Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
Berlin, Germany (AHN) – In an auction Monday, Germany sold $4.96 billion of six-month bills that had a average yield of negative 0.0122 percent. The sale marked the first time on record that yields at a German debt auction moved into negative territory. The sale basically means that investors agreed to pay the German government for the privilege of lending it money, and unlike most other short-term sovereign debt, in which investors expect to be repaid more then they lend, agreed to be paid slightly less. Investors are willing to do so because they are fearful about the potential for large losses elsewhere. Several European countries have been stymied by years-long debt crises, leaving investors with few safe havens where they can park their money. In recent months, other relatively safe [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Last year was turbulent, trying and tumultuous for global stocks and commodities, And for many investors and traders, 2011 couldn’t end soon enough. In the final trading day of 2011, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 69 points, but managed to eck out a 5.5 percent gain for the year. The closely tracked Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closed virtually flat, ending 2011 down 0.43 percent, while the tech heavy NASDAQ said good-bye to 2011 off 1.80 percent. Commodities fared much better. Oil gained 8.15 percent in 2011, and gold was the sole double digit finisher bidding the year adieu with a stellar 10.23 percent gain. The top three performers in the Dow were McDonalds, IBM and Pfizer. Laggards included Bank of [...] Continue Reading…

Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Rome, Italy (AHN) – Italy’s borrowing rate came down slightly at its latest bond auction, but still remained high with investors worried over the eurozone debt crisis. Interest rates on 10-year bonds dropped by only 0.5 percentage points from the yield prices on debt auctioned in November. However, economists said that the important thing was that there were still buyers willing to invest in Italy’s government bonds. The Italian government auctioned off $8.96 billion worth of medium and long-term debt on Thursday with interest rates of 6.98 percent on 10-year bonds. There was better news for the costs of short and medium-term borrowing with interest on new three-year debt falling to 5.62 percent from 7.89 percent paid last month. It auctioned $11.8 billion of short-term debt on Wednesday. It will [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
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 [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The U.S. Treasury Department sold $13 billion in 30-year bonds Wednesday at a record low yield of 2.925 percent. Despite the debt security having the lowest yield on record, investors in the U.S. and around the world still have a hearty appetite for the long bond. Bidders offered to buy 3.05 times the amount of debt sold, compared to an average of 2.81 times at the last four comparable auctions. Indirect bidders, those that include global central banks, bought 32.5 percent of the sale, compared to 36.1 percent on average. Direct bidders–domestic money managers–purchased another 21.2 percent, versus an average of 19.5 percent. Following the oversubscribed and highly successful auction, the broader bond market continued the rally. Yields on 10-year notes, [...] Continue Reading…

Linda Young – AHN News Writer
Paris, France (AHN) – Moody’s announced Friday it was downgrading the credit rating of all three of France’s top banks because of the difficulty they have borrowing money. Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas went down one notch from a Aa2 rating to Aa3, which is the fourth-highest investment grade rating. Societe Generale fell from Aa3 to A1, the fifth-highest rating. The best rating a bank can get is AAA. BNP is the largest bank, Societe Generale is second and Credit Agricole is third. The credit rating agency also gave each of the three a negative outlook and warned that it might downgrade them again. Moody’s said that not only had liquidity and funding conditions deteriorated at each of the banks, but that it was likely the situation would become worse [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks opened up on Monday morning as investors and traders look to extend last week’s strong rally. Just after the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 157 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 18 points and the NASDAQ jumped 32 points. Giving stocks an added boost was optimism that European policy makers will move to decisively stem the two-year-old sovereign debt crisis. Last week, the Dow closed at 12,019.42, up 7 percent, or 788 points. That was the second biggest weekly point gain in the Dow’s storied history. The S&P 500 gained 7.4 percent to 1244.28, and the NASDAQ tacked on 7.6 percent to finish at 2626.93. Worries that some European banks are having funding [...] Continue Reading…

Tejinder Singh – AHN News Correspondent
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The United States-European Union summit here ended without any fiscal help emerging from the U.S. as ambassadors from both sides provided a read-out of the meeting while the host president brushed aside chances of any news-making headlines emerging. President Barack Obama, along with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, did not address a news conference but made post-summit statements in the White House Roosevelt Room. Obama noted that “much has changed” since the last EU summit in Portugal last year. “What hasn’t changed is the fundamental bonds” between the U.S. and EU, he said. Playing down the idea of there being news from the meetings, Obama said, “These aren’t always the most dramatic meetings because we agree on [...] Continue Reading…

The Media Line Staff
Ramallah, Palestinian Territory David Rosenberg (The Medi – Palestinian Authority Prime Minster Salam Fayyad is determined to wean his government off reliance on foreign assistance and tax transfer from Israel – and one way he aims to do that is by collecting more taxes from Palestinians. Fayyad made his plans clear at an investor conference in Ramallah this week, where he asked businesspeople to voluntarily delay investment tax credits they are entitled to for three years to help the PA pay its bills. “We are not saying that that the government will rescind these benefits but that the business sector should act voluntarily,” Fayyad said at a conference sponsored by the Palestine Exchange on Monday, terming it a patriotic act. “It’s a message of empowerment for the national economy, to deliver a message that [...] Continue Reading…

The Media Line Staff
Ramallah, Palestinian Territory David Rosenberg (The Medi – Palestinian Authority Prime Minster Salam Fayyad is determined to wean his government off reliance on foreign assistance and tax transfer from Israel – and one way he aims to do that is by collecting more taxes from Palestinians. Fayyad made his plans clear at an investor conference in Ramallah this week, where he asked businesspeople to voluntarily delay investment tax credits they are entitled to for three years to help the PA pay its bills. “We are not saying that that the government will rescind these benefits but that the business sector should act voluntarily,” Fayyad said at a conference sponsored by the Palestine Exchange on Monday, terming it a patriotic act. “It’s a message of empowerment for the national economy, to deliver a message that [...] Continue Reading…

Diane Alter – AHN News Reporter
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 [...] Continue Reading…