UNITED STATES

GBP/USD has fallen to a 2-month low on Tuesday helped by safe-haven interest in the US dollar and investors are now seeking nearest supports for the pair as they await positive-looking economic data from the US, due later in the day.

USD/CAD is currently holding near its 200-day moving average but the formation of an ascending triangle from start of this month has made the situation ripe for a jump on Tuesday, especially ahead of key data from the US and Canada.

Ecuador on Monday offered residence to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ‘with no problems and no conditions’.

U.K.'s Halma Plc, the health and safety sensor technology group, posted strong interim results and said it is well placed to perform equally strongly in the second half.

ThinkEquity has increased its profit estimates and price target on Apple Inc., saying that the recent expansion of iPad distribution in the U.S. and iPad's launch in more international markets, easing of supply constraints this quarter are strong positives for the company.

Many countries have taken it upon themselves to negotiate regional or bilateral trade agreements to match evolving economic realities as the multilateral Doha Round negotiations stall.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) said that 212 million U.S. shoppers visited stores and websites over the Black Friday weekend, up from 195 million last year. Moreover, the average shopper spent $365.34 this weekend, up from last year’s $343.31 figure.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, is saying “Try me or tell me why not.”

Selling counterfeit items over the Internet became a little more difficult today, as federal law enforcement officers executed seizure orders against the domain names of 82 commercials websites that, authorities said, sold and distributed counterfeit goods and copyrighted works.

While investors currently grapple with a number of very troubling geopolitical and economic issues -- namely the threat of war in Korea and the potential sovereign debt contagion in Europe, interest rate hikes by China, among others – some might take solace in the fact that December has consistently been the best-performing months for U.S. going back more than sixty years.

President Obama today froze the pay of all civilian federal employees for the next two years.

The technology used by Wikileaks to maintain anonymity could be the Onion Router which is also used by U.S. Navy.

Berlusconi in Italy laughed it away, while Ahmadinejad in Tehran yet again blamed the United States. The Russians refused to comment and Indians breathed a sigh of relief. WikiLeaks, the whistle-blower website, revealed the vigor of US espionage, leaking out more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. The first batch of the documents leaked mentioned Saudi Arabia and other Arab states' desire to attack Iran, highly sensitive information on world leaders and US military strategy across the Worl...

A federal district court judge, who was arrested last month for purchase and use of drugs and illegal possession of firearms, has pleaded guilty and has agreed to step down from the bench.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department denied on Monday that his agency's diplomats were spies, after the release of hundreds of thousands of secret and unclassified cables by the Wikileaks organization.

Japan on Monday dismissed immediate return to the table on Korea tensions as proposed by China. Officials in Tokyo maintained that the focus currently is on working 'closely' with South Korea and the United States.

The Obama administration has been left red-faced by disclosures made by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks pertaining to French president Nicholas Sarkozy that describes him as an “emperor without clothes”, Iran president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as ‘Hitler’ and Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin as an “Alpha Dog”.

Harry Potter rakes in good box office returns over the Thanksgiving weekend. Tangled, a 3D fairy story does well too

Wikileaks' latest spill, dubbed the 'Cablegate', shows that the world, especially the MIddle East fears Iran. But there are very strong strategic factors that help the country survive.

The Denial of Service (DoS) attack against whistle-blower site Wikileaks on Sunday was not a state-sponsored attack but was courtesy a patriot hacker called The Jester.

Now institutional investors in China can join the gold buying frenzy as well, which retail investors and the Chinese central bank are already engaged in. China approved the country's first mutual fund that bets on gold prices, as inflation fears fuel demand for the precious metal.