FedEx Corp. (FDX) may try to leap into the bidding for TNT Express NV (TNTE) after the board of Europe’s second- largest package-delivery company discarded a $6.43 billion offer from United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS), investors and analysts said.

FedEx is the most understandable potential TNT suitor besides UPS, said Katrina Dudley, a portfolio manager at Mutual Series, a Franklin Templeton Investments unit whose funds own TNT stock. “It is a once-in-a lifetime chance for one of the players to create what I see as a strong global parcel franchise.”

TNT (TNTE) turned down UPS’s initial offer of 9 Euros a share while saying Feb. 17 that talks continue. That leaves an opening for FedEx, operator of the world’s biggest cargo airline, to swoop in to keep Hoofddorp, Netherlands-based TNT out of UPS’s hands, said Kevin Sterling, an analyst at BB&T Capital Markets. The prize would be expansion in Europe, where Deutsche Post AG (DPW)’s DHL leads in express deliveries.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s biggest rally to start a year since 1991 is coinciding with a 15 percent increase in President Barack Obama’s re-election odds, viewing growing investor confidence in the U.S. financial system.

The benchmark gauge for American shares has climbed as much as 7.5 percent in 2012, the most in 21 years, as unemployment fell and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke vowed to keep interest rates near zero through 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The price of a bet paying $10 should Obama win another term rose to $6 on Feb. 10 from $5.20 on Jan. 1 and below even money in November at Dublin-based bookmaker in trade.

An improved market clearly improves the president’s re- election chances,” David Kelly, who helps oversee $394 billion as chief market strategist for JPMorgan Funds in New York, said in a Feb. 8 interview. “The markets are pretty good at figuring this out.

Glencore International Plc is nearing an agreement to combine with Xstrata Plc (XTA), adding mines from Africa to Asia to the world’s largest listed commodity trader, said two people with knowledge of the plan. Two of the Switzerland located companies possibly will announce a treaty as early as this week, said the people, who declined to be recognized because the plans are not to be mentioned. The combined company may be valued at 52 billion pounds ($82 billion) after excluding Glencore’s 34 percent stake in Xstrata.

Combination of Zug-based Xstrata with Glencore, located two miles away in Baar, would reunite two groups which separated a decade ago when Xstrata bought Glencore’s Australian and South African assets for $2.5 billion and went public in London. A deal can create savings of as much as $704 million, Credit Suisse Group AG said in a report in October. Joining gives them that much more level to fight against some of the larger players,

Hong Kong’s financial system grew a less than expected 3 percent in the fourth quarter from a year previous as Europe’s debt crisis hampered exports. The development was the least in two years and compared with the 3.1 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 12 economists. Financial Secretary John Tsang gave the number in his budget speech today. For the full year, growth was 5 percent.

Hong Kong can give focus this year on supporting growth rather than limiting the risk of real-estate bubbles as property prices fall and exports weaken. Chief Executive Donald Tsang said last week in Davos, Switzerland, that he has never been as scared about the global economic outlook, and UBS AG says the city may have a “superficial” depression in the first half. A budget surplus will “help to shore up Hong Kong’s defenses in an increasingly unstable global financial environment,” .UBS sees Hong Kong’s economy growing 1.6 percent this year, while Standard Chartered Plc predicts increase of 2.9 percent.

Citigroup Inc. (C), the third major U.S. lender by assets, slash 2011 bonuses in its investment banking division by about 30 percent on average amid slumping revenue, according to a person saying on the subject.  A number of trades within the securities and finance unit had bonuses concentrated by as much as seventy percent compared with the earlier year, said the person, who asked to stay unidentified because the decisions aren’t public. The unit, led by James “Jamie” Forese, includes bond and stock trading as well as debt and equity underwriting.

Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, 55, is firing workers and shrinking costs in the unit as he grapples with declining revenue. The bank said this month that it will cut about 1,200 workers from the division to save $600 million this year and more reductions may pursue. The unit’s income dipped 21 percent ever since 2009, while reimbursement and other operating costs jumped 15 percent.

Friedlands Ivanplats which is a mining company run by Billionaire Ivanhoe Mines Ltd its founder Robert Friedland can have as much as one billion dollar in the initial public offering in the second quarter. This has been said by the sources with good knowledge of the plan. Ivanplats which has got metal deposits in South Africa and the democratic Republic of Congo can be priced at 5 billion US dollars after the selling of the stocks.

The IPO can take place in Toronto after the second listing in London according to the people. If the plan works out successfully then the Ivanplats IPO can be the largest in Canada since Athabasca Oil sands Corporation increased 1.3 US billion dollars in the share sales from March 2010. The company is looking forward to bring out a prospectus as early as next month.

Citigroup Inc joined hands with JP Morgan Chase & Co in giving its lowest cost revenue since 2008’s economic slowdown happened. Another company Wells Fargo & Co revenue shares also dipped as the core lending businesses and companies also improved a lot. Citigroup announced that the fourth quarter revenue results fell by more than seven percent as compared to one year earlier. The total income reduced by eleven percent to 1.17 US billion dollars.

There is a growing concern that the European debt crisis has contributed to the worldwide economic slowdown and it is the reason why trading volume and bank investment deals have dropped considerably in the second half of the year. Citigroup fell almost 6.8 percent to the figure of $28.66 which is its worst showing in the KBW bank Index. The New York based company JP Morgan dropped 2.2 percent to 35.12 US dollars.

Eastman Kodak Co is having advanced talks and discussions with the Citigroup Inc for providing the bankruptcy financing solutions as the photography company starts to file lawsuits according to the related people in this matter. The Kodak Company is now facing losses at the moment. Kodak can seek security from the creditors in some weeks and after that hold an auction for selling the patent portfolio. It has been said by the people who has claimed not to be identified because the talks are been kept private.

The financial advisors of the Kodak Company are lining up for a bidder which can either be the leader or the bidder required for the patent portfolio. Kodak‘s cash savings and the equities dropped to 862 million US dollars in the end of the third quarter from the 1.4 billion US dollars before a year earlier. The company can declare the next scheduled report of the fourth quarter in the later January.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company TEPCO shares hit all time low by approximately twelve percent just after the news came on Nikkei newspaper that the Japanese government will look out for buying the common shares for taking the maximum control of the utilization. The stocks fell surprisingly by twelve percent which is the lowest fall in the price in a single day. It was at the one seventy yen mark at the beginning of the day in the Tokyo stock exchange.

Tepco touched all time low before the March 11 earthquake and when the Tsunami struck the vast Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear power plant which caused the nuclear radiation to leak and as a result there were mass evacuations from there. The Government backed programs such as the nuclear damage Liability fund are there to inject the amount of one trillion yen into the Power Company so that it can stand again. Sources say that without this amount the company can go bankrupt in a couple of years.

The euro (EUR) fingered an 11-year low in opposition to the yen and traded 0.3 percent from the least in just about 16 months in opposition to the dollar earlier than the German and French leaders gathers amid signs the province’s sovereign-debt crisis is damping enlargement outlooks.

The 17-nation euro slid in opposition to the majority of major counterparts to the front of a report today predict to demonstrate industrial production in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, refused in the month of November. The dollar gained subsequent to statistics last week showed the U.S. labor souk is increasing. Australia’s currency dropped subsequent to a report showed retail sales unpredictably stagnated in the month of November. The Philippine peso fell for a third day previous to a report on exports.

The euro chopped down 0.2 percent to 97.74 yen as of 1:49 p.m. in Singapore subsequent to earlier dropping to 97.28, the least since December 2000.