Santos Seeks Landslide Win in Colombia as World Cup Keeps Voters at Home

By Bloomberg News

June 20 (Bloomberg) — The yuan’s appreciation may be
limited to 1.9 percent against the dollar this year as the
euro’s slump hurts exporters, a survey of economists showed
after China signaled an end to a two-year peg.

The currency will probably climb to 6.7 per dollar by Dec.
31, according to the median estimate of 14 analysts interviewed
after the People’s Bank of China said yesterday it

By Shobhana Chandra

June 20 (Bloomberg) — The housing market began to retrench
in May after a government incentive ended, leaving manufacturing
at the head of the U.S. recovery, economists said reports this
week will show.

Sales of new homes fell 19 percent to a 410,000 annual pace
last month, according to the median estimate of 57 economists
surveyed by Bloomberg News before a Commerce Department report
June 23. Orders for

By Mark Drajem and Katarzyna Klimasinska

June 18 (Bloomberg) — Michigan’s depressed economy nearly
toppled Grand Rapids-based awning maker Prestige Products. In
April, the company’s fortunes changed when executive Brian
Rickel got a phone call from an old contact at BP Plc.

It was 10 days after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig
had exploded, and the company needed help containing the gush of
oil. Six weeks later, Prestige has rented a

By Bloomberg News

June 20 (Bloomberg) — China’s pledge to make the yuan more
flexible may boost shares denominated in the currency when
markets open tomorrow, China International Capital Corp. and
Societe Generale SA said.

“If it leads to appreciation for the yuan, it’s good news
for the market,” Hao Hong, global equity strategist for CICC in
Beijing, said in a report today. “Investors will want to get
into Chinese assets because

By Lyubov Pronina

July 10 (Bloomberg) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
illustrated his call for a supranational currency to replace the
dollar by pulling from his pocket a sample coin of a “united
future world currency.”

“Here it is,” Medvedev told reporters today in L’Aquila,
Italy, after a summit of the Group of Eight nations. “You can
see it and touch it.”

The coin, which bears the words “unity in diversity,”

By Diana ben-Aaron

June 17 (Bloomberg) — As Apple Inc. struggles to meet
demand for the latest version of the iPhone, Nokia Oyj is still
waiting to ship its only model that may compete.

The Finnish company has announced just one handset, the N8,
from its new high-end line based on revamped Symbian 3 software,
while Apple’s recently unveiled iPhone 4 is flying off virtual
shelves with 600,000 pre-orders and other

By Bloomberg News

June 20 (Bloomberg) — China said it will allow a more
flexible yuan, signaling an end to the currency’s two-year-old
peg to the dollar a week before a Group of 20 summit.

The decision was made after the world’s third-largest
economy improved, the central bank said in a statement on its
website yesterday, without indicating a timeframe for the change.
It ruled out a one-time revaluation, saying there

By Maria Petrakis

June 18 (Bloomberg) — Sophia Constantinidou works as a
teacher in a private school in Athens. She also has a more
lucrative job: remaining unmarried.

The 52-year-old gets 400 euros ($496) a month from the
Greek government, part of her late mother’s state pension. Under
the current system, Constantinidou qualifies to receive the
payment for life as the only surviving child of a deceased civil
servant, provided she

By Ola Kinnander

June 18 (Bloomberg) — Jason Castriota, the U.S. designer
known for creating the Ferrari P4/5 and Maserati GranTurismo,
will head Saab Automobile’s design team to help the Swedish
carmaker take on Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Audi AG.

The first assignment for Castriota’s design firm is to
create an upscale version of Saab’s current 9-3 model, scheduled
for release in 2012, the 36-year-old said in an interview.
Aerodynamics will