Oil rose above $74 on Thursday, rebounding from six-week lows hit the previous day, after a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama eased market worries over plans to limit bank risk-taking by not revealing concrete moves. The market also derived support from the Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday to leave interest rates near zero to
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The Bank of England won't raise interest rates from a record low until October at the earliest but it is done with its quantitative easing bond purchase programme, a Reuters poll of over 60 analysts found. The survey, taken Jan 26-28 found all 66 analysts saying the bank would leave rates at just 0.5 percent
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Futures for the Nasdaq 100 briefly turned negative on Thursday ahead of major earnings results, with Greek credit default swap hitting record highs prompting investors to trade cautiously. At 1124 GMT (6:24 a.m. EST), futures for the Nasdaq 100 were up 0.2 percent after falling earlier in the day. Futures for the Dow Jones futures
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Ford Motor Co posted 2009 earnings of $2.7 billion on Thursday, its first full-year profit since 2005, and said it expected a 2010 profit amid market share gains and a slow U.S. auto sales recovery. The company attributed the full-year profit in part to cost cuts, gains from debt reduction efforts, strong results from its
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Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the ratings for Aldar Properties PJSC, the Trust Certificates (sukuk) issued by Sukuk Funding (No. 2) Limited and the guaranteed Notes issued by Atlantic Finance Limited, to Baa2 from A3. Ratings have been kept on review for further possible downgrade as part of the ongoing review of government support for
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Oil rose above $74 on Thursday, rebounding from six-week lows hit the previous day, after a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama eased market worries over plans to limit bank risk-taking by not revealing concrete moves. The market also derived support from the Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday to leave interest rates near zero to
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Euro zone countries, including France and Germany, are studying ways of helping Greece resolve its budget problems but will only act if Athens does more to clean up its accounts, Le Monde newspaper reported on Thursday. Quoting unnamed senior officials, Le Monde said several governments were holding consultations to look at ways of providing financial
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Cyprus successfully concluded its 10-year euro bond issue, raising EUR 1 bln at a coupon rate of 4.625% for 10-years, or at a 125 basis points spread over comparable German bunds. The 10-year bond yields 4.68%. Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis said during a presentation that the 125 bps spread is considered as a success, considering
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Asian equities rose on Thursday, snapping a nine-day decline, led by upbeat earnings expectations and a relief rally in U.S. stock futures after U.S. President Obama appeared to moderate his tone on bank restrictions. European stock futures were up 1.6 percent, indicating investor appetite to snap up recently beaten-down shares after Obama's State of the
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Japan's Nikkei average rose 1.6 percent to snap a four-day losing streak on Thursday, with upbeat reports on profits at Honda Motor and Sony Corp adding to momentum from strong earnings at other big name stocks such as Canon. But Toyota Motor Corp slid on concerns about its suspension of U.S. sales of key car
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