MARKETS / FINANCE

Lloyds will slash the bonuses of its former chief executive and 12 other leading members of staff, following an insurance mis-selling debacle at the part-nationalized British bank.

Hedge funds are cranking up their bets in equities and credit in 2012's buoyant markets in the belief that the euro zone, U.S. and Chinese economies will fare better than many were fearing last year.

The price of gasoline in the U.S. is expected to hit $4.00 by summer, and could potentially spike even further. Much of this has to do to with events in other parts of the world.

Satellite firm Inmarsat said its partner LightSquared, a venture struggling to build a U.S. mobile broadband service with Inmarsat's spectrum, had failed to pay a $56.25 million instalment to the British company.

Dow Chemical Co hoped an Olympic sponsorship would boost its global cache, but the company's link to a gas leak tragedy 28 years ago threatens to curb some of the benefits from the $100 million advertising deal.

British chipmaker CSR Plc underscored its financial strength on Monday with a share buyback of up to $50 million, helping send its shares up more than 20 percent to their highest in six months.

Rick Santorum is everywhere in the news these days, between his surge in the polls to controversial statements about abortion and President Obama's faith. If he continues to dominate the GOP primary narrative, there's a good chance the former Pennsylvania senator could win the Republican nomination.

The European Central Bank will lend nearly half a trillion euros to banks at rock-bottom rates next week through its three-year refinancing operation, despite signs institutions already have adequate liquidity, Reuters polls showed on Monday.

Vladimir Putin will be elected president in the first round of March's election with more than half the vote, avoiding a runoff that would dent his authority on the eve of his planned return to the Kremlin's top job, a state pollster predicted Monday.

Four Seasons Health Care is not trying to sell itself, as media reports suggested, but is in talks to renegotiate debt and raise new equity, a spokeswoman for Britain's biggest care home operator told Reuters.

A second injection of cheap funds from the European Central Bank may give the euro a temporary boost but is likely to trigger a longer-term decline in the common currency.

A senior U.S. regulator was optimistic on Monday about finding a framework for the world's top economy to use global book keeping rules for investors to compare cross-border companies.

Any surprise at the timing of China's move this weekend to spur bank lending may be misplaced. Instead, investors should recognize that China is determined to engineer a soft landing for the world's second-biggest economy.

Travelers in Europe face further delays and flight cancellations this week as ground staff at Frankfurt airport plan to extend their strike until early on Tuesday, with neither side in the dispute showing any sign of giving ground.

Euro zone finance ministers are expected to approve a second bailout for Greece on Monday to try to draw a line under months of uncertainty that has shaken the currency bloc, although work remains to be done to make the numbers add up.

Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group is set to sign on Monday a $3 billion loan it plans to use to take private its Hong Kong-listed unit, Alibaba.com, Thomson Reuters publication Basis Point reported.

Pakistan's Reko Diq, an untapped copper and gold mine of fabulous potential, was meant to be the biggest foreign investment in the country's mining sector, but it's beginning to look more like fool's gold to the companies involved.

At least four U.S.-based law firms said they are investigating Kinross Gold Corp , after the company failed to disclose that low-grade ore had been found at its Tasiast property in West Africa.

Sudan has secured a five-year delay on its debts to China, the finance minister said on Saturday, part of efforts to make up for the loss of revenues from the oil-producing south.

Gold prices rose more than half a percent on Monday as growing optimism that European leaders will sign off on a rescue deal for Greece lifted the euro, and after China's central bank further loosened monetary policy.

It is getting busy in Cristino Naguiat's spacious 5th-floor office overlooking Manila Bay.

Chinese authorities keep a tight grip on the country's commodity exchanges as part of efforts to deter speculators from driving up food and resource prices.

China's ruling Communist Party leadership will implement prudent monetary policy and proactive fiscal policy in 2012, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday, reiterating the basic policy tone Beijing set at the end of last year.

Euro zone officials are discussing an escrow account for Greek bailout funds as part of a package they will address on Monday, Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said.

Like drunks at a bar door, the euro zone's governments and banks are leaning unsteadily on each other for support.

Japan logged a record trade deficit with China in January as exports dropped by a fifth, underscoring concerns about how sharply China is slowing and its ability to buffer a frail global economy against European turmoil.

Japan logged a record trade deficit in January, government data showed on Monday, the clearest evidence to date of pain from a firm yen, a global slowdown and rising fuel imports needed to offset declining use of nuclear power.

BRIC countries have not become less vulnerable to global shocks despite their strong economic growth over the past four years, a survey showed on Monday.

If upcoming earnings from U.S. retailers are as unimpressive as the rest of the profit season has been, Wall Street could face a tough time justifying a stock market at nine-month highs.