Business news for Mon, 24 Dec 2007 & with word trade. 18 news.

THE yuan climbed to the strongest since a link to the US dollar was scrapped two years ago after the central bank said exchange-rate flexibility will rise, spurring speculation it plans to widen the daily trading band. The yuan rose 0.3 percent to 7.3475 per US dollar at 5:30pm in Shanghai, bringing gains this month to 0.7 percent. The central bank set the reference rate at 7.3315 yesterday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The rate touched 7.3405 yesterday, the highest since the peg ended in July 2005. The People's Bank of China said in a statement last Friday that it will let the market play a bigger role in setting the exchange rate.

SICHUAN Changhong Electric Co, China's second-biggest TV maker, has grabbed the lion's share of government-financed home appliance sales in rural areas. China promised to give farmers subsidies, about 13 percent, for buying household electrical appliances, in a bid to stimulate sluggish rural consumption and reduce the rising trade surplus, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce said over the weekend. "We are a major player in the deal and we occupy at least 50 percent shares of the TV sales (in the subsided sales in the rural areas)," Chen Ning, Changhong's vice president, told Shanghai Daily yesterday. Changhong will provide TVs, which costs less than 1,500 yuan (US$202) each, and some mobile phones for the subsidized purchase program. The pilot program will be launched in Shandong, Henan and Sichuan, the three major agricultural provinces, according to Chen. Farmers in the provinces can buy color TV sets, refrigerators and mobile phones with

VIETNAM widened the daily trading band for the dong, giving the central bank more scope to slow inflation by allowing the currency to strengthen. The dong can now trade 0.75 percent either side of a rate set by State Bank of Vietnam each day, compared with 0.5 percent previously, according to Dao Xuan Tuan, head of foreign-exchange management at the bank's currency department. Vietnam has allowed the currency to strengthen by 1.3 percent since August 20 as consumer-price inflation accelerated to a 10 percent annual pace in November, the fastest in more than three years. The dong is little changed in the year, following an 11-year run of depreciation designed to make the nation's exports more competitive. Vietnam faces "a dilemma with trade deficits growing and inflation picking up," said Masashi Kurabe, head of the foreign-exchange sales & trading group in Hong Kong at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, part of Japan's largest lender. "The country may be aiming to

Foreign investment pledges in Vietnam have surged by nearly 70 percent so far this year, thanks to the country's admission to the World Trade Organization, an official said Monday.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Energy stocks opened mixed in thin pre-holiday trade Monday, with a decline in crude-oil futures keeping the sector from participating in a move higher by the broader market. Early trades saw the Amex Oil Index rise 0.2% to 1,550 points, edging slightly into record-high territory, while the Philadelphia Oil Service Index pulled back 0.4% and the Amex Natural Gas Index slipped 0.2% to 579.5 points. Crude for February delivery was last down 47 cents at $92.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil held near $93 per barrel on Monday in thin trade, pressured by an uncertain economic outlook for top oil consumer the United States and a firmer dollar, but supported by concerns over shrinking world oil stocks.

World oil prices have advanced above $93/barrel in subdued pre-Christmas trade, with many dealers away from their desks for Christmas holiday celebrations.

European markets rose slightly the morning before Christmas, as miners and deal speculation buoyed shares.

Profit is rising at Oil-Dri Corp. of America, as cat owners trade up to better, more expensive cat litter. About five years ago, the next big thing in the cat-box business — scoopable litter — accounted for just one-fourth of Chicago-based Oil-Dri's sales. Today, scoopable represents ...

Hedge funds are scrutinizing their levels of exposure to bank defaults, in a telling reversal of conventional risk management concerns, according to a report in The Financial Times. While bank exposure to the hedge funds they trade with has been in sharp focus since the 1998 collapse of Long Term Capital Management, a run of record-breaking [...]

The Interactive Advertising Bureau weighed in on the Federal Trade Commission's new proposed privacy principles, stating that it endorses the idea of industry self-regulation, but wants to help refine them. IAB also said it would propose its own new privacy principles for the industry early next year.

RETAILERS are facing their bleakest Christmas trade in years with fewer shoppers coming through the doors and predictions of lower spending.

Japan's Fair Trade Commission, worried about a BHP Billiton takeover of Rio Tinto, has begun talks with counterparts in Europe and Australia about a possible investigation, the Asahi newspaper reported Saturday.

Singapore is spending S$2 billion (US$1.38 billion) to boost annual capacity at its container port by about 40 percent to cope with the higher volumes expected from global trade, a newspaper said on Saturday.

The ancient trade route is still bustling as human and financial capital move between East and West. Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, the German historian and geographer, coined the expression "Silk Road" 130 years ago to designate the well-worn path between China and the West via Damascus.

Vietnam has allowed commercial banks to trade US dollars more freely against the Vietnamese dong, given a rising dollar inflow, widening the trading band to plus or minus 0.75% from 0.5%

The international economy faces a year of living dangerously. When the world awakes on New Year’s Day, the hangover that many of us may be suffering will be a minor worry alongside the collective headache inflicted by the cocktail of threats menacing the global outlook.