INVESTMENT

Pipeline company Kinder Morgan Inc sold more shares and priced them above the expected range, an underwriter said on Thursday, raising about $2.86 billion in the largest U.S. energy initial public offering since 1998.

Daily deals website Groupon said on Thursday that Starbucks Corp Chief Executive Howard Schultz had joined its board of directors and that his venture capital firm had taken a stake in the company.

PetroChina (0857.HK)(PTR.N) agreed to pay C$5.4 billion ($5.4 billion) for half of Encana's Cutbank Ridge shale gas project, marking the largest Chinese investment in a foreign gas asset.

A group of prominent business executives and national security figures will visit China next month as part of their drive to reduce U.S. dependence on oil.

The Treasury will remain intensely focused on correcting China's substantially undervalued yuan despite a decision not to name Beijing a currency manipulator, a senior Treasury official said on Thursday.

South African President Jacob Zuma called on the government and private sector to create jobs, setting aside billions of dollars to create work in Africa's largest economy, hard-hit by chronic unemployment. We urge every sector and every business entity, regardless of size, to focus on job creation.

World stock markets fell hard on Thursday, with Hong Kong shares losing 2% and London's FTSE100 dropping 0.9% by lunchtime. Indian stock markets have lost more than $20 million per minute so far in 2011, the Economic Times reports, with billionaire Anil Ambani blaming vicious and illegal rumors.

Power cuts, shortages of medicine and cooking gas, empty cash machines, depleted shops and piles of uncollected trash: these were things Ivorians used to see as the scourge of their poorer West African neighbours.

Gold eased below $1,360 an ounce in Europe on Thursday as the rising dollar pressured prices, and with Asian buying still light after the Lunar New Year holidays.

President Barack Obama will unveil his plans to expand high-speed wireless service to at least 98 percent of Americans within five years, while reducing the U.S. deficit by about $10 billion over the next decade.

The Brazilian government plans to cut the federal budget by about $30 billion in 2011, which is more than double the budgetary cut last year, said a media report on Thursday.

Amid music game sales increases, the company closes Guitar Hero developer Vicarious Visions.

The Indian JV company will provide the armed forces with locally produced high tech equipment and assured life-time support.

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Wednesday are: Encana Corp, EnerSys, Lions Gate Entertainment, FXCM and Goodyear Tire & Rubber. The top after-market NYSE losers are: Terex, LIN TV, Allstate, China Green Agriculture and Cypress Sharpridge Investments.

Gold was little changed on Wednesday as the market was underpinned by a dollar drop and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comment that he had no plans to scrap a massive bond-buying program, indicating interest rates will not rise any time soon.

Zimbabwe has drastically increased exploration fees for diamonds and coal, in an effort to discourage companies from speculating on mining claims, state media reported on Wednesday.

The issue of peak oil was raised by Sadad al Husseini, a former top official at Aramco, Saudi Arabia's oil monopoly, in conversations with US officials, according to Wikileaks.

While 1994 was dubbed as the worst year for fixed income investors, we believe that the next twelve months could be even worse

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Wednesday are: Walt Disney, Jds Uniphase, PPL Corp, Ingersoll-Rand, Motorola Solutions, Wells Fargo, Time Warner and Google.

Formula One greats have blasted F1 team Lotus Renault GP for their decision to allow their driver Robert Kubica to take part in the rally, which led to a serious accident, so close to the start of the F1 season.

The White House unveiled plans to spend $53 billion over the next six years on bringing high-speed rail service to 80 percent of Americans within 25 years, though House Transportation Committee chairman John Mica and Railroads Subcommittee chairman Bill Shuster expressed reservations over its future benefit.