New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Stocks were little changed on the open Thursday as investors keep a close eye on developments in Greece.

Just after the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 25 points, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the NASDAQ were virtually flat.

United States stocks were poised to open higher as news surfaced that political leaders had reached a deal on austerity measures and reforms that are needed to prevent Greece from a default. An official announcement is forthcoming.

Investors both in the U.S. and abroad will likely keep eyes focused on Athens. European stocks were modestly higher in afternoon trading and Asian markets were mixed.

Also giving global markets some steam was news that the European Central Bank and the Bank of England both left their benchmark interest rates unchanged. In London, the BoE also announced a $79 billion bond purchase.

Keeping a reign on gains was a report that showed China’s inflation rate rose in January, dashing hopes that the country’s central bank will soon take more action to support economic growth there.

In U.S. corporate news, shares of the nation’s biggest banks were moving after a $25 billion accord was reached to help homeowners struggling with loans bigger than the values of their homes.

Yahoo shares were climbing following news that Chinese company Alibaba is looking to buy back the 40 percent stake Yahoo owns.

Shares of Oracle inched up after the company announced it is buying the cloud-based human resource management software company Taleo in a $1.9 billion deal.

Despite beating expectations, raising its quarterly dividend 30 percent, and guiding higher, shares of Cisco slipped lower.

In commodities, oil rose $1.13 and was trading just under $100 a barrel. Gold, meanwhile, advanced $20 to $1,751.80 a troy ounce.

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Davos, Switzerland (AHN) – Tensions are rising over a possible lack of sufficient funding for the International Monetary Fund to intervene in financial crisis and it has asked the United Kingdom and the United States to make additional contributions.

However, both countries are cash-strapped and at risk of sliding into another recession themselves and neither have so far done more to help fund the IMF. Although there are some signs indicating the U.S. might do more soon.

After speaking at Davos on Friday, Tim Geithner, U.S. Treasury secretary, noted that the only way for the European Union to weather the ongoing financial crisis was to build a stronger “firewall” of funding to deal with it if more intervention is needed. Geithner suggested that the U.S. might be ready to play a role in that.

However, UK officials say they think that any effort to increase funding to the IMF must come from all G20 nations.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks are gearing up for a busy shortened week, with three major banks reporting earnings and two key inflation reports that will provide a gauge of which way consumer prices are moving.

U.S. equities will also get their first chance to react to the decision after the close Friday by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade nine eurozone countries. France and Austria both lost their triple-A ratings. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, managed to hold on to its top rating.

With the reduction in France and Austria’s credit rankings, the European Financial Stability Facility’s triple-A funding power drops to €271 billion from €440 billion, making it harder for the fund to aid failing economies in the region.

Also on the rise overseas are fears of a messy default in Greece after talks between private creditors and the government-proposed voluntary write downs on Greek government bonds appeared near collapse.

U.S. markets are closed Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and will resume normal trading hours on Tuesday.

When traders return to Wall Street, they will be watching two key inflation reports that are expected to show a modest rise in consumer prices. Also of particular interest will be earning reports for three top banks: Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks slipped Wednesday, giving back some of Tuesday’s strong gains.

Just after the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down three points and the NASDAQ dropped eight points.

Robust worldwide economic data on Tuesday lifted the Dow 180 points in the first trading day of 2012. The impressive rally is the third-biggest point gain in the first trading day of a year on record.

By Wednesday, investors and traders once again turned their eyes toward Europe. Banks there were sitting on roughly $591 billion in overnight deposits at the European Central Bank on Wednesday, slightly higher then the record set the prior week.

While this appears to be positive, lenders are receiving a very low return of 0.25 percent in interest when they leave their deposits at the ECB overnight, much less than they would earn if they lent it in interbank markets or other forms of lending.

The high deposits on reserve are an indication that banks in Europe are reluctant to lend to each other and worried about the state of the economy in the region and the stability of its customers.

