Forex / Economy news

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - The June US jobs report signals no change in Federal Reserve policy anytime soon. That's the general reaction to the Labor Department's announcement the economy added 132,000 non-farm payroll jobs last month."All in, this report heralds the Fed staying on hold for a long time," said economist Michael Gregory at BMO Capital Markets...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Natural gas in storage in the U.S. grew last week, and remains about 17 percent above the five-year average for this time of year, the government said Friday.The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in a weekly report that natural gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states increased by 78 billion cubic feet to 2...

BERLIN (Thomson Financial) - European finance ministers meeting in the Belgian capital next week will discuss who will succeed Rodrigo Rato as director general of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October, a spokeswoman for the German Finance Ministry said...

MONTREAL (Thomson Financial) - Canada registered a higher-than-expected 35,000 new jobs in June, which is likely to put additional pressure on the Bank of Canada to raise its main tax rate next week, according to analysts.Canada's unemployment rate held at 6...

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - The US added slightly more payrolls than expected in June, job gains were revised sharply upward for April and May, and the June unemployment rate was unchanged, the Labor Department said today.The economy added 132,000 non-farm jobs in June, just a bit higher than the 130,000 expected by economists...

MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Italy deliveries of commercial vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes rose 2.62 pct to 23,549 in June from 22,947 a year earlier, said the Anfia and Unrae auto associations in a joint statement.Fiat brand deliveries fell 9.21 pct to 9,937 from 10,945, representing a fall in market share to 42...

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - The European Commission has asked Hungary to change its tax system for beverage containers, arguing the existing rules discriminate against products from other member states.Under Hungarian law, environmental charges are applicable to beverage containers...

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - Germany's Bundesrat -- Upper House Parliament -- has approved by a majority vote reforms which include cutting the corporate tax from around 39 pct to below 30 pct.In order to offset the estimated 5 bln eur decline in government tax revenues as a result of the corporate tax rate reduction, the new law -- effective Jan 1 2008 -- has also scrapped tax deductibles for international companies...

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - The OECD said its composite leading indicator rose to 110.1 in May from a revised 109.6 in April.The April figure was previously given as 109.9.The OECD said analysis of the CLI data points to continued moderate growth in the advanced economies in the period ahead...

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - German manufacturing orders in May rose a seasonally adjusted 3.2 pct from April, according to preliminary data from the ministry of economics and technology.Economists polled by Thomson Financial News had forecast new orders would increase at a rate of 0...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Growth in the UK manufacturing sector continued to pick up in May, with output reaching its highest level since just before the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, official figures showed today.The office for National Statistics reported that manufacturing output, which accounts for around 14...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Growth in the UK manufacturing sector continued to pick up in May, with output reaching its highest level since August 2001, official figures showed today.The office for National Statistics reported that manufacturing output, which accounts for around 14...

VIENNA (Thomson Financial) - The Austrian central bank (OeNB) said that the value of strategic investments that Austrians had made in foreign companies reached 55.5 bln eur at the end of 2005, an increase of 11.5 pct year-on-year.In its annual survey of direct investments, the OeNB established that around 430,000 persons are employed by Austrian-owned companies outside the country, almost twice the number of Austrians working for foreign-owned companies...

NEW DELHI (Thomson Financial) - India's wholesale inflation rate jumped by a surprise tenth of a percentage point in the latest survey week, fuelled by higher food prices, but it still remains at a 14-month low, official data showed Friday.The wholesale price index, India's most closely watched cost-of-living monitor, showed inflation rose to 4...

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - French provisional, seasonally-adjusted trade figures for May showed a deficit of 3.015 bln eur compared with a deficit of 2.493 bln in April, revised from a deficit of 2.833 bln eur reported originally.Exports in May totalled 32...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Companies based in or near the western Japanese city of Osaka are increasingly worried that the yen might suddenly strengthen, a senior official of the Bank of Japan said Friday.Osaka is part of a region where major exporters of electronics, such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and Sharp Corp have their headquarters...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's nine regional economies remain on the road to recovery, supported by upbeat corporate andhousehold sectors, according to the quarterly survey by Bank of Japan branch managers released onFriday."According to reports from each of the nine regions in Japan, the economy as a whole expanded moderately as all regions remained on an expansionary or recovery trend, although there were regional differences," the BoJ said in its quarterly survey, repeating its assessment made three months earlier...

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - The European Commission's willingness to consider France's request for a lower VAT rate for the restaurant trade was welcomed by the French government sources as a sign of "openness"."The European Commission has shown its openness on the issue, which wasn't the case previously," people close to finance minister Christine Lagarde told Agence France-Presse...

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - Fed policy "is likely to produce enough slack in goods and labor markets to relieve inflationary pressures," while at the same time not "exposing the economy to unnecessary risk of a downturn," according to San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen...

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's foreign exchange reserves rose to 913.57 billion US dollars at the end of June from 911.14 billion dollars in May, the Ministry of Finance said.Despite the increase, the level was still below the all-time high of 915...