GEORGE SOROS

A new consumer protection agency is an urgent need as the United States seeks better financial regulation but putting it in the Federal Reserve is unacceptable, George Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, said on Wednesday.

Global hedge funds posted small gains in February as many prominent managers steered clear of stocks and bet against Europe's common currency, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said.

Crude oil broke through the $80 a barrel ceiling repeatedly during the week but kept falling back as hedge funds placed big bets on the Euro's decline. The fiscal drama in Greece held global markets hostage much of the week as worries about the impact of the Greek crisis on the euro outweighed comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke about continued low interest rates in the U.S., pushing the euro down against the dollar and damping crude prices.

The Carlyle Group aims to invest most of its Asia-focused funds on deals in China.

The only time the U.S. dollar ever took a serious shellacking in the marketplace, the wounds were almost entirely self-inflicted.

A makeshift assistance should be enough to rescue Greece but bigger problems facing Europe would leave the future of the euro currency in question, billionaire investor George Soros said.

The Federal Reserve has continued to target its liquidity withdrawal for the banking system as conditions improve for Wall Street and prominent hedge funds take huge positions in financial institutions.

Billionaire investor George Soros' hedge fund more than doubled its bet on the price of gold during the fourth quarter, a portion of the firm's total U.S.-listed equity holdings of $8.8 billion at the end of 2009.

Billionaire investor George Soros said on Thursday that the Chinese stock market is overheating.

Credit Suisse will increase the headcount in its prime brokerage team in Asia by 15 percent to 20 percent in 2010 as it aims to win business from the increasing number of global hedge funds eager to set up base in the region, a senior official at the Swiss bank said.

Hedge funds making big bets on currencies, commodities and equities are favoured by fund selectors in what is likely to be a more testing 2010 after a bumper year for hedge fund returns.

Camulos Partners LP, launched by a former Soros Fund Management trader, was sued by an investor seeking to recover $67 million that was unlawfully seized, according to a Delaware court filing.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged world leaders on Thursday to break the deadlock at climate change talks in Copenhagen, even though many nations accused the United States of lacking ambition.

Billionaire financier George Soros outlined a way to unlock $100 billion (61.5 billion pounds) to help slow global warming on Thursday as talks on a new U.N. climate deal slowed over tough demands by the Pacific island state of Tuvalu.

Billionaire financier George Soros told Reuters on Thursday he had found a way to unlock a stalemate on climate finance using International Monetary Fund assets.

China Minsheng Banking Corp fell a disappointing 3 percent in its Hong Kong debut on Thursday after raising $3.9 billion in the world's fifth largest IPO this year, underscoring how sentiment for Chinese banks has soured recently.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower opening on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.27 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.18 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.25 percent.

Billionaire investor George Soros' hedge fund reported holdings of $6.2 billion during the third quarter, an increase of $2 billion, after taking a stake in automaker Ford and boosting his holdings in communications services stocks.

Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Monday revealed new investments in Nestle AG and Exxon Mobil Corp and that it has nearly doubled its investment in Wal-Mart Stores Inc .

Chinese property developer Longfor Properties Co raised $912 million, pricing its Hong Kong initial public offering at the top end of an indicated range on Thursday, according to two sources close to the deal.

Strong demand for a piece of a China property company and a brokerage show that selected IPOs are still being coveted despite investor fatigue with the surge of new listings.