In commodities, gold was down $1.30 to $1,620.30 a troy ounce after posting big gains Tuesday. Silver gave back about 25 cents and was last trading at $29.45. Oil was little changed at $102.74 a barrel.

In corporate news, Chrysler reported a 37 percent increase in sales for the month of December, and a 26 percent increase for full year sales. In early morning trading, shares were trading down 28 cents to $28.06 a share.

Apple announced Wednesday that its iPhone 4S will go on sale in China and 21 other countries on Jan. 13. Shares of Apple were trading at $410.08, down about one point.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks opened higher Friday after a mixed November durable goods orders report that showed a 3.8 percent increase, the most in four months.

In light trading, just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up about 2 points and the NASDAQ was up 5 points.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that bookings for equipment meant to last three years rose 3.8 percent in November after no change in October. However, demand for business equipment, excluding military hardware and aircraft, dropped 1.2 percent in November, the biggest decline since January.

The decrease in demand for capital goods signals manufacturers are still slow to boost investment in light of the political gridlock in the U.S. and the ongoing European sovereign debt crisis.

The reports shows that people and businesses are still cautious and hesitant to expand.

Trading is expected to be light ahead of the Christmas holiday. The low volume could potentially stir volatility.

In overseas trading, volume was low as several European markets closed early. The Tokyo exchange was closed for the Emperor’s Birthday holiday.

In commodities, oil was up about 50 cents, trading just under $100 a barrel, while gold was down $1 at $1,609.80 a troy ounce.

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Berlin, Germany (AHN) – German exports fell by a larger percentage than forecast for October because of lower demand from southern European markets affected by the economic crisis.

Exports fell by 3.6 percent in October compared to September. It was larger than the 1 percent drop expected and the largest decrease seen by Germany in six months. By contrast, exports only fell by 1 percent in September compared to August.

Germany is Europe’s largest economy and it has been the economic engine for the region during the ongoing economic crisis.

In addition, German imports fell by 1 percent, which was also more than expected.

Germany saw its trade surplus fall from $23 billion to $15.5 billion, which is about 5.5 percent of the nations’ gross domestic product. Moreover, the surplus in the current account fell to $13.8 billion from $21.4 billion a month earlier.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Facebook is getting just a slap on the wrist under a proposed settlement of a privacy complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The settlement imposes no fine on Facebook but requires the social networking site to stop making deceptive privacy claims, notify users if their personal data will be shared and get their consent before such information is shared with others.

It also requires Facebook to obtain periodic assessments of its privacy practices by independent third-party auditors for the next 20 years and establish and maintain a comprehensive privacy program designed to address privacy risks.

“Facebook is obligated to keep the promises about privacy that it makes to its hundreds of millions of users,” said Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC.

The settlement stemmed from a complaint filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and a coalition of consumer groups against Facebook in 2009. The complaints are as follows:

• In December 2009, Facebook changed its website so certain information that users may have designated as private – such as their Friends List – was made public. They didn’t warn users that this change was coming, or get their approval in advance.

• Facebook represented that third-party apps that users’ installed would have access only to user information that they needed to operate. In fact, the apps could access nearly all of users’ personal data – data the apps didn’t need.

• Facebook told users they could restrict sharing of data to limited audiences – for example with “Friends Only.” In fact, selecting “Friends Only” did not prevent their information from being shared with third-party applications their friends used.

• Facebook had a “Verified Apps” program & claimed it certified the security of participating apps. It didn’t.

• Facebook promised users that it would not share their personal information with advertisers. It did.

• Facebook claimed that when users deactivated or deleted their accounts, their photos and videos would be inaccessible. But Facebook allowed access to the content, even after users had deactivated or deleted their accounts.

• Facebook claimed that it complied with the U.S.- European Union Safe Harbor Framework that governs data transfer between the U.S. and the European Union. It didn’t.

