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Brent crude oil futures gained on Tuesday, as the euro zone narrowly avoided recession and as better-than-forecast German first quarter GDP data raised hopes that Germany will steer the way through the European debt crisis. The euro zone economy stagnated, with zero growth, the EU's statistics office Eurostat said on Tuesday. The results were more positive than forecast, boosting riskier assets, but the region's debt crisis has sapped the life out of the French and Italian economies and widened a split with paymaster Germany. Brent crude rebounded from earlier losses, rising by 30 cents to $111.87 a barrel by 05:34 a.m. EDT (0934 GMT) after sliding to $110.04 on Monday, its lowest intraday price since January 25. U.S. crude dropped 22 cents to $94.56 a barrel, after Monday's fall to $ ...

Markets focus to see whether the ECB paves the way for further easing Economic Data (RU) Russia Gold & Forex Reserve w/e Apr 27th: $523.3B v $519.5B prior (IN) India Apr Markit Services PMI: 52.8 v 52.3 prior (UK) Apr Nationwide House Prices M/M: -0.2% v +0.5%e; Y/Y: -0.9% v -0.3%e (IE) Ireland Apr NCB Services PMI: 52.2 v 52.1 prior (CH) Swiss Q1 UBS Real Estate Bubble Index: 0.95 v 0.80 prior (HU) Hungary Feb Final Trade Balance: €691.2M v €690.1M prelim (TR) Turkey Apr Consumer Prices M/M: 1.5% v 1.4%e; Y/Y: 11.1% v 11.0%e; Core CPI Y/Y: 0.1% v 7.9% prior (TR) Turkey Apr Producer Prices M/M: 0.1 v 0.4% prior; Y/Y: 7.7% v 8.2% prior (BR) Brazil Apr FIPE CPI: 0.5% v 0.2% prior (UK) Apr PMI Services: 53.3 v 54.1e (HK) Hong Kong Mar Retail Sales Value Y/Y: 17.3% v 14.0%e; Retail Sales ...

(Reuters) - Asian shares pushed higher on Friday on firm U.S. data despite a two-notch downgrade of Spain's credit rating that capped gains, while fresh easing measures by the Bank of Japan supported Tokyo stocks. Japan's central bank moved as expected to help fight deep deflation, initially pushing Japanese stocks up more than 1 percent and helping drag the broader Asian stock higher. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended gains to a 0.4 percent rise, headed by the technology sector with a 1.6 percent rise. At current levels, the index was set for a 0.2 percent weekly gain. Seoul shares outperformed, rising on the back of a record $5.15 billion first-quarter profit by Samsung Electronics, which boosted its shares by more than 3 percent to an all-time ...

(Reuters) - Gold rose for a third day on Thursday as weak employment figures and a pledge by the Federal Reserve the previous day to keep interest rates near zero weighed on the dollar and teased out some investor demand. Data showed first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the United States were broadly unchanged last week, while a longer-term gauge rose to its highest level since January, undermining the dollar.. Gold usually trades inversely to the dollar as weakness in the U.S. currency makes it cheaper for non-U.S. investors to buy the metal. Spot gold was up 0.4 percent at $1,649.84 an ounce at 1355 GMT, while U.S. gold futures for June delivery were up 0.5 percent at $1,651.00. "There is little reason to sell gold at the moment," Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB ...

(Reuters) - The Bank of Japan is likely to ease monetary policy on Friday by boosting asset purchases by up to 10 trillion yen ($123 billion) and in doing so may extend the maturity of government bonds it targets to around three years, according to sources familiar with the central bank's thinking. The action, which would be the central bank's second easing in just over two months, would serve to show the BOJ's determination to overcome deflation and reach the 1 percent inflation target adopted at its February meeting. The central bank has been under constant pressure from politicians to do more to rev up the world's third biggest economy, and BOJ policymakers have signalled their readiness to provide more stimulus. But there is no consensus yet within the central bank on whether it ...

The amount of money thrown at rescuing the world economy since the Great Recession began is truly staggering, probably more than $14 trillion, and the financial spigots are still open. Industrialized and emerging nations pledged another $430 billion to boost the International Monetary Fund's lending power this weekend, doubling the size of its crisis-fighting war chest in case Europe's problems worsen and engulf more countries. Three weeks earlier, European Union leaders set aside $1 trillion for Europe's bailout fund creating a firewall to prevent the euro zone's sovereign debt woes from spreading. Major central banks haven't finished pumping money into the global economy either. The Federal Reserve meets on Tuesday and Wednesday and the Bank of Japan meets on Friday, and their bias ...

(Reuters) - The amount of money thrown at rescuing the world economy since the Great Recession began is truly staggering, probably more than $14 trillion, and the financial spigots are still open. Industrialized and emerging nations pledged another $430 billion to boost the International Monetary Fund's lending power this weekend, doubling the size of its crisis-fighting war chest in case Europe's problems worsen and engulf more countries. Three weeks earlier, European Union leaders set aside $1 trillion for Europe's bailout fund creating a firewall to prevent the euro zone's sovereign debt woes from spreading. Major central banks haven't finished pumping money into the global economy either. The Federal Reserve meets on Tuesday and Wednesday and the Bank of Japan meets on Friday, and ...

The Week Ahead Highlights UK Q1 GDP to put the brakes on more QE French political risk comes to a head Italy and Spain turn attention to fiscal targets BOJ to back up rhetoric with action FOMC still in wait-and-see mode Market Moves UK Q1 GDP to put the brakes on more QE The major data release in the UK this week will be the preliminary Q1 GDP reading. There is considerable uncertainty around this figure due to some strong data in the services sector, especially retail sales, balanced by some disappointments in the manufacturing and construction sectors. Retail sales for March rose 1.5%, more than the 0.4% expected. This was mostly due to the effects of good weather boosting demand for clothes, footwear and gardening equipment. This helped to reverse some of the ...

U.S. Review Look Past the Monthly Volatility and See the Trend This week of economic releases painted a somewhat mixed picture, but the underlying trend still reflects an economy that is growing at a modest pace. The milder-than-usual winter likely brought some activity forward and below-consensus readings are due in part to payback. Housing starts, existing home sales and industrial production all posted disappointing readings in March that are likely not indicative of the underlying trend. Headline retail sales, however, came in more than double the consensus estimate in March, ending the first quarter on a positive note. Early Spring Brings Payback Period The full week of economic releases painted a somewhat mixed picture, but the underlying trend still reflects an economy ...