REUTERS – Stocks around the globe and the euro were mostly lower on Monday, with investors cautious over whether Greece will receive emergency aid to keep it financially afloat and no signs of progress by U.S. lawmakers to avoid the U.S. “fiscal cliff.” Without agreement by Congress and the White House, sharp tax increases and government spending cuts will take effect in 2013,... 

The chief executive of Morgan Stanley on Wednesday defended his company’s lead role in the disastrous IPO of Facebook, which has lost investors billions of dollars. James Gorman told an internal staff meeting that the bank had worked “100 per cent within the rules” in heading the $16 billion stock issue, according to a person who was at the meeting. The source said Gorman also condemned... 

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday said it had downgraded the ratings of major US banks, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America. The firm said it had revisited ratings on 37 of the world’s largest banks, part of a process of “applying its new ratings criteria for banks.” S&P announced revised criteria... 

Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), Vietnam’s second biggest bank in terms of assets, is preparing for its initial public offering (IPO) in the year’s last quarter, said the bank’s chairman Tran Bac Ha. Under its equitization plan being processed by relevant ministries and the central bank, BIDV has carried out the corporate evaluation, built the IPO plan, and set out criteria... 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG are among 13 financial institutions that submitted bids to advise Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry & Trade on its planned $500 million overseas bond sale, according to Deputy General Director Le Duc Tho. Others that sent in bids include HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered Plc, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group... 

Gold jumped on Friday as investors took refuge from equity and debt markets on mounting concerns about the threat of contagion from the euro zone crisis and as worries about a slowdown in U.S. growth fuelled a pullback in risky assets. Spot gold hit a session high of US$1,669.60 a troy ounce. It was bid at $1,666.70 an ounce at 1109 GMT from $1,647.90 an ounce late in New York on Thursday, up 1.1... 

US stocks rallied on Thursday as eurozone leaders clinched a deal to bail out Greece, boosting financial stocks that had been battered in recent weeks by fears of a European debt crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 152.50 points (1.21 per cent) to close at 12,724.41. The broader S&P 500 climbed 17.96 points (1.35 per cent) to 1,343.80, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 20.20... 

A securities joint venture between Japan’s Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group and Morgan Stanley said Thursday it would take a $1.8 billion hit for the year ended March due to derivatives trading losses. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd. said it would book a net loss of 145 billion yen ($1.8 billion) for the year ended March 2011, largely due to a loss of 99.3 billion yen from trading... 

Several major US banks are close to an agreement with the Wall Street regulator to settle fraud allegations related to the “toxic” mortgages behind the 2008 financial crisis, a report said Friday. An initial agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could be settled next week, the Wall Street Journal said, citing sources close to the case, noting penalties would likely... 

The PetroVietnam Finance Corporation (PVFC) is working with Morgan Stanley Group on the provision of derivative insurance services to limit risks to customer who borrow foreign currency. According to Nguyen Thien Bao, general director of PVFC, in the context of fluctuating USD/VND exchange rate at present, PVFC will focus on providing short-term contracts with fixed interest rate to reduce risks for...