U.S. crude traded above $48 on Friday after the University of Michigan released a report showing U.S. consumer sentiment reached its highest level in more than a decade in December.
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ECB's Draghi meets Merkel ahead of crunch meeting
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Wednesday, a government spokesman said, ahead of a key ECB meeting at which the bank is poised to announce a scheme to print fresh money to buy state bonds.
Greek central bank asks ECB to allow emergency bank lending line if needed
Greece's central bank has moved to protect its banks from any fallout from the coming general election, asking the European Central Bank to approve a stand-by domestic emergency funding line, a Bank of Greece official said on Saturday.
China central bank scholar sees GDP growth up to 7.3 percent in 2015: Xinhua
China's economic growth may be as high as 7.3 percent this year, partly due to falling commodity prices, the official Xinhua news agency quoted an academic advisor to the central bank's monetary policy committee as saying on Saturday.
Large Everest Capital hedge fund closing after Swiss franc losses: Bloomberg
Hedge fund manager Marko Dimitrijevic is closing his largest hedge fund, Everest Capital's Global Fund, having lost almost all its money after the Swiss National Bank (SNB) scrapped its three-year-old cap on the franc against the euro, Bloomberg news reported on Saturday.
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The chief executive of Deutsche Bank's (DBKGn.DE) retail arm Postbank (DPBGn.DE) strongly advocates having Deutsche sell a large portion of Postbank's shares on the stock market rather than to another bank, a German magazine reported on Saturday.
The Obama administration is asking Wall Street to explain why the yields investors are demanding to compensate them for inflation have dropped since August, the U.S. Treasury said on Friday.
Target Corp was scrambling for ways to fix its failing Canadian expansion and considering closing just the weakest locations, but a pre-holiday visit to several stores by CEO Brian Cornell helped seal the decision for a full retreat.
GlaxoSmithKline could consider more partial public share offerings for component units as it evolves in the coming years, potentially pointing to a break-up of the group if this offers value to shareholders.
Deutsche Telekom considered making a takeover bid for Dutch rival KPN in 2014, with a view to expanding in neighboring countries, sources familiar with the matter said.
China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), the world's biggest e-commerce company, is piloting a mobile messaging app aimed at marrying social networking with business, an Alibaba spokeswoman said on Friday, as the company expands its enterprise services.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has stepped up its investments in Italy by buying 2 percent of power grid operator Terna, the latest in a series of such purchases in large Italian companies.
The New York Post said some of its Twitter accounts were hacked on Friday, in the wake of a series of inaccurate posts on the social network relating to the Federal Reserve, Bank of America and U.S. military engagement with China.
Google Inc is in talks to buy mobile-payments company Softcard, technology news website TechCrunch reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
