Macro chatter: Facebook's Zuckerberg sued for being unfriendly to investors

GlobalPost

Need to know:
A big jump in US home sale prices may not signal as big a turnaround for the housing market as it may appear.

The National Association of Realtors said the median sales price for an existing home in the US climbed to $177,400 in April. That’s up 10 percent for the year, but CNBC pointed out prices rose because a number of more expensive homes were sold.

Fewer heavily discounted distressed properties were on the market, and that pushed up median sale prices.

If distressed properties that are being held back were to creep back onto the market, price gains could be erased, CNBC said.

Want to know:
Facebook’s friends list might be shrinking.

The company behind the world’s biggest tech IPO is suspected of tipping off certain Wall Street banks to its financial problems while leaving many investors in the dark. Several state and federal regulators including the SEC, are sniffing around, the New York Times said.

Meanwhile, Facebook and Morgan Stanley are being criticized for their handling and pricing of the social network’s big deal. Facebook went public at $38 a share on Friday, but prices have pretty much been sliding since. And the lawsuits have begun. 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the banks leading the company's IPO have already been sued by shareholders claiming they hid weakened growth forecasts from investors ahead of Facebook's IPO, Reuters reported

Dull but important:
India’s rupee just can’t seem to get ahead.

The droopee slid to an all-time low against the US dollar again Wednesday, marking the sixth record decline in as many trading days for the Indian rupee. Europe’s debt crisis and India’s slowing growth rate and widening trade deficits are driving down the rupee’s value, Agence France-Presse said.

Indian oil importers demand for US dollars to hasn’t been helping the Indian currency. 

Just because:
Spanish workers are increasingly turning to jobs in the underground economy to stay afloat financially.

The latest video in GlobalPost's On Location video series takes you to Barcelona where Spaniards faced with steep unemployment are looking for informal jobs that save them from having to pay government taxes. 

For some Spaniards, these jobs have become a protest against the government's management of the Spanish economy. 

Spain is going through its second recession in recent years, and that's driving already high unemployment up even more.

Strange but true:
Wanna cut your debt payments in half? Buy 100 iPads. Or at least that’s how it’s worked out for Greece.

The company that helped Greece trim its $270 billion in debt used iPads to cut deals with thousands of creditors around the world, Fortune reported.

Specially designed apps and the iPads connectivity made it possible for banks, the Greek government and bondholders to move quickly and concertedly. That ultimately trimmed $130 billion from its tab.

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