RBNZ battles Japan FX day-traders post-intervention

(Reuters) - Japanese day traders and other individual traders nearly
doubled their bets on a stronger New Zealand dollar on Monday
after the selling by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in its first
intervention since the NZ dollar was allowed to trade freely in
1985.




Data from the Tokyo Financial Exchange showed that Japanese
margin traders -- who use borrowed funds to boost the size of
their bets -- raised their positions in the New Zealand dollar to
$347 million from $180 million the previous day.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

Saudi Aramco Starts Ras Tanura Asphalt Unit After May Maintenance Shutdown

(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Aramco, the world's largest
state-owned oil company, started its Ras Tanura refinery's asphalt
unit after shutting it in May for maintenance.

``The start-up was yesterday,'' Fuad al-Therman, the
company's public relations department manager, said in an e-mailed
statement today.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

Mauritius sees record trade deficit in 2007

(Reuters) - Mauritius expects its trade deficit to widen 3.9 percent to a record 43 billion Mauritius rupees in 2007 from 41.4 billion rupees in the previous year, the Central Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

"Based on trends for previous years, total exports for the year 2007 are expected to be of the order of 83,000 million rupees, against imports of 126,000 million rupees," the CSO said, noting the import of aircraft worth 2.9 billion rupees.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Deadline for Arcelor's China buy extended again

(Reuters) - "At present we are gradually implementing provisions of the
deal in accordance with the requests of the relevant national
authorities," it said, without elaborating.




Arcelor agreed in February 2006, when it was in the process
of merging with Mittal to form the world's largest steelmaker,
to buy 38.41 percent of Laiwu, China's eighth-biggest steel
firm, in a deal valued by Chinese sources at about $260 million.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Dollar Trades Near Two-Month High Against Euro Before Inflation Report

(Bloomberg) -- The dollar traded near a two-month
high against the euro before U.S. reports this week that will
probably signal economic growth is recovering.

The U.S. dollar gained for a fifth day versus the euro, the
longest winning run since October, as traders have pared bets
the Federal Reserve will lower borrowing costs this year. The
U.K. pound advanced after Bank of England Governor Mervyn King
suggested interest rates will rise from a six-year high.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News

European Stocks Fall, Led by HBOS; Infineon, STMicroelectronics Decline

(Bloomberg) -- European stocks fell after HBOS Plc
said its market share of U.K. mortgage lending may decline and
Texas Instruments Inc. said sales will miss its highest
estimates, sending technology shares lower.

Infineon Technologies AG and STMicroelectronics NV, Europe's
biggest makers of semiconductors, declined.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Fortis chief rules out bid war for ABN: paper

(Reuters) - "As far as Fortis is concerned, we think that this price represents a good price and reflects the value of ABN Amro's assets. Fortis will not get into a bidding race."




Barclays has agreed to an all-share takeover of ABN worth about 65 billion euros .


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News