Mitt Romney has raised $14m (£9m) for his campaign in the third quarter to finance his run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, close to the $17m raised by Texas Governor Rick Perry. Though both have around $15m cash in hand, but their fundraising totals for the third quarter were dwarfed by President Barack Obama's $70m in the same period. These figures don’t include funds edged by interest groups. Among the Republicans seeking resources in the months leading up to the first salvos in the primary campaign, Mr Romney and Mr Perry have the largest war chests in New Hampshire and lowa. The fund will be needed to shell out staff, travel and advertising costs as the movement hauls on.

On Contrary, Mr Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, reported donations of just $4m, and has only $300,000 cash in the bank. Recently he congested his campaign office in Florida and refocused his endeavors in New Hampshire. Friday showed that he would stay away from emerging debate in Nevada and persist to campaign in New Hampshire. One day before the cut-off date to detail donations up unto 30^th September Michele Bachmann’s campaign has been unable to dispose third party quarter report. Though the New York Times reported that she told supporters that she had about 92,000 individual donations during the period averaging $42.

This would put her third quarter fundraising at a level around $4m which is similar to the level of Mr Huntsman. Candidates are suppose to file with the Federal Election Commission by 15 October.

As expected, one can now safely say that UK households are suffering a tighter squeeze on disposable incomes in comparison to other European countries and US because of the weakness of sterling.

The survey of Haver Analytics has come to the conclusion that real disposable income is dipping at a rate of around 3 per cent in the UK, but is contracting by just 0.5 per cent in the eurozone and continues to increase by 2 per cent in the US. I have no doubt in my mind that the main squeeze on households has come from increasing energy and food prices, uniform around the globe, but the weak pound has exacerbated the issue in the UK.

It is the devaluation of the pound that has added to pressures on households. All other things being equal, we would still be paying more for imports than they [the US and Europe] would,” said Peter Spencer, professor of economics and finance at the University of York.

In terms of statistics, the pound has dip by about 20 per cent against a basket of currencies since 2007, increasing the imports cost. The significant factor here is that as the UK is a net importer, the household’s squeeze has been more marked than the advantages of more competitive exports enjoyed by manufacturers. If experts are to be believed, households are now forecast to suffer a second successive year of sliding real disposable incomes, after witnessing the biggest dip in spending power in 34 years.

There are lots of experts who are of the opinion that the Bank of England should increase rates to strengthen the pound and minimize imported inflation. However, the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee is all set to leave rates at 0.5 per cent for the 29th month running.

Four days and the dow jones has rallied by 400 points much to the relief of the investros. The Dow added more than 150 points Thursday alone after Greece cleared the final hurdle needed to receive its next installment of emergency loans. A pickup in manufacturing around Chicago also pushed indexes higher.

The late surge was not enough to turn the broader stock market positive for the month, but it brought the Dow up 0.8 percent for the quarter. The Standard & Poor's 500 index and Nasdaq composite each lost about 0.3 percent for the month.

Greek lawmakers passed a cost-cutting bill that had to be approved before international lenders would release $17 billion in rescue funds to Greece. Disruption from Greece could put the entire European economy into a deeper crisis. The country needs the money to avoid defaulting on its debt.

Traders were also reassured by encouraging signals about the U.S. economy. A trade group reported that manufacturing in Chicago had sped up unexpectedly in June. Analysts had forecast a decline. Earlier in the week, Nike Inc. reported earnings that were better than analysts had predicted. That led many investors to believe that high gas prices haven't stopped consumers from spending on non-necessities.

Companies that typically benefit from global expansion led the Dow. Intel Corp., Caterpillar Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Co. each gained more than 2.4 percent. Stocks are still below the 2011 highs they reached in late April, when a series of weak economic reports indicated that the U.S. economy was slowing down. Since then, investors have been debating whether the slowdown is just a blip or the beginning of a long stall in the economic recovery.

