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The dollar remained under pressure against its major trading partners following weak housing data on Friday which which added to investors' fears that the American economy may sink into recession

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The Financial Services Authority is probing a jump in the share price of U.K. waste services group Biffa ahead of an announcement in November that it had received a 1.2 billion pound ($2.4 billion) takeover bid, according to a report in the Times (of London) newspaper. The report said the FSA has written to various parties involved in the talks to ask what they knew about any possible bid before buyout groups HgCapital and Montagu Private Equity revealed their offer. The inquiry is a part of a continuing focus at the regulator on insider trading ahead of major announcements, the newspaper added.

WALL Street skidded yesterday after the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and after the Commerce Department's durable goods orders exacerbated concerns about the US economy. The major indexes each lost well over 1 percent and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 192 points. Bhutto's assassination raised the possibility of increasing political unrest abroad, always an unsettling prospect for investors who have already been contending with domestic economic concerns for months. Oil prices rose following the news, and that unwelcome inflationary trend only added to Wall Street's uneasiness. Meanwhile, the government said orders for durable goods, big-ticket items from commercial jetliners to home appliances, rose by just 0.1 percent last month. Economists had been looking for a rise of 2.2 percent. Still, November saw the first rise in durable goods orders in the last four months. The Labor Department said the number of workers seeking unemployment

A RALLY across the board pushed the Shanghai index higher in the early session today with technology stocks leading the way and industrial shares driven by profit reports. The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, added one percent, or 52.53 points, to 5,285.88 at 11:30am today. Winners in the Shanghai market outnumbered losers 537 to 213 and 96 were unchanged. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which covers the smaller mainland stock market, gained 1.34 percent, or 19.26 points, to 1,452.32. China United, which controls the nation's second-largest cell-phone operator, jumped 8.11 percent, or 0.92 yuan (13 US cents), to 12.27 yuan. China's government has supported the development of TD-SCDMA mobile phone technology to compete with W-CDMA and CDMA2000. It is poised to award licenses for networks to offer so-called 3G phone services during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The technology represents "a major thrust in

CHINA'S electricity output at the world's biggest hydropower project rose about 25 percent this year after new generators were installed. The Three Gorges station generated 60.86 million megawatt-hours of electricity so far this year with output until the end of the year expected to touch 61.6 million, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said in a statement on its Website yesterday, according to Bloomberg News. China Three Gorges Project Corp, the parent of Shanghai-listed China Yangtze Power Co, is developing the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, Asia's longest. Located in central Hubei Province, the project is slated by 2009 to generate 84.7 million megawatt-hours of power a year and is part of the government's plan to end electricity shortages in the world's fastest-growing major economy. China added 5,000 megawatts of new capacity at Three Gorges this year, bringing the total capacity to 14,800 megawatts, the commission said. Water flow at

San Franciscans searching for toys this holiday season had the added hurdle of finding a place to buy it. In recent years, all of the major toy chain stores have closed.

CHINA'S first homemade passenger jet ARJ21 rolled off the production line in Shanghai yesterday marking a major step forward for the domestic aviation market. The ARJ21 jet's name, "Xiang Feng" - Flying Phoenix - was also unveiled at the roll-out ceremony. The name was chosen after a global competition on the Internet, said a spokesman for the China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I), the jet's designer and producer. The first ARJ21-700 jet, powered by a turbofan engine, can carry 90 passengers with a maximum range of 2,000 nautical miles. "China's aviation industry stepped into a new era today," Lin Zuoming, the general manager of AVIV I, said at the inauguration ceremony at the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory. Shenzhen Airlines added to the impressive ceremony by signing a deal with AVIC I to buy 100 ARJ jets. The maker had received orders for 71 jets before the Shenzhen deal, mainly from carriers and plane leasing units like Shanghai

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- The striking Writers Guild of America has begun talks with some small, independent television and movie production companies on new employment agreements, according to a published report Thursday, even as it and the major studios remain at loggerheads. John Bowman, the union's chief negotiator, said some deals may be announced as early as next week, according to the Los Angeles Times. He added that interim contracts between the union and independent producers would likely require them to accept the same agreement the union may ultimately reach with the major studios. "We have a number of companies that are interested in signing these agreements," Bowman told the Times. "If you get a critical mass of people going back to business and it puts pressure on the other companies, that's something we would do."

