Jijo Jacob

Japan will lower the corporate tax rate by 4.5 percent to spur the economy out of deflation, Nikkei reported on Tuesday.

A new study has found that the risk of elderly black Americans facing poverty was double that of elderly white Americans. It says although 32.7 percent of older white Americans will experience at least one year below the official poverty line, the corresponding percentage for older black Americans was double that at 64.6 percent.

AUD/JPY jumped to a 7-month high on Monday but not broken the discipline of a broad upward channel it has been holding since end-May.

Even as the risk appetite of global investors is picking up steam once again, emerging economies have gone past the U.S. in leading the investment pick-up.

Nobel-winning U.S. economist Paul Krugman has said the U.S. economy is sinking with the weight of surging household debt around its neck and that policy makers are crafting measures that do not address the longer-term ills of the economy.

India and the European Union announced a breakthrough in their free trade talks on Friday. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the free trade agreement (FTA) could be signed in 2011, after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the 11th EU-India summit in Brussels.

A day after Germany rejected the proposal to establish a common market for eurozone sovereign bonds, EU Economics and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn called for a coordinated action to repair the damage of the debt crisis afflicting the region.

With emerging economic powerhouse China snapping at its heels, Japan on Thursday said it still remained the second-largest economy in the world, and raised its third quarter gross domestic product growth to 4.5 percent on an annual basis.

The proposed common sovereign bond for eurozone, if ever it materializes, will fall short of solving the region’s fiscal crisis, analysts have said.

China was the subject of most number of anti-dumping investigations in the first half of the year, and products exported from China attracted the highest number of anti-dumping measures by other countries, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has said in a report.

Next target up for USD/CAD may be 1.0109 (R1) as suggested by the 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement from 1.0285 to 1.0001, before a relatively stronger resistance near 1.0120 (R2).

Julian Assange was refused bail by UK's Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday, where the charges were read out to him a short while ago, setting off a judicial process leading to his possible extradition to Sweden.

Julian Assange appeared at UK's Westminster magistrates court a short while ago, where the charges were read out to him, setting off a judicial process leading to his possible extradition to Sweden. The Sky News said Assange had sought Australian consular assistance and that staff of the Australian High Commission were with him inside the court.

GBP/USD has broken above the 1.5786 weak resistance (100-day SMA) and is heading towards the key 1.5838 medium-term resistance, as predicted by IBT FX on Monday. The level is also suggested by the upper Bollinger band on 4-hour chart.

Global trade protectionism will accelerate in the years ahead and the tussle between the U.S. and China over trade and other issues will escalate to crisis levels as early as in 2012, according to an analyst.

Crude production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) dropped in November by around 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 29.1 million bpd, a Platts survey of oil industry officials and analysts showed on Monday.

Close on the heels of Google announcing the launch of its eBook service, Amazon hit back saying it will add two key features to its Kindle e-reader to fortify its position in the market.

During the negotiations (with the U.S.), I did not think of Yeonpyeong Island or the USS George Washington. I have just mulled over the benefits and losses in terms of trade, South Korean trade minister Kim Jong-hoon said, apparently to refute criticism that Seoul gave away ground to the U.S. in the aftermath of the geopolitical crisis precipitated by last week’s shelling by North Korea on South’s islands.

The crisis-hit peripheral countries have more of a 'solvency problem' than a liquidity problem and their public finances cannot be brought to order without leading to a deep and prolonged recession, as long as they are part of the eurozone, analysts have said.

Whistle-blower-turned fugitive Julian Assange stayed off the hot trails of the Interpol on Friday to do a live chat on The Guardian; and he was reportedly flooded with messages brimming over with admiration, fulsome praise and offers of donations and other help.

Once yuan becomes fully convertible, countries importing Chinese goods will invariably have to have a reserve of yuan. And they will have to build up a yuan reserve by offloading their dollar reserves. If a major chunk of ASEAN and Latin American countries take this path, it will seriously dent the greenback's status as the global reserve currency.

World trade growth slowed in the third quarter of the year, according to the latest World Trade Organization (WTO) figures. An 18 percent rise in global merchandise trade annually in value terms was remarkably lower than the 26 percent increase registered in the second quarter.

The force of political will binding together a seemingly crumbling euro zone is still strong, but the imperatives of domestic economic realignments could force members to an exit option, analysts have said; and the road out of the bloc doesn’t exactly look daunting.

A Senate wrangle over soaring budget deficits on Tuesday stopped the passage of a crucial extension of unemployed benefits to millions of Americans experiencing the sting of the worst jobs crisis in three decades. The failure of the lame duck Congress to extend benefits will cut off sustenance payments to two million people in December, adding to the woes of home losses, bankruptcies and foreclosures, besides also setting back the economic recovery. Here's a quick lowdown on the situation.

Consumer confidence in the U.S. improved in November to reach the highest point in the last five months, suggesting the economy is still expanding, albeit it slowly.

Consumer confidence in the UK remained deep in the negative territory in November, as people were factoring in the impact of the government’s austerity measures, according to a survey.

After the financial markets gave thumbs down to the Irish bailout deal and the common currency slumped further, the focus is converging on the eurozone itself, rather than on the indebted individual members of the bloc.

USD/JPY tends to fall further as the session grows to Europe and given the market mood to stay prepared for more bad news from Portugal or Spain, likely in the coming days, the pair may only have a brief stop near 83.75 (S1), the 61.8 percent Fibonacci from late September levels. It could hold that level for the day.

WikiLeaks has finally uncorked its fancied, feared and the much-criticized can of worms, hurting many world leaders, exposing the dark undersides of governments and denting the image of the U.S. state department. Here are some details about arrested U.S. army Private Bradley Manning, who is suspected of helping the world have a peek into sensitive U.S. diplomatic documents: