The mergers and acquisitions activity for companies supported by venture capital has continued to decline even with the sizable acquisition of Nest Labs by Google, The WSJ's Digits reports.

Investors pulled out money from hedge funds at the fastest rate for more than four years in December, following a year in which many managers' performance disappointed, new data showed on Monday.

Institutional investors contributed $216.56 billion to US private equity funds last year, a sign of their renewed confidence in the asset class, a report from Private Equity Beat of The Wall Street Journal Blogs said.

The Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission will be supervising companies scheduled to hold their IPOs more strictly as it plans to hold spot checks for investor roadshows, Bloomberg reported.

As the US economy shows signs of improvement and the dollar continues to show signs of growing strength, emerging markets could experience a crises, the Financial Times reported.

The 2012 controversy involving the private equity industry and Washington has not stopped the industry from continuing to offer former public officials with huge paydays, Politico reported.

The Bank of America is discouraging its junior investment bankers from working on weekends as it seeks to promote better work-life balance for its employees, the Financial Times reported.

Ian Brady, chief investment officer of California-based firm Oak Tree Wealth Management Ltd, cautioned about taking risk in credit and property, saying performance in 2014 will be hard to come by.

Brazil and China like Russia are large population countries with a growing middle class that is ripe for more consumer-facing clones, clonentrepreneurs and Clonentrepreneurship.

Many large US retailers on Thursday dialed back their earnings forecasts because of steep discounts they offered during the holidays. Discounts boosted overall industry sales but hurt profits at many retail chains.