VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Outgunned by Chinese and Middle Eastern competitors and lacking the breadth of service of their U.S. rivals, European private equity firms are focusing on specific industries to compete on their home turf.

Federal Reserve policymakers expressed concern last month that raising interest rates too soon could pour cold water on the U.S. economic recovery, and fretted over the impact of dropping "patient" from the central bank's rate guidance.

Oil rose to $62 a barrel on Tuesday, close to its 2015 high, supported by threats to Middle East supplies and expectations lower prices may prompt a slowdown in U.S. output.

Standard Chartered Plc (STAN.L) will shift its retail banking focus to affluent clients from ordinary customers and urge them to bank online as part of a broader restructuring led by embattled CEO Peter Sands, a senior executive told Reuters.

Qatar Airways has bought a 9.99 percent stake in International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) worth around 1.15 billion pounds ($1.7 billion), building closer ties with the owner of its partners British Airways and Iberia in the oneworld alliance.

Low borrowing costs, currency shifts and the hunt for both cost savings and growth opportunities will drive a steady flow of merger and acquisition deals this year despite geopolitical tensions, according to business leaders meeting this week.

The Twitter and YouTube accounts for the U.S. military command that oversees operations in the Middle East were hacked on Monday by people claiming to be sympathetic toward the Islamic State militant group being targeted in American bombing raids.

Chief executives got their deal-making confidence back in 2014, emboldened by a clearer outlook for their businesses to take the global value for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to their highest annual level since 2007.

Oil fell to just above $59 a barrel for the first time since May 2009 on Tuesday, extending a six-month selloff as slowing Chinese factory activity and weakening emerging-market currencies added to concerns about demand.

Oil producers group OPEC can ride out a slump in oil prices and keep output unchanged, its head said on Sunday, arguing market weakness did not reflect supply and demand fundamentals and could have been driven by speculators.

There is no trace of Shenzhen Lanhao Days Electronic Technology Co Ltd at its listed address in the beige and pink-tiled "Fragrant Villa" apartment complex in this southern Chinese city. The building's managers say they’ve never heard of it.

Dubai-based Souq.com, one of the Middle East's largest e-commerce businesses, aims for high double-digit revenue growth as it introduces "Black Friday"-type discount events to help lure shoppers from the city's retail malls.

Asian stocks balked at the starting gate on Tuesday, as investors looked past solid gains on Wall Street overnight to Chinese economic growth figures due later in the session.

Federal Reserve officials want to tie an interest-rate rise to U.S. economic progress, but the minutes of their last policy meeting show they are struggling with how to come to grips with the dual threats of a stronger dollar and a global slowdown.

VTB Capital, the investment arm of sanctioned Russian lender VTB Bank (VTBR.MM), has made a cash payment to secure a deal to buy most of Italian fashion house Roberto Cavalli before the end of November, two sources familiar with the situation said.