EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

Gold prices hit their lowest since early January on Wednesday as comments from the European Central Bank lifted the dollar to three-week highs against the euro, accelerating a fall sparked by declining expectations of more U.S. monetary easing.

Fresh figures on business activity and retail sales in the 17-member currency area reinforce earlier signs of recession, even as the European Central Bank left its main interest rate unchanged at an all-time low of 1 percent.

UK economy seems to be on the track to buck the trend in many other European countries where economic recovery continues to struggle.

Wall Street stocks were looked likely to open lower open on Wednesday, despite good private sector payrolls data, as investors digested minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting published Tuesday suggesting further monetary stimulus action is unlikely.

The European Central Bank held its main interest rate at 1.0 percent on Wednesday as persistently high inflation offset pressure to respond to the euro zone's shaky economic recovery.

She didn't mention the U.S. central bank's two previous rounds of bond-buying known as quantitative easing, but Lagarde stressed that past action by the Fed and European regulators helped keep growth strong and steady.

The unemployment rate in the eurozone increased to its highest level in 14 years in February, as the region’s faltering economic growth left more than 17 million people jobless in the month.

Eurozone finance ministers agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen on Friday to increase the bailout lending limit to 700 billion euros ($930 billion), a move aimed at reassuring financial markets wary of a Eurozone default and dampening the crippling debt crisis of the past few years.

Finance ministers from the 17-member currency area agreed to combine, for one year, a pair of rescue funds meant to help avert a default by Spain, Italy or Portugal, or a repeat by Greece, which warned that a third bailout might be necessary.

Euro zone nations are falling far behind the United States and Canada as a fragile recovery takes root in advanced economies, the OECD said on Thursday, advising central banks to keep easy money flowing so the rebound does not prove short-lived.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, previously reluctant to expand the size of euro zone bailout funds, agreed to support a €200 billion ($265 billion) increase of the firewall on Monday.

Hopes that the European Central Bank’s operations would help to facilitate a meaningful pick-up in the euro-zone economy were dealt a blow by the release of March’s flash Purchase managers Index surveys according to Capital Economics.

The central bank president told Germany's Bild Zeitung that the ECB will act swiftly to counteract any worsening of inflation. The situation is stabilizing, Draghi said of the euro zone crisis.

The worst of the euro zone crisis is over and the European Central Bank will act if inflation risks grow, ECB President Mario Draghi said in a German newspaper interview released on Thursday, seeking to ease angst in Germany about price rises.

Asian shares gave back earlier gains Thursday after data showed China's factory activity shrank for a fifth successive month, underscoring concerns about a growth slowdown in the world's second largest economy.

Asian shares inched up Thursday but remained in ranges as investors waited for manufacturing data from China and the euro zone due during this session for more clues about the state of their economies.

Developments in the two weeks since the credit event confirmed that the world's first test of using credit default swaps as protection involving sovereign debt turned out fairly well. But broader concerns abound, such as the fragile Greek economy and what could be in store for fellow euro zone members Spain and Portugal.

The latest liquidity operations by European Central Bank (ECB) appear to have averted, at least for the time being, a threatening catastrophe in the euro-zone banking sector. But it would be wrong to think that they have solved the region’s deeper fiscal and economic problems, or secured the future of the single currency itself according to Capital Economics.

Some economists predict that if Greece and its European Union partners can't agree on a debt reduction plan, the country may have to default in a disorderly manner and exit the euro currency.

The European Commission is widening its regulatory sweep to include "shadow" banking, heralding new controls over the sprawling and largely unchartered 46 trillion euro ($61 trillion) sector blamed for helping trigger the financial crisis.

European Central Bank data out Monday showed euro zone countries exporting more goods and services than they imported in January. In a further encouraging sign, a greater number of countries contributed to the increased exports.