Europe

The head of the OECD warned Monday that Europe needs to present a plan to involve private investors into the global effort to help Greece and give Athens time to deal with its problems.

"Time is critical, time is important to avoid a liquidity problem becoming a solvency problem. Time is of the essence also in order to allow for a recovery of everyone," Angel Gurria, head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, told reporters.

Moody’s downgraded Portugal’s credit standing to junk, the first ratings agency that made the move which mean the country may need a second round of rescue funds before it can return to capital markets.

The rating cut was not absolutely unexpected and reminded that troubles in Europe are not ending with Greece’s bailout.

Some economists think Ireland may also need additional support, and investors worry Spain and Italy could be next in line for aid.

A European data protection panel ruled this week that information on the location of users should be classed as private, reports the Financial Times. It means that companies such as Apple and Google are facing tighter regulation the Europe.

The panel that advises the European Commission made its proposals that could be written into Europe's revised Data Protection Directive this year, the FT said. These proposals are a first step to formulating a law on mobile phone location data.

Microsoft filed this week a formal complaint with the European Commission against Google on allegations that the search engine giant systematically prevents Internet search competition.

The complaint is the first time Microsoft has made a formal filing with regulators over competition issues.

Microsoft claims that Google practices a "pattern of actions" that impede competition unfairly. It should be noted that Google owns 90% of the search market in Europe.

Prices of the bullion declined further on optimism about economic recovery in the United States and Europe. Meanwhile, rising oil prices can provide support and physical demand is also expected to gain traction after Lunar New Year celebration.

Investors awaited the European Central Bank's rate decision later in the day, but the U.S. non-farm payroll data due on Friday was likely to be the main focus, with hiring probably gathering steam in January.

Gold prices stayed near a four-month low in Friday deals after declining over 2% during the previous session as economic reports from the United States and Europe showed steady growth decreasing thus safe-haven demand from investors.

Spot gold was little changed at $1,313.25 an ounce by 0041 GMT, after falling to $1,308.70 in the previous session, its lowest in nearly four months.

U.S. gold futures fell 0.4 percent at $1,313.

Hacked government and defense domains are being sold by cyber crooks at relatively acceptable prices. .gov, .mil and .edu domains in the United States and Europe can be sold to interested parties for a price between $55 and $499 each. Besides, the hacker also sells admin login credentials to hacked sites and looted personal data from compromised sites.

European standardization agencies this week released single standards for a common charger for mobile phones.

In early Asian session the European common currency regained some losses from its previous sessions as China's Vice Premier Wang Qishan said today that the nation has taken "concrete action" to help some European countries deal with their sovereign debt crisis. The euro rose to a 4-day high against the U.S. dollar.

The euro experienced heavy selling on Monday after the rating agency Moody's said that it may cut the ratings on Spanish banks. This came after its multi-notch downgrade of Ireland's credit rating last week.

Gold prices remained steady during Friday deals in choppy trade, as a dollar rally took a breather, and uncertainty over Europe's fiscal health continued to attract investors to bullion.

Ireland's debt owes continued to grab attention from investors, as Fitch downgraded the country's rating, and the opposition party said it would vote against a bailout package.

The dollar weakened as strong demand at a 30-year Treasury bond auction knocked yields lower, while the euro won a reprieve in Asia.

Talking in an interview for CNBC a global head of foreign exchange strategy at HSBC David Bloom said that the United Sates will have to follow Europe's economic lead and face up to its debt problems instead of just continuing with quantitative easing that will lead to a dollar decline.

"Europe (is) facing up to its problems, looking into the abyss; the U.S. hasn't even started that process. That will take the dollar into trouble in the second half of next year," Bloom said.

Spot prices remained steady during Tuesday trades supported by physical buying as investors continued to watch the progress in euro zone's debt problem and tensions in the Korean peninsula for trading cues.

Uncertainties about how the euro zone would stabilise its fiscal conditions continued to bother investors, even after an agreement over the weekend on a $115-billion bailout package for debt laden Ireland.

Gold remained steady during Friday trades just a bit away of $1,400 a ounce supported by concerns over European debt issue and Korean conflict development.

Spot gold drifted 88 cents lower to $1,373.24 an ounce by 0106 GMT, trading below its all-time high around $1,424 struck in early November.

Citigroup will be opening flagship bank branches in largest Western European cities next year to re-focus its retail offer on affluent "global citizens," as reported by the Financial Times.

Citi’s operations in the UK, Spain, Greece and Belgium are closing down under terms of the U.S. government bail-out and therefore, the bank is seeking to slim down and target major cities in France, Britain and Germany, the FT said.

Gold remained steady during Monday deals after its sharpest fall in four months in the previous session, as inflation concerns and sovereign debt issues in Europe offered support.

Spot gold XAU= was little changed at $1,366.95 an ounce by 0331 GMT, after falling three percent on Friday as talks of an imminent interest rates hike in China triggered a broad sell-off across the financial markets.