(Reuters) - U.S. regulators should stem the growing tide of anonymous stock-trading and consider charging high-frequency traders fees for the disproportionate amount of orders they send into the marketplace, said a panel of experts advising how to avoid another "flash crash." The report laying out 14 recommendations for the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission contains some fresh ideas.

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(Reuters) - China rejected plans to use real exchange rates and currency reserves to measures global economic imbalances, casting doubt on the ability of Group of 20 major economic powers to reach agreement at a meeting on Friday. Speaking shortly before the start of the two-day meeting of finance ministers and central bankers, Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren also said the G20 should use trade figures rather than current account balances to assess economic distortions.

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(Reuters) - Emergency borrowing from the European Central Bank remained exceptionally elevated for a second straight day on Friday, intensifying speculation that one or more euro zone bank might be facing new funding problems. ECB figures showed banks borrowed more than 16 billion euros in high-cost emergency overnight funding, the highest amount since June 2009 and well above the 1.2 billion euros which banks were taking before the figure first jumped on Thursday.

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(Reuters) - China on Friday raised required reserves to a record 19.5 percent, adding to an increasingly aggressive effort by Beijing to stamp out stubbornly high inflation. The fifth increase since October, all in increments of 50 basis points, will force the country's lenders to lock up a bigger chunk of their deposits at the central bank from next week, removing cash from the fast-growing economy that otherwise would be pushing prices higher.

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(Reuters) - Brazilian exchange operator BM&FBovespa is not in merger talks with Chicago-based exchange operator CME Group but expects their partnership to expand in the near future, BM&FBovespa Chief Executive Edemir Pinto said on Friday. His remarks followed a frenzied week of merger announcements by exchanges around the world as bourses move to strengthen ties in the face of tough competition at home.

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(Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators are probing whether some mutual funds have overstated the value of thinly traded risky municipal bonds at a time when investors were withdrawing money from muni-bond funds, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is part of the regulator's broader effort to investigate possible abuses in the municipal bond market, the Journal said.

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(Reuters) - Anglo American, the world's fourth-biggest diversified miner, posted better than expected profits thanks to sharply higher metal prices, and said demand growth remained extremely positive. It also said it is to move its Tarmac UK aggregates and cement business into a joint venture with Lafarge to create a UK construction materials combine with sales of about 1.8 billion pounds.

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(Reuters) - Wall Street dipped on Thursday as indexes hovering at multi-year highs after both inflation and weekly jobless claims rose more than expected. Iranian state television reports that two Iranian warships were due to cross the strategic Suez Canal also weighed on investors already nervous about growing civil unrest in the Middle East. U.S. core consumer prices rose at their quickest pace in more than a year in January as the Federal Reserve's monetary policy was again in focus with signs of inflation creeping into the global economy.

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(Reuters) - U.S. core consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in more than a year in January, indicating a long period of slowing inflation had run its course. The Labor Department said on Thursday its core Consumer Price Index, which excludes food and energy costs, increased 0.2 percent -- the largest gain since October 2009. The index rose 0.1 percent in December. The increase, which was above economists' expectations for a 0.1 percent gain, was driven by rises in the cost of apparel, shelter and airline fares.

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(Reuters) - Confidential diplomatic cables from the U.S. embassies in Beijing and Hong Kong lay bare China's growing influence as America's largest creditor. As the U.S. Federal Reserve grappled with the aftershocks of financial crisis, the Chinese, like many others, suffered huge losses from their investments in American financial firms -- from Lehman Brothers to the Primary Reserve Fund, the money market fund that broke the buck.

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