By Tommy Wilkes and Laurence Fletcher LONDON | Mon May 21, 2012 2:24am EDT LONDON (Reuters) - It's the day after Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking's 70th birthday party and David Harding, the head of one of the most successful hedge funds in the world, is bubbling with talk of black holes. Given the financial crisis of the last few years, some might see that as an unwise topic of conversation for a hedge fund manager. But for Harding, a physicist, the geekier the better.The 50-year-old runs Winton Capital, one of a secretive but influential band of computer-driven hedge funds that bet tens of billions of dollars on the world's financial markets using algorithms - mathematical instructions to computers - which consume everything from bond price ... Continue reading →

BRUSSELS | Wed May 23, 2012 8:31am EDT BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone officials have agreed that each euro zone country must prepare an individual contingency plan in the eventuality that Greece decides to leave the single currency area, two eurozone officials said on Wednesday. The agreement was reached during a teleconference of the Eurogroup Working Group (EWG), which started at 9:00 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) on Monday and lasted for about one hour.As well as confirmation from two officials, Reuters has seen a memo drawn up by one member state detailing some of the elements that euro zone countries should consider.The EWG consists of officials who prepare meetings of finance ministers and also form the board of the temporary bailout fund, the European Financial ... Continue reading →

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OTTAWA (Reuters) - The world economy could forgo US$6 trillion in growth by 2015 if heavyweight countries delay fiscal and currency reforms they promised to implement in November last year, the Bank of Canada said in a publication released on Thursday. At a summit in Cannes, France, the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies agreed to a suite of policies to keep the global economy growing and balanced. The prescription is for the United States and Europe to wrestle down their budget deficits, while China and other emerging markets boost domestic demand by allowing their currencies to trade more freely, and Europe and Japan implement structural reforms. The global economy will fare far worse if these measures are postponed until the end of 2015 ... Continue reading →

FRANKFURT | Wed May 16, 2012 11:23am EDT FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has stopped monetary policy operations with some Greek banks as they have not been successfully recapitalized, euro zone central bank sources said on Wednesday. The ECB declined to comment.The ECB only conducts its refinancing operations with solvent banks. With no access to ECB funds, the banks concerned must go to the Bank of Greece for emergency liquidity assistance (ELA).It was unclear exactly how many banks were affected.One person familiar with the matter said four Greek banks' capital was so depleted they were operating with negative equity capital. According to its own rules, the ECB cannot provide liquidity to banks in such a situation.The ECB said earlier on Wednesday it continued ... Continue reading →