• Germany’s Angela Merkel can claim a symbolic victory in yesterday’s German-inspired treaty to ensure stricter fiscal rules for EU nations. The tough job of ratification remains for France, and the test case for shaping a solution in Greece may be telling. From The Financial Times.
• Unemployment in the euro zone increased slightly to a record last month. December unemployment in the region was 10.4% versus 9.5 last year. The employment picture improved slightly in Germany, but the results were unable to mask weakness in Portugal, France, Italy, and Spain. There are 23.8 million people now jobless in the 27 country EU. From The Financial Times.
• Japanese chip making giant, Toshiba Corp, announced last night that quarterly operating profit fell 72%. The industrial electronics conglomerate also cut its 2012 profit forecast dramatically. Very soft TV sales, and a drop off in chip demand combined with weak pricing decimated profits. From Reuters News.