10 things you need to know about worldwide markets today

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July 21, 2015 4:33 PM

Here are 10 things going on in markets all over the world that you need to know about.

Toshiba Corp President and Chief Executive Officer Hisao Tanaka bows deeply as the start of news conference on panel to examine accounting issues in Tokyo May 15, 2015.

All over the world, national economies are very busy. Greece is not in the news for the first time in weeks, and Toshiba's CEO has resigned after it was revealed that the company had been inflating earnings. These and many others make up the 10 ten things going on in markets all around the world today that you need to know.

1. US markets are booming, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 reaching new closing highs overnight. The Nasdaq hit 5,218.86, while the S&P 500 reached 2,128.28.

2. But commodities are still collapsing. After Monday's mystery gold dump from China the precious metal is still at 5-year lows, at $1102 (£708) per ounce. Oil is also at a 3-month low, trading at $50.25 (£32.30) per barrel at time of writing.

3. A report by independent investigators says Toshiba overstated its operating profit by 151.8 billion yen (£780 million, $1.22 billion) over several years, roughly triple Toshiba's initial estimate. President and Chief Executive Hisao Tanaka and his predecessor, Vice Chairman Norio Sasaki, were aware of the overstatement of profits, it said.

4. Asian markets are quiet. Japan's Nikkei is up 0.87%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng is 0.69% higher, and the Shanghai Composite is 0.57% higher at time of writing.

5. New York state's banking regulator has intensified an investigation into Promontory Financial Group, a global consulting firm, over its work for Standard Chartered, according to a person familiar with the matter. The probe, conducted by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), focuses on a 2011 report to regulators about the British bank's transactions with Iran and other sanctioned countries, the person said.

6. The UK banking regulator visited Barclays more than twice as much as any other bank last year. The Times reports that the Financial Conduct Authority visited 186 times last year, 101 times more than the next most visited lender HSBC.

7. China has already created 7 million jobs this year. On Monday the nation’s statistics agency, the NBS, quietly released its June quarter unemployment report, showing it has already created 70% of the 10 million new jobs targeted for 2015.

8. PayPal started trading as an independent company in the US on Monday after its spin-off from eBay last week. It's market cap is currently $49.5 billion (£31.8 billion), meaning PayPal is worth more than Netflix, eBay, and Twitter.

9. Private equity firm KKR is taking transaction processing company First Data public in the US. First Data was bought by KKR in 2007 for $26 billion (£16.7 billion), in what was at the time one of the biggest leveraged buyouts on Wall Street.

10. Qualcomm is expected to conduct a strategic review that may result in the breakup of the company, among other options, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company has been under pressure from hedge fund Jana Partners to spin off its chip business from its highly profitable patent-licensing business.

Source: Business Insider.

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