Moody’s Investors Service to raise the credit ratings outlook for Latvia and Lithuania, as their economies recovered faster than expected. Baa1 rating to the prospect of Lithuania was upgraded to stable from negative, and also that of Latvia, but rating Baa3. Credit rating agencies increase the prospects for regional stability signals and actions of governments to address the budget deficit. Over the past two months by Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings raised its outlook for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stable from negative. “The Lithuanian economy is stabilized faster than expected and those of other Baltic countries,” said Kenneth Orchard, an analyst at Moody’s. According to him the recession ended in the third quarter of last year and this will have a moderate positive effect on the finances of the Government, expressed in a smaller budget deficit and slower growth of debt. In Latvia, the “worst of the recession has passed and will support the restoration of Finance of the Government and the banking sector,” said Orchard. “The prospect of a disorderly devaluation of the currency is now unlikely.” Latvia requested assistance from the EU and the International Monetary Fund amounting to 7.5 billion in 2008, having acquired its second largest bank. In the fourth quarter of the country’s economy contracted by 16.9 per cent.
Read the full story

The three main stock indexes in the U.S. I found myself in negative territory at the beginning of the last session of the week for Wall Street, after Federal Reserve unexpectedly raised interest rates on loans which commercial banks in the country. Investors took that as a sign of recent increases in base rate in the U.S. and opted to take a cautious stance. The index of the 30 largest and most traded stock companies, Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by 0.1% to 10 383.68 points and a half hours after the beginning of the session. Broader index S & P 500 gave up 0.1 percent to 1 105 points, mainly because of reductions in financial, energy and extractive companies. On the Nasdaq Stock Exchange main index Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2% to 2 236 points. Previous three sessions brought to the state index increases because of the good data on housing and factory sector. The encouraging financial results of the largest PC maker in the world also Hewlett-Packard stock increased optimism. The surprise Fed decision, announced after the end of the session on Wall Street on Thursday, dipped indexes in Asia and Europe today.
Read the full story

Court administrator of failed banking giant Lehman Brothers – PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has reached agreement on a plan to be repaid 11 billion dollars of former investors in Lehman, Air Force forward. By PwC have announced that over 90 percent of the investors whose assets are still frozen in Lehman, have agreed to the deal. PricewaterhouseCoopers responsible for closing operations of Lehman Brothers in Europe. In its bankruptcy in September last year the bank has taken the assets of clients for 32 billion dollars. Since then, 13.3 billion dollars have been returned to investors who are mainly large hedge funds and investment companies.
Read the full story

The investors are imported 11.1 billion in U.S. mutual funds in the week that ended on 23 December. This is the largest inflow for the past 79 weeks show data analyst firm EPFR Global. At the same time withdraw funds from cash funds slows gasket during the last week, it is clear from the data. Large funds remain profitable investments in emerging markets who are about to celebrate a record inflow. Funds for investment in shares and investment in these bonds, which are monitored by EPFR, are respectively 13.3 and attracted $ 4 billion last week. Most funds were directed to funds for investment in shares in the U.S. However, since the beginning of the year from funds investing in shares of the U.S. market have withdrawn 69 billion dollars.
Read the full story