The euro pulled up from near a record low against the Swiss franc on Tuesday after Chinese inflation figures provided some relief that the country would not get more aggressive on tightening policy, providing a broad boost to risky assets. China's consumer prices rose 5.5% in May, a tad faster than the 5.4% estimated by
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* Cuts 8 notches into junk; negative outlook on ratings, signals more cuts Greece on Monday became the country with the lowest credit rating in the world after Standard & Poor's downgraded it by three notches, saying the agency would consider a likely debt restructuring as a default. A restructuring of Greece's debt — either
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Two Syrians entered Turkey early on Monday, just 36 kilometres apart, one a bride driven through the official border in a wedding car, the other an army deserter risking his life ferrying wounded . Their stories epitomise the divisions that are threatening to tear Syria apart. Their different journeys reflect a surreal situation, in which
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* Nomura sees Samsung beating Nokia in Q2, Apple in Q3 * Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will become the world's largest smartphone maker this quarter, overtaking struggling Nokia Oyj which has lead the market since 1996, Nomura said on Monday. In the next quarter Nomura sees Apple Inc also overtaking Nokia, pushing the Finnish company
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. Turkey's re-elected Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan faces hefty challenges as he starts his third term: Syria, Israel, Kurds, stalled EU membership talks, an overheating economy at home and writing a new constitution. Erdogan, who has transformed Turkey into one of the world's fastest-growing economies and piloted assertive foreign policy, won Sunday's parliamentary elections with
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Brent turned negative and U.S. crude extended losses on Monday after a downgrade of Greece's credit rating fed jitters about the economy and oil demand. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term sovereign credit ratings on Greece and put the outlook at negative, also causing the U.S. stock market to briefly turn lower and
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The official French website for London 2012 Olympic tickets crashed on its first day on Monday with media reports saying it was partly because of demand fron Britain. The site was due to open for pre-registered users at 0700 GMT but a message read: "Due to technical problems, our website www.eventteam2012.fr will open at 2pm.
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Facebook is preparing to file for an initial public offering as early as October or November that could value the popular social networking site at more than $100 bln, financial news channel CNBC reported on Monday. Goldman Sachs is leading the chase to manage the lucrative offering, which could come in the first quarter of
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* More drastic restructuring still likely * European banks holding billions of euros in Greek sovereign debt appear to be moving towards agreement on a rollover in which they would buy new debt to replace bonds reaching maturity. The rollover, which would be part of a second bailout package for Greece worth around 120 billion
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The cost of insuring Greek government debt against default rose to a record high of 1,600 basis points on Monday, hit by concerns that any second rescue of Greece will trigger a credit event or at least multi-notch rating downgrade of its debt. Five-year credit default swaps (CDS) on Greek government debt rose 58 bps
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