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Airline shares added to the prior session's gains in early trading Thursday. The Amex Airline Index rose 0.7% with nine of 14 stocks in the benchmark index trading higher. American Airlines parent AMR Corp. led gainers with a 2% rise. Alaska Airways Group shares climbed 1.7% after the company told investors it expected fourth-quarter capacity at its main Alaska Airlines carrier to rise 4% to nearly 6 billion available seat miles while costs per available seat mile come in flat with the same period last year, or fall 1% to 2% excluding fuel. The major indexes rose modestly, while crude oil futures slipped.

SHANGHAI stocks rebounded today after consecutive days of loses, driven by recovering blue chips among banks, developers and retail giants. The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, wiped out the morning session's 0.86 percent loss and added 1.01 percent, or 49.87 points, to 5,007.91 at 3pm today. Gainers in the Shanghai market outnumbered losers 691 to 79 while 75 were unchanged. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which covers the smaller mainland stock market, jumped 2.26 percent, or 29.49 points, 1,331.74. Property developers eased from previous losses and enjoyed a good day today after the country's statistics bureau said house prices in 70 major cities in China continued to soar last month. China Vanke, the nation's largest publicly traded property developer, increased 1.87 prcent, or 0.55 yuan (7 US cents), to 29.95 yuan. Poly Real Estate Group Co, the second-biggest developer, added 2.04 percent, or 1.22 yuan, to close

The Fed joined with four other major central banks to announce a series of measures designed to inject added cash into global money markets in hopes of thawing a credit freeze that threatens their economies. (Statement)

Overall U.S. ad spending in the major measured media crept up modestly during the third quarter of 2007, reversing a year-to-date recession, but the bump was due largely to a 2007 calendar related phenomenon that added an extra week to the third quarter this year, suggesting the all important fourth-quarter results ultimately will look weak by comparison. Even with a rise in third quarter ad spending, the top economist at ad industry tracking firm TNS Media Intelligence says underlying conditions remain volatile and the advertising marketplace will get weaker before it gets stronger again. Citing underlying problems in the housing market, the sub-prime credit/mortgage marketplace, and infrastructure problems in many top advertising categories, Jon Swallen, senior vice president-research at TNS MI, said "there's still a significant risk for the advertising market going into 2008."

IRAN, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, has completely stopped selling its oil in US dollars, the ISNA news agency reported yesterday. "In line with the policy of selling crude oil in non-dollar currencies, currently selling our country's oil in US dollars has been completely stopped," Iran's Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari was quoted as saying. "The dollar is an unreliable currency in regards to its devaluation and the loss oil exporters have endured from this trend," he added. "This is why Iran proposed to OPEC members that a currency (for selling oil) would be determined that would be reliable and would not cause any loss to exporter countries," Nozari said. He was referring to the November summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Saudi Arabia in which Iran proposed that it is necessary to replace the US dollar with other major hard currencies in oil trading. Over the past months, Iran has massively

WALL Street paused from its big rally yesterday, with stocks closing narrowly mixed after the government's November labor report showed tepid job growth as well as a pickup in inflation. The major indexes ended the week higher, with the Dow Jones industrials having gained nearly 900 points over nine trading days. The Labor Department reported 94,000 jobs were added to payrolls in November and that the unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent. Thomson/IFR analysts had set a median projection of 100,000 new jobs. The report also showed that average hourly earnings increased 0.5 percent in November, compared with forecasts for a more-modest 0.3 percent. The report at least temporarily chilled a rally that has left the Dow only 538 points, or 3.8 percent, below the record close it reached on October 9. "I'd call it an employment letdown," said Jack A. Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. "A little air came out of the party balloon."

