INVESTMENT

Global equities rallied on Wednesday after an aggressive U.S. rate cut allayed fears that a credit crunch which has plagued markets could drag the U.S. economy into recession, but the dollar suffered a blow. The dollar struck a 15-year low against a basket of currencies after the Fed rate cut eroded the yield appeal of the U.S. currency. The weakness of the dollar pushed gold prices to 16-month highs.

Banks have always lent out more than their clients have on deposit but just once in a while savers lose trust and demand all their money back, exposing one of the optical illusions at the heart of finance.

Gold reached a 27-year peak on Tuesday after the U.S. Federal reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate a larger-than-expected half a percentage point on credit worries in U.S. Financial markets.

Gold slipped in late business on Tuesday as investors took profits from 16-month highs, but sentiment stayed bullish ahead of an expected rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. posted a 3.2 percent decline in quarterly earnings on Tuesday as the U.S. investment bank wrote down mortgage and leveraged loan assets, but the results beat expectations and its shares rose. The results soothed investors concerned that the widening U.S. subprime mortgage crisis would wallop investment bank earnings.

Hartford Financial Services Group Chief Financial Officer David Johnson said on Monday the insurer will generate $140 million of surplus in the second half of 2007, giving it a total of $640 million available.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc will start selling life and retirement products to small business owners who already buy its commercial insurance, and on Monday named the former head of its Japanese unit to run the operation.

Stocks fell on Monday as savers demanded their money back from embattled British bank Northern Rock, adding to global credit concerns before an expected U.S. interest rate cut this week.

Goldman Sachs on Monday forecast U.S. oil prices will surge to $85 by the end of the year, and said crude could climb as high as $90 due to tight supplies.

Business Objects, a French-American business intelligence software maker, is looking for a buyer and has appointed Goldman Sachs to find an investor, Le Figaro newspaper said.

Wall Street reports earnings next week but outsiders don't really have a clue what they'll be.

HSBC's private banking business has been little hit by the ongoing credit crisis, the head of the bank's private banking business, Chris Meares, told a Swiss newspaper.

Three years after mutual funds first started disclosing how they vote on proposals at company meetings, investors are still struggling to get a clear picture on where their funds stand on key corporate issues.

At a time when a CEO of a large U.S. company is likely to earn in one day what the average worker does in a year, an investment adviser takes the income-disparity controversy a few steps further in Are the Rich Necessary?

Suits behind the scenes of New York Fashion Week

Wall Street expects Federal Reserve policy-makers to cut interest rates next Tuesday to help ease a global credit squeeze, a much anticipated event that spurred stock prices higher this week and could boost them next week.

Stocks edged up slightly on Friday as expectations of an interest rate cut off-set concerns of a weakening U.S. housing market.

Bank of America sold 230 billion yen ($2 billion) of global bonds on Friday, sources said, joining a handful of major banks that have sought to raise cash in Japan's stable credit markets.

Merrill Lynch & Co warned on Friday that shaky credit markets forced the world's largest brokerage to adjust the value of securities linked to risky subprime mortgages and other products, a move that could hurt third-quarter profit.

Britain's Cadbury Schweppes Plc rejected a private equity bid for its North American drinks unit over the terms rather than price after it was asked to finance a third of the deal, industry sources said on Friday.

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday after a Wall Street analyst said brokerage shares were undervalued and McDonald's Corp raised its annual dividend by 50 percent.