Billionaire investor George Soros said yesterday (Monday) that the U.S. recovery would be a slow one because of all the “basically bankrupt” financial companies impeding it.

ECB Holds Rates at 1%; Shanghai Soars; Oracle-Sun Deal Faces European Probe; Dainippon Agrees to Buy Sepracor; South Korea 2Q GDP Moves 2.6%; OECD Says Global Recession May Be Over; Vale Restarting Idled Iron Ore Mines; Cerberus: No Withdrawals for 3 Years; Gold Nears $1,000 Mark

The economy continued to show signs of recovery from the worst recession in 60 years as the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits dropped for the first time since January, the Labor Department reported yesterday (Thursday).

Those elusive “green shoots” that economic optimists had been digging up lately were buried under disappointing data from the Commerce Department in Washington yesterday (Wednesday) when it was revealed that retail sales in the unexpectedly dropped in April.

Investing icon Jim Rogers and Australia’s Macquarie Funds Group have teamed up to create an agricultural-commodities index that will help investors profit from shifting patterns of food consumption in the burgeoning market of Mainland China.

The Macquarie and Rogers China Agriculture Index is an investable index that will track price changes of the market “basket” of the agricultural commodities most commonly consumed in China. Macquarie Funds is the asset management arm of Australia’s Macquarie Group.

Macquarie actually created the product in November, and continued to operate it in December, when the China agricultural index posted a return of better than 11% – outperforming most agricultural indices and handily besting most stock markets in that part of the world, Asian Investor reported. That provided Macquarie Funds…

If it’s good enough for Wal-Mart… Looks like the discounting model pioneered by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailing giant, will make its way to some rather unlikely high-end retailers: Barney’s New York Inc. and Neiman Marcus Inc. have announced significant price reductions (up to 75%) over the next few days to avoid a disastrous holiday shopping season.

Even with a congressional compromise having been reached, the $700 billion credit-crisis bailout plan will remain the headline story this week as analysts monitor whether the deal is viewed as a good one, or is ultimately regarded as a flawed deal that can only do damage to the U.S. economy over the long haul.

“Japan is buying every American financial asset it can get its hands on,” says Andrew Snyder in Today’s Financial News. This is making it a a fierce international competitor. It also makes Japanese Nomura Holdings (NYSE:NMR) and Mitsubishi Financial (NYSE:MTU) stocks to to watch…

As the ongoing effects of the capital markets credit crisis continues to be felt, US government financial leaders have urged Congress to make a speedy intervention, says Jennifer Yousfi in Morning Morning. Foreign banks capitalized on US distress by snapping up assets at bargain prices.

Nomura Holdings Inc. (ADR: NMR) yesterday (Monday) snapped up bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s (OTC: LEHMQ) Asia assets, and is close to inking a deal for its European units as well. Tokyo-based Nomura will pay $225 million for Lehman’s Asia-Pacific operations. As part of deal, Nomura will take on 3,000 former Lehman employees in the region.