Reuters

By Saikat Chatterjee HONG KONG (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped by over a dollar and Asian shares mostly eased on Monday as spreading tensions in Libya and other oil-producing regions encouraged some mild profit taking after last week's solid gains. Further increases in oil prices may see selling pressure intensify in regional markets which have only recently begun to recover from a sharp selloff in the opening weeks of 2011. Higher prices will pose fresh headaches for authorities already struggling to re-establish their inflation-fighting credentials in the face of rising food prices. "I would be worried if the unrest spreads to Saudi Arabia," said Benson Wang of Commodity Broking Services in Sydney. Brent crude oil futures and U.S. crude futures both vaulted more than $1/bbl to $103.75 and $87.39 per barrel respectively, while gold prices inched higher, adding to last week's gains of nearly 3 percent. Anti-government protesters rallied in Tripoli's streets at the weekend, tribal leaders spoke out against leader Muammar Gaddafi, and army units...

DUBAI, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Moody's is worried about continuing unrest in Bahrain and is monitoring the situation closely, the ratings agency said on Sunday. "Naturally, we are concerned by recent events in Bahrain and are watching developments closely. We have long cited domestic political tensions as a downside risk factor for our sovereign ratings of Bahrain," Tristan Cooper, head analyst for Middle East sovereigns, told Reuters in an e-mail. "The budget's high and rising break-even oil price is an additional worry, as is the large size of the banking system. We downgraded Bahrain's ratings to A3 from A2 in August last year."

By Jonathan Lynn GENEVA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - In an age of global supply chains, trade figures give an increasingly misleading picture of what is going on -- and trade statisticians are out to change that. Trade figures have become politically explosive -- witness the sensitivity of the U.S. deficit with China for relations between the two powers. Trade is still measured in the traditional way -- looking at bilateral flows between one country and all the others. Nowadays many goods are made up of components sourced from many different countries, based on designs and research from others, and assembled in one before being sold. Measuring where value is added at each stage gives a more precise picture of who is buying what from whom, and for how much. "Economic reality is changing so fast that there is a need to change our statistics," said Hubert Escaith, chief statistician at the WTO. The World Trade Organization is keenly interested in all this, and is hosting a meeting...

By Isabel Coles LONDON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Emerging stocks gained on Wednesday as a slew of strong manufacturing data stoked confidence in a global recovery, and concerns eased over the political situation in Egypt. Risky assets including Egyptian bonds and off-shore traded stocks drew renewed interest from foreign investors, after Tuesday's strong manufacturing data from the U.S. and euro zone took U.S. stocks to 2-1/2 year highs. "Egypt actually took away a bit of attention from U.S. data and yesterday's numbers showed things are going really well," said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets analyst at Danske Bank in Copenghagen. "The big issue of Egypt and the Middle East seems to be fading. It seems now that Friday was a bit of an overreaction and now the market is taking all that back." The MSCI emerging equities index

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks opened higher on Tuesday as solid manufacturing data in Europe helped investors refocus attentions from the maelstrom in the Middle East to hopes that a global economic recovery was on track. NEW YORK (Reuters) - United Parcel Service, the world's largest package delivery company, reported a quarterly profit that beat estimates and forecast record-high profits in 2011, sending its shares up nearly 3 percent on Tuesday in premarket trading. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc <PFE.N> cut its sales forecast for 2012, the first full year its $10 billion-a-year Lipitor cholesterol fighter faces cheaper U.S. generics, but slashed its research budget to keep its profit view intact that year. SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The world economy is beset by problems such as high unemployment and rising prices which could fuel trade protectionism and even lead to war within nations, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday. LONDON (Reuters) - BP Plc failed to dispel doubts about...

