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　　The world this week-Business

　　本周经济要闻

　　Europe's big banks followed the trend of theirAmerican counterparts with generally dismal first-quarter earnings. The share prices of UBS andCommerzbank fell sharply after each said net profithad fallen much more than had been expectedcompared with the same three months last year, to SFr707m (712m) at UBS of Switzerland and163m (180m) at Commerzbank of Germany. HSBC's pre-tax income dropped by 14% to 6.1billion, but the bank pointed out it was on track in restructuring its business to focus more onAsia.

　　欧洲大银行追随美国大银行走势，第一季度总体收益呈现低迷状态。瑞士联合银行(UBS)和德国商业银行(Commerzbank)净利润同比出现明显跌势，分别跌至7.07亿法郎(折合7.12亿美元)和1.63亿欧元(折合1.8亿美元)，远远超出了预想。随后，两家银行股价也出现了大幅度的下跌。汇丰银行(HSBC)税前收入下跌14%至61亿美元，但银行指出，此次下跌是由于内部业务重组，以便将工作重心更多地集中于亚洲地区，一切都在掌控之中。

　　A share issue by Banca Popolare di Vicenza flopped. Italy's tenth-largest bank had tried to raisecapital to satisfy European regulators through a share sale, but few investors were interested,leaving a bank-rescue fund created by other Italian financial firms to underwrite the wholeissue.

　　意大利大众银行(Banca Popolare di Vicenza)股票发行计划以失败告终。作为意大利第十大银行，意大利大众银行试图通过出售股份进行筹资，以满足欧洲管理者们的要求，但鲜有投资者对此感兴趣，使得其他意大利金融公司不得不成立银行救助基金，确保整支股票得以承销发行。

　　The European Central Bank decided to phase out the 500 banknote (570) by late 2018 becauseof the proclivity of criminals and terror groups to use them. The last time 500 bills wereprinted was 2014, but they are popular among law-abiding folk in Germany and some otherEuropean countries.

　　由于犯罪分子和恐怖组织青睐于使用500欧元面值纸币，欧洲中央银行(European Central Bank)决定于2018年年底前逐步停止该类钞票的发行。2014年，500欧元钞票进行了最后一次印刷，该钞票深受德国和其他欧洲国家守法人士的喜爱。

　　Transatlantic drift

　　横跨大西洋

　　Intercontinental Exchange, which runs the New York Stock Exchange, decided not to bid for theLondon Stock Exchange, which has already agreed to a merger with Deutsche Borse. In MarchICE announced that it was considering whether to make a rival offer; it says the Londonexchange displayed a “disappointing level of engagement”.

　　纽约证券交易所(New York Stock Exchange)母公司洲际交易所(Intercontinental Exchange)决定不向伦敦证券交易所(London Stock Exchange)报价，并同意同德国证券交易所(Deutsche Borse)进行合并。3月，洲际交易所宣布正在考虑是否报价伦敦交易所，随后表示伦敦证券交易所的表现“令人失望”。

　　In a surprise decision Australia's central bank reduced its benchmark interest rate by a quarterof a percentage point, to 1.75%. It was the first cut in a year and came after one measure ofAustralia's inflation rate dipped to 1.5%.

　　澳大利亚中央银行做出了出人意料的决定，将基准利率表下调0.25个百分点至1.75%。考虑到澳大利亚通胀率已降至1.5%，这是今年内首次进行下调。

　　Halliburton and Baker Hughes called off their 28 billion merger, which would have rivaledSchlumberger in size in the oilfield-services industry. The deal had run into opposition fromantitrust officials, notably in America where the Justice Department recently signaled its intentto block the merger.

　　哈里伯顿(Halliburton)和贝克休斯(Baker Hughes)价值280亿美元的合并计划以失败收场。在油田服务领域，两家公司合并后的规模将与斯伦贝谢(Schlumberger)相提并论。但此次合并却遭到了反垄断机构的反对，尤其是近日美国司法部门试图对此进行阻挠。