A look at economic developments around the globe

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TOKYO - Japan's machinery orders, a key gauge of future business investment, rose the most in seven months, a sign that companies are more confident in the economic recovery.

But the U.S. dollar sank to a new 15-year low against the yen as investors continued to buy the Japanese currency as a safe haven for their money amid uncertainty about the global economic recovery. A stronger yen weighs on profits of the country's exporters.

Asian shares slid while the yen spiked, with Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index diving 2.2 percent. A strong yen hurts Japanese companies like Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. as it cuts their overseas profits and threatens to derail the country's fragile economic recovery.

Elsewhere in Asia, China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.1 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 1.5 percent, South Korea's Kospi declined 0.5 percent, India's Sensex was down 0.2 percent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.8 percent. Shares in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore all retreated.

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BERLIN - German exports dipped by 1.5 percent in July compared with the previous month but were still up a strong 18.7 over the same month last year.

The monthly drop reported by the Federal Statistical Office followed two months of big gains.

Strong exports helped push the Europe's biggest economy to growth of 2.2 percent in the second quarter. The country's central bank recently forecast that the German economy will grow by about 3 percent in 2010, up sharply from a previous prediction of 1.9 percent.

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PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to press ahead with his contested overhaul of the country's pension system, despite a strike and massive protests that saw more than a million people take to the streets.

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ATHENS, Greece - Greece's statistics agency said the debt-ridden economy contracted at a higher rate in the second quarter, deepening the recession as tight austerity measures cut into consumption.

Meanwhile, Greek railway and public transport workers went on strike against planned reforms to the debt-ridden country's state transportation systems.

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LISBON, Portugal - Portugal raised 1.04 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in a debt auction that drew strong investor interest, but the sharply higher borrowing cost reflected market concerns that Europe's debt crisis may be flaring up again.

The relatively successful government debt sale helped Europe's stocks recover early losses, though fears of a flare-up in the region's debt crisis lingered amid news that Greece's recession deepened in the second quarter.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares rose 0.4 percent, Germany's DAX added 0.8 percent and the CAC-40 in France was 0.9 percent higher.

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BEIJING - Trying to smooth over recently rocky relations before a visit to Washington, Chinese President Hu Jintao told American officials that he wants to see healthy and stable ties between the two countries.

The meeting between Hu and a White House economic policy official and deputy national security adviser was unusual because the Chinese president rarely meets with visitors ranked lower in diplomatic protocol. It underscored Hu's desire to move ahead in relations after months of discord over trade imbalances, Chinese currency policies and U.S. arms sales and military maneuvers.

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BEIJING - Chinese steel mills and mobile phone factories are being idled and thousands of homes in one area are doing without electricity as local governments order power cuts to meet energy-saving targets set by Beijing.

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MUMBAI, India - An Indian court said Vodafone Group Plc is liable for an estimated $2.6 billion in taxes for its 2007 acquisition of one of India's largest mobile phone companies.

The decision sets a precedent that could impact hundreds of foreign transactions and have a chilling effect on foreign investment, tax experts said.

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TOKYO - Suicides and other depression cases cost Japan's economy about 2.7 trillion yen ($32 billion) last year, the government said. It released the data for the first time in a bid to raise public awareness of the nation's long-battled social woe.

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DUBLIN - Ireland plans to split its most troubled financial institution, Anglo Irish Bank, in two as part of wider efforts to reassure international lenders that the Irish are taking control of their debt crisis.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said that dividing Anglo - nationalized in early 2009 when it teetered on the edge of insolvency - into "good" and "bad" banks would represent the least costly outcome to Irish taxpayers. But opposition leaders and economic experts questioned whether the plan would change anything of substance.