State-owned Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. held steady in its trading debut Thursday after raising up to $22.1 billion in a mammoth initial public offering despite the global crisis and concern about its profitability. The IPO went ahead in the face of uncertain global conditions after regulators told China's banks to raise new capital following a lending boom last year in support of Beijing's stimulus. Other banks also plan share sales to raise billions of dollars.

Agricultural Bank failed to enjoy the double-digit first day bounce that some new Chinese listings get. It was down 1.1 percent at midday on the Shanghai Stock Exchange -- a minimal change by the volatile standards of China's markets, where prices routinely swing by up to 10 percent a day.

The Shanghai market is off-limits to most foreign investors. Trading starts Friday in Hong Kong, a Chinese territory where the stock market is open to foreign buyers. "The market is not specifically excited about Agricultural Bank," said Zhang Jixiu, a banking industry analyst for Hongyuan Securities in Beijing. "The stock price is very stable."

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BP last night delayed a critical test to determine if a new cap on its blown-out Macondo well can arrest the flow of oil that has gushed into the Gulf of Mexico for the past 12 weeks. "We decided that the process may benefit from additional analysis that will be performed [yesterday and today]," said retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, overseeing the U.S. response to the spill.

Regardless of the results, BP should be able to contain the flow with oil-siphoning vessels by mid-July, he said. As the oil giant prepared for a potential turning point in the worst offshore spill in U.S. history, it also said its plans to sell some non-core assets, which will help pay for a $20-billion clean-up fund, were moving forward. Both pieces of news had helped BP shares maintain their recent recovery in London, although they see-sawed in New York with profit-taking erasing most of the early gains.

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Bank of China (Hong Kong) stands to benefit long-term from a pact between China and Hong Kong to expand the scope of yuan-based business in the city, Market Talk says. According to a person familiar with the situation, China and Hong Kong plan to sign the agreement next week.

The People’s Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will sign the pact in Hong Kong on Monday, the person added. HKMA Chief Executive Norman Chan said June 18 that the plan will allow banks in the city to introduce yuan-denominated insurance, securities.

And fund products locally amid rising demand for yuan business. Yuan settlements in Hong Kong have increased in recent months after authorities allowed non-mainland Chinese banks and companies to issue yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong in February.

The Bank of England is due to give its latest verdict on interest rates as inflation concerns vie with fears over a double-dip recession among its policymakers. The Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) Andrew Sentance voted to hike rates last month to tackle inflation, although fellow members have warned it is too early to act with the recovery still fragile.

The MPC's leading "hawk" is set to stick to his guns this month, although the wider committee should vote to hold rates at a record-low 0.5% and quantitative easing unchanged at £200 billion. Mr Sentance believes there are enough recovery signs in the economy to absorb a rate hike, but recent survey data has flagged up slowing growth among manufacturers and services firms.

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Crude prices rose as much as 0.6 percent on Wednesday, pulling away from one-month lows struck in the previous session on forecasts of a second weekly fall in U.S. inventories. Prices tracked volatile equities in the past two days, paring gains on Tuesday after a report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed a slowdown in the U.S. service sector. But the expected tightening of U.S. crude and gasoline supplies allowed oil to shrug off falling Asian equities on Wednesday.

U.S. crude for August advanced as much as 40 cents to $72.38 a barrel on Wednesday and was up 15 cents at $72.13 by 0538 GMT, after touching $71.09 on Tuesday, its lowest intraday price since June 8, and peaking at $73.86. ICE Brent for August rose 16 cents to $71.61.

"Yesterday's non-manufacturing data fell more than expected, so investors have a wait-and-see approach," said Serene Lim, a Singapore-based oil analyst with ANZ. "The market is pricing in a drop in crude inventories, but if inventories fall less than expected, we might see prices falling."

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As it was highly anticipated, the Reserve Bank  of Australia left the target cash rate unchanged at 4.5% at its Tuesday meeting. The statement by the Governor Glenn Stevens cites the uneven global growth, European sovereign debt issues, moderate growth in China and strains in US labor market as few of the reasons behind the decision.

While it points out that higher terms of trade will increase domestic income and demand, and the housing market keeps growing modestly, the language is still very cautious, and it seems that RBA will leave the cash rate unchanged at August meeting as well.

The report also states that the CPI is expected to be a little above 3% in the near term because of higher tobacco taxes and utility prices. Investors will now watch closely the CPI number before the next RBA meeting, as a significantly higher than forecasted inflation number could still result in an immediate rate hike.

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Bank of China <3988.HK> <601988.SS> said its bid to raise up to $8.86 billion should give it sufficient capital for the next three years, seeking to ease investor concerns about finances at China's No. 4 lender. Bank of China's Hong Kong-listed shares were down 1.8 percent on Monday, and its Shanghai-listed shares were down 1.5 percent, both well ahead of broader market declines.

When trading resumed following a suspension on Friday.The bank said late on Friday it planned to raise up to 60 billion yuan ($8.86 billion) through a rights offer in Shanghai and Hong Kong, which would see shareholders get up to 1.1 rights shares for every 10 shares held.

In an investor call on Monday morning, the bank said it aimed to complete the rights offer by year end, and that it expected no further need for additional fundraising in the next three years, according to several analysts on the call.

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My wife gets a special pleasure from this column — or, more precisely, from its name — because she has an encyclopedic memory of my bone-headed consumer mistakes. More often than not, they involved spending about $30 too much for something like a cup of coffee or a takeout lunch.

I reformed my ways years ago, but there was a time when my debit card purchases generated enough overdraft fees to count as a mini bank bailout. Even if I fall off the personal-finance wagon, that's unlikely to happen again. That's because, under new Federal Reserve rules that began to take effect this week, bank customers must opt-in to any programs allowing banks to charge overdraft fees. I don't plan on giving my bank that permission, and consumer advocacy groups say you shouldn't, either.

The Consumer Federation of America this week released a report detailing the cost of overdraft fees at 15 of the country's biggest banks. According to that research, most of the banks charged about $35 — this, despite the fact that the typical debit card purchase on an overdrawn account is only about $20. Often, the initial fee is just the beginning.

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 The Transport Workers Union of America said Thursday that it has asked its 13 local unions that represent fleet and ground service workers at American Airlines to schedule strike authorization votes this month as a result of what it calls an impasse with the airline. Each local is to report the results of the balloting to the international union no later than July 30.

About 11,000 of the union's fleet and ground service workers handle baggage, clean aircraft, de-ice and fuel planes, and move freight at U.S. airports where Fort Worth-based American has operations. The announcement follows the union's statement issued Monday that there had been a "complete breakdown" in contract talks with American, that it no longer had a tentative agreement with the airline regarding those workers and that no ballots would be submitted to members for a contract ratification vote.

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The European Central Bank on Thursday said it lent firms EUR 131.9 billion for three months. However, this was much smaller than the expected borrowing of around EUR 200 billion. The latest figure suggests that the dependence of euro area banks on the ECB’s short term funding is not as severe as expected. This does not not mean the banking system is totally out of the woods. The central bank said the number of bidders totaled 171. These financial institutions paid an interest rate of 1%.

The European Commission on Wednesday extended Dutch and Slovenian bank guarantee schemes and the Greek and Polish bank support measures until the end of this year. The Commission has already extended its authorization of bank guarantee schemes in Sweden, Germany, Austria, Latvia, Ireland, Spain and Denmark. The vast majority of support schemes for financial institutions, put in place at the end of 2008 to ensure financial stability at the height of the financial crisis, expire at the end of June.