The manufacturing report, along with the government's formal end to its bond-buying stimulus program known as QE2, sent bond prices lower as investors put less money into safer assets. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury rose to 3.16 percent from 3.11 percent late Wednesday

Among U.S. companies, metals manufacturer Worthington Industries Inc. jumped nearly 10 percent after the company raised its quarterly dividend and said it would buy back up to 10 million shares of its own stock. Callaway Golf Co. fell 1.7 percent after the company shook up its leadership, announced job cuts, and said it expected to have weak results in the second quarter

A rebound in U.S. manufacturing surprised investors Friday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average up nearly 170 points. The Dow ended up 648 points, or 5.4 percent, for the week. It was the index's best week in two years.

Zynga the creators of Farmville game have also decided to go in for a public offer Zynga Inc. hopes to raise up to $1 billion in an initial public offering that follows LinkedIn's sizzling stock market debut last month. This could mean a start of a series of tech ipo’s which could raise fears of another tech bubble in the due course.

Friday's Institute for Supply Management report showed that manufacturing across the country had expanded, reinforcing the growing perception that the slowdown was temporary. It's quite a turnaround from May and early JuneA shortage of computer chips and auto parts from Japan, higher gas prices and severe weather in the South all contributed to what appeared to be a slowdown in the economic recovery. Stocks had lost most of their gains for the year by mid-June.

All 30 stocks in the index rose Friday. Companies that do well during times of economic expansion led the index. Alcoa Inc. and Caterpillar Inc. each gained more than 2 percent.

A rebound in automobile sales also helped send stock indexes higher on Friday. General Motors and Ford Inc. both said that their sales rose 10 percent over this time last year. Car companies have been forced to slow the production of some models because of the shortage of parts following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Honda and Toyota said recently that their North American production is beginning to return to normal. That has helped push the national manufacturing index higher. The ISM index rose to 55.3 in June from 53.5 the month before based on a scale in which a number above 50 indicates growth.

Better earnings along with improvement in sales could help push the markets to newer highs. One just needs to hope for the tide to turn in these testing times for the markets.

There will be a doubling of average price of staple foods in the next 20 years according to a warning by Oxfam. This will lead to an unprecedented drawback in human development says the agency.

Research to be published on Wednesday predicts international prices of staples such as maize to surge by as much as 180% by 2030. Half of that rise is because of the effect of climate change.

Hardest hit will be the world's poorest people, who spend up to 80% of their income of food. The charity said the world is entering an era of a permanent food crisis. This might coincide with political unrest and may need a radical change of the international food system.

The last few decades has seen a steady decline in the number of hungry people around the world. But the number of hungry are surging rapidly as demand overtakes food production in a Malthusian fashion. In fact, the average growth rate in agricultural output has declined by half since 1990 and is set to fall to a rate of 1% in the next decade.

Climate change, a global scramble for land and water, depleting natural resources ,the rush to turn food into biofuels, changing diets and a growing global population, – are a number of adverse factors that have created the conditions for an increase in serious poverty.

"We are sleepwalking towards an age of avoidable crisis," Oxfam's chief executive, Barbara Stocking, said. "One in seven people on the planet go hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone. The food system must be overhauled."

Oxfam met with prime minister, David Cameron, and other G20 leaders to make an agreement for new rules to oversee food markets. The British charity wants greater control of commodities markets to reduce volatility in prices.

It said food reserves of the world must be urgently replenished and governments of the West must end promotion of biofuels that divert vital food to fuel for vehicles.

It also attacked the excessive concentration of corporates in the food sector, especially in trading of grains and in agrochemicals and seeds.

The Oxfam report was made public after warnings from the UN last week that food prices are likely to touch new heights in the coming few weeks, also causing unrest in developing countries. There was a rise of 70% in average global price of cereals to a new high in the year prior to April.

Fear of shortages this year have been fuelled by drought in the major crop-growing areas of Europe and intense rain and tornadoes in the US.

In April, one of the major software company announced that it had got a takeover approach.

