Microsoft Corp will release three versions of its dominant Office software that users can access over the Web, catching up with products that rival Google Inc launched three years ago. The news helped send shares in the world's largest software maker up 2.7 percent by midday, more than double the gain in the Nasdaq Composite
More
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday he was optimistic some leading economies could grow this year, but the European Central Bank urged banks to resume lending to secure a recovery. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet criticised banks for simply returning much of the vast sums it has supplied to them, instead of lending the
More
Oil prices slipped more than $1 to below $59 a barrel on Monday, hitting their lowest in almost two months on concerns over the state of the global economy. The market dropped 11 percent last week in their biggest weekly decline since late January as investors raised the possibility of another economic dip before any
More
By Laurence Fletcher Valuations of cyclical stocks have risen too far as a result of the recent market rebound, according to Octopus Investments fund manager David Crawford, who has been switching into more defensive stocks. Crawford, whose 105 million pound ($169.1 million) Octopus Absolute Return fund both buys stocks and sells them short, said equities
More
President of the Republic of Cyprus Demetris Christofias said that the government may soon make announcements concerning assistance to the Institute of Neurology and Genetics. Speaking after a visit to the Institute, President Christofias praised the importance of the Institute for the people of Cyprus and its work and role as a research and medical
More
Stocks opened higher on Monday after influential bank analyst Meredith Whitney upgraded Goldman Sachs Group to "buy" and gave a bullish assessment of the financial sector's likely performance, sparking hope that quarterly results may be surprisingly strong. The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was up 23.43 points, or 0.29 percent, at 8,169.95. The Standard &
More
Microsoft Corp will release a free version of its dominant Office software that users can access over the Web, catching up with products that arch rival Google Inc launched three years ago. The world's largest software maker will offer a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software and a note-taking program with the same look and feel
More
European shares reversed course on Monday and headed higher as Wall Street looked set for a positive start, although world shares were lower with particularly heavy losses in emerging markets. Investors in general fretted about a coming wave of corporate earnings and confidence in a rapid global economic recovery faded, epitomised by oil dipped briefly
More
Britain should return to growth in 2009, although the fate of the global economy remains uncertain, British finance minister Alistair Darling said on Monday. "I remain confident that our economy will see growth return at the end of the year," Darling told reporters after meeting U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in London. "But there is
More
European share prices were still weak by midday on Monday after hitting an 11-week low, with persistent concerns about the strength of an economic recovery and company earnings in the second quarter hitting banking and mining stocks. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.3 percent at 812.18 points by 1031 GMT
More