WORLD FINANCE UPDATE:
The Australian dollar is lower, after US stocks fell ahead of Congressional testimony from US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
At 0630 AEDT on Tuesday, the local unit was trading at 78.02 US cents, down from 78.36 cents on Monday.
And the Australian share market looks set to open higher after falls on Wall Street ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's expected update of US monetary policy in Congress.
ELSEWHERE:
ATHENS - A government official in Greece says a list of reforms demanded from the new government by bailout creditors will be sent early Tuesday - extending a deadline by a few hours.
KIEV - Ukraine's battered national currency has plummeted some 10 per cent as the central bank scrambles to strengthen currency controls in its latest bid to halt the slide.
WASHINGTON - US home sales hit a snow drift in January, plunging to the slowest pace in nine months.
FRANKFURT - German business confidence rose to its highest level in seven months in February, as Europe's biggest economy remains robust in the face of geopolitical uncertainty, the Ifo economic institute says.
LONDON - HSBC executives have offered a fresh mea culpa as its chief executive found himself personally mired in the scandal surrounding allegations that the bank helped wealthy clients dodge taxes.
BRUSSELS - EU competition regulators have launched a probe into US group General Electric's planned 12.4-billion-euro ($A18 billion) acquisition of the energy business of French rival Alstom.
HELSINKI - Apple says it's investing 1.7 billion euros ($A2.47 billion) in data centres in Denmark and Ireland that will be powered by renewable energy, its largest such project in Europe to date.
JOHANNESBURG - AngloGold Ashanti, one of the world's biggest bullion producers, says it is nearly back in the black, posting a net loss of $US39 million ($A49.72 million) in 2014 down from $US2.2 billion ($A2.80 billion) the previous year.
LONDON - Britain has sold a 1.0-per-cent stake in state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group for STG500 million ($A981.84 million) under plans to return it to private ownership, the government says.
MADRID - Spanish metallurgy giant FerroAtlantica and its US peer Globe Speciality Metals say they have agreed to merge to form a leading producer of silicon metal worth $US3.1 billion ($A3.95 billion).
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