International financial news

FINANCE news in brief from around the world.

A ROUNDUP of news in finance, economics and business from around the world:

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

WASHINGTON DC - Confidence in the US economy has inched closer to a 5-and-a-half year high on growing optimism that hiring and wages could pick up in coming months.

WASHINGTON DC - US home prices rose 12.1 per cent in June from a year earlier, nearly matching a seven-year high.

ATHENS - A survey is warning that some 40,000 small businesses in Greece are likely to close in the second half of 2013 at a cost of up to 90,000 jobs despite a major bank rescue program implemented before the northern summer.

DHAKA - Bangladesh authorities have restricted imports of powdered milk mostly from New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra following a contamination scare, officials say.

ROME - Italy raised nearly 4.0 billion euros ($A5.97 billion) in a bond auction, with borrowing costs rising for short-term bills as fresh political uncertainty grips the eurozone's third-biggest economy.

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's unions have rejected a final pay increase offer from the strategically important gold mining sector, raising the spectre of widened strikes in the country.

DUBAI - Dubai share prices have dived 7.0 per cent, leading the falls as Gulf Arab stock markets took a hit from fears of possible US military intervention in Syria.

NEW DELHI - India's cabinet has cleared 36 infrastructure projects worth more than $US27 billion ($A30.07 billion) to try to jumpstart economic growth and restore investor confidence.

MADRID - Spain's job-wrecking recession was deeper than first announced in 2012, revised figures show.

MADRID - Spanish police have arrested a former JPMorgan trader wanted by the US to face criminal charges in the massive "London Whale" fraud scandal.

MOSCOW - Russia has protested to Belarus over the "unacceptable" arrest of the chief executive of the leading Russian potash producer, who was detained in Minsk just hours after he met the country's premier.

SHANGHAI - Three executives of the listed arm of China's biggest oil producer are being investigated for "violations of discipline", the government says, a phrase which typically refers to corruption.

BOGOTA - Starbucks Coffee Company, a long-time buyer of Colombian beans, will open its first cafe in the Andean country next year.

OTTAWA - Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail has announced to subscribers that it will not publish on this upcoming Labour Day due to a lack of advertising revenues.

NEW YORK - Sprint says it's eliminating about 800 customer service jobs because fewer people are calling its centres.

IRVINE, California - Nissan Motor Co says it will make cars that drive themselves by 2020.

BOGOTA - Colombia's No 2 rebel group has freed a Canadian mining executive who had spent seven months in captivity and whose company cancelled a gold mining project.

WELLINGTON - Abano Healthcare, the specialist health clinic investor facing a potential takeover, wants to raise up to $NZ18.5 million ($A16.26 million) in a share purchase plan and placement to institutions and eligible investors.

WELLINGTON - The New Zealand dollar slumped against the yen and the Swiss franc as investors shifted to so-called safe haven currencies amid heightened expectations of military intervention in Syria.

LOCAL NEWS

SYDNEY - The Australian dollar is slightly higher on the back of rising commodity prices.

SYDNEY - The Australian market looks set to open lower following a plunge on Wall Street as the US investors eye possible military intervention in Syria.