Markets Archives - Page 712 of 782

Global Stock Exchanges Taking “Too Big To Fail” Route

The New York Stock Exchange, a symbol of American capitalism for more than two centuries, may soon have new owners — in Europe.

The exchange, facing pressure from electronic upstarts that have taken business away from it, said on Wednesday that

it was in advanced talks on a merger with the operator of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

A deal would create the world’s largest financial market, with a presence in 14 European countries as well as the United States.

A merger would potentially let customers

Buying Western Players for “Team China”

10 February 2011.

A decade ago China urged its companies to expand overseas under the slogan “go out”.

Now it is finally happening — and with great speed.

A few years ago two executives of an international oil company were working late in its otherwise deserted office in England.

A stunning young Chinese woman arrived at reception.

“She was very attractive, decked out in Gucci,” one of them says.

She delivered a letter from Sinopec,

High-Level, Weeklong US Trade Mission to India

Nearly two years ago, President Obama rankled many people in India

when he said US tax law unfairly benefited companies that created jobs in Bangalore, while hurting those that hired in Buffalo.

This week, however, the president’s commerce secretary offered a friendlier message:

Let’s do business.

In his second stop during a weeklong tour of India, the secretary, Gary Locke, said he wanted to help American companies

World Food Price Hikes Driven by Speculation and Derivatives

Just under three years ago, people in the village of Gumbi in western Malawi went unexpectedly hungry.

Not like Europeans do if they miss a meal or two, but that deep, gnawing hunger that prevents sleep and dulls the senses when there has been no food for weeks.

Oddly, there had been no drought, the usual cause of malnutrition and hunger in southern Africa, and there was plenty of food in the markets.

For no obvious reason the price of staple foods such as maize and rice nearly doubled in a few months.

Inflation-Scared China Raises Interest Rates Slightly

China staged its third interest rate increase since October on Tuesday,

the latest sign of the authorities’ intensifying efforts to temper the blistering pace of economic growth

and prevent already worrisome inflation levels from escalating further.

The central bank in Beijing raised its benchmark one-year deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 3 percent, and its one-year lending rate by a similar amount, to 6.06 percent.

The New “Great Game” in Central Asia

8 February 2011.

Central Asia is one of the eternal hot spots in world history,

a place where Darius I and Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane left their marks.

The British and Russian colonial powers followed suit when they embarked on the “Great Game,”

a bitter struggle over natural resources and strategic bases.

Regulators Close More US Banks

Regulators last month closed banks in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Colorado, bringing to seven the number of closures in 2011.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took over the banks,

the largest by far being United Western Bank, based in Denver, with $2.05 billion in assets.

Also seized were the Bank of Asheville, based in Asheville, N.C., with $195.1 million in assets;

the CommunitySouth Bank and Trust, based in Easley, S.C., with $440.6 million in assets;

Island in Senegal Kept “Afloat” by Wages from Spain

7 Feb 2011.

As the issue of “dignity” becomes more pronounced in the struggle now under way in Egypt,

consider this story about a town that exists simultaneously off the coast of Senegal and the agricultural heartland of southern Spain.

The sentence is still there, written on the dusty wall of his room in Niodior.

It’s a little faded by now, but the letters are still as curved and rounded as ever:

“The strength of a man does not lie in his freedom, but in the ability to fulfill his duty.”

10 Most Jobless Countries

205 million people were unemployed in 2010 (according to a UN Report) and that number is not expected to improve this year – which leaves global economic growth on the back foot.

Europe, Africa and South America’s labour markets are struggling to recover from the 2008 financial crisis – as people under 25 face youth unemployment rates at a record level of 21 percent.

Here are the 10 most jobless countries:

US Home Ownership Hits 12-Year Bottom

So what’s happened in the US property market since the mortgage-based derivatives meltdown in 2008?

An even smaller percentage of Americans own their own homes today than at any time since 1998

when homeownership sat at a low 66.5 percent.

Back in 2004, homeownership reached 69 percent, an all-time high.

The home ownership gap between white and minority households is creeping up to 30 percent – the highest it’s ever been –