By Sonali Paul and Michael Smith MELBOURNE/SYDNEY (Reuters) - BHP Billiton needs to clear three hurdles over the next week before it will be free to raise its $39 billion bid for Potash Corp, as widely expected. The UK's Sunday Times, citing sources close to the situation, reported that BHP plans to sweeten its offer by 10 percent. A person familiar with the situation however said BHP was focused on clearing regulatory hurdles, including winning approval from the Canadian government, before it does anything else. Ottawa is due to decide by November 3 whether BHP's bid for the world's top fertilizer maker will bring a net benefit to Canada, which would allow it to clear the bid or approve it with conditions. When asked if BHP could raise its offer ahead of the November 3 ruling by Ottawa, the person said: "No." "There is only one offer on the table," the person added. BHP Billiton declined to comment on whether it plans to raise its bid by...

By Sonali Paul and Michael Smith MELBOURNE/SYDNEY (Reuters) - BHP Billiton needs to clear three hurdles over the next week before it will be free to raise its $39 billion bid for Potash Corp, as widely expected. The UK's Sunday Times, citing sources close to the situation, reported that BHP plans to sweeten its offer by 10 percent. A person familiar with the situation however said BHP was focused on clearing regulatory hurdles, including winning approval from the Canadian government, before it does anything else. Ottawa is due to decide by November 3 whether BHP's bid for the world's top fertilizer maker will bring a net benefit to Canada, which would allow it to clear the bid or approve it with conditions. When asked if BHP could raise its offer ahead of the November 3 ruling by Ottawa, the person said: "No." "There is only one offer on the table," the person added. BHP Billiton declined to comment on whether it plans to raise its bid by...

By Sonali Paul and Michael Smith MELBOURNE/SYDNEY (Reuters) - BHP Billiton needs to clear three hurdles over the next week before it will be free to raise its $39 billion bid for Potash Corp, as widely expected. The UK's Sunday Times, citing sources close to the situation, reported that BHP plans to sweeten its offer by 10 percent. A person familiar with the situation however said BHP was focused on clearing regulatory hurdles, including winning approval from the Canadian government, before it does anything else. Ottawa is due to decide by November 3 whether BHP's bid for the world's top fertilizer maker will bring a net benefit to Canada, which would allow it to clear the bid or approve it with conditions. When asked if BHP could raise its offer ahead of the November 3 ruling by Ottawa, the person said: "No." "There is only one offer on the table," the person added. BHP Billiton declined to comment on whether it plans to raise its bid by...

By Sonali Paul and Michael Smith MELBOURNE/SYDNEY (Reuters) - BHP Billiton needs to clear three hurdles over the next week before it will be free to raise its $39 billion bid for Potash Corp, as widely expected. The UK's Sunday Times, citing sources close to the situation, reported that BHP plans to sweeten its offer by 10 percent. A person familiar with the situation however said BHP was focused on clearing regulatory hurdles, including winning approval from the Canadian government, before it does anything else. Ottawa is due to decide by November 3 whether BHP's bid for the world's top fertilizer maker will bring a net benefit to Canada, which would allow it to clear the bid or approve it with conditions. When asked if BHP could raise its offer ahead of the November 3 ruling by Ottawa, the person said: "No." "There is only one offer on the table," the person added. BHP Billiton declined to comment on whether it plans to raise its bid by...

By Sonali Paul and Michael Smith MELBOURNE/SYDNEY (Reuters) - BHP Billiton needs to clear three hurdles over the next week before it will be free to raise its $39 billion bid for Potash Corp, as widely expected. The UK's Sunday Times, citing sources close to the situation, reported that BHP plans to sweeten its offer by 10 percent. A person familiar with the situation however said BHP was focused on clearing regulatory hurdles, including winning approval from the Canadian government, before it does anything else. Ottawa is due to decide by November 3 whether BHP's bid for the world's top fertilizer maker will bring a net benefit to Canada, which would allow it to clear the bid or approve it with conditions. When asked if BHP could raise its offer ahead of the November 3 ruling by Ottawa, the person said: "No." "There is only one offer on the table," the person added. BHP Billiton declined to comment on whether it plans to raise its bid by...