ECONOMY & MARKETS

US dollar strengthened across the board on Monday on expectations of good data signaling recovery, but investors are also cautious that any negative surprise could trigger market worries about more bond buyback by the Fed, sparking off the quantitative easing (QE3) talks.

Japan's economy grew stronger than expected in the third quarter, as a rise in consumer spending offset weakening exports and a strong yen.

Concerns over Europe's debt risks felled Australian and New Zealand dollars - Asia Pacific's major risky currencies - on Monday, while growing fears that China may raise rates further dampened the sentiment. Market is keen on any fresh developments from Europe, with many important EU officials, including Alex Weber of ECB, scheduled to speak on the first day of the Euro Finance Week held November 15-19 in Frankfurt, Germany.

India's annual rate of inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), marginally declined to 8.58 percent for the month of October 2010 as compared to 8.62 percent for the previous month and 1.48 percent during the corresponding month of the previous year, according to a government statement on Monday.

Singapore's retail sales (seasonally adjusted) decreased 2.4 percent in September 2010 compared to August 2010, the Singapore Department of Statistics said in a statement.

Gold registered new all-time highs over and over again in the past few weeks and hit a record high of $1424.30 on Tuesday as investors stepped up buying the yellow metal as an effective tool to avoid the risks of inflation and the uncertainties in the global economy.

Dumb money is beginning to pour into gold. However, gold fever has not yet taken over the public imagination and there are still many potential buyers on the sidelines. The rally is therefore likely to continue.

On Friday at the G20 summit, finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Britain issued a joint statement saying the holders of any existing euro zone government debt are safe from regulatory changes that would force them to take on additional losses.

U.S. stocks fell in early trade on Friday as speculation over interest rate hike in China and concerns about euro-zone sovereign debt weighed on the sentiment.

U.S. consumer sentiment rose more than expected in November, boosted by stronger holiday sales, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey.

Euro rose across the board and pulled off 1-1/2-month lows against the US dollar and British pound on Friday on news EU leaders reassured the holders of outstanding bonds that they would not be forced to take losses. The day's gains, however, did not prevent the single currency from heading for weekly losses versus the majors as investors are still worried that Ireland may default on its bonds.

Two University of Illinois experts in bankruptcy law are saying that the legal principles applied in the bankruptcy reorganizations of GM and Chrysler were misguided, and have ultimately undermined the distributional norms of bankruptcy reorganizations.

Oracle and Apple have announced the OpenJDK project for Mac OS X, a move that will make Apple's Java technology available to open source developers.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Dynavox, L & L Energy, China MediaExpress Holdings, Fuqi International, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Mentor Graphics, American Capital Agency, Ascent Solar Technologies, Solarfun Power Holdings, and Power-One.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Finisar, Tianli Agritech, EDAP TMS, BSD Medical, Nvidia, Republic Airways Holdings, City Telecom HK, Ryanair Holdings, Magic Software Enterprises, and Globe Specialty Metals.

A study on charts shows that silver may not continue to enjoy the status of being better investment alternative over gold in the short-to-medium-term period. And not only that, any correction in both the metals will happen with the white metal falling much steeper than its yellow counterpart.

FBR Capital Markets raised its profit estimate and price target of Nvidia (NVDA), a day after the graphics chip maker reported third quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates.

Eurozone industrial output unexpectedly fell in September as the demand for durable goods plunged.

Commodities dropped on Friday as higher-than-expected Chinese inflation triggered rate hike worries in the world's second largest economy pushing gold, copper and platinum to 1-week lows and cutting December crude by more than $2 on the day.

Cell phone giant Nokia, which is struggling to regain its market share in the United States, could find its new growth engine in the form of emerging markets and surging demand for smartphones.

Indian equity markets are trading lower by 328.30 points or 1.59 percent on Friday with all sectoral indices are in the negative side.

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Dynavox, Clearwire, China Electric Motor, Exide Technologies, ArthroCare, Cray, Harleysville Group, West Coast Bancorp, Kenexa, and Liberty Capital Group.

German gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to 0.7 percent in the third quarter after increasing sharply by a revised 2.3 percent in the second quarter.

Rolls-Royce expects full year underlying profit growth to be slightly lower than its prior forecast, blaming engine failure incident on a Qantas A380 super-jumbo flight last week.

India's index of industrial production (IIP) growth slowed further 4.4 percent to 325.6 for the month of September 2010 as compared to 8.2 percent in the month of September 2009, according to a statement by the Central Statistics Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Andatee China Marine Fuel Services, Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, Finisar, Tianli Agritech, BSquare, Stereotaxis, Tandy Brands Accessories, EDAP TMS, Rex Energy, and Planar Systems.

Stocks, through quantitative easing, are pushed higher and into bubble territory. In a few years, the market could crash and fall as much as 50 percent, said Jeremy Grantham of GMO LLC.

Jim Cramer, a financial pundit and former hedge fund manager, said the best way of making money off the G20 Seoul summit is betting it won't go well. And one bets against the summit by buying gold, he said.

Copper hit record highs in London and jumped to a 30-month high in New York on Thursday as strong Chinese data suggested higher demand for the metal by the world's biggest consumer.