When Micro Focus’ shares ticked higher at the time of morning trading amid rumor that another private equity firm had come into the whole deal, situation got even trickier. At midday, Micro Focus announced in media that it had got number of approaches, including from Bain and Advent, although there was no certainty an offer would be forthcoming.

Whatever be the case, the shares saw a jump of 28.8 to 398.6p. There were reports Bain could pay between 425p and 450p a share, On the other hand, experts were of the opinion that Bain could pay 450p-455p.

Keeping aside jump in Micro Focus, the wider market took a turn for the worse.

After a good start, Wall Street weakened after clothing chain, Gap, cut its full-year profit forecasts because of increasing input costs and Fitch downgraded Greece’s credit rating.

In terms of statistics, the FTSE 100 edged down 7.5 points to 5,948.49 while the FTSE 250 managed to inch up 5.67 points to 11,992.21.Gap’s cautious approach also doesn’t help the matter, more so on British retailers, with Next shedding 42p to £22.26.

However, Associated British Foods – which runs fast fashion chain, Primark – saw an increase of 33p to £10.90 as Exane BNP Paribas upgraded its rating to “outperform” from “neutral”.

Also performing well was Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), which increase14p to £13.41 after posting full-year profits of £2.1bn. Its counterpart, Centrica, dipped 2.2 to 319.9p despite UBS naming the owner of British Gas, along with SSE, as potential takeover targets.

It was a mixed day for the banking sector. Standard Chartered jumped 17p to £16.02 as UBS upped the emerging markets-focused lender to “buy” from “neutral”. However, Lloyds Banking Group saw a dip of 1.52 to 51.61p as Goldman Sachs sounded a note of caution.

Good news for National Grid, as their profits increased by 20 percent last year. Company benefited from cold conditions in the UK and warm weather in the US. National Grid, which owns UK networks and supplies energy in the US, increased pre-tax profits for the full year from £2.1bn to £2.6bn.

Even better, company also increased its final dividend by 8pc to 23.47p per share, which will be paid on August 17. Investors will be happy with this news especially those who were surprised by a rights issue at this time last year, followed by a mixed 12 months for the company.

Despite so much profit increase, company did not get the increase in rates that they are demanding from US government. Company also cut 1,200 US jobs and is currently under enquiry over suspicions that management expenses were mistakenly passed on to US ratepayers.

When asked about the company’s US operations, Steve Holliday, chief executive, said: "That's a conversation we'll be having with our investors. The focus today is on driving costs out of our business." There are some reports in the media that National Grid has mothballed strategies to develop pioneering smart grids in New York and Massachusetts.

Mr Holliday said there were technological issues and there is still confusion regarding whether it is going to be advantageous for the customers. Indications are that National Grid will spend £3.4bn over the next year, mostly on major infrastructure upgrades in the UK.

I agree with the sentiments of various experts that National Grid will be pivotal in making sure that Britain's energy sector is given a £200bn overhaul over the next ten years. With this, the new wind farms and nuclear power stations are going to be connected to the grid. Company net debt of £18.7bn at the completion of the year was nearly £1bn lower than consensus estimates.

As expected, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley have been asked to provide details about their mortgage operations as part of a fresh enquiry by New York authorities into the financial crisis.

If media reports are to be believed, Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, is given a responsibility of analyzing how mortgage loans were repackaged and then sold on to investors in a business that generated quite a bit of money for Wall Street banks in the years before the crisis.

This latest analysis done by the New York attorney general who took office in the beginning of the year has come at a time when the weak condition of the housing market is publicized all over. Mr Schneiderman is all set to meet the officials of three banks as part of an enquiry, which is currently in its initial stages. Goldman Sachs and Bank of America are not saying anything in media while Morgan Stanley is also following a wait and watch approach. Former New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo, who is currently the state’s Governor, started enquiry into Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis, though no official charges were being made.

