The plans underscore concerns in the eurozone about debt and a potential relapse into recession.
India is highly dependent on Persian oil and may not heed demands from the west that it buy its crude elsewhere.
Gold prices rose 1 percent on Thursday as the euro rallied to a fresh two-month high against the dollar after Greece clinched a deal with European Union and IMF leaders needed to avoid a messy default.
Following days of exhausting political drama, high-level brinkmanship and stern rhetoric in both public and private statements, the red-eyed leaders of Europe's leading financial institutions reached a deal Thursday with Greece's governing coalition to impose further austerity measures on that country in exchange for a €130 billion bailout ($172.56 billion).
Furthermore, the department likely will approve a consortium led by Apple and Microsoft to purchase Nortel Networks patents for $4.5 billion.
Singapore enjoys close relations with both the U.S. and China.
Greek leaders clinched a long-stalled deal on reforms and austerity measures needed to secure a bailout and avoid a messy default, government sources said, hours before the country's financial backers were to meet in Brussels on Thursday. The euro and European stocks strengthened on news of the breakthrough.
The European Central Bank held interest rates at a record low on Thursday, seeing tentative signs of economic stabilization, but refused to say what part it might play in averting a ruinous Greek default.
Stock index futures slipped on Thursday as Greek leaders had not yet reached a deal on fiscal reforms and ahead of policy decisions from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank and data on the U.S. labor market.
European stock markets and the euro extended two months of gains on Thursday as Greece edged closer to a bailout deal and investors bet a brace of central bank meetings would offer further support for the move into riskier assets.
The rally in the euro and European shares advanced on Thursday as Greece edged closer to a bailout deal and on expectations the Bank of England and the European Central Bank will maintain support for the move into riskier assets.
More than three quarters of U.S. company bosses think that the federal government did not do its part to effectively deal with the implications of the global economic crisis.
Asian shares struggled but the euro recovered on Thursday, as markets were left without a clear direction after Greek political leaders failed again to conclude a deal for a bailout package, which Athens needs to avoid a messy debt default.
Greek political leaders failed early on Thursday to sign off on a tough reform and austerity program, the price of a new international bailout for the nation, but Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said they would try to strike a deal within hours.
A suicide car bomb kills 11 outside a Mogadishu cafe. Al-Shabab claims responsibility.
Stocks closed flat in another thinly traded session on Wednesday as Greece remained in a standstill over accepting tough reforms in exchange for a bailout critical to avoiding a chaotic default.
Stocks closed flat in another thinly traded session on Wednesday as Greece remained in a standstill over accepting tough reforms in exchange for a bailout critical to avoiding a chaotic default.
Greece will likely fail to achieve sustainable debt levels if it only resorts to a 70 percent reduction in the value of bonds held by private creditors, Standard & Poor's warned on Wednesday, putting pressure on the ECB to also take losses.
Gold fell on Wednesday as technical resistance prompted investors took profits after the previous session's rally and on moreuncertainty about Europe's economy.
European Central Bank policymakers are still divided on what contribution the ECB could make to a restructuring of Greece's sovereign debt, two euro zone monetary policy sources said on Wednesday.
Stocks gave up early gains on Wednesday as the Dow hovered at its highest level in nearly four years and investors waited for Greece to accept tough reforms in exchange for a new bailout.
Greek parties will try on Wednesday to agree to a reform deal in return for a new EU/IMF rescue to avoid a chaotic default, after repeated delays which have prompted warnings that the euro can live without Athens.
