Gold above 3-month low, Tokyo hits 2-week low

(Reuters) - Cash gold rose on Monday as bargain hunters lifted the metal from its lowest level in nearly three months that was hit on Friday, while Tokyo gold futures slipped to a two-week low on a decline in New York COMEX gold.

Spot gold fetched $650.75/$651.45 an ounce at 0247 GMT, up from $648.20/$649.70 last quoted in New York on Friday and $645.05, the lowest price since March 15.


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French PM says 2008 budget to include deficit cut plans

(Reuters) - Translating such promises into action will help reassure France's European Union partners and the EU's budget watchdog that President Nicolas Sarkozy's tax cut plans will not lead to fiscal slippage.




The measures, which include plans to exempt overtime from taxes and give tax relief on mortgage interest rate payments, are expected to cost about 11-15 billion euros in a full year.


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RPT-U.S. automakers look to shift huge health-care burden

(Reuters) - CHICAGO, June 10 - U.S. automakers faced with
enormous retiree health benefits costs may well join other
large U.S. companies in shifting more of the long-term risks of
meeting those obligations to workers.




Among the biggest companies now dealing with the choking
costs of health-care benefits agreed to in more prosperous
times, General Motors Corp. , Ford Motor Co. and
Chrysler would not be alone if they shift responsibility for
maintaining those programs to workers and the unions that
represent them.


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Blue Chip forecasts slowed consumer spending this year

(Reuters) - Economists surveyed in the closely watched Blue Chip
economic forecast downgraded their expectations for GDP growth
in 2007 on a year-over-year basis to 2.1 percent from their
forecast a month ago of 2.2 percent.




Slowed consumer spending, said the economists who were
surveyed last week, will be the main factor behind slower
growth, as well as continued troubles in the housing and
subprime mortgage markets.


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Fiat mulled buying Jaguar and Land Rover-report

(Reuters) - Marchionne and and Lewis Booth, head of Ford's Premier
Automotive Group , which also includes Volvo, ended the
talks in late May as Fiat was worried about its credit rating,
Automotive News Europe said quoting sources familiar with the
discussions.




Fiat declined to comment on the report which was circulated
in Germany on Saturday and is due to be published on Monday.


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S&P 500 Index Has Biggest Weekly Loss in Three Months as Bond Yields Jump

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks dropped, sending the
Standard & Poor's 500 Index to the steepest weekly loss
since a February rout, after bond yields at a 10-month high
sparked speculation that the Federal Reserve will raise
interest rates.

Utilities, which have the highest dividend yield in
the S&P 500, fell the most since October 2002. Goldman
Sachs Group Inc., the biggest U.S. securities firm by
market value, helped lead financial shares lower. Bigger
bond yields make stock dividends less attractive and reduce
demand for mortgages and other loans.


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Glaxo drug cuts bleeding in study

(Reuters) - Results from a pivotal Phase III study presented at the European Hematology Association congress in Vienna showed 50 to 75 milligrams once daily resulted in a statistically significant increase in platelet counts and also reduced bleeding in people with chronic ITP.




The placebo-controlled trial involved 114 adults and patients studied had previously received and failed current standard ITP treatments.


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