EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

A group of five leading emerging economies that has banded together to increase their global clout is again struggling to find common ground.

The European Central Bank battled to avoid being dragged further into the area of fiscal policy this weekend, as its policymakers stood firm against using the ECB to help supercharge the euro zone's rescue fund.

The European Central Bank has not decided how long its unconventional interventions in the secondary market for European government debt will go on, Executive Board Member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo said in an interview on Sunday.

The Dow Jones industrial average on Friday suffered its worst week since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, stung by severe anxiety over Europe's spiraling debt crisis and a warning from the Federal Reserve about the U.S. economy.

Gold prices slumped more than $100 an ounce on Friday, the biggest fall on record in dollar terms, as traders sold to cover losses, while global stocks edged up on expectations the European Central Bank will take new measures to contain the euro zone debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average on Friday suffered its worst week since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, stung by severe anxiety over Europe's spiraling debt crisis and a warning from the Federal Reserved about the U.S. economy.

In the September 2011 market turmoil, commodities prices are getting hammered. Even gold, which earlier in the year seemed to decouple from everything else and rise higher and higher, has fallen.

World stocks came off 14-month lows on Friday on expectations policymakers would take further action to ease the Eurozone debt crisis, while commodities fell broadly on worries about a global economic slump.

Stocks edged higher in a volatile session on Friday as rising uncertainty over the European debt crisis and concerns about a global recession kept investors jittery.

The world's major economies on Thursday pledged to prevent Europe's debt crisis from undermining banks and financial markets, and said the euro zone's rescue fund could be bolstered.

A situation where Greece cannot pay back its public debt can no longer be excluded, European Central Bank Governing Council member Klaas Knot was quoted as saying on Friday.

The world's major economies pledged on Thursday to prevent the euro zone's debt crisis from undermining banks and markets but announced no new specific measures to shore up confidence in the global economy.

Europe's debt crisis is the biggest threat to the global economy, the Treasury said on Wednesday, and it called on European policymakers to provide unequivocal support to banks and governments under stress.

Britain's top share index slipped back on Wednesday, weighed down by concerns over Greece's ability to stave off a default, as investors focused on the possibility of further economic stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

German engineering group Siemens withdrew funds from Societe Generale in July because of underperformance, not fears over the French bank's financial health, a Paris-based source said on Tuesday.

Standard and Poor's cut its unsolicited ratings on Italy by one notch, warning of a deteriorating growth outlook and damaging political uncertainty, in a move that took markets by surprise and added to pressure on the debt-stressed euro zone.

Standard and Poor's cut its unsolicited ratings on Italy by one notch on Monday, warning of a deteriorating growth outlook and damaging political uncertainty, in a move that took markets by surprise and added to pressure on the debt-stressed euro zone.

For the first time since 1985, European central banks have become net buyers of gold, according to data from the World Gold Council.

European equity markets are again plunging in Monday trading largely on fears of a Greek default.

ECB Governing Council member Jens Weidmann, an opponent of the bank's bond-buying program, told Germany's Spiegel magazine the ECB had burdened itself with considerable risk and it was wrong to abandon established principles of monetary policy.

A moved Jean-Claude Trichet neared the end of 24 years of policymaking on Saturday after attending his last informal meeting of European finance ministers as head of the European Central Bank.