Pakistan's forex reserves fall to $10.05 bln

KARACHI, March 12 (Reuters) - Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves fell by $90 million to $10.05 billion in the week that ended on March 7, the central bank said on Thursday.

The State Bank of Pakistan's reserves dropped to $6.61 billion from $6.69 billion a week earlier, while reserves held by commercial banks slipped to $3.44 billion from $3.45 billion, the bank said.

Pakistan's foreign reserves hit a record high of $16.5 billion in October 2007 but fell to $6.6 billion in November, largely because of a soaring import bill.

Pakistan signed a $7.6 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund in November to stave off a balance of payments crisis. It received its first tranche of $3.1 billion that month.

The next tranche of about $840 million is expected by the end of March. (Reporting by Sahar Ahmed; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Forex reserves increase by $109 million

KARACHI: The country’s liquid foreign exchange reserves increased by $109 million during the last week ending on March 14, 2009, reveals State Bank of Pakistan’s statistics on Thursday. The country’s foreign exchange reserves reached $10.161 billion on March 14 as compared with $10.052 billion last week. The reserves held by the central bank witnessed a major increase of $76 million to reach $6.689 billion as compared to $6.613 billion last week. Reserves held by banks (other than SBP), similarly, witnessed an increase of $32 million to reach $3.471 billion as against $3.439 billion last week. staff report

FOREX-US dollar gains vs euro as ECB, G20 meetings loom

By Steven C. Johnson

NEW YORK, April 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar rose against the euro but was little changed against the yen on Wednesday as caution before a Group of 20 summit and a European Central Bank meeting blunted news of more U.S. job losses last month.

The ECB is expected to cut its benchmark interest rate to 1.0 percent on Thursday and markets are on alert for any sign that officials are moving toward unconventional policy measures such as buying corporate or government debt to boost the money supply.

That overshadowed data from ADP Employer Services showing the United States shed another 742,000 private sector jobs in March which strategists said bodes ill for the government's more comprehensive employment report on Friday.

"The jobs numbers are pretty bad, but people have settled into accepting that reality," said UBS currency strategist Brian Kim. "There's more concern with positioning ahead of the G20 and ECB meetings."

The euro was changing hands at $1.3220 , down 0.2 percent. The dollar was unchanged at 98.92 yen while the euro was also little changed at 130.80 yen .

The yen was hit by a record low in the Bank of Japan's Tankan survey of manufacturer confidence, adding to fears of a a deepening recession for the Japanese economy.

Sterling rose 0.6 percent to $1.4404 after data showed the rate of decline in Britain's manufacturing sector eased by more than expected last month. A U.S. report also showed the pace of manufacturing contraction slowed slightly.

The dollar had climbed even higher after Bloomberg reported President Barack Obama was leaning toward bankruptcy for General Motors and Chrysler but retreated when the White House said the report was "not accurate."

Uncertainty tends to attract safe-haven flows into the dollar from higher-yield currencies and assets such as stocks.

FOREX: Ringgit Closes Unchanged Against U.S. Dollar

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 (Bernama) -- The ringgit closed unchanged against the US dollar today despite the gains on Bursa Malaysia, dealers said.

The ringgit was little changed at 3.6450/6500 against the greenback from the 3.6450/6480 at yesterday's closing.

Dealers said trading on the forex market was light as investors remained cautious over the global economic health.

Speculation that Malaysia's exports in February would be bearish, was also among the contributing factors, they said.The data is due for release on April 3.

However, on a positive note, dealers expect the ringgit to strengthen at 3.60 against the US dollar as investors start to look at assets and investments in emerging markets.

"Asian markets are likely to regain investor confidence once the stimulus packages start rolling and begin impacting the continent's economy. This will also benefit Malaysia and the ringgit as well," they said.

Compared to other major currencies, the ringgit was mostly higher.

It was stronger against the Singapore dollar at 2.3933/3989 from 2.3948/3989 yesterday and also strengthened against the Japanese yen at 3.6852/6906 from 3.7077/7130 previously.

Against the euro, the ringgit appreciated to 4.8103/8180 from yesterday's 4.8369/8420, but was lower against the British pound at 5.2430/2524 from 5.1985/1050 previously.

Amazon, Microsoft reject 'Open Cloud Manifesto'

A group of Web services providers, reportedly including IBM, is set to unveil a "manifesto" next week that lays out a number of principles for open cloud computing. Two of the biggest names in the field, though, say they aren't signing on.

Microsoft posted blog message to that effect on Wednesday night, while Amazon.com on Friday said it, too, is not among the companies signing the document.

"Like other ideas on standards and practices, we'll review this one," Amazon said in a statement. "Ideas on openness and standards have been talked about for years in Web services. And we do believe standards will continue to evolve in the cloud-computing space. But what we've heard from customers thus far, customers who are really committed to using the cloud, is that the best way to illustrate openness and customer flexibility is by what you actually provide and deliver for them."

Vexing computer worm to evolve on April Fool's Day

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — A tenacious computer worm which has wriggled its way onto machines worldwide is set to evolve on April Fool's Day, becoming harder to exterminate but not expected to wreak havoc.

A task force assembled by Microsoft has been working to stamp out the worm, referred to as Conficker or DownAdUP, and the US software colossus has placed a bounty of 250,000 dollars on the heads of those responsible for the threat.

The worm is programmed to modify itself on Wednesday to become harder to stop, according to Trend Micro threat researcher Paul Ferguson, who is part of the Conficker task force.

"There is no evidence of it going into attack mode or dropping any particular payload on April 1st," Ferguson said in an interview.

"What people controlling the botnet are doing is building in survivability because of efforts by the good guys to lessen the harm of this thing."

The worm, a self-replicating program, takes advantage of networks or computers that haven't kept up to date with security patches for Windows RPC Server Service.

It can infect machines from the Internet or by hiding on USB memory sticks carrying data from one computer to another. Once in a computer it digs deep, setting up defenses that make it hard to extract.

UPDATE:US Money Laundering Case Halts Venezuela Forex Trading

(Updates with new details on defendant, analysis and background)

By Darcy Crowe

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--A money laundering case has prompted U.S. authorities to freeze an umbrella account used by dozens of brokers in Venezuela for currency trading, bringing the South American nation's so-called parallel currency market to a halt.

The seizure in unofficial currency market trading threatens to badly hamstring Venezuela's import-dependent economy.

The U .S. District Court of Massachusetts has charged one of the managers of the account for allegedly wire transferring $900,000 in proceeds from "dealing in a controlled substance," according to court documents.

Prosecutors are charging Rama K. Vyasulu, an apparent representative for the umbrella account that Venezuelan traders said was managed by Florida-based Rosemont P. Corporation, also known as Rosemont Money Services.