REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov German Chancellor Angela Merkel says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will definitely not be attending the next G7 meeting. 
The IMF Wasn't Told About The Swiss National Bank's Shock Action Yesterday."I find it a bit surprising that he did not contact me, but, you know, we'll check on that," said Christine Lagarde, IMF chief yesterday.
US Inflation Is Coming, And It's Going To Be Low. Expectations are for headline inflation to come in at just 0.7% in December compared to the one year ago, and fall 0.4% from November, which would be the largest month-on-month decline since December 2008. That number is out at 1:30 p.m GMT (8:30 a.m. ET).
Putin Will Definitely Not Attend The Next G7 Meeting. There is no chance that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be invited to the next meeting of G7 leaders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will host the summit, was quoted as saying on Thursday.
BP Just Got Let Off The Hook For Billions Of Dollars. A US judge said energy giant BP faces a maximum fine of $13.7 billion (£9.03 billion) for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a sum reduced by several billion dollars.
Canada Is Delaying Its Budget Due To Oil Instability. The Canadian government will unveil its budget this year later than it usually does, waiting at least until April because of market volatility, Finance Minister Joe Oliver said on Thursday. "Given the current market instability, I will not bring forward our budget earlier than April. We need all the information we can obtain before finalising our decisions," he said.
Germany's Inflation Was Just 0.2% In December. The second estimate out this morning was unchanged from the first. German inflation is just in positive territory, but that may not be the case for very long.
Apple, Google, Intel And Adobe Just Paid Out $415 Million In A Legal Settlement. The four Silicon Valley companies agreed to pay $415 million to resolve an antitrust class action lawsuit by tech workers who accused the firms of conspiring to avoid poaching each other's employees, according to a court filing on Thursday.
Asian Markets Are Mostly Down. Japan's Nikkei closed down 1.43%, giving up some of the previous day's gains. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is also down 0.77%, while the Shanghai Composite Index is up just 0.97%.
Volvo Is Shipping More Chinese-Made Cars To The US. Sweden's Volvo Car Group, set to start shipping Chinese-produced midsize sedans for sale in the United States later this year, may add additional export markets in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere, Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said.