VENTURE CAPITAL POST

With crude oil prices hitting five-year lows, investors are scrambling to gauge the impact of the sharp drop in petroleum costs on companies beyond the energy sector.

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) has sold a 1.6-billion-pound ($2.50 billion) portfolio of Irish mortgages to Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and CarVal, a private equity group, the Financial Times newspaper reported.

Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N) is working with Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to explore the sale of its Wella hair care business that could be worth around $7 billion, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the world's largest consumer products company streamlines its business.

U.S. stock investors head into the Thanksgiving holiday thankful for the market's recent strength, which puts major indexes on track for another year of double-digit gains, though the swiftness of the advance has raised eyebrows.

Global equity markets slipped on Monday, hit by weak German business sentiment and another decline in oil, while Brazil slumped after incumbent Dilma Rousseff narrowly won a second term over an opponent seen as more pro-business.

Investors were spared immediate pain on Sunday after the European Central Bank's landmark banking health check did not force massive capital hikes amongst the euro zone's top lenders.

Banks should defer bonus payments for 10 years and tap the bonus pool to pay any regulatory fines, a top Federal Reserve official said on Monday, taking aim at continued lapses across the industry even after the 2007-9 financial crisis.

Evaporating inflation and slowing growth have put financial markets into such a spin that they could inflict further damage on the world economy.

Morgan Stanley (MS.N), which has spent three years throwing out bad apples from its fixed income trading portfolio, now wants to put the freed up money into businesses that bear healthier fruit.

ConvaTec's owners have appointed Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to explore a sale of the medical device maker which could be worth up to $10 billion, sources familiar with the matter said.

EBay Inc's agreement on Tuesday to spin off PayPal next year will give the unit more flexibility to strike deals in the rapidly evolving payments space as growth at the company's traditional e-commerce business slows.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NWSA.O) said it would buy Move Inc (MOVE.O), the owner of property websites such as realtor.com, for about $950 million to expand its digital marketing business.

GlaxoSmithKline may have closed one chapter in a saga of corruption allegations by accepting a $489 million fine in China, but the drugmaker has its work cut out to win back skeptical investors.

Alternative asset manager Fifth Street Asset Management Inc filed with the U.S. regulators for an initial public offering of Class A common stock. Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs were among the major underwriters for the IPO, the Greenwich

Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is reviving plans to issue at least $500 million worth of Islamic bonds, a sign that Islamic finance is going mainstream as big conventional banks seek to tap Middle Eastern money.