Dublin house prices are among the least affordable in Europe, with a borrower needing to spend over 14 years of their disposable income to buy a home, according to research from Moody’s Investors Service.

The Black Friday and the Cyber Monday online spending splurge is bad for retailers and possibly poor value for shoppers too, Moody’s Investors Service has warned.

Investors stunned by Saudi Arabia’s unpredictable foreign policy under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are unlikely to drop their guard even if the kingdom succumbs to US pressure to resolve its conflict with neighbouring Qatar and end the war in Yemen.

The dominant role played by multinationals, the risks of a hard Brexit, as well as house prices are among the main threats facing the

Electricity prices will stay at current levels despite economic growth and the building of data centres boosting demand, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

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The benefits of rising house prices in Ireland and lower mortgage arrears will continue to spread to Irish banks and bonds backed by home loans, while the average amount of negative equity per borrower has fallen significantly, according to a report released today.

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Portugal’s bonds rose the most since June after the country’s finance chief said that rating company DBRS has a positive assessment of the nation’s fiscal efforts, strengthening the government’s conviction that it will keep its investment-grade rating.

A century after it transformed global markets, the Panama Canal is about to redraw world trade again.

Dell increased the amount of debt it will raise in the investment-grade bond market after the computer maker received over $80bn (€70.7bn) of orders from investors.

Irish bonds outperformed its eurozone peers in the first trading day after Moody’s Investors Service upgraded Ireland’s debt pile and delivered a better-than-expected scorecard on the country’s economic outlook.

Springtime in Paris is not quite as vibrant as usual this year.

Lower tax revenues because of job losses due to the collapse in oil prices will hit budgets of US oil-producing states this year and next, Moody’s Investors Service said.

Ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service said it will closely watch the next government’s spending plans and monitor private sector pay amid fears the bounty of the hard-won recovery could be wasted by unwise actions and frailties at home.

Activision Blizzard has agreed to buy Irish-based King Digital Entertainment for $5.9bn (€5.35bn), unifying console and PC games ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ with the leading mobile game ‘Candy Crush Saga’.

Sex, money, betrayal: The bizarre brawl between American Apparel and its founder, Dov Charney, has all that and more. But now this tabloid tale is coming down to a seemingly staid bit of finance: The bonds.

The Government and bank lenders were given something of a wake-up call yesterday as a leading international credit rating agency threw cold water on the prospects for a speedy return to normal personal debt levels here.

International investors are looking on with concern at the pressure the Government has placed on the banks to lower home loan rates — and the return taxpayers will get from future sales of AIB, Permanent TSB and Bank of Ireland could be hit, experts have warned.

Finland came a step closer to losing its top credit grade at Fitch Ratings as divisions within the government led to a failure to stem the growth of public debt.

Moody’s Investors Service’s positive outlook on Cyprus’s credit rating “is an indication that we are on the right track,” Christos Patsalides, permanent secretary of the Cypriot ministry of finance said.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the Government may seek to sell a stake in Allied Irish Bank before the country’s next scheduled election.

Portugal’s government bonds advanced, with 10-year yields dropping below 5% for the first time since August 2010, as a recovery in the region’s most indebted economies attracted investors.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan says he hopes Moody’s Investors Service will raise the nation’s credit rating from non-investment grade as the country exits its bailout programme and plans debt sales.

Portugal exchanged €6.64bn of bonds to reduce debt repayments due in the next two years as it tries to exit its €78bn international bailout without needing another rescue.

The Standard & Poor’s rating agency has downgraded France’s principal credit rating by one notch to AA.

Ireland’s government bonds fell yesterday, outperforming all their eurozone counterparts after Moody’s Investors Service raised the outlook on the nation’s debt, citing stability in its access to financial markets.

MANY US cities have a much better economic outlook than struggling Detroit, but the Motor City’s bankruptcy filing should still set off alarm bells elsewhere as the cost of paying retirement benefits swells.

Russia won’t bail out people or companies that stand to lose money held at Cyprus’s two largest banks, first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov said.

Unlike the difficulties Cyprus encountered when trying to levy bank deposits, our Government’s raid on pension funds here was carried out almost without incident, writes Joe Brennan

European policy makers yesterday signalled flexibility on the application of an unprecedented bank tax in Cyprus, seeking to overcome outrage that threatens to derail the nation’s bailout.

The booming Irish export sector could become one of the first victims of an international currency war, according to the CEO of the Irish Export Association, John Whelan.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan is to meet the European Central Bank president Mario Draghi in Frankfurt today, after reports that the ECB could be set to change policy on the burning of senior bondholders.

Peugeot Citroen has a 51% chance of default after the price of insuring its debt surged to a record, according to Bloomberg data.

Credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Italy’s government bond rating two notches on concern that deteriorating financial conditions in Europe will lead to a sharp rise in borrowing costs.

The euro fell to the lowest level in more than a week against the yen as Spanish and Italian borrowing costs rose amid concern a EU summit this week will fail to solve the sovereign-debt crisis.

Asian stock markets fell this morning as gloomy economic reports from the world’s two biggest economies heightened fears of a sharper global downturn.

Spain and Italy have appealed to European policymakers to step up the response to the financial crisis after a €100bn lifeline for Spanish banks failed to calm markets.

World stocks erased the year’s gains and German bond yields slid to record lows yesterday as investors fled risky investments for safe-haven assets on the eurozone’s deepening debt woes.

Nestle plans to fund its $11.9bn (€9.1bn) acquisition of Pfizer’s baby-food unit with debt.

Spain and Italy will be downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s this year as the recession and debt crisis worsen, economists and strategists at Citigroup said.

From a Frankfurt office tower he masterminds a team that has downgraded eurozone countries’ credit ratings 36 times. Mark Jones profiles Standard & Poor’s Moritz Kraemer

Irish banks may be suffering a “fear factor” in lending after the collapse of the property bubble that resembled “a Ponzi scheme”, Justice Minister Alan Shatter said.

Moody’s Investors Service says that Ireland’s proposed personal insolvency laws, which will introduce a measure of debt forgiveness for “unsustainable” home loans, is credit negative for Irish residential mortgage backed securities.