The FTC will publish a description of the consent agreement package in the Federal Register shortly. The agreement will be subject to public comment for 30 days, beginning Tuesday and continuing through Dec. 30, 2011, after which the commission will decide whether to make the proposed consent order final.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Despite rising and record prices, gold continues to shine, especially overseas. The European sovereign debt crisis has spurred a gold rush across the continent. The World Gold Council reported Thursday that investors in Europe purchased a record $6.2 billion in gold bars and coins in the third quarter.

While not a record in terms of weight, Europe’s demand for about 118 metric tons of the yellow metal in the third quarter amounts to nearly a third of all the investment grade gold demand around the world for the period. It is also a 135 percent increase in demand from Europe from the same period a year ago.

Worldwide, demand for gold bars and coins was up 29 percent from a year earlier.

The increase in demand was not deterred by record high gold prices. Prices for the precious metal surged 20 percent in July and August, and topped record highs above the $1,900 an ounce mark. It has since fallen back a bit.

While inflation worries, hedges, diversification and geopolitical factors are main drivers of gold, economic uncertainties and looming defaults of European nations were the main push behind the recent rush to gold.

And it wasn’t just investors who were paying for gold. Even foreign central banks increased their buying, adding 148.4 tons of the yellow metal in the quarter, up from 22.6 billion tons a year ago.

Some analysts question gold’s stellar run and wonder if the precious metal will continue to shine. Global demand for jewelry, which typically accounts for about two-thirds of all gold demand, fell 10 percent year-over-year and is sitting near its lowest level in 25 years. And gold supply is increasing.

But those figures don’t sway die-hard gold bugs who say the sky is the limit for gold.

On Thursday, in afternoon trading, the gold was down $47 to $1,716 a troy ounce in what some traders were calling profit taking.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Jon Corzine stepped down Friday from running troubled MF Global, the securities firm that collapsed after risky bets on European debt and filed for bankruptcy protection Monday.

The firm announced the voluntary resignation of Corzine as chairman and CEO. He will decline a severance package worth $12.1 million, including cash and benefits.

MF Global is currently under investigation by securities regulators and the FBI because hundreds of millions disappeared from customer accounts as it teetered into bankruptcy.

The brokerage firm has also been hit with lawsuits trying to recover millions of dollars stolen by two Ponzi scheme architects.

Corzine, who once ran the prestigious investment firm Goldman Sachs, and was governor of New Jersey before running MF Global, said in a statement that he feels “great sadness about what has transpired at MF Global and the impact it has had on the firm’s clients, employees and many others.”

Corzine said he will continue to assist the company and its board as they continue to sort out what transpired over the firm’s final days.

More than $600 million in client money is still missing. Regulators say the firm apparently moved the money out of client accounts in mere days as the company’s cash dried up.

The bankrupt filing of MF Global is the eighth largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

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Brussels, Belgium (AHN) – A European official said Saturday that euro zone finance ministers moved closer to an agreement that would force banks to raise approximately $140 billion to ensure they have enough assets to handle further losses on their Greek bond holdings and tumultuous markets.

The 17 euro zone countries that use the euro agreed on Friday to ask banks to take bigger write downs on Greek bonds which may have to be slashed as much as 60 percent.

Shoring up and strengthening banks, as well as slashing Greece’s debts, are crucial to resolving Europe’s sovereign debt crisis which now threatens larger economies such as Italy and Spain. The ballooning euro zone debt has been blamed with hindering growth not just all across Europe, but all across the globe.

The new $140 billion figure is bound to disappoint some analysts as a prior report by the International Monetary Fund called for as much as a $280 billion infusion.

The new rules discussed Saturday would force banks to raise their core capital ratios to 9 percent, compared with the 5 to 6 percent they were required to have on hand this summer to pass the euro zone stress test.

German Chancellor Angel Merkel said she expected a breakthrough in efforts to come up with a comprehensive response to the European debt crisis by Wednesday.

Markets on Friday rose on hopes of a resolution. Markets on Monday will weigh on reports out of the weekend summit and will pivot awaiting Wednesday’s anticipated outcome.

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