Thursday after a jump in U.S. crude oil inventories outweighed the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates near zero. A dip in European shares on Thursday also dampened sentiment and reinforced the correlation between oil and equities. EU

Africa's second largest gold producer, Ghana's gold output rose to 696,172 ounces in the first quarter of this year. According to Ghana Chamber of Mines, country's gold production hit 696,172 ounces during the first quarter of 2010, up 3 percent over the same quarter a year ago.

Gold was flat to slightly firmer on Thursday as the Federal Reserve's vow to keep interest rates low and uncertainty over the global economy underpinned investor appetite. On Wednesday, weak U.S. housing data helped send gold to a low below $1,230 an ounce, but its recovery since then on bargain-hunting eased bearish views that gold cannot be an exception when a sell-off hits other commodities and stocks.

Stock index futures slipped on Thursday as the Federal Reserve underscored worries the recovery was not as robust as hoped and ahead of weekly initial jobless claims data.

Gamers may enjoy bragging to their friends about their virtual skills and high scores but now there's a way for players to literally put their money where their mouth is.

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.

The dollar pared losses and the yen rose on Thursday, as a less optimistic outlook on growth from the U.S. Federal Reserve dented investors' appetite for risk, while the euro was hampered by Greek debt markets.

Oil prices fell for a third day to around $76 a barrel on Thursday after a jump in U.S. crude oil inventories outweighed the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates near zero.

Gold was broadly steady on Thursday, weighed slightly by traditional currency fundamentals as the dollar rose, but expectations for low interest rates and wider market jitters were keeping the metal's uptrend intact.

The dollar pared losses and the yen rose on Thursday, as the Federal Reserve's less optimistic outlook for growth dented risk sentiment, while the euro was hampered by Greek debt markets.

Hundreds of fans flocked to stores in Tokyo to be the first buyers of Apple's iPhone 4 and some lined up in San Francisco as the red-hot smartphone rolls out on Thursday in five of the world's six largest economies.

Apple fans queued overnight in their hundreds outside stores in Europe and Japan to snap up the latest iPhone, as the technology giant set a new benchmark in the hard-fought and fast-growing smartphone market.

The yuan CNY=CFXS closed higher against the dollar on Thursday after moving in a wide range of more than 150 pips, as the central bank returned to a more laissez faire stance seen early in the week and let the market have a bigger say in traded values.

The BP crisis in the Gulf of Mexico has rightfully been analysed (mostly) from the ecological perspective. People's lives and livelihoods are in grave danger. But that focus has equally masked something very serious from a financial perspective, in my opinion, that could lead to an acceleration of the crisis brought about by the Lehman implosion.

Global oil prices rose marginally in Asian trade Thursday mainly after positive trends in local equity markets. Light sweet crude for August delivery was seen trading at $76.48 a barrel at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while Brent crude was at $ 76.41 a barrel in London.

Gold steadied in Asian trade Thursday after a fall of 0.5 percent overnight on a rising dollar. Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $1235.25 an ounce at 11.30 a.m Singapore time while US gold futures for August delivery was at $1236.01 an ounce.

A flexible Chinese Yuan (CNY) may create romm for other emerging market currencies to appreciate and thereby push up consumption of commodities in those economies in the coming months. This will prove positive for energy, gold and metals, according to an analysis by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BofAML).

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq down 0.6 to 1.1 percent at 4:44 a.m. EDT.

Global equities and crude prices eased on Thursday on concerns over economic growth after the U.S. Federal Reserve's pessimistic outlook, though the dollar recovered from the previous session's losses.