VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The guessing game over the timing of euro zone money printing will intensify as the European Central Bank unveils a closely watched gauge of policy in the coming week, the highlight of a calendar dominated by Europe's malaise.

From his sleepy village in eastern India's Bihar state, Ram Narain arrives at Gulab Bagh market to sell a truckload of corn that will fetch him enough money to buy a motorbike for his son, school uniforms for his daughter and a gift for his wife.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has dropped one dollar since early May, the lowest price in more than four years, according to the Lundberg survey released Sunday.

From his office on the 41st floor of the gleaming new European Central Bank headquarters, Mario Draghi's view stretches far beyond Frankfurt's high-rise financial center and he doesn't like what he sees.

The United States is willing to help Hungary and other European countries build energy infrastructure to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas, U.S. Chargé d'Affaires in Budapest André Goodfriend has told Nepszava newspaper.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) (FCHA.MI) (FCAU.N) began meeting U.S. investors on Friday after launching a $2.5 billion convertible bond issue and a share sale to reduce its debt pile and fund an ambitious investment plan.

General Motors Co (GM.N) disclosed on Friday that it recalled more than 2,400 of its new mid-sized pickup trucks in the United States and Canada to fix a previously announced air bag issue.

Bebe Stores Inc said it detected a hacking attack on its payment processing system that could have compromised data from cards swiped in its stores in the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.

Australia's first initial public offering in a medicinal marijuana company is three times oversubscribed, giving high hopes to its founder's ambitions to become "the George Clooney of medicinal cannabis".

Starbucks Corp, aiming to give cooling U.S. traffic a jolt, on Thursday announced it will add beer, wine, and evening snacks to thousands of domestic cafes, widen lunch offerings and roll out mobile ordering.

Most chief executive officers at U.S. corporations report significant problems in finding workers with the skills they need, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) said on Wednesday it would shed "several hundred" U.S. commercial jobs and a similar number of research positions as it restructures operations in its biggest market, where drug sales are flagging.

The euro zone economy may face another contraction after business activity grew less than expected in November despite heavy discounting, surveys on Wednesday showed, although Asian readings were more upbeat.

Plunging oil prices sparked a drop of almost 40 percent in new well permits issued across the United States in November, in a sudden pause in the growth of the U.S. shale oil and gas boom that started around 2007.

Brent rose to $71 a barrel on Wednesday, recovering some of its losses from the previous session as a turbulent market searched for a price floor after a nearly 40 percent fall since June.