MARKETS / FINANCE

Consumer spending rose slightly less than expected last month as savings jumped to a six-month high, indicating that households remained too cautious to spend despite an improvement in incomes.

Consumer spending rose slightly less than expected in December as households opted to save extra cash, lifting savings to a six-month high, a government report showed on Monday.

Stock index futures rose on Monday after Wall Street ended January with its worst month in nearly a year as investors bet that data will show signs the U.S. economy continues to mend.

JPMorgan Chase is rethinking its purchase of RBS Sempra and could pick up only the joint venture's oil operations and all the non-U.S. businesses, a source familiar with the matter said.

Stock index futures rose on Monday after closing their worst month in nearly a year and as investors digested President Barack Obama's budget plans and awaited earnings from Exxon Mobil Corp .

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.42 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.53 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.36 percent at 5 a.m. EST.

Shares in UBS fell to their lowest level since July on Monday after the justice minister underscored the risk to the Swiss economy should the bank's settlement of a U.S. tax dispute unravel.

Oil steadied around $73 per barrel on Monday, stabilizing after three weeks of falls, with the outlook still clouded by the outlook for global growth and sluggish fuel demand.

World shares sank to a three-month low on Monday as concerns about Greece's debts and a reminder of the challenges China faces to curb inflation stung risk demand, helping push the dollar to a six-month high versus a currency basket.

Shares in UBS fell on Monday after the Swiss justice minister said the economy would suffer if the Swiss bank collapsed as a result of its unresolved U.S. tax dispute.

President Barack Obama will seek on Monday to strike a balance between taming skyrocketing U.S. budget deficits and giving the economy a boost to ease the pain of double-digit unemployment.

The dollar held at its highest levels in six months on Monday, while the euro huddled near seven-month lows on fiscal concerns, and higher yielding currencies remained pressured by the closing of leveraged trades. The Australian dollar hovered at its weakest since mid-December as investors briefly unwound yen-funded carry trades on a report that a UK regulator would like to restrain carry trading generally.

Global oil prices remained below $73 a barrel in Asian trade Monday mainly on concerns about dipping energy demand. Light sweet crude for delivery in March delivery was seen trading at $72.79 a barrel at11.00 a.m Singapore time while Brent crude was at $71.44 a barrel at the same time.

Gold remained below $1079 an ounce in Asian trade Monday as the dollar continued its rally against major currencies. Spot gold was seen trading at $1,078.67 an ounce at 11.00 a.m Singapore time while US gold futures for April delivery inched down 0.4 per cent to $1079.30 an ounce at the same time.

The United States has escaped the danger of a Japanese-style deflationary trap, but it is not yet time to start tightening policy, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard told the Financial Times.

Chinese banks issued net new yuan loans of nearly 1.6 trillion yuan ($234.4 billion) in January, the Economic Information Daily reported on Monday, pointing to a much slower pace of lending in the last 10 days of the month.

The Bank of Japan may need to do more on the monetary policy front to stop deflation, the Nikkei daily quoted Japan's Finance Minister Naoto Kan as saying, keeping pressure on the BOJ to help support a fragile economic recovery.

South Korean treasury bond prices edged up early on Monday, lifted by U.S. Treasuries' gains on doubts over future economic growth and weaker-than-expected domestic export data.

Gold prices retreated to hover near $1,080 on Monday after posting a third straight week of declines as investors remained wary of gains in the dollar which weaken bullion's appeal as a currency hedge. A U.S. proposal to limit bank risks continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

German politicians were divided at the weekend over whether to buy the bank data of up to 1,500 possible tax evaders with accounts in Switzerland that media say an informant has offered to sell authorities.

Morgan Stanley plans to hire several hundred traders over the next few years to boost its underperforming securities business, new boss James Gorman said in an interview with the Financial Times.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Sunday urged the United States, Britain and other countries to cooperate on new policies and regulations in the wake of the financial crisis.

The Australian Dollar (0.8790) begins the new week under pressure and is at a six-week low.

The adage as January goes, so goes the year bodes ill for equity investors after the S&P 500 closed out its worst month in almost a year. This week, they will have to contend with fears of sovereign defaults and potential unpleasantness in the U.S. labor market as well.

The economic recovery is suddenly looking more robust. If it is going to stay that way, the labor market will need to catch up soon.

The U.S. taxpayer-funded rescue program set up to save banks from collapse during the financial crisis makes future reckless behavior more likely, the government's bailout watchdog said in a quarterly report.

Indian wheat products are finding no takers in the global market because of the high domestic prices, which has even prompted the Prime Minister to call a meeting of the state chief ministers to discuss ways to bring down prices. Food inflation reared up again, with the annual wholesale price index-based inflation in primary food products inching up to 17.40 per cent for the week ended January 16 against the previous week's annual rise of 16.81 per cent. Inflation in items such as potatoes rose ...

Investor holdings in the by Goldessential monitored (pure-play) gold-backed exchange-traded funds were seen decreasing 1.044 tonnes (-33,575 ounces) or 0.06 pct in the week from January 22nd up to and including January 28th, in-house calculations based on official data showed on Friday. One of the thirteen monitored gold ETF's announced an inflow over the reported period, whereas three reported redemptions. Nine reported no change.

The Saudi bourse regulator has ordered six investors to pay a total 278.1 million riyals ($74.16 million) for trading violations, it said in a statement on Saturday.