An $11 billion buy-out by Federated Department Stores of May Department Stores will create the largest single chain of department stores in the US.

Bringing together brand names such as Bloomingdales, Macy's, and Marshall Fields, the deal will mean that Federated Department Stores will have ownership of over 1,000 stores across the US, with combined annual revenues of $30bn.

Both facing strong competition from Wal-Mart, the companies had attempted to merge before, but talks had broken down. However, with the resignation in January of May's chairman and chief executive Gene Kahn in January, talks were quickly resumed and an agreement pushed through.

In the deal, Federated will also take on $6 billion of May's debt.

Comments from the South Korean central bank led to investor fears of a sell-off of Asian dollar reserves, resulting in a large slid in the dollar's value.

There has already been a movement from US dollar holdings in central banks, to more diverse currency management, not least while the euro and Australian dollar are currently more attractive in the short term.

However, an actual sell-off of dollar reserves would negatively impact the value of the US dollar, when it is already at a low point in the current economic cycle.

Reassurances from Sourth Korea later in the day allayed investors that South Korea was looking at diversification, rather than a sale of reserves, helping the dollar recover some of its losses.

US markets warmed to strong profit results from major coporations today.

Although Boeing reported a profit fall of 84% on last year, due to closure of its 717 programme, this still created above expectation net profits of $186m. The defence arm was especially credited with good performance. And with the Boeing 7E7 due for ceremony in April, 2005 and 2006 are ones the company is confident of strong returns in.

Additionally, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reported an 80% increase in Q4 profits to $386m (£205m), with film and DVD sales being particular earners for the company. And these are areas expected to see further growth in 2005.

Google reported profits of over $204.1m for Q4, which again exceeded market expectations, resulting in a stock price's rise that at one point peaked at $216.80 per share.

Amazon was the only large trader to disappoint. Although a tax credit swelled their Q4 earnings to $346.7m, the site of overall revenues climbing but with little return on net profits left shareholders feeling shunned in lieu of consumers, and devalued the company by over 13%.