World sharemarkets dropped overnight after the Greek Prime Minister sought to silence critics by unexpectedly calling for a referendum.

Halloween is likely to be a lot less spooky than it appeared to be mere days ago with October set to close as the best performing month for Wall Street in decades.

Shares soared in Europe overnight and are well up on Wall St after European leaders agreed on a Greek debt deal.

Costamare told investors it purchased secondhand container ships, including the Rena, at a good time and is making a yield of 32 per cent on them.

Stocks and the euro sank as comments by Germany's finance minister doused hopes a summit later this month would resolve Europe's debt crisis.

Almost 2000 protesters plan to occupy Auckland's Aotea Square for the next six weeks.

Sharemarkets in Europe and the US are up after investors appeared to endorse the European plan to recapitalise threatened banks.

World markets rose overnight after intervention by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank eased fears about the European debt crisis.

New Zealand financial markets markets were in a holding pattern today after Europe's debt woes sparked a wave of selling around world last week.

A new report quashing hopes China's would pick up the slack from problems in the US and Europe has sent...

Equities sank after the most powerful central bank chief in the world came out guns blazing but fired blanks ahead of a speech by US President Barack Obama.

US shares rebounded overnight, as investors applauded signs on both sides of the Atlantic that government fiscal problems are getting solved.