VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Asian stocks fell on Thursday as falling oil prices added to global growth concerns, while the dollar saw a bit of a respite against the yen and euro after successive sharp losses.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (8316.T) will announce as soon as next week that it will buy Citigroup Inc's (C.N) Japanese consumer banking business, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Apple Inc will build a large research and development facility in Japan, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo said on Tuesday, local media reported.

U.S. stocks dipped on Monday, after soft data in China and Japan raised global growth concerns, while a further drop in oil prices weighed on energy shares.

Three companies have emerged to make a joint bid for Citigroup Inc's (C.N) credit card business in Japan, the Nikkei reported, as the U.S. lender goes ahead with plans to exit consumer banking in the country.

Sony Corp is likely to cut average pay next year in a rare move for a big Japanese company, and one that goes against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push for higher wages to get the economy moving.

Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank Corp has pumped in $250 million to become the top investor in Southeast Asian mobile taxi-booking application GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd, its biggest investment in a Southeast Asian Internet firm.

The dollar marked a fresh seven-year high against the yen on Wednesday, which helped lift the Nikkei to a similar record, while oil prices recovered after data showed a drop in U.S. supply.

Japanese drugmaker Otsuka Holdings Co Ltd plans to buy U.S.-based Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc for about $3.5 billion to expand its neurologic drug portfolio ahead of an expiration of a key drug patent.

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday cast doubt on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ability to repair Japan's tattered finances less than two weeks away from a snap election, after Moody's downgraded the country's sovereign debt rating.

Asian equities gained on Tuesday as a rebound in the crude oil price gave resource-related sectors a breather, but Tokyo shares bucked the trend and slipped as the yen's losing streak was tempered.

Mihoko Asaka wants to know how candidates in this month's election in Japan will create jobs and halt the drastic population decline that is bleeding her home region of youth and vitality, but has little hope they will offer real solutions.

Gold prices tumbled on Monday after Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected proposals to boost gold reserves in a referendum, joining the broad rout in commodities that sent oil prices to five-year lows and copper to four-year lows.

The global economy will gradually improve over the next two years but Japan will grow less than previously expected while the euro zone struggles with stagnation and an increased deflation risk, the OECD said on Tuesday.

Asian stocks edged up on Wednesday after data showing the U.S. economy growing at a relatively solid pace calmed investor anxiety over slowing global growth, while the Australian dollar languished near four-year lows against the dollar.