Almost three years on from the crisis, Wall Street banks are still facing number of lawsuits from private investors over specific agreements, but official investigations have all but completed. The conclusion of a long-running Senate committee investigation into the reason responsible for the crisis were this month passed on to the Department of Justice. The enquiry by Mr Schneiderman comes as a rising tide of home repossessions in the US put banks under further scrutiny. In my opinion, it is not a good sign for the banking sector.

The country’s biggest mortgage servicers last month signed a contract with authorities to improve the routines they follow when seizing homes amid allegations that they were not being adhered to.

Toyota has cautioned it may shift production outside of Japan for the reason that power of the yen will be harming the car manufacturer.
This yen reached post-war levels versus the dollar during March and so on Wednesday it had been uncovered its strengthening cancelled ¥290bn (£2.2bn) by Toyota's yearly net profit.
Satoshi Ozawa, Toyota's chief financial officer, explained on Wednesday: "I feel strongly that our efforts may have exceeded the limits of what is possible in dealing with the yen's impact."
Toyota makers approximately 1 / 2 their motor vehicles in Japan and it have constantly pledged to guard job in their homeland. Even so, during the beginning 3 months of this year, net earnings declined by 77pc since the effect of the recent Japan earthquake was made worse by way of the building up of the yen.

Akio Toyoda, the chief executive, stated: "I fully understand that we can't go on with just a desire to protect manufacturing in Japan.

The Japan earthquake has up to now cost ¥110bn due to the fact Toyota was made to reduce manufacturing because of a scarcity of parts as well as electric power shutdowns.
Toyota is actually operating at only 50pc involving limit in Japan along with 40pc within the other countries in the world soon after applying a number of shutdowns in factories.
Mr. Toyoda mentioned: "Our efforts to bring production to normal are advancing. At home and overseas, we are expected to recover some 70pc of normal levels by June."
Pertaining to this full-year, Toyota's gross income however increased by 0.2pc to ¥19 trillion yen since the quantity of cars made available went up by 71,000 to 7.31m. Net profit nearly doubled just from ¥209bn to ¥408bn.

A lot more US citizens were appointed last month on the contrary |without notice from 2006, information which global financial progress could possibly pick-up some more strength later during this year. Non-public business employers generated 268,000 job opportunities in April, an investigation via the Labor Department confirmed, Friday, overshadowing all the 24,000 jobs which were sliced simply by the public sector during the very same month. That was not sufficient; however, to avoid the joblessness level soaring to 9pc right from 8.8pc since far more of the nation's jobless people went into the search for work. This report delivers several facts that companies' assurance to employ seems to have outlasted the marked scaling down the gross local product within the very first quarter of this year. Equities have dropped this particular weak following earlier financial data increase concerns regarding the global economic system. Oil prices, that have slipped greatly this week concerning fears of dropping demand as well as have been dealing only $105.15 in a day, went up by $2.88 towards $113,69 since the dollar grew in opposition to a package of important foreign currencies. The increasing dollar resulted in a fall in the gold along with a boost in hard-hit sterling silver prices. Many base metals likewise became positive following the job opportunities data.

Barclays Capital sated in the note "Those who do not choose to take advantage of this window are likely to be disappointed later”

"Job creation is good. We're getting close to the point where we are seeing sustainable job growth,” said a strategist Gary Thayer working at Wells Fargo Advisors. "We're getting close to the point where we're seeing sustainable job growth."

However, the report again underlined that the recovery in the jobs market is leaving many Americans behind. Almost 6 million people or just fewer than 44 percent of the total are without work b for more than 6 months.

Maverick millionaire and real estate tycoon, Donald Trump has indicated that he might be running for president.

But he has fought shy of making a formal announcement even as his reality T.V. Show, the Apprentice is completing its season finale at the end of this month.

“In my mind, I have already decided,” Trump, 64, declared in an interview yesterday. “I am going to announce. But I can’t do anything until the show ends.”

According to Trump, he will focus on “making our country rich and respected.” This is by cutting unemployment, energising the economy and halting the tendency of China and the OPEC from exploiting the U.S.

“The OPEC nations will be acting much differently, and fuel prices will go down and the economy will become strong again,” Trump said. “They may like me or not like me, but nobody will be ripping us off.”

According to some recent polls, Trump is at the top or near the top of a large selection of potential Republican hopefuls. In a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted on April 26, Trump led the pack with 19 percent support of 1,000 primary Republican voters across the nation. The poll had an error margin of plus or minus 3% points.

According to Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain speaking on T.V., Trump has been diverting attention from campaign issues with his focus on President Barrack Obama’s birth certificate and school grades.

Donald Trump questioned whether Obama was born in the U.S. and thus eligible to be president. Trump also pointed out President’s school grades indicating Obama might have received special treatment for gaining admission to college, such as Harvard Law School.

In retaliation, on April 27, Obama publicized a long version of his birth certificate indicating he was born in Honolulu. Obama said it was time to stop being “distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers” as a reference to Trump’s trumped up controversies.

Trump replied saying he was “proud” of making the president to issue his birth certificate in a press conference early this week. Some Republicans questioned the charges made by Trump against Obama, saying it was a dirty campaign.

Obama on his part poked fun of Trump’s candidacy by running a big-screen image of the “Trump White House Resort and Casino,” with a pink neon sign, cocktails, Jacuzzis on the lawn and girls.

After Monday’s announcement, in Toronto, a huge jump of around 11.6 was seen in Equinox shares. This is a clear indication from the investors that they have firm belief and trust in the company due to different factors. On other hand, copper prices were also seen driving into record region.

There were some concerns and questions from the investors about a full-size shift into the industrial metal. The question is how the metal would work in such a scenario if gold prices are also going to attract investors in near future. Maybe due to this effect, a shed of 6.7 percent was noted with Barrick.

According to an Equinox shareholder, he thinks that Chinese have the exposure in most of the industries and if they come here there would be a high jump. There is no need to get surprised if Barrick is ready play with Chinese a game of higher prices. This deal is not going to do any good to the investors as they are already concerned about such an agreement and they have been criticizing Barrick for that.

The name of the shareholder is anonymous as he is not allowed to say anything about the deal.

Minmetals – which is considered one of the largest metal traders in the world – is listed in Hong Kong due to its highest shares and possessed by China Minmetals.

There is also news that once the acquisition is had, there would be double position of Barrick. As far as prices are concerned they are much more than expectation. During the past few years, prices risen more than seven times. Supply is not enough to meet increasing demands of developing countries and even China. If the situation continues more prices hike would be seen in near future.

On Wednesday, gold prices soared to a record $1500 per oz. As the health of the world economy comes to be a cause for worry, gold is emerging as a safe investment.

Spot rates of gold touched a height of $1,505.21 per ounce on Wednesday as compared to $1,493.90 in New York, late Tuesday. Gold futures in USA, for delivery in June increased by $10.60 an ounce to touch $1,505.70. Also, silver has also outperformed all other precious metals, hitting a 31 year high touching $44.56 per oz.

In April, gold prices are rising by 5% and as a result gold is becoming a safe investment without risk. This is against the economic uncertainty in the US as well as the world economy. Economic uncertainty is making people attracted to gold, more than ever.

Investors in Europe and the US are voting for gold for hedging against currency devaluation and as a store of value. But demand in China and India is rising due to rising disposable incomes and high inflation.

Inflation is at a ten-year high in China, so demand for gold as a safe investment is on the rise. China is the leading producer of gold in the world and the second largest consumer behind India.

Losses in the value of the dollar are boosting the trading of gold above $1500 an oz. The weak dollar makes gold attractive as an alternative asset as well as makes commodities traded in Dollars cheaper for others.

Oil prices have zoomed as political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East threaten to stop oil supplies. High oil prices boost demand for gold as gold becomes an asset that can hedge against oil-led inflation.

The value of Silver vis-a-vis Gold also touched a record high trading at 33.8 oz: 1 oz of gold. Platinum and Palladium also gained in value marginally.

If you are not very happy with the performance of Cisco Systems Inc. in the last two quarters, you do not need to worry as you have an option of a new networking stock, which is also one of the biggest competitors of Cisco, Juniper Networks Inc.

When one take into consideration charts of the two networking companies since last November, you will get a clear idea of the fact that as the performance of Cisco has dipped, Juniper gained in popularity with investors. As a matter of fact, even after slightly disappointing first quarter earnings, Juniper was trading at about 24 times 2011 earnings estimates. On the other side of the coin, Cisco is trading at a relatively abysmal 10 times 2011 estimates. No doubt, Cisco is the world’s largest networking company, but still it is losing some market share in its core networking products because of stiff competition from the likes of Juniper.

Juniper is performing well on Wall Street for its recent innovations. Their plus point is the management team that includes a founder Pradeep Sindhu, who is the company’s chief technical officer and vice chairman. Current chief executive, Kevin Johnson, joined Juniper in 2008, after leaving Microsoft Corp. In my opinion, Juniper is in the midst of what can be termed as the most powerful product cycle in the company history. Some of the new products of Juniper like QFabric switch for big corporate data centers are doing pretty well. The company has also come up with a wireless networking strategy over the last two years, with the buzzword being Project Falcon, now called its MobileNext family.

According to one estimate, since Cisco’s revised outlook, Juniper’s shares have increased about 13%. However, company need to show some financial discipline if they are to maintain this surge.

James Gorman, chief executive officer, Morgan Stanley has received a $14 million compensation package for his first year. The compensation package is short of a million from what he was awarded in 2009 because of a fall in the company’s profits.

Gorman received a $1.55 million cash bonus and a deferred cash bonus of $2.33 million which can be taken back, in addition to his salary, stock, option awards, among other compensation. Around $1.94 million of Gorman’s $5.82 million in stock compensation currently depends on the company’s performance.

In a letter to the company’s shareholders, Gorman said that keeping in mind the current situation and also because the company could not meet its expected financial priorities for the current year even his compensation as CEO was reduced.

Morgan Stanley announced that members of the operating committee would receive around 80 percent of their year-end pay in deferred compensation.

Gorman said that corporate confidence had improved with an increase in M&A activity, higher investor engagement, and the subsequent growth in emerging markets. He added that the company would not be focussing on building operations in China, Brazil, and India.

Ruth Porat, chief financial officer, was awarded $11.5 million in total compensation which includes $1.48 million cash bonus, $5.2 million in stock and options, $4.07 million in deferred cash and at-risk stock, and $756,100 in salary and other benefits.

Walid Chammah, chairman, Morgan Stanley International, was awarded $10.6 million in total compensation which includes $1.74 million cash bonus, $2.61 million in stock awards, $4.34 million in deferred cash and at-risk stock, and $1.95 million in salary, and other benefits.

Greg Fleming, head of asset management, also in-charge of retail-brokerage unit, received a $10 million package which includes a $1.4 million cash bonus, $4 million in stock and options, $3.9 million in deferred cash and at-risk stock, plus a salary of $671,918.

The company has asked its shareholders to keep aside 35 million shares to cover compensation for 2011even though regulators say that stock comprises a greater proportion of pay. During the last year, shareholders had approved 38 million additional shares which were used for equity-based compensation.

China's growth dropped a little in the first quarter, however its inflation is at a 32-month high. This has put a lot of pressure on the government to bring in measures to control rise in prices while maintaining stability within the economy.

The country’s gross domestic product has seen a jump of 9.7 percent in the first quarter which is higher than the estimated 9.5 percent. Consumer price inflation has gone up 5.4 percent which is the fastest since July 2008.

According to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics the world's second-largest economy is still moving at a fast pace. The central bank's half-year tightening move, which had investors worried, has done little to stop China’s growth.

