Goldman Sachs Group saw $2.15 billion of its market value wiped out after an employee assailed Chief executive officer Lloyd C Blankfein&rsquo;s management and the firm&rsquo;s treatment of clients, sparking debate across Wall Street.

Roiled by op-ed, Goldman loses $2.15 bn m-cap

Business Standard

JPMorgan Chase &amp; Co, the biggest US bank, surprised investors and the Federal Reserve when the firm announced two days early that it had received regulatory approval for a 20 per cent dividend increase.

JPMorgan dividend irks Fed, surprises investors

The new &ldquo;Angry Birds Space&rdquo; edition of the world&rsquo;s most popular mobile-phone game won&rsquo;t appear on Microsoft Corp&rsquo;s Windows Phone platform in a blow to handset maker Nokia Oyj.

Angry Birds game skips Windows Phone

Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) has been ousted from the top spot for smartphone shipments in its home market for the first time, trailing Apple Inc&rsquo;s iPhone.

BlackBerry loses top spot to Apple 

Billionaire Anil Agarwal&rsquo;s Vedanta Group has offered Rs 17,000 crore ($3.4 billion) to buy the government&rsquo;s remaining stakes in Hindustan Zinc Ltd and Bharat Aluminium Co, a ministry official said.

Vedanta ups the ante for Balco, Hindustan Zinc

Japan reported an unexpected trade surplus for February and higher-than-forecast exports, adding to evidence of a rebound in the world&rsquo;s third-biggest economy.

Japan posts trade surplus 

Applications for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in four years, reinforcing signs the US labour market is picking up.

US jobless claims at 4-yr low

The Reserve Bank of India&rsquo;s tomes on interest-rate policy made Subir Gokarn despair when he was a Standard &amp; Poor&rsquo;s economist. Now a deputy governor, he&rsquo;s part of the biggest communication overhaul in the bank&rsquo;s 77-year history. &ldquo;That really wasn&rsquo;t the best way to do it,&rdquo; Gokarn, who joined the RBI in 2009, said in an interview last month.

Subbarao boosts transparency in RBI 

The Obama administration is sending a message to major buyers of Iranian oil &mdash; in particular China, India and South Korea &mdash; that they can avoid new US sanctions by curtailing their imports of Iranian crude by the end of June, several US officials said.

Cut Iran imports to gain waivers, US signals Asia 

Coal imports by India, the world&rsquo;s third-largest user of the fuel, fell 13 per cent in February from the previous month as slowing economic growth hurt demand, according to port data.

Coal imports decline 13% in February

Nickel ore and bauxite shipments from Indonesia, the top supplier to China, may plunge 75 per cent this year as a ban on metal ore sales comes into force in May, two years earlier than scheduled, said an industry group. The ban, originally set for 2014, was brought forward as exports surged in the past three years, Syahrir Abubakar, executive director of the Indonesia Mining Association, said in an interview. The country shipped 33 million tonnes of nickel ore and 40 million tonnes of bauxite in 2011, he said. China, the world&rsquo;s biggest metal user, bought about 80 per cent of its bauxite and 53 per cent of its nickel ore from the southeast Asian nation last year, customs data showed. Declining shipments may increase competition for supplies among Chinese processors, potentially benefiting nickel-ore mining companies in the Philippines and boosting prices.

Nickel, bauxite exports from Indonesia to decline on ban

Credit-default swaps dealers will hold an auction to settle as much as $3.2 billion of Greek bond insurance triggered by the nation&rsquo;s debt restructuring.

Greece auction to settle $3.2-bn credit-default swaps

After targeting global banks deemed too big to fail, regulators are weighing tougher capital rules for lenders whose collapse would affect national economies. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is considering extra reserve requirements and tougher oversight for smaller lenders that aren&rsquo;t caught by measures to protect the world economy from meltdown. The possible firewalls would be discussed at a two-day meeting of the group that starts tomorrow.

Basel group said to consider national firewalls for banks

The indicated discount of European Union aviation carbon allowances for December over those for all emitters, including factories and power stations, shows that some traders may be concerned that airlines will be excluded from the programme, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.

EU airline carbon discount signals poor demand

Berkshire Hathaway Inc&rsquo;s board of directors should update shareholders annually on the status of Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett&rsquo;s successor, to ensure the firm sticks to a plan to name an insider, the AFL-CIO said.

Berkshire succession under scrutiny 

European construction output dropped for a second month in January, as declines in Spain and Italy offset gains in Germany and France.

Euro construction output fell in January

Britain won't ease austerity in its budget to be presented this week, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said in an interview to be aired on Sunday on CNN's &quot;Fareed Zakaria GPS&quot; program.

Britain to stick with austerity 

James Murdoch, News Corp's deputy chief operating officer, will leave the board of Sotheby's auction house, following demands he resign over his role in a UK phone-hacking scandal.

James Murdoch to leave Sotheby's board

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said he told staff not to circulate a Goldman Sachs Group Inc employee&rsquo;s op-ed criticising that firm and that it wasn&rsquo;t fair for a newspaper to publish it.

Morgan Stanley CEO told staff not to share op-ed

Emerging-market stock funds are enjoying their best start to a year since 2006 in terms of inflows, according to data collated by EPFR Global.

Emerging-market equity fund flows highest since 2006, says EPFR 

Greece remains &quot;accident prone&quot; and may require further debt restructuring or additional financing from euro countries if it struggles to implement measures attached to a new Euro 130-billion ($171 billion) bailout, staff at the International Monetary Fund said.

Bloomberg

Bloomberg

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