ALUMINUM exports from China, the world's biggest producer of the lightweight metal, could drop to their lowest level since 2002 next year as domestic demand grows and export taxes curb overseas sales. Net exports of primary aluminum could fall to 70,000 metric tons from an estimated 85,000 tons this year, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of four analysts and a trader. That compares with 548,000 tons last year and a peak of 625,000 tons in 2005, figures from CRU International Ltd show. The decline in aluminum exports next year signals that China, the world's fastest-growing major economy, may become a net importer of the metal, used in cars and planes, as early as 2009. That would bolster world prices as China switches from being a significant net exporter, said Wan Ling from CRU. "This should be supportive for prices" on the London Metal Exchange, said Wan. But, he added: "Chinese prices could come under pressure as domestic production

CHINA'S consumer price index will rise by 4.5 percent or 4.6 percent for the whole of the current year, which will indicate a moderate and tolerable inflation, the country's top statistician Xie Fuzhan said yesterday at Tsinghua University. Xie, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, added that the monthly rate of CPI would likely linger at six percent or so for several months yet. China's CPI, a major inflation measurement, hit 6.5 percent in August, 6.2 percent in September and 6.5 percent again in October, all well above the government-set alarm level of three percent. Xie said the CPI rises were driven up mainly by price rises for foodstuffs, which were mainly caused by rising production costs. According to Xie, global price rises for crude oil fuelled price rises for industrial products. Meanwhile, price rises for nonferrous metals and iron ores also contributed to the CPI increase. "Substantial price rises for real estate and equities translate to higher risks

HIGH income earners will have to declare profits from stocks and property transactions when they file tax returns next year. The State Administration of Taxation also said expatriates will be entitled to some new deductions. The administration has added stocks and real estate income on next year's tax form for high-income earners - those who earn more than 120,000 yuan (US$16,151) a year. From this year the State Administration of Taxation has ruled that high-income earners must file personal income statements helping to ensure that those who earn the most pay the most. The state tax authority has already asked high-income earners to list profits from stocks and real estate in the "gains from assets" section but the tax forms did not ask for the gains to be listed separately. Joyce Xu, a tax partner at Deloitte, said the move was another step towards improving the tax reporting system. Stocks and real estate are two major sources of income as well as favorite

TAX payers must clarify separately gains derived from securities and housing transactions when filing annual personal income reports, the State Administration of Taxation said on its Website yesterday. The administration added the two items in a new tax form for high-income earners – those whose annual incomes are more than 120,000 yuan (US$16,151). The form will be put into use starting next year. Xu Wenhui, a tax partner at Deloitte, said stocks and houses are two major earning sources. "The country hopes to have knowledge of the proportion the two items account for in all personal earnings," Xu said. Earnings from the A share market are exempted from tax but earnings from housing transactions are subject to up to a 20 percent tax on the profits. The country requires high-income earners to file personal income statements starting this year to ensure that those who earn the most pay the most and will help narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.

U.K. Prime Minister Brown unveiled plans to tighten defenses against terrorism at airports, rail stations and major public spaces.

SHANGHAI stocks rose for the first time in four trading days this morning, shrugging off the possibility of monetary policies to curb the country's sizzling economy after the inflation rate surged to record high last month. The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, added 1.88 percent, or 97.71 points, to hit 5,285.45 at 11:30am today. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which covers the smaller mainland stock market, increased 1.33 percent, or 17.03 points, to 1,297.76. Among the stocks on the Shanghai Composite Index, 653 rose, 114 fell and 79 were unchanged. Airlines and steel makers were major gainers this morning. Air China, the world's biggest airline by market value, jumped 5.48 percent, or 0.98 yuan (13 US cents), to 18.85 yuan while China Eastern, the nation's third-largest carrier, added 5.09 percent, or 0.66 yuan, to 13.62 yuan. China Southern, the nation's biggest carrier, climbed 6.13 percent, or 1.17 yuan, to