A round-up of the key stories across the specialist financial media.
Gridlock fears as US deficit talks fail
The US congressional committee responsible for striking a deficit reduction deal ended its work without an agreement on Monday, delaying any solution to America’s debt problems and setting the stage for a sharp clash over budgetary policy ahead of the 2012 elections.
Fitch to conclude its US sovereign rating review by end of November
Fitch Ratings releases a statement saying that following the Super Committee being unable to reach an agreement on at least $1.2 trillion of deficit-reduction measures, this “underscores the challenge of securing the political consensus on how to reduce the federal budget deficit and place US public finances on a sustainable path over the medium-term.” Fitch now expects to conclude its review of the US sovereign rating by the end of November.
Asian shares edged down on Tuesday as fears about the ability of politicians on either side of the Atlantic to tackle huge debt burdens sapped investors' confidence in the outlook for Western economies.
Tokyo, Osaka bourses to merge to create world's No.3 exchange
The Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges agreed on Tuesday to merge in 2013 to create the world's third-biggest bourse with listed stocks worth some $3.6 trillion hoping to build scale to compete with a flurry of other global tie-ups.
The amount of money missing from customer accounts at MF Global Holdings Ltd.'s brokerage unit could total over $1.2 billion, more than double the previous estimate.
