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The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Mexico declined 1.4 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) increased 0.2 percent in May.

Venture capitalists from around the world invested $10.3 billion in 1,160 deals for companies based in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Israel, Mainland China and India, according to industry tracker Dow Jones VentureSource. This represents a 29% increase in capital invested and a 14% rise in deals over the $8 billion invested in 1,022 deals during same period last year.

A new study shows that the IT sector has reduced annual CO2 emissions associated with IT equipment by more than 32 million metric tons worldwide since 2007.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Australia increased 0.3 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) increased 0.2 percent in May.

Consumer confidence in the OECD area has levelled out since January 2010, possibly announcing a new peak or maybe just indicating uncertainty in the coming months. Confidence levels remain historically low, a result of the financial crisis and indicating that the effects of the crisis are continuing to be felt by consumers who remain pessimistic about the future.

Merchandise trade volumes for the G7 countries as a whole continued to grow in the first quarter of 2010, but at a slower pace than in the fourth quarter of 2009. Based on seasonally adjusted monthly data, merchandise trade values remain approximately 20% below pre-crisis levels in April and May.

A majority of executives at leading retail banks globally say average customer profitability has remained below pre-crisis levels, while their customers’ price-sensitivity and inclination to "shop around" have increased, according to an Accenture survey.

A new Financial Times/Harris Poll finds that when it comes to reducing deficits and public debts, cutting spending is definitely preferred to raising taxes by adults in the five largest European countries and the United States. Half of French adults (50%), just over two in five Italians (45%), Spaniards (44%) and Germans (41%), and just under two in five Americans (37%) and one-quarter of Britons (25%) all would prefer spending cuts to paying higher taxes. Around two in five in each of the six countries (between 37% and 46%) would prefer a mixture of the two, with spending cuts bearing the bigger part of the burden.

After three consecutive quarters of improvement, a new analysis from Hewitt Associates, a global human resources consulting and outsourcing company, found that significant decreases in global equity markets and interest rates led to a decline in the overall financial status of pension plans in the second quarter of 2010.