VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The Nasdaq Composite on Thursday erased its last standing milestone from the dot-com era as it set a record intraday high, with stocks on Wall Street in rally mode boosted by strong economic data.

Bond yields and the dollar fell on Thursday after the Federal Reserve signaled that U.S. interest rates would rise more slowly than markets had expected, while Greece's drift closer to default pushed European stocks lower.

The Greek central bank warned on Wednesday that the country would be put on a "painful course" towards default and exiting the euro zone if the government and its international creditors failed to reach an agreement on an aid-for-reforms deal.

European shares hit a near four-month low and yields on lower-rated euro zone sovereign debt climbed to their highest point since November, as financial markets braced for the possibility of Greece defaulting on its debt.

The Reserve Bank of India is facing a fork in the road for the first time since Governor Raghuram Rajan took office amid much fanfare and started targeting inflation as the central bank’s primary mandate.

When construction of four 6.5 billion euro toll roads across Greece resumed last year, Greek and foreign businesses rejoiced.

Euro zone banks should expect another round of health checks in 2016, the European Central Bank's top banking supervisor was quoted as saying, adding that Greece's banks remained solvent.

Years of uncertainty and economic pain spent keeping Greece in the euro zone boils down in June to a handful of make-or-break debt repayments, while a raft of key data in the next few days will point to the progress of the global economy.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has urged euro zone countries to unite in the task of reforming the bloc's economies, saying sharing sovereignty was an opportunity and not a threat.

Prospects for a step-change in global economic growth are better than they have been in many years, but much depends on solid evidence that an awful first quarter for the United States is far in the rear-view mirror.

The euro hit a three-month high against the dollar on Thursday, lifted by another lurch higher in euro zone government bond yields that again kept global stock markets in check.

A slowdown in Germany weighed on the euro zone in the first quarter, but the bloc's economy still grew at its fastest in almost two years as cheap food and fuel boosted spending and a central bank stimulus program kicked in.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis will meet in Brussels on Monday ahead of a Eurogroup meeting of euro zone finance ministers, a spokesman for the German finance ministry said.

With optimism building that the United States is already recovering smartly from another horrible start to the year, focus will shift this week to reports that may show the euro zone is finally shaking off half a decade of torpor.

Euro zone retail sales were weaker than expected in March, data showed on Wednesday, turning negative on a monthly basis for the first time since last September.