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Janet Yellen will enter the lion's den this week.

For the first time since becoming head of the U.S. central bank last February, Yellen will confront a Congress that's controlled by Republicans in both the House and the Senate.

It's not exactly Yellen's first rodeo -- the 68-year-old Fed chair has had plenty of practice being in the hot seat, having endured numerous hours-long congressional hearings and nationally televised Fed press conferences in her first year on the job.

But her Hill appearances this week comes at a critical juncture for the economic recovery, and her answers to lawmakers' questions -- particularly those that address the issue of when the Fed plans to hike interest rates -- will come under heightened scrutiny.

Her back-to-back testimonies also come as congressional criticism of the Fed -- particularly from Republican lawmakers -- has noticeably intensified in recent years. With Republicans now setting the agenda in both chambers of Congress, Fed watchers are anticipating plenty of sparks to fly.

"Recent criticisms of the Fed have come mainly from Republicans," said Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve board. "With a Republican majority on the Senate Banking Committee, and an even bigger majority in the House, it seems a reasonable guess that Chair Yellen might face some tough questioning."

On Tuesday, Yellen will face members of the Senate Banking Committee led by the panel's new chairman, Republican Sen. Richard Shelby. The veteran Alabama senator has long been a vocal critic of the Fed's policies and voted against Yellen's nomination for Fed chair, citing concerns that the central bank had become the an out-of-control enabler of U.S. debt.

"He is deeply skeptical of the Fed's performance, particularly on regulation and supervision of big financial institutions," said Sarah Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies the Fed's relationship with Congress.

Things won't get any easier for Yellen later in the week, when she faces a much larger -- and typically more combative -- group of lawmakers in the House Financial Services Committee.

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Greece formally requested a six-month extension to its euro zone loan agreement on Thursday as it races to avoid running out of cash within weeks and overcome resistance from skeptical partners led by Germany.

With its EU/IMF bailout program due to expire in little more than a week, the government of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urgently needs