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.

Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday forecast a surge in first quarter operating profit to near-record levels, heading into a year for which the biggest flat screen TV producer is predicting double-digit sales growth as global markets recover.

The company said it expects operating profit of between 4.1 trillion won and 4.5 trillion won ($4 billion) for the three months ended March 31, according to a statement. That would be at least seven times the 590 billion won profit for the same period last year and might top its record of 4.2 trillion won for the third quarter of 2009.

Stocks ended lower Wednesday, but higher for the quarter after a strong showing in March, as downbeat jobs and manufacturing reports cooled a recent runup.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 50 points, or 0.5%, to end at 10,857.31. The S&P 500 index (SPX) slipped 4 points, or 0.3%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 7 points, or 0.3%.

Indexes have rallied strongly, but investor fears persist. Here's how the investing landscape has been transformed in the past 12 months

More has changed for investors in the past year than the value of their portfolios.

By several measures, today's conditions in financial markets look quite different from those on Mar. 9, 2009, when the stock market finally stopped a 17-month slide that erased more than half the value of the broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.