Behind Your Business

NEW YORK (Reuters) - China can now bypass Wall Street when buying U.S. government debt and go straight to the U.S. Treasury, in what is the Treasury's first-ever direct relationship with a foreign government, according to documents viewed by Reuters. The relationship means the People's Bank of China buys U.S. debt using a different method than any other central bank in the world. The other central banks, including the Bank of Japan, which has a large appetite for Treasuries, place orders for U.S. debt with major Wall Street banks designated by the government as primary dealers. ...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African consumer goods firm Tiger Brands posted a modest rise in first-half earnings on Tuesday, helped by growth in its exports and international businesses as the domestic market remains subdued. The maker of bread, breakfast cereal and energy drinks said diluted headline earnings per share for the six months to end of March rose four percent to 766 cents. Headline earnings are the main profit gauge in South Africa and exclude certain one-off items. The company said revenue rose 12 percent to 11.6 billion rand. ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook's lackluster initial public offering performance is a black eye for many on Wall Street and could have ramifications for similar upcoming deals such as an offering by Twitter, but venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are keen to shrug off Facebook's stumble - at least for now. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX faces short-term costs from its botched handling of Facebook shares on their first day of trading but the longer term repercussions could be more expensive as it struggles to restore its image. Initially, the exchange said it plans to set aside $13 million to resolve bad trades, and even if all of that was used, the cost would be minimal compared with the $387 million in net income it reported last year. The bigger hit to Nasdaq's business is likely to come from the damage done to its reputation by the stumble. ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's underwhelming debut on Wall Street increases the pressure on the social networking giant to deliver stellar growth - a novel situation for Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, who has been clear he is more interested in building products than making money. Facebook shares fell 11 percent on Monday, the company's second day as a publicly traded company, due to what many analysts and investors blamed on overly aggressive pricing by Facebook's underwriters, as well as a decision to expand the size of the offering by 25 percent. ...