MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar extended losses against major counterparts Friday after a U.S. government report said personal spending rose less than expected and income rose more than predicted in May. The dollar index , a measure of the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, traded at 79.728, down from 80.394 late Thursday. [...]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Short-term Treasury prices remained higher Friday, pushing yield down, after a government report said personal spending rose less than expected and income rose more than predicted in May. Yields on 2-year notes slid 3 basis points to 1.10%. Consumer spending rose 0.3% in May, while analysts expected a 0.4% gain. Personal [...]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Russia is considering taking stakes in troubled domestic banks in a potential move to deal with bad assets in its financial system, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing a draft proposal. Under this proposal, the Russian government would issue OFZ Treasury bills to bolster the balance sheets of the biggest [...]

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold futures rose Friday, heading for their first weekly gain in four as a weaker U.S. dollar and record-low U.S. interest rates boosted the metal’s investment appeal. August gold futures rose $6.20, or 0.7%, to $945.30 an ounce in early North American electronic trading. The metal is set to end the [...]

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Chinese authorities have moved to block the sale of General Motors’ Hummer brand to a Chinese company, the BBC reported, citing Chinese state radio. The sale to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industries had been announced earlier this month as part of the bankrupt automaker’s recovery plan. Chinese authorities cited environmental concerns and Sichuan [...]

MADRID (MarketWatch) — Dutch insurer Aegon was lifted to overweight from underweight at Morgan Stanley on Friday on the view that credit losses may be lower than the market anticipates. The investment bank said there’s also a good chance Aegon can redeem 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of Dutch government capital on preferential terms without [...]

LOS ANGLES (MarketWatch) — California financier Danny Pang extracted at least $83 million in allegedly inflated fees, loans and salary from his investment firm before it was seized in April by federal regulators, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing newly unsealed court documents. A court-appointed temporary receiver of Pang’s former company, Private Equity Management [...]

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Japanese financial regulators are set to sanction Citigroup Inc. , demanding it suspend some of its business due to overly lax money laundering controls, reports said Friday. Tokyo-traded shares of Citi were down 3.6% following reports. Read the full story on MarketWatch

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, accused of running a massive Ponzi scheme, could be released from jail as early as Friday after a federal magistrate set a $500,000 bond as a condition for his release, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday. The judge also demanded that Stanford’s friends and relatives [...]

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Pop icon Michael Jackson has died at a Los Angeles hospital after suffering cardiac arrest at his rented home, according to media reports. He was 50. Paramedics reportedly responded to Jackson’s house earlier and found that the singer was not breathing. Jackson was given CPR and rushed to UCLA Medical Center. [...]