Weekly Business News Summary -- week ending June 30, 2012
Weekly Business News Summary -- week ending June 30, 2012: European leaders attending a two-day summit agreed early Friday on a plan to use bailout funds to directly aid banks in Spain and Italy, give the European Central Bank responsibility for regulation of the Eurozone's main banks and a promise that the 'Eurogroup will examine the situation of the Irish financial sector with the view of further improving the sustainability of the well-performing adjustment programme.' The news triggered a global share rally as fears had mounted in recent weeks that the Eurozone crisis would worsen...Barclays Bank admitted to the fraudulent manipulation of LIBOR, the benchmark London lending rate between banks, and it was fined $360m by American authorities and £59.5m UK regulators. As a result Bob Diamond, Barclays’ boss, and other executives decided to forgo their 2012 bonuses. However, Diamond is under pressure to resign...The Financial Times reported that total equity capital market activity in the second quarter was $121bn, according to data from Thomson Reuters. This was down more than 20% on the first quarter and made for a first half total of $276bn, which was 37% weaker than the same period in 2011...Research in Motion: The shares of the Canadian maker of the Blackberry smartphone, fell 19% to $7.39 on Friday, pushing down company's market capitalization to $3.81 bn, less than 1/20th of its peak value in 2008.
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