4unews – News for you

MILAN, Italy – Italy’s borrowing costs on its three-year bonds skyrocketed to their highest level since December, as concerns about Spain and the state of Europe’s economy continued to pummel Italy’s finances. In a bond auction Thursday, Italy paid 5.3 percent interest rates, up from 3.91 percent last month, to sell 3 billion euro ($3.76 [...]

MADRID (AP) – Spain’s economy is at the center of investor concern following reports that the European Central Bank had rejected a Spanish idea to finance a bank bailout. The yield on Spanish 10-year bonds rose 10 basis points early Wednesday to 6.51 percent while the Ibex 35 stock index hovered around nine-year lows. The [...]

MILAN – Italy was forced to pay higher interest rates to entice investors to buy a little under 5 billion euros worth of its 5- and 10-year bonds. Investors demanded yields of 5.84 percent for the 10 year-bonds, up from 5.24 percent last month. On the 5-year bonds, Italy paid 4.86 percent, up from 4.18 [...]

MADRID – Investors showed a healthy appetite for Spanish debt but demanded a higher premium in an auction that was a key test of confidence in the government’s ability to get a handle on its debts as its economy enters a recession. The Treasury auctioned 2.54 billion euros ($3.33 billion) in 10-year bonds and notes [...]

BANGKOK – World stock markets fell Thursday after a weak Spanish bond auction inflamed concerns about the European debt crisis and hopes faded for more help for the U.S. economy from the Federal Reserve. Benchmark oil rose above $102 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro but ebbed against the yen. The debt [...]

LONDON – George Osborne, Britain’s finance minister, is considering the possibility of issuing 100-year bonds. The aim is to take advantage of the country’s low borrowing costs in the markets. The Financial Times and other British newspapers reported Wednesday that the idea could be part of George Osborne’s annual budget announcement next week. The Financial [...]

MILAN – In Italy, eight people were arrested across the country and placed under investigation for fraud and other crimes. Authorities in Switzerland have confiscated $6 trillion in counterfeit U.S. bonds at the request of Italian prosecutors, authorities said Friday. The bonds, carrying the false date of issue of 1934, had been transported in 2007 [...]

FRANKFURT, Germany – Germany has successfully sold 4.09 billion euros ($5.48 billion)in five-year bonds, with more demand for the securities than there were bonds available. The auction contrasts to one on Nov. 23 when Germany could not sell all the bonds it wanted. Although not unprecedented, that auction sent shudders through financial markets which are [...]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A debt-laden investment company controlled by Dubai’s ruler says it will repay from its own sources $500 million in bonds when they mature in February, seeking to quell concerns about its finances. The promise of payment by Dubai Holding follows reports issued Tuesday by credit rating firm Moody’s Investors Service [...]

BERLIN – Germany’s Finance Ministry insists it has no plans to float bonds together with the eurozone’s five other nations with a Triple A rating in an effort to calm financial markets. Finance Ministry spokesman Johannes Blankenheim denied a report Monday in Die Welt daily that said proposals for so-called ‘elite bonds’ were already in [...]