VENTURE CAPITAL POST

China is likely to post its weakest growth since the global financial crisis in the fourth quarter as its property market cooled, reinforcing expectations the government will have to roll out more stimulus measures to avoid a sharper slowdown.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said on Wednesday that he wants to create a "lock box" for transportation funding because states that do not invest in infrastructure will face long-term economic struggles.

Germany's unemployment rate dropped to a record low of 6.5 percent in December while Italy's pushed up to a new high of 13.4 percent, underscoring the vast differences within the struggling euro zone economy.

Growth in the U.S. services sector braked in December and new orders for manufactured goods fell for a fourth straight month in November, signs the economy lost some momentum in the fourth quarter.

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, but the trend remained consistent with sustained strength in the labor market.

China's economy is creating more than 13 million new jobs this year, the Xinhua news agency cited the labor ministry as saying on Thursday, outstripping the official target despite slower economic growth.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande urged Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko on Sunday to press ahead with reforms to facilitate an economic recovery and access to foreign aid.

China's services sector grew slightly faster in November, two surveys showed on Wednesday, a welcome respite to a run of underwhelming data but still unlikely to allay concerns about the softening Chinese economy.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday boosted by tech shares, with the S&P 500 and Dow industrials closing at records, while the energy sector was once more the largest weight on the market as crude prices continued to flirt with multi-year lows.

China's leadership and central bank are ready to cut interest rates again and also loosen lending restrictions, concerned that falling prices could trigger a surge in debt defaults, business failures and job losses, said sources involved in policy-making.

Market expectations that U.S. interest rates will start to lift off sometime in mid-2015 are reasonable, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said on Thursday.

In a paper “Global Prospects and Policy Challenges” published ahead of the G20 Summit to be held on 15-16 November, the International Monetary Fund said that growth indicators have weakened in Eurozone and Japan after the release of the October World Economic Outlook (WEO).

The United States and China announced a largely symbolic plan on Wednesday to implement new limits on carbon emissions, the highlight of a summit between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping in which both leaders played down suggestions of differences and rivalry.

The risks faced by China's economy are not that scary and the government is confident it can head off the dangers, President Xi Jinping told global business leaders on Sunday to dispel worries about the world's second-largest economy.

Annual growth in China's exports and imports slowed in October, data showed on Saturday, reinforcing signs of fragility in the world's second-largest economy that could prompt policymakers to roll out more stimulus measures.