Sun Miaoling, an economist with CICC, the largest Chinese investment bank said that they were not expecting to see any easing in inflation pressure and that consumer inflation would continue to remain high in the second quarter. She added that this might force the central bank to bring in tighter monetary policies.

Agricultural prices have been the main reason behind the jump in inflation as food costs went up 11.7 percent. Non-food items have also seen increasing prices and have pushed inflation up 2.7 percent.

Brian Jackson, economist with Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong said that increasing oil prices will also push inflation up. This could also mean that policy rates need to move higher and Beijing might even decide to appreciate the currency further to rein in inflation she added.

China has kept a tight hold on the Yuan, and has managed to guide its exchange rate to record highs against the dollar.

Everyone, from the World Bank to Chinese leaders agree that the country has to promote more domestic consumption while cutting down on both exports and energy-intensive investment.

It remains to be seen how much of the apparent rebalancing was a product of soaring global oil costs, which both boosted China's import bill and inflated consumption in price terms.

President Hu Jintao, while addressing a business forum in southern China on Friday, said that a lot had to be done to improve the country’s economy. He added that the next five years were going to be crucial as China will be focusing more on improving consumer and domestic demand.

Unilever and Procter & Gamble have been fined 315.2 million euros by EU regulators for their alleged involvement in fixing the prices of washing powder in eight EU countries.

Henkel which alerted the European Commission to the price fixing by the two consumer products giants was not fined.

Joaquin Almunia, Commissioner EU Competition said that the price fixing cartel started with the companies using trade associations to help them make their detergents environmental friendly. He also said that the companies involved had agreed to keep their prices low when reducing the size of their product packages and then subsequently increasing the prices at a later stage. The companies agreed to their involvement in the cartel, which made it easy for the Commission to move in and conclude their investigations Almunia added.

The countries where the price fixing cartel operated between 2002 and 2005 are Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Unilever in a statement said that their top managers across Europe are fully aware of the European competition rules and are capable of participating completely across the industry to work on environmental initiatives.

P&G said they were prepared with the appropriate financial reserves required for the case. Paul Fox, P&G spokesman said that they had already initiated necessary internal assessment actions such as building on their global compliance program, and making sure key policies were in place.

Henkel made it clear that the ongoing cartel activities were unearthed while they were carrying out internal compliance audits in 2008. As soon as the company realised what was happening, they alerted the regulators.

Unilever shares rose by 0.8 percent in London while Henkel stock went up 0.9 percent. P&G shares rose 1 cent on the New York Stock Exchange.

The EU Commission has the authority to fine companies up to 10 percent of their annual turnover for breaking any of the EU competition rules.

The EU watchdog which suspected the three firms of price fixing carried out their raids in June 2008. It also dug out information from U.S.-based household products firm Sara Lee over the matter. The combined fines imposed on the cartel total almost 12 billion euros in the five years up until 2010.

Google Inc. will announce its gains in profit and sales on Thursday, in an earnings report which will posted under chief executive Larry Page.

Google is said to have profited from its online advertising services. FactSet Research surveyed analysts who estimate that Google will report its first-quarter earnings, leaving out one-time items of $8.14 a share and $6.3 billion in net revenue. Google’s shares closed at $578.16 on Friday.

Analyst at Kaufman Bros. Mayuresh Masurekar, in a recent research note said that Google’s popular search advertisements have grown almost 11% in the first quarter. The growth is significantly higher and better than what they had expected. He also added that advertising by financial industry had risen 40%, which easily offset the 30% decline in advertising prices of the travel industry while paid clicks, used to measure the rate of users click on the company’s advertising increased by16% in the quarter.

According to data from comScores, as of February, Google held more than 65% of the U.S. market. Page took over from Eric Schmidt, as CEO earlier this month. Eric Schmidt who had lead the company through an impressive growth period will now assume the role of executive chairman.

