Increasing prices of gas in the United States has surprised market watchers, as prices are moving up at a time of the year when they typically moderate.

In Yankton, the average price of unleaded gasoline has jumped 32 cents per gallon within the last seven days and by whopping 62 cents per gallon within the last two weeks.

Prices of the fuel in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin have jumped by up to 40 cents per gallon during the last one-week period.

Stock in Marks & Spencer (M&S) on Monday surged on reports that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund is preparing to place a takeover bid for the British clothing retailer.

The stock hit a high of 407.7p a share before closing at 398.1p a share on Monday, up 25.6p from the previous close. The 6.9 per cent gain added more than £400 million to the market value of the retailer.

The stock gained on a report published by The Sunday Times newspaper that the Qatar Investment Authority had plans to assemble a consortium to place £8 billion takeover bid for the UK's biggest clothing retailer.

Chancellor George Osborne will reportedly try to convince his EU counterparts to make a relaxation in the European Parliament's strict proposals to curb bankers' bonuses.

The European Union's 27 finance ministers are all set to meet in Brussels take a decision on the matter on Tuesday.

The European Union's Economic and Financial Affairs Council is expected to give approval to previous week's proposals, which include limiting bankers' bonuses to 100 per cent of their annual salaries or to 200 per cent in case shareholders endorse.

Manufacturing activity in the UK dropped unexpectedly in February, giving a major set-back to hopes that the country can return to growth in the next few months.

The recently published Markit/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the UK showed that manufacturing activity in the country dropped from 50.2 in January to 47.9 in February, well below the reading of 50 that separates growth from contraction.

Responding to shouts of "resign" from the opposition benches, Chancellor George Osborne blamed Labour's Ed Balls for Britain's budget deficit.

Ed Balls launched a staunch attacked on Osborne after global ratings agency Moody's stripped the country of its coveted triple-A credit rating. Ed Balls argued that the Chancellor's economic Plan A had failed.

Moody's on last Friday downgraded the Britain's credit rating by one notch from the top triple-A rating, with a warning that the economy would struggle to grow for several years to come.

The euro-zone economy will shrink for the second year in a row in 2013, the European Commission (EC) forecast on Friday.

The Brussels-based EC, the executive arm of the European Union, said that gross domestic product (GDP) in the 17-nation region would shrink by 0.3 per cent this year.

Earlier in November 2012, the commission had projected a growth of 0.1 per cent for the region's economy.

In the new forecast, an estimated of seven euro-area economies are expected to shrink this year, including the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Slovenia and Cyprus.

Moody's Investors Service on Friday slashed the U. K.'s long-held `AAA' credit rating by one notch, citing increasing debt burden and apathetic growth outlook over the coming years.

The global ratings agency lowered the country's domestic as well as foreign-currency bond rating by one notch to AA1 and also changed its outlook to stable.

Norwegian giant Statoil's £4.6 billion project in the Mariner heavy oil field in North Sea is expected is expected to provide a big boost to the UK's economy by generating several hundred new jobs and hundreds of millions of pounds in tax revenues.

The project, which recently received green signal from the UK government, is the country's largest offshore oil project in more than ten years.

According to Energy Secretary Ed Davey, the project in the Mariner heavy oil field east of Shetland was a "vote of confidence" in the UK's oil & gas industry.

Buying a house in Scotland is now cheaper than renting a property, according to a fresh report by economists at the Bank of Scotland (BoS).

The report says that falling prices of residential property in Scotland has made buying a home more affordable than renting. As per the economists' estimate, a person who buys a three-bedroom house in Scotland would be more than £400 per year better off than those who rent a similar property.

Higher crude oil prices and refinery shutdowns pushed average U. S. gasoline prices up by 25 cents per gallon over the past two weeks, recently released Lundberg Survey of fuel prices revealed.

The survey of nearly 2,500 filling stations revealed that average U. S. gasoline price jumped 24.75 cents from the survey's previous average price figure recorded on January 25.

Following a more than 25-hour long negotiation session in Brussels, European Union (EU) leaders on Friday approved a budget deal for the rest of the decade that will introduce the first cut in EU spending in more than five decades.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who chaired the negotiations, confirmed that European leaders had agreed to the deal.

He used micro-blogging site Twitter to announce, "Deal done! #euco has agreed on #MFF for the rest of the decade."

The U. S. Postal Service has announced its plans to abolish Saturday first-class mail delivery to home as well as business addresses, as part of measures to cut costs.

The financially-troubled mail carrier expects the measure to save around $2 billion per annum.

Des Plaines, a long-time resident of Lynn Albrecht, 71, said she could remember the days when mail delivery used to take place twice on Saturdays. However, she added that she could understand that the Postal service's decision to end Saturday deliveries.

The UK Government will have to hike basic rate of income tax by 3p after the general election, or the citizens will have to face record cutbacks in public services, a reputable think-tank warned.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the hikes would virtually be inevitable to avoid further cuts in public services due to a big hole in the country's finances.

Poor public finances will force the government either to hike the rate of income tax or cut most departmental budgets by as much as 35 per cent.

Axing the controversial air passenger duty (APD) would boost British GDP by 0.45 per cent within twelve months and could help generate as many as 60,000 jobs by the year 2020, a new report commissioned by various airlines said.

According to the report, British Airways, easyJet, Virgin Atlantic and Ryanair argued that APD had been acting as a major barrier to tourism as well as potential investment in the country as the duty makes the flights costlier.

Following Monday's drop, the euro tumbled once again against major currencies of the world on Tuesday due to political uncertainty in Italy and Spain.

The 17-nation currency dropped against the Japanese Yen and the US dollar in Tokyo. The euro slipped 0.2 per cent to 124.55 Yen as of 12:34 p. m. in Tokyo. Yesterday, the euro had tumbled 1.4 per cent, the most since 25th of June. It declined 0.2 per cent at US$1.3490.

The Japanese currency remained little changed at US$92.35, following yesterday's falling to as low as 93.18 a dollar.