European shares crept higher on Thursday although traders said further gains could be limited in the near term on concerns over how the European Central Bank would deal with Italy’s political deadlock.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which had reached a 4-1/2 year intraday high of 1,193.35 points on Wednesday, was up by 0.2 percent at 1,188.09 points by around midday.

The euro zone’s blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index advanced 0.4 percent to 2,690.88 points, while Germany’s DAX rose 0.2 percent to 7,937.83 points, nearing five-year highs reached earlier this week.

While investors said more gains were likely over the course of the year, they said that in the nearer term, there was a risk markets would be volatile due to uncertainty over how the ECB would address Italy’s problems at its meeting on Thursday.

Italy’s elections last month produced a deadlock, which reignited worries over how Italy and the likes of Spain could continue with austerity measures to heal their debt-ridden economies, given public anger to such tough economic reforms.

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Pandora Media Inc.’s (P) fiscal fourth-quarter loss widened as a rise in the Internet-radio provider’s expenses outpaced its revenue growth.

However, shares climbed 21% to $14.15 after hours as the results beat the company’s expectations. It also provided revenue guidance for full year and current quarter mostly above analyst expectations.

For the full year, Pandora sees revenue of $600 million to $620 million, while analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast $600 million. Pandora projected adjusted bottom-line results would range from a loss of five cents a share to a profit of five cents a share, while analysts had forecast a loss of two cents a share.

For the first quarter, Pandora sees revenue of $120 million to $125 million, compared with the $120 million estimate from analysts. The company projected an adjusted loss for the quarter of 13 cents to 10 cents a share, while analysts predicted a loss of 10 cents a share.

Pandora’s robust listener growth has brought with it mounting royalty costs for the songs it plays. The company, which went public in 2011, has also faced a lag in making money from mobile phones. Pandora, like other Internet companies, has experienced growth in use of its service on mobile devices, but hasn’t yet been able to make as much ad revenue as on traditional desktop computers.

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Next week, Samsung will launch the Galaxy S4 and it is fueling Apple-like speculation. But not only the S4.
Samsung just announced a partnership with Reliance in India to supply infrastructure to the country’s second 4G network and to bring out a $100 4G phone integrated with a very low-cost data package. It’s also announced a new 5.9 inch Phablet for later in the year and just launched the Galaxy Note 8.

Samsung’s rate of innovation should have US companies worried – and we discovered last week that it does. Google acknowledged it is concerned over the power of Samsung in the Android community – and presumably is ability to take search revenue.

As Samsung powers away in smartphones and tablets, Google and Apple are switching their attention to wearables (Google Glass and iWatch). Will this be enough to convince the markets, after March 14th, that they have a strategy to combat Samsung?

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Asian cities in the next 10 years increasingly will be where the world’s wealthiest people want to live, work and play, according to a new report by London-based property consultancy Knight Frank.

Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing will move up in a ranking of the top 10 cities popular among high net worth individuals, Knight Frank said yesterday, based on a survey of 400 global wealth advisors.

Moving down: New York and Geneva.

Knight Frank defines those with net asset of more than $30 million as high net worth individuals.

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Colgate-Palmolive‘s Ian Cook touted a big year and confidence in the future Thursday when the consumer products company announced it will execute a two-for-one stock split and raise its quarterly cash dividend 10% to 68 cents (or 34 cents post-split).

In a statement, Chairman and CEO Cook said the move is being driven by “confidence in the continued strong and profitable growth,” of the business.

The two-for-one split, scheduled for April 23, will increase shares outstanding to 936 million, from 468 million.While the statement did not address the rationale for the split — a Colgate spokesperson was not available for comment — one factor may be the relatively lower prices of the company’s competitors. Fellow global consumer goods companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Clorox, have stocks in the $40-$80 range despite comparable earnings multiples.

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Spanish prosecutors questioned the former treasurer of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s party on Wednesday in an inquiry launched following new allegations of corruption that have shaken the government.

Luis Barcenas, already charged in another major graft case, declined to speak to reporters before or after spending two hours at the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office in Madrid.

He helped run finances for Rajoy’s People’s Party for many years until 2009. Barcenas has described as fakes handwritten ledgers published last week by El Pais newspaper, which accused the PP of channeling payments through secret accounts from managers of building companies to its leaders, including Rajoy.

The premier has denied all wrongdoing. Investors sold some Spanish state bonds in recent days on concerns the government’s efforts to stave off insolvency could be thrown off track by any scandal. However, few analysts see the affair breaking Rajoy’s control of parliament or forcing an early election.

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Greek seamen on Wednesday ended a six-day strike that cut off dozens of islands and led to food shortages after the government ordered them back to work.

But other unions called for more action in a series of strikes by public transport workers and farmers which have underscored Greeks’ anger at austerity measures.

Hundreds of people jostled for free vegetables handed out by farmers in a symbolic protest earlier on Wednesday, trampling one man and prompting an outcry over the growing desperation created by economic crisis.

Images of people struggling to seize bags of tomatoes and leeks thrown from a truck dominated television, triggering a bout of soul-searching over the new depths of poverty in the debt-laden country.

“These images make me angry. Angry for a proud people who have no food to eat, who can’t afford to keep warm, who can’t make ends meet,” said Kostas Barkas, a lawmaker from the leftist Syriza party.

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The 14,000 jobs on the line in an Anglo American plan to bring profits back to its South African platinum arm are the just the first of many the sector is about to bleed.

Once an engine of job creation, South Africa’s mining industry faces soaring costs, labor unrest and falling production that is threatening other mines with closure.

The social consequences will be huge as much of the mine labor force, drawn from rural areas far from the shafts, is illiterate and will be hard pressed to find work elsewhere.

This labor force, which generated vast profits for the industry, is now its undoing as low skills levels constrain productivity, while income disparities fuel pay demands.

Tensions on the platinum belt remain high after wildcat strikes last year unleashed violence that killed over 50 people.

With all mines employing a third fewer South Africans than before the end of white rule two decades ago – while the population has grown by over 40 percent since 1990 – decline in the industry is not new, especially in the gold fields.

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When Edward Dyer started work as a letter carrier 18 years ago in New York City, job security was one of the selling points.

“It was one of the most secure jobs that people looked up to,” said the Bronx resident who has a route in Manhattan. “You didn’t need a college degree, you could get a job paying a good amount of money, plus benefits that you need to raise a family.

Dyer’s job supports a family of five, and has helped pay for his oldest daughter’s college tuition. Despite almost two decades of seniority under his belt, Wednesday’s announcement that Saturday service is being eliminated has made Dyer fearful. He worries that the job won’t last long enough to get him to retirement as he has always assumed.

“Once they do this, they can make any change they want,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s going to turn into. Is it going to cut from five days down to four days or three days? I need another 20, 25 years to get to retirement. I don’t know if it will be there that long.”

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Iran said on Sunday it was open to a U.S. offer of direct talks on its nuclear program and that six world powers had suggested a new round of nuclear negotiations this month, but without committing itself to either proposal.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve a dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West suspects is intended to give Iran the capability to build a nuclear bomb, have been all but deadlocked for years, while Iran has continued to announce advances in the program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said a suggestion on Saturday by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Washington was ready for direct talks with Iran if Tehran was serious about negotiations was a “step forward”.

“We take these statements with positive consideration. I think this is a step forward but … each time we have come and negotiated it was the other side unfortunately who did not heed … its commitment,” Salehi said at the Munich Security Conference where Biden made his overture a day earlier.

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