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In the final quarter of 2010 there were 230 private equity-backed deals recorded with a value of €22bn, slightly down on the 235 recorded in the same quarter of 2009, but up 50% from €10.3bn in value terms.

Despite economic uncertainty, an increasing number of Americans are ramping up their investment activity, when compared to levels seen in May 2010. The AlixPartners U.S. Financial Services Industry Outlook by AlixPartners, the global business-advisory firm, finds that 13% of Americans overall and 18% of self-described “investors” have accelerated their investing activity over the past seven months.

In November 2010 compared with October 2010, the euro area (EA16) industrial new orders index rose by 2.1%. In October the index grew by 1.4%. In the EU27, new orders increased by 1.6% in November 2010, after a rise of 0.4% in October. Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders increased by 2.1% in the euro area and by 1.9% in the EU27.

This month's study, released by Bankrate Inc., shows that Americans are nearly split when it comes to gauging their financial security. Despite the gradual economic rebound, many Americans still feel less comfortable with their finances now than they did 12 months ago.

One in six older Americans lives below the federal poverty line, according to a new government analysis which almost doubles the number of very poor seniors compared to the standard estimate.

President Obama is finishing up his State of the Union address for Tuesday evening and one of the points he will discuss is the current state of the country. According to Americans, the union is not doing so well. Just 3% of U.S. adults say the state of the country is excellent and 14% say it is good. More than two in five (43%) say that it is fair while 40% say it is poor.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Germany increased 0.9 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) decreased 0.1 percent in November.

New findings by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) show that both employers and workers say they are not very knowledgeable about health reform, but that employers say they are likely to pass along any health benefit cost increases to workers - and, mostly, workers are expecting such cost increases.

The HSBC Small Business Confidence Monitor revealed that U.S. small business confidence remained positive at 108, a slight increase from 4Q2009 (106) but declined versus 2Q2010 (120). Although the U.S. economy is gradually gaining momentum, the U.S. small business economic outlook has retracted over the past six months amid local economic growth concerns. 80 percent of small businesses expect the economy to remain the same or increase in the next six months. The number of respondents expecting the local economy to grow dropped to 14 percent from 32 percent in 2Q2010. The HSBC Confidence Monitor also found that few U.S. small businesses plan to undertake any hiring in the next six months, with 76 percent of those surveyed expecting to keep the number of staff unchanged (versus 74 percent in 2Q2010).