U.K. inflation expectations tumbled to the lowest in almost four months this week as energy prices fell and government reports signaled growth is slowing, gilt yields show.  The so-called 10-year break-even rate, which predicts consumer-price increases over the next decade, slid to as low as 3.10 percent from this year’s high of 3.39 percent last month. Brent crude prices dropped to the least since July. Gilts gained as data showing a drop in retail sales, rising unemployment and slowing wage gr

Microsoft is working with manufacturers to produce a line of small touch-screen devices powered by Windows, apparently intended to compete with tablets like the iPad Mini and Amazon Kindle Fire.Peter Klein, Microsoft's chief financial officer, told investors and analysts on a conference call Thursday that the new devices will be available in coming months at competitive prices.Microsoft Corp. is struggling to extend its software into smartphones and tablets as consumers are turning away from PCs

France will not support the opening of EU-US free trade talks if audiovisual content is not excluded from the negotiations, French trade minister Nicole Bricq warned Thursday.The European Union and United States intend to begin within months talks on an ambitious transatlantic free trade deal that would create the world's largest free trade area, boosting economic growth and jobs."France is trying in effect to preserve the dynamism and influence of its artistic creation and is particularly attac

Chinese bank ICBC knocked U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil from its perch as the world’s biggest public company Wednesday, ranking number-one for the first time on the Forbes Global 2000 list.Underscoring the power move by Chinese companies to top global rankings, China Construction Bank leaped 11 spots from last year to the number-two spot on the Forbes list of the world’s largest public companies.“This year’s list again reveals the dynamism of global business,” said Scott DeCarlo, the list editor.For

Japan's trade deficit more than quadrupled on year to $3.7 billion in March, government data showed Thursday, as a weaker yen inflated import costs.The monthly trade deficit expanded to 362.4 billion yen from the year-before shortfall of 81.8 billion yen, finance ministry data showed.The heavy deficit was still smaller than 480 billion yen economists predicted in a poll by the Nikkei business daily.Exports rose 1.1 percent to 6.27 trillion yen while imports climbed 5.5 percent to 6.63 trillion y

Supermarket giant Tesco on Wednesday took 1.2 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) hit from its failed U.S. division Fresh & Easy, sparking the first drop in annual profits in almost two decades, and confirmed its exit from the United States.Net profits slumped 95 percent to 124 million pounds in its 2012/2013 financial year, from 2.806 billion pounds last time around, Tesco said in a results statement. Revenue edged 1.4 percent higher to 64.83 billion pounds.Earnings dived as Britain’s biggest retaile

The International Monetary Fund has lowered its outlook for the world economy this year, predicting that government spending cuts will slow U.S. growth and keep the euro currency alliance in recession.The global lending organization cut its forecast for global growth to 3.3 percent this year, down from its forecast in January of 3.5 percent. It didn't alter its prediction of 4 percent global growth in 2014.The IMF expects the U.S. economy to expand 1.9 percent this year. That's below its January

Thousands of DNA tests on European beef products have revealed extensive food fraud across the European Union, with almost one in 20 meals marketed as beef likely to be tainted with horse, the European Commission said Tuesday.Releasing the results of more than 4,000 tests in recent weeks to detect the potential mislabelling of beef products, the EU executive said 193 products contained positive traces of horsemeat DNA, or 4.55 percent.A further more than 3,000 tests for phenylbutazone, the paink