Page has already initiated a management restructuring. One of the noticeable changes is the promotion of Andy Rubin who currently takes care of the company’s Android mobile software. Senior vice president Jonathan Rosenberg announced that he will be leaving the company sometime later this year.

In a bid to match competition from social networking sites such as Facebook, Page has decided to merge employee bonuses to the company’s growth efforts. The company has also employed several social-networking tools, such as the newly introduced +1 service. The move has bought mixed results so far.

At present Google is facing fresh challenges from antitrust regulators. Although it won an approval on Friday for its $700 million purchase of ITA Software, the agreement came through with the involvement of the Justice Department which will be keeping tabs on Google to see if it will licence ITA’s technology to its rivals.

Analyst at Standard & Poor’s Equity Research, Scott Kessler in a note said that Google’s decision to involve the Justice Department was logical. He also added that the move will in no way impact the financial benefits for Google from owning ITA.

Home prices have fallen again according to reports from real-estate data company CoreLogic Inc. This is the seventh month in a row that real estate prices are going down as the U.S market is being flooded with distressed properties.

CoreLogic’s said that the national home price index has gone down 6.7% in February, as opposed to the price index during the same month last year. The fall in index reading for the month of February is much greater than the decline witnessed in the index reading for January which was 5.5% lower than what it was last year.

After more than nearly three years since house prices began to go down in the United States, the market is still being flooded by distressed properties. This had made it very hard for the market to digest the millions of properties which are in either in for foreclosure or are in some other stage of being auctioned or sold off.

According to CoreLogic estimates, during the month of January, close to 1.8 million residential units were in the doldrums in the market.

After discounting sales of distressed properties, CoreLogic estimates that home prices declined by 0.1% in February, compared to the fall in prices last year.

However, in-spite of the overall decline in prices of distressed properties, home prices which do not include distressed properties have shown signs of stability, says Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic.

Fleming says that if distressed properties are removed from the picture, there is a noticeable reduction in the pace of depreciation which could translate into greater stability across the markets.

He also noted that the decline in prices was largely seen in the distressed segment of the market which is mainly in the form of real estate owned sales which essentially finds itself ending up in books of banks and other mortgaging institutions after foreclosure auction fail.

This is apparent as stock of foreclosures is slowly being cleared up.

Oil hit $109 a barrel in a new 30-month high on Wednesday. The jump is a result of the decline of the dollar against other major currencies and also because crude supplies fell last week in an unexpected turn of events.

During the morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Benchmark West Texas Intermediate gained 26 cents at $108.60 per barrel. However, the jump to $109.15 per barrel, which is the highest since September 2008, happed early in the day.

Oil prices have been witnessing a steady hike in the recent weeks due to the unrest in oil rich Libya. Rebels have put a stop to most of the country’s exports, causing concern among energy traders dependent on future supplies from the region. Oil production in Libya accounts for nearly 2 percent of the world's oil supply and an indefinite shutdown will place a lot of pressure on OPEC members who are trying to make up for the shortage.

Reports from AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service, gasoline pump prices have seen a sharp price increase of $3.71 per gallon. Prices of the pumps have gone up almost 64 cents per gallon since early this year and they are now priced at more than $4 per gallon in California, Hawaii and Alaska.

As reports from the American Petroleum Institute stating U.S crude supplies had fallen by 2.8 million barrels last week essentially led to the increase in Oil prices. Analysts believed there would be an increase of 1.3 million barrels.

Further information on supplies will be made available only after the Energy Department releases its report on Wednesday morning.

The notorious relation between the Dollar and price of oil is inversely proportional; an increase in the value of the dollar will bring about a drop in oil prices. However, anytime the dollar looses ground against other major currencies, oil prices invariable increase.

The euro rose to a 15-month high against the dollar just before the European Central Bank could increase interest rates.

Among other Nymex trading, heating oil went up 2.37 cents to reach $3.2087 per gallon and gasoline saw a dip of one cent to $3.1921 per gallon. Natural gas went down 2 cents and was priced $4.207 per 1,000 cubic feet.