About: Irene Wilson

(Reuters) - Business sentiment among Asia's top companies dropped sharply in the fourth quarter, extending last quarter's declines, with global economic uncertainty and rising costs weighing on the region's firms, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed. The Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asia Business Sentiment Index fell to 62 in the fourth quarter from 66 in the third quarter of 2013, the...

(Reuters) - The U.S. dollar rose in Asia on Friday, having made a solid comeback overnight on upbeat retail sales data while the Australian dollar took a battering following more jawboning from the country's central bank chief. Not helping the common currency, data showed euro zone industrial output fell in October at...

(Reuters) - Mexico's Congress on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to open up the country's oil and gas sector to private investment in the biggest overhaul of the industry since it was nationalized in 1938. After a whirlwind final passage through Congress, President Enrique Pena Nieto's bill will offer companies the chance to operate oil wells, commercialize crude...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures on Wednesday settled at their lowest level since early July, pressured by strength in the dollar as traders mulled the metal’s appeal against a backdrop of rising U.S. consumer sentiment as well as declines in durable-goods orders and a Chicago’s business gauge. The precious metal lost most of its shine...