By Ann Saphir and Jonathan Spicer (Reuters) - The beginning of the end of the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying program might come sooner than many investors think if recent gains in the U.S. labor market do not prove fleeting. Much will depend on how economic data, which has given mixed signals for growth prospects, …

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said the European Commission made a "grave mistake" by agreeing to impose punitive import duties on solar panels from China and urged the Commission to work to prevent the eruption of a trade conflict. "It's a grave mistake," Roesler told Welt am Sonntag newspaper …

KUWAIT (Reuters) - State-run Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) appointed a new chief executive and suspended other top officials after the country paid $2.2 billion in damages to Dow Chemical Co over a scrapped plastics joint venture. Nizar Mohammad al-Asani replaced Farouk Zanki as CEO at the oil firm and the cabinet approved …

LONDON (Reuters) - The single biggest risk to Britain's nascent economic recovery is continued eurozone weakness, the Bank of England's outgoing governor Mervyn King said in a television interview on Sunday. He called for a "credible medium term plan" to get the economy back on track and said automatic economic stabilizers …

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland is on the brink of a deal to settle a long-running dispute with U.S. authorities over Swiss banks accused of helping wealthy Americans evade billions of dollars of tax, the finance minister said on Saturday. "We hope that we will shortly be at the finishing line," Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf told …

By William James LONDON (Reuters) - An independent Scotland would have a vastly oversized financial sector that would leave it vulnerable to a Cyprus-style banking crisis, Britain's finance ministry says. Before a referendum due in September 2014 on whether Scotland should split from the United Kingdom, the British government …

By Sonya Dowsett MADRID (Reuters) - Many duped savers at Spanish lender Bankia are shunning a state-supervised compensation scheme in favor of expensive lawsuits, prolonging a mis-selling scandal and complicating efforts to restore faith in the banking system. The disputes over mis-selling at Bankia and other nationalized …

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's bank rescue fund will aim to sell Hellenic Postbank and Proton by mid-July with big banks continuing to absorb small lenders as part of plans to revive the battered sector, the country's foreign lenders said in an inspection review. Greece is recapitalizing its four big banks and winding down …

By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has urged successor Mark Carney not to bring to Britain his trademark policy of spelling out how long interest rates will remain low. King also said the bank could not be run as "a one-man show," a sign of concern at high expectations that the …

By Manuela Badawy NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the world's biggest central banks driving yields on safe assets to near zero, some investors are tossing caution to the wind and rushing to buy illiquid and previously overlooked bonds sold by countries with no capital markets track record. Even the biggest investors acknowledge …

When it comes to buying stocks for long-term investing, the short-term gyrations can be difficult for investors. It’s important from a long-term investing viewpoint to look out onto the horizon over many years, and search for short-term pullbacks and opportunities that might allow attractive entry points. We are all aware …

By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers said it would seek pay rises of up to 60 percent from gold and coal producers, raising the prospect of fresh strikes as firms battle higher costs and falling prices in an already heated labor climate. Africa's biggest economy is hoping …

LONDON (Reuters) - The clothing brand sold by Britain's biggest retailer Tesco said on Sunday it planned to open more than 50 new franchise stores worldwide over the next five years. F&F, which opened its first franchise store in Saudi Arabia last year, said it would open shops across the Middle East and in Kazakhstan, …