World stocks fell on Wednesday, stepping back from the previous session's three-month high, and the low-yielding yen firmed as news of job cuts at Swiss bank UBS and weak U.S. and Chinese data fanned economic concerns. UBS warned of a first-quarter loss of nearly 2 billion Swiss francs and said it would cut a further
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European shares turned positive in early trade on Wednesday, with a rise in crude oil prices supporting energy stocks, but financials remained under pressure as UBS reported a first-quarter loss. At 0853 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.4 percent at 792.92 points after falling as low as 780.11 points
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An opinion poll on interest in the 4-7 June European elections and on EU policy issues reports that 34% of possible voters surveyed across the EU say they are already certain that they will go and vote in June, while 19% of respondents said they were already certain that they would not vote. According to
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Cellphone makers are expected to report buoyant sales of lower-priced, feature-packed smartphones as consumers opt for "cheap chic" amid the global recession. Research in Motion, the second-largest maker of smartphones after Nokia, surprised investors on April 2 with strong profits fueled by consumer-oriented, more affordable Blackberry models, and gave a rosy outlook. Nokia is set
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Microsoft Corp said it will launch a test version of its Exchange Server on Wednesday, marking the latest development in the technology used by 65 percent of businesses worldwide to run their e-mail systems. The public beta test version of Exchange Server 2010, as the product is called, is the first of a wave of
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EBay Inc plans to spin off its Skype unit, acknowledging that the Web telephone service does not fit with the rest of the company, in an indictment of former CEO Meg Whitman's acquisition strategy. EBay, whose shares rose 3 percent in after-hours trade, said on Tuesday it was planning an initial public offering for Skype
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The Obama administration is drawing up plans to disclose the financial condition of the 19 biggest banks in the country, the New York Times said, citing senior administration officials. The administration has decided to reveal some sensitive details of the "stress tests" now being completed after concluding that keeping many of the findings secret could
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By Andrew Marshall The colour of the T-shirts worn by the mobs of protesters paralysing Thai politics may change from time to time, but everything else about the country's damaging deadlock remains depressingly familiar. Three years into Thailand's divisive political standoff, neither side appears anywhere near winning a decisive victory — and as the fight
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Asian stocks pulled back from six-month highs on Wednesday but held up after the drop on Wall Street overnight, with hopes for more Chinese stimulus spending helping offset reports of weak first-quarter growth. Investors were cashing in on gains after many equity markets have jumped between 20 percent and 30 percent since early March, with
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The deficit facing 7,400 of Britain's pension funds worsened in March to 242 billion pounds ($356 billion), more than 10 times its year-ago level,according to the Pension Protection Fund, an insurance scheme for underfunded plans. The PPF's survey on its website, www.pensionprotectionfund.org.uk, said the deficit, as measured by total assets minus total liabilities, was up
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