VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) (FCAU.N) said on Wednesday it will spin off its luxury sports car maker Ferrari and list the shares as part of a bigger scheme which includes a $2.5 billion convertible bond issue to help fund its ambitious business plan.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday ended its monthly bond purchase program and dropped a characterization of U.S. labor market slack as "significant" in a show of confidence in the economy's prospects.

The European Central Bank spent 1.704 billion euros last week on covered bonds under a new purchase program with which it hopes to foster lending to businesses and thereby support the euro zone economy.

Roughly one in five of the euro zone's top lenders failed landmark health checks at the end of last year but most have since repaired their finances, the European Central Bank said on Sunday.

Ford Motor Co's third-quarter earnings fell 34 percent but beat Wall Street expectations on a strong showing in North America even as revenue fell due to the cost of introducing the F-150 pickup truck.

Drugmakers are looking for some kind of indemnity from governments or multilateral agencies against possible losses or claims arising from the widespread emergency use of new Ebola vaccines in Africa.

Asian shares sagged on Thursday after a retreat on Wall Street and falling crude oil prices rekindled investor anxiety over slowing global growth, while a mixed picture on Chinese manufacturing failed to impress markets.

Nestle has no plans to close any of its eight factories or curb output in cocoa and coffee-rich West and Central Africa because of Ebola, but is ready to adapt if it spreads, the Chief Executive of the world's largest food company said on Wednesday.

A dramatic upswing in volatility is putting post-crisis financial markets to the test, as curbs on banks' ability to take risks and an increase in technology-driven trading expose potential new cracks in the system.

A tentative agreement between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents has raised hopes of ending a dispute in which Moscow has halted natural gas supplies to Kiev, but several obstacles still have be overcome.

When Europe announced its latest health check of top banks early last year it promised a "comprehensive assessment" of how well prepared they were to withstand another financial crisis.

German airline Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) canceled 1,450 flights after a pilots union called for a strike on Monday and Tuesday, adding to travelers' misery after millions were left stranded by a weekend-long train drivers' stoppage.

Across Europe, companies hoping to list are having their plans dashed by plunging equity prices. But what's bad for public stock markets may be good for private equity firms.

Investors may have over-reacted to signs of economic slowdown, although they have been right to price in weaker global growth prospects, the Bank of England's chief economist said in a Sunday newspaper interview.

Russia and Ukraine made progress on Friday towards resolving a dispute over gas supplies in time for winter, but European leaders said Moscow still had to do much more to prop up a fragile ceasefire and end fighting in eastern Ukraine.