Even though the December jobs report revealed a lower unemployment rate -- dropping to 9.4 percent from 9.8 percent the month before, which was the biggest monthly drop in a dozen years as 100,000 jobs were added to payrolls -- everyone wants to know where exactly the openings exist. 

After five months, the oil well that had spewed thousands of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico is on the verge of being plugged once and for all.

A relief well drilled nearly 2.5 miles beneath the floor of the Gulf of Mexico intersected BP's blown-out well, a prelude to permanently killing it, the U.S government said late Thursday.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the oil spill, said in a statement that data shows the two wells are joined. The next step will be to pump mud and cement down through the relief well to seal the ruptured well from the bottom.

China announced on Saturday that it would resume making the yuan more flexible, signalling that it was ready to break a 23-month-old peg to the dollar that had come under intense international criticism.

But in a lengthy statement about how reform would proceed, the central bank explicitly ruled out a one-off revaluation, repeatedly said there was no basis for any big appreciation and added that the currency's value was not far off its fair level.

Two years ago, Billy's Antiques & Props on East Houston Street in Manhattan caused an international media stir when the proprietor hung a handmade sign that read: "Euros Only."

For Billy Leroy, owner of the street-side shop that harkens back to the grittier days of New York's Bowery district, the sign was both a prop and a way to reach out to European tourists who were flooding his shop when the euro was hitting $1.60 highs.

The scope of the damage from the Gulf Coast oil spill is still hard to calculate, but here's a grim tally: More than 26,000 workers and business owners along the Gulf Coast have filed claims so far for lost income.

BP (BP) has made payments already on over 11,600 of those claims, disbursing $35 million to fishermen, shrimpers, charter boat captains and others whose livelihoods are now in limbo. The company has 420 claims adjusters staffing nearly two dozens processing centers in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The government ban on deep water oil drilling could stifle economic activity and lead to job losses and higher energy prices, an industry group said Friday.

"An extended moratorium on safely producing our oil and natural gas resources from the Gulf of Mexico would create a moratorium on economic growth and job creation," said Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the main U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry.

In the middle of the federal government's National Small Business Week, two of the most successful Small Business Administration programs are about to run out of money -- again.

The SBA announced Wednesday that it is opening up its Recovery Loan Queue for the fourth time.

read more at CNN Small Business

The numbers being batted around when it comes to how much the oil spill will ultimately cost BP and the local Gulf of Mexico economies are huge. $3 billion. $14 billion. One politician put it at over $100 billion.

The range is so big because two important questions remain unanswered: When will the leak be sealed, and will most of the oil wash ashore? Until those are answered no one will know the pricetag of the damages for sure

Greece's finance minister said on Sunday that aid will arrive in time to avert the euro zone's first sovereign debt default as signs grew that a 45 billion-euro (39.21 billion pounds) rescue would have to be bigger.

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund and European partners went well and he was confident Greece would secure help in May to finance its crippling public debt.