Stocks futures rise, markets to close worst week of year »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures edged up on Friday but major indexes were setting up to close their worst week of the year, while Facebook's debut could help lift battered investor sentiment. The S&P has fallen 6.7 percent so far in May, and while volatility is expected to continue, some analysts were forecasting a near-term rebound. Investors are bracing for Facebook's Wall Street debut after the world's No. 1 online social network raised about $16 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history. ...

Investors brace for Facebook debut on Wall Street »

(Reuters) - Investors are bracing for Facebook's Wall Street debut on Friday after the world's No.1 online social network raised about $16 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history. Valued at $104 billion, Facebook is larger than Starbucks Corp and Hewlett-Packard combined, sparking intense speculation on how much higher its valuation will rise once shares start trading. "A 15 to 20 percent pop is in the realm of possibility," said Tim Loughran, a finance professor at the University of Notre Dame. ...

Banks' rising bad loans add to Spanish troubles »

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish bank bad loans rose in March to their highest in 18 years, figures from the Bank of Spain showed on Friday, underscoring the problems facing the government as it attempts to clean up the sector and get its economy back on track. The Bank of Spain said bad loans rose to 8.37 percent of the banks' outstanding loans, the highest since August 1994 and up from 8.3 percent in February, which was also revised higher. The data came as Spain was set to name independent auditors to assess how much cash its banks are likely to need to rebuild their balance sheets. ...

China cries foul after U.S. sets tariffs on solar imports »

(Reuters) - The United States imposed punitive tariffs on solar panel imports from China, the latest in a series of trade disputes between the world's two biggest economies and sparking accusations by Beijing of protectionism. The new tariffs of around 30 percent, much bigger than had been expected, were set on Thursday by the U.S. Commerce Department after it ruled in favor of local firms which said Chinese exporters were dumping cut-price panels on their market. ...

BMW eyes new production sites abroad: source »

MUNICH (Reuters) - Premium carmaker BMW is considering new production sites around the world, with one option being Mexico, a person familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday. German daily Handelsblatt earlier cited company sources as saying BMW was examining whether to build plants in Mexico and eastern Europe. It said Slovakia's Kosice and Hungary's Miskolc were possible candidates. BMW declined to comment. Earlier this month, it denied reports it plans to build an assembly plant in Slovakia. ...

Italy to keep debt profile outside riskier area »

MILAN (Reuters) - The average lifespan of Italian debt, which has fallen during the euro zone crisis as investors favor safer short-term issues, should still be close to the current level of 6.8 years at the end of 2012, a top Italian debt official said. As the average maturity of a country's debts falls, the amount of bonds it has to sell each year rises. This makes it more exposed to a worsening in market sentiment that could push borrowing costs higher, even to unaffordable levels. ...

Euro zone market turmoil to last 12-24 months: German finance minister »

PARIS (Reuters) - Market turmoil over the euro zone crisis could last another 12 to 24 months, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday, saying it was up to the Greeks to decide if they wanted to stay in the single currency. Schaeuble said he was confident France's new Socialist government would ratify Europe fiscal pact because policymakers were working on a strategy to improve growth, as demanded by French President Francois Hollande. "Regarding the crisis of confidence in the euro ... ...

Analysis: JPMorgan CEO gets crisis marks but war isn't over »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shooting from the hip may have got Jamie Dimon into deep trouble -- shooting straight may help to get him out of it. The JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO made the crisis over the bank's trading loss of at least $2 billion far worse because he had assured financial markets back in April that news reports about massive bets the bank's Chief Investment Office had taken were "a tempest in a teapot". It meant that when the bank disclosed the big and probably growing loss on May 10, it not only had to admit a sizable problem, but also that it had been misleading investors. ...

China second quarter GDP growth seen at 7.5 percent: government think-tank »

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's annual economic growth could slow to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, largely due to curbs on the property sector and headwinds from external demand, the State Information Center, a government think-tank, said in a report published on Friday. If the GDP forecast is accurate, growth in the second three months of 2012 would be the slowest since the first quarter of 2009, when the global economy was in the grip of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The forecast is in line with the government's official 2012 growth target of 7. ...

JPMorgan's Dimon says will testify before Congress »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has agreed to testify before Congress over the bank's recent trading losses, which have ignited a political debate over whether large U.S. banks need to be reined in by regulators or new laws. U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson said in a statement on Thursday that his panel will invite Dimon to appear before Congress. ...

Greek contagion threat pushes global shares into red for year »

LONDON (Reuters) - World shares slid and German borrowing costs hit record lows on Friday as a deepening Spanish banking crisis, uncertainty about Greece's future in the euro zone and lackluster U.S. data bolstered safe-haven assets. World stocks, as measured by the MSCI index , dropped 0.7 percent and are now below where they began the year, having relinquished all the first-quarter gains fuelled by the European Central Bank's injection of more than a trillion euros of three-year money. That rally is now a distant memory as an ugly week for stock markets looked likely to end even uglier. ...

EU, ECB working on Greece exit contingency: trade commissioner »

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission and the European Central Bank are working on scenarios in case Greece has to leave the euro zone, EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht has said. Speculation about such planning has been rife, but the comments in a newspaper interview, confirmed by a person close to De Gucht, appear to be the first time an EU official has acknowledged the existence of contingency plans being drawn up in case Greece has to drop out of the currency bloc. ...

JPMorgan's Dimon says will testify before Congress »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has agreed to testify before Congress over the bank's recent trading losses, which have ignited a political debate over whether large U.S. banks need to be reined in by regulators or new laws. U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson said in a statement on Thursday that his panel will invite Dimon to appear before Congress. ...

GM ad move followed failed Facebook pitch: sources »

DETROIT/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Facebook may only have itself to blame for why General Motors rained on its IPO parade this week. GM announced the decision to drop Facebook paid ads on Tuesday in what was the first highly visible crack in Facebook's strategy and illustrated doubts about its perceived advantage over traditional media. GM's decision followed Facebook officials' failure to convince top marketing executives at the U.S. automaker of the benefits of Facebook's paid ads at a meeting that took place in the past few weeks, people familiar with the meeting said on Thursday. ...

Analysis: China's towering metal stockpiles cast economic shadow »

QINGDAO, China (Reuters) - When metals warehouses in top consumer China are so full that workers start stockpiling iron ore in granaries and copper in car parks, you know the global economy could be in trouble. At Qingdao Port, home to one of China's largest iron ore terminals, hundreds of mounds of iron ore, each as tall as a three-storey building, spill over into an area signposted "grains storage" and almost to the street. ...

Spain beset by bank crisis, downgrades, bond pressure »

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's borrowing costs shot up at a bond auction on Thursday and its troubled banks suffered a double blow, with shares in part-nationalized Bankia diving and 16 lenders - including the euro zone's biggest - having their credit ratings cut. Official data confirmed Spain was back in recession and a newspaper reported a big outflow of deposits from Bankia, but the government said it had taken a fundamental step to strengthen Spain's credibility by agreeing big budget cuts with the country's free-spending regions. ...

Spain hires Goldman Sachs to value Bankia: report »

MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish government has hired Goldman Sachs to carry out an independent valuation of Bankia , the ailing bank taken over by the state last week, Spanish newspaper Expansion said on Friday. The U.S. bank will review Bankia's and its parent company BFA's books and determine within a month how much the state should inject to refloat the lender, which had to be rescued after its auditor, Deloitte, identified several gaps in last year's accounts. ...

MF Global clients bash fat fees, seek quick wind-down »

(Reuters) - The legal team winding down MF Global's bankruptcy estate, led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, estimates the fees charged by the team and other professionals have reached nearly $25 million since the bankruptcy was filed in October. Now a customer group is planning to ask that the case be streamlined so that those professionals -- especially Freeh -- receive less and customers receive more. On Friday, a coalition of former MF Global customers plans to argue in U.S. ...

GE aims to double China JVs to around 56 in five years »

HONG KONG (Reuters) - General Electric Co aims to double the number of joint ventures it has in China from the current 28 in roughly five years, its vice-chairman said on Friday. John Rice, who is based in Hong Kong and runs the company's global operations, said GE will buy more, sell more and make more in China. Rice was speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce event in the city. The largest U.S. conglomerate makes electric turbines, water-purification systems, medical equipment and other infrastructure equipment that developing nations invest in as they industrialize. ...

Nervous investors send S&P lower for fifth day »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks hit a four-month low on Thursday as rising Spanish bond yields increased investor anxiety over that country's banks and another round of weak data undermined hopes for U.S. economic recovery. Growing worries over developments in the euro zone and lackluster economic data pushed the S&P's losing streak to five consecutive days. The index, which closed at a level not seen since mid-January, has now relinquished more than half of its gains from the first quarter. ...