The dollar snapped three days of gains against the euro before reports that may show U.S. housing starts fell to a 17-year low and consumer confidence slumped to the weakest in 26 years.

The U.S. currency pared its weekly advance versus the euro after European Central Bank policy makers signaled they are unlikely to cut interest rates that are double those in the U.S. The yen was set for its biggest weekly decline in a month versus the dollar and euro as Asian stock gains encouraged investors to increase holdings of higher-yielding assets funded in Japan.

``There's some negative sentiment out there and that's impacting on the dollar,'' said Emma Lawson, a foreign-exchange strategist in London at Merrill Lynch & Co. ``It's accepted that the U.S. housing market is going to weaken further.''

The dollar fell to $1.5494 per euro at 10:37 a.m. in London, from $1.5448 in New York yesterday and $1.5482 on May 9. The U.S. currency has risen 3.4 percent since trading at an all- time low of $1.6019 against the euro April 22. It was at 104.70 yen, from 104.74 yen yesterday and 102.87 a week ago. The euro traded at 162.26 yen, from 161.79 yesterday and 159.21 May 9.

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Weddings between airlines have long been seen as a way to cut costs and raise revenue. But now that oil is parked around $125 a barrel, the costs of the nuptials are starting to make marriages look riskier than ever.

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. and US Airways Group Inc. continue to explore the idea, a way of responding to the merger plan announced a month ago by Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. But a UAL-US Airways combination which would create the world's largest airline by traffic, slightly outdistancing the Delta-Northwest pairing isn't a sure ...
 

U.S. prosecutors are expected to confront Swiss banking giant UBS AG with a broad subpoena for the names of wealthy American clients who may have used its services to avoid income taxes, according to lawyers and others involved in the case.

The subpoena would follow an indictment, unsealed Tuesday in Florida federal court, of former UBS private banker Bradley Birkenfeld and his alleged accomplice, Mario Staggl, a Liechtenstein businessman skilled in setting up intricate trusts in Europe and offshore tax havens. Mr. Birkenfeld pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale. Mr. Staggl, who is at large and believed to be ...

Sony Corp., the world's second-largest maker of consumer electronics, climbed the most in almost seven months after forecasting a 20 percent increase in operating profit this year, exceeding analysts' estimates.

Sony surged 8.7 percent to close at 5,270 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The stock had its biggest gain since October, creating $4 billion in market value, after Nomura Securities Co. upgraded its investment rating. Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Nikko Citigroup Ltd. increased their price estimates on Sony.

The maker of the PlayStation 3 game console joined Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. in forecasting earnings that beat analyst estimates, easing concern over the slowing U.S. economy and stronger yen, which led Toyota Motor Corp. to predict its first profit decline in nine years. Sony said yesterday its games and TV operations, which analysts estimated would lose money, will turn profitable this year.

``It's good to see Sony is getting out of the situation where they walked towards death every time they sold another PlayStation 3,'' said Seiichiro Iwamoto, who helps look after $977 million at Mizuho Asset Management Co. in Tokyo.

Sony, based in Tokyo, said yesterday operating income will rise to 450 billion yen ($4.3 billion) in the year ending March 2009, exceeding the 400 billion yen median estimates of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The company forecast it will post a profit from games, countering the 40 billion yen loss median estimate from the survey. JPMorgan Chase & Co. had estimated a 5.8 billion yen loss at the TV business.

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Nissan Motor Co. (7201.TO) said Tuesday that its net profit jumped 67% in the quarter ended March, in a sign that the company is overcoming the strength of the yen and high material costs.

The Japanese car maker, in which French car maker Renault owns a 44% stake, posted a net profit of Y137.6 billion in the three months ended March 31, up from Y82.2 billion a year earlier.

Its sales fell 17% to Y2.990 trillion in that quarter from Y3.591 trillion and operating profit declined 14% to Y211.7 billion from Y245.2 billion.

In the full fiscal year ended March, its net profit rose 4.7% to Y482.26 billion from Y460.80 billion, operating profit increased 1.8% to Y790.83 billion from Y776.94 billion. Its sales grew 3.4% to Y10.824 trillion from Y10.469 trillion.

The net profit for the last fiscal year was above the Y469.72 billion forecast consensus compiled by financial information provider Quick, based on 19 analysts.

For the current fiscal year through March 2009, Nissan expects its net profit to fall 30% to Y340.00 billion, operating profit to drop 31% to Y550.00 billion and sales to decline 4.4% to Y10.350 trillion.

China's new aerospace firm charged with building jumbo-jets will pose no threat to Airbus and Boeing for 20 years and will require the help of foreign technology, state press reported Monday.

The launch of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China on Sunday has the backing of the top level of government, with Premier Wen Jiabao underscoring the need for the country to pursue independent innovation.

"China should by all means conduct overall design and final assembly of large aircraft by itself," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying.

There was no indication in the media report about when the company would build its first plane.

Despite its goal of eventually challenging Airbus and Boeing, the global giants of commercial aviation, fulfilling the ambition will take time, said Jin Zhuanglong, president of the new aerospace group.

"China's jumbo jet program will not pose a threat to Boeing and Airbus, at least in the coming 20 years," Jin said in Monday's China Daily, an English-language paper whose readership is aimed at the foreign community.

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Microsoft Corp., the world's largest softwaremaker, asked a court to overturn or reduce a record $1.4 billion European Union fine for failing to comply with an antitrust ruling.

The appeal was filed at the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, Microsoft spokesman Jesse Verstraete said. The company is attempting to seek clarity from the court, he said.

"There's a fairly good record of the court lowering fines the commission has made upon appeal," said Philip Marsden, a competition lawyer and senior research fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, who isn't involved in the case. "It's the company's legal right to appeal such fines, particularly with respect to orders regarding compliance with such a controversial and vague set of requirements."

The European Commission, the EU's antitrust authority, fined the company Feb. 27 for failing to comply with a 2004 antitrust order. Under that decision, the EU ordered the softwaremaker to provide data to rivals to allow servers to connect to the Windows platform.

Carphone Warehouse will put its European and U.S. retail business, which operates from more than 2,400 stores, into the joint venture, in return for a cash payment of GBP1.1 billion from Best Buy.

The two companies said the deal aims to accelerate the development of Carphone Warehouse's retail business and to introduce Best Buy stores across Europe.

Carphone Warehouse is Europe's largest independent mobile-phone retailer by sales, while Best Buy is the largest electronics retailer in the U.S.

The pair already have a partnership whereby Carphone Warehouse operates out of Best Buy stores in the U.S.

Carphone Warehouse said it will use the proceeds of the deal to repay existing debt, invest in broadband customer growth and infrastructure and to invest in new areas of growth. Carphone Warehouse Chief Financial Officer Roger Taylor said the deal will be 10% to 15% earnings dilutive initially but despite the short-term hit to earnings will deliver long-term value for shareholders.

Analysts said the deal was a positive move which will reduce debt and free up capital to invest in the telecoms business. Landsbanki analyst Dan Gardiner said that based on earnings dilution of 10% to 15%, Carphone Warehouse's shares trade at 14 times estimated 2009 earnings which "still represents a significant premium to both the general retail and telecoms sector."

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Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, traveling through Asia, met Tuesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and championed his vision of the future of high tech and the Internet.

"We're approaching the second decade of (the) digital age," Gates told Lee at the start of their meeting at the presidential Blue House, according to a media pool report.

South Korean automakers Hyundai Motor Inc. and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. announced with Microsoft Tuesday that they will use Microsoft's in-car software for controlling personal music players and telephones with voice commands.

"We're doing some very interesting work on automobile software," Gates said after dining with Lee. "That's a really wide open area."

The three companies also plan to set up an automobile innovation center. Hyundai and Kia form the world's sixth-largest automotive group.

Separately, Microsoft also said Tuesday that it will invest $280 million in a new research and development center in Beijing and will double its full-time research staff in China to 3,000 people in three to five years.

Lee, a conservative former construction CEO, swept into office in February with a vow to boost economic growth through deregulation and increased foreign investment.

He named Gates to his global advisory committee on Tuesday.

The joint projects in South Korea announced during Gates' visit could trigger $6.9 billion in economic impact over the next five years, the Blue House statement quoted Gates as saying.

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A proposed "OPEC-style" rice cartel in Southeast Asia will go nowhere due to the inability of governments to cooperate with each other and control output from their farmers, analysts and traders said on Friday.

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, a TV chef whose main contact with rice is cooking it, has revived the long-dormant idea of a price-setting body involving producers Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

The proposal, which threatens to add to global food supply fears amid record high rice prices, failed to gain traction seven years ago when it was first floated by Bangkok and most see little chance it will fare better this time around.

"I don't think it would work. All they can do is agree on a price, but they can't control the supply like oil," said Graham Catterwell, an economic analyst with 30 years of experience in Thailand and the region. "It's going nowhere."

The five mainland Southeast Asian nations produce a combined 60 million tonnes of milled rice each year, about 14 percent of world output. But only Thailand, the world's number one rice exporter, and Vietnam have major surpluses, last year accounting for about 47 percent of world rice trade.

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