PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - August 12
Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:38 GMT
Aug 12 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* After weeks of a relentless rise, the Swiss franc plunged against the euro and the dollar Thursday, a sign that the central bank's efforts to flood the market with liquidity may be paying off.
The currency market also was awash with speculation that Switzerland would resort to more dramatic measures to weaken its currency, including a temporary peg to the euro, the currency of its main trading partners.
* Seeking to rein in volatility after a week of violent swings in banking shares, several European governments imposed bans on investors making certain types of bearish bets against financial stocks.
A pan-European securities regulator said late Thursday that France, Italy, Spain and Belgium would impose restrictions on the practice of short selling, a trading strategy that pays off if stocks tumble.
* A slow-moving Republican presidential campaign came to life Thursday night in a candidates' debate that featured the fiercest face-to-face exchanges of the 2012 contest.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has lagged behind in national public-opinion polls, came out swinging: He jabbed front-runner Mitt Romney, mocking his wealth, and he criticized surging fellow Minnesotan Michele Bachmann for what he called her lack of experience and successes.
* Global financial markets rebounded sharply Thursday after a drubbing Wednesday, extending one of the most volatile streaks in history for stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 423.37 points, or 3.9 percent, to 11143.31. It marked the first time in the index's 115-year history that it has moved by more than 400 points for four consecutive days.
* A decade into the war with al Qaeda, top U.S. military officers are increasingly worried they are ordering their troops to hunt down terror suspects with no clear national policy about what to do with those they capture.
The Obama administration, at a stalemate with Congress over its plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, and facing resistance to its efforts to try suspects in civilian courts, has neither established a comprehensive approach for handling detainees captured outside Iraq or Afghanistan, nor built a prison in which to hold them. (Compiled by Fareha Khan; Bangalore Equities Newsdesk +91 80 4135 5800 within U.S. +1 646 223 8780)
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