Global - Economy and Market
WASHINGTON - The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits hit a 3-1/2 year
 low last week, bolstering views the economy was gaining momentum, even though third-quarter growth was revised down.

U.S. existing-home sales rose 12% last month, Realtors report
Sales of existing homes in the U.S. increased 12% in November from November 2010, the National Association of Realtors said. The inventory of unsold homes fell from a nine-month supply in July to a seven-month supply last month, the trade group said.

Fitch again warns U.S. debt burden threatens AAA rating
NEW YORK - Fitch Ratings on Wednesday warned again that the United States' rising debt burden was not consistent with maintaining the country's top AAA credit rating, but said there would likely be no decision on whether to cut the rating before 2013.

ECB's 3-year loan offer draws record borrowing from banks
More than 500 European banks took €489 billion from the European Central Bank through its first three-year loan offering. The amount is enough to refinance most of the debt lenders have maturing next year. "The perceived stigma attached to central bank borrowing has not prevented eurozone banks from making extensive use of the ECB's offer," said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Group. "The take-up of loans is massive."

Gold posts biggest gain this month as U.S. dollar weakens
A falling U.S. dollar sent investors to gold, which on Tuesday gained the most this month. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for February delivery rose 1.3%, to $1,617.60 an ounce.

Spain's borrowing cost falls sharply in auction
Spain's $7.3 billion debt auction ended with a huge decline in the nation's borrowing cost. Three-month bills priced at 1.74%, compared with 5.11% in a sale of comparable debt in November. The average yield on six-month debt fell from 5.227% to 2.44%.

India - Economy and Market
Food inflation at 4-month low of 1.8%
Food inflation has fallen to low single digits, the government's official data finally catching up with the talk of glut and plunging prices.

Economy to grow by 7.5 pc next fiscal, says Fitch
Economy is likely to grow by 7.5% in 2012-13 and public finances of various state governments are likely to see consolidation during the next fiscal.

New companies bill tightens regulations regarding subsidiaries
The new cos bill has tightened the provision relating to the way subsidiary cos are defined, ensuring that larger number of firms are brought under reporting ambit.

With higher wages, workers slip out of social security net
NEW DELHI: A new malaise has begun to infect India's labour market. The weakest sections of the workforce now earn more money with state governments hiking minimum wages, but they are no longer eligible for mandatory social security benefits like provident fund, pension and life insurance.

Indian loans caught in Euro squeeze
Nearly $160 billion worth of Indian borrowings from Europe faces an uncertain future as the continent's banks embark on panic deleveraging.

Moody's upgrades long-term Re bonds to investment level
Global rating agency Moody's upgraded government's long-term rupee bonds rating to investment grade (Baa3)from speculative grade (Ba1) .

US PE fund GCA plans to invest $200 mn in India
MUMBAI: San Francisco-based private equity fund Gerken Capital Associates is looking to foray into the Indian markets with an initial corpus of $200 million. The company, which manages assets worth $1 billion, has appointed Alok Gupta, former chief of Axis Private Equity, as managing director of its India operations. GCA, which manages funds for institutional and high net-worth clients, will enter India with its emerging markets private equity fund of funds

Investors in renewable energy sector planning to turn part-time farmers
US-based Kiran Energy, SGFT and Gurgaon-based Moser Baer are some of the project developers inclined towards agriculture.

Over 7 lakh tonnes of foodgrain damaged in decade: RTI info
As much as 7.42 lakh tonnes of foodgrain, worth Rs 330.71 crore, was damaged in the past 10 years in the country due to various reasons.

RBI eases borrowing norms to ease liquidity crunch
MUMBAI: In order to ease the liquidity situation, the Reserve Bank of India today allowed banks to borrow additional amount from it under the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF), a new lending window which was opened by the central bank in the current fiscal.

Technology News –
Indian start-ups: Light robots for physically-challenged
Start-up makes exoskeletans, or light robots, which can help the physically-challenged walk again.

New iPhone 4S? No thanks, say cash-conscious Europeans
'In UK, the US and Aus, Apple's new iPhone continues to fly off the shelf in the run-up to Christmas. However, this trend is far from universal.'

HCL Infosystems hikes PC prices by 10-15 %
HCL has increased prices of desktops, laptops and servers by 10-15 per cent September onwards, as depreciating rupee has pushed up its imports bill.

Intel-powered smartphone, tablet to enter market in 2012
Smartphones and tablets running Intel's chips will enter the mobile market early next year, posing a challenge to the dominance of Apple's iPhone and iPad.

Yahoo considers trimming its 40% stake in Alibaba
Internet giant Yahoo is considering trimming its 40% stake in Alibaba Group to about 15%, two persons briefed on the matter said.

EBay buys German technology company BillSafe
EBay will combine it with its PayPal online payments service, in a move to strengthen its e-commerce capabilities in Northern Europe.

India monitoring US call centre bill: Nirupama Rao
Rao said, "We are currently making a detailed analysis of the impact of the bill on the BPO industry and are in touch with Nasscom and related Indian govt deptts."

TCS, Infosys, Wipro and others planning to reduce onsite work by up to 5%
BANGALORE: India's top outsourcing firms plan to reduce the amount of work performed onsite by their staff travelling on temporary visas in the US, as they battle increased immigration scrutiny and push harder to increase profitability by shipping more work offshore.

Oracle misfires in fiscal Q2 raising tech worries
Oracle stumbled in its latest quarter as the business software maker struggled to close deals, a signal of possible trouble ahead.