European finance ministers are considering making banks take bigger losses on Greek debt and have postponed a vital aid payment to Athens until mid-November, setting up a crunch point in the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis
The European Central Bank is likely to leave interest rates unchanged when it holds the last policy meeting of Jean-Claude Trichet's presidency on Thursday, but may open the door to a cut under his successor and reintroduce some of its most potent crisis-fighting weapons.
European finance ministers are considering making banks take bigger losses on Greek debt and have postponed a vital aid payment to Athens until mid-November, setting up a crunch point in the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis.
Canada wants its central bank governor, Mark Carney, to become head of the Financial Stability Board, the country's finance minister said on Monday days after a highly publicized clash between Carney and one of the world's most powerful bankers.
Gold prices jumped Monday as growing pessimism over Europe's finance's drove investors out of stocks, the euro and industrial commodities and into the U.S. dollar and the yellow metal.
Gold prices climbed more than 2 percent Monday, its third daily gain in a row, as Greece's draft budget confirmed the widely held vew that default is inevitable offset.
Gold headed for its third straight daily rise on Monday, having in September posted its largest monthly slide since 2008, after Greece warned it will miss deficit targets set to avoid bankruptcy, unleashing a sell-off in equities and commodities.
Greece will miss a deficit target set just months ago in a massive bailout package, according to government draft budget figures released on Sunday, showing that drastic steps taken to avert bankruptcy may not be enough.
Greece will most likely receive the next tranche of the EU/IMF bailout loan in October, Austria's Finance Minister Maria Fekter was quoted telling German newspaper Welt am Sonntag on Sunday.
Greece was expected to unveil its plan on Sunday to begin laying off state workers, the most contentious part of a reform package demanded by the EU and IMF to free up loans and stave off bankruptcy.
Greek officials held talks on Saturday with European Union and International Monetary Fund negotiators to free up urgently needed bailout loans, but the government and the lenders were reported to be at odds.
Although the global economy is struggling to avert a recession, we also know that central banks are working very hard to provide sufficient liquidity to ensure a smooth ride through year-end.
Germany's parliament approved new powers for the euro zone's crisis fund on Thursday but it was not clear if Angela Merkel got enough votes from her coalition to silence rebels worried about funding a series of bailouts of countries like Greece.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a battle for her political survival on Thursday when some of her coalition, worried about throwing good money after bad by bailing out Greece, could humiliate her in a parliament vote on euro-zone rescue schemes.
Caution ahead of an audit of Greece's finances drove major world stock markets lower on Wednesday, while prices of commodities like oil and copper fell.
A decision of providing the Greek government with more badly needed bailout cash hinges on a review of Athens’ debt-reduction progress by officials from the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Gold rose on Wednesday, gaining from investor unease over the lack of a solution to the European debt crisis that dented other more industrial raw materials, such as crude oil and copper, ahead of further possibly weak U.S. data.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged the European Central Bank to do everything in its power to maintain financial stability in the euro zone, saying the EU faced the biggest challenge in its 50-year history.
Greece faced a new test in its attempt to avoid bankruptcy on Wednesday as international auditors headed for Athens, while Germany suggested a new bailout may be renegotiated as argument rages over whether private creditors should take bigger losses.
Spot gold rallied more than 1 percent and U.S. gold futures as much as 4 percent on Tuesday, snapping four consecutive sessions of losses as a weaker dollar helped battered commodities stage a comeback.
Asian shares rebounded and the euro clung to gains on Tuesday on hopes that euro zone officials will act to corral Greece's debt woes and prevent another full-blown banking crisis.
Asian shares rose on Tuesday on hopes that euro zone officials will act to corral Greece's debt woes and prevent another full-blown banking crisis, but the euro failed to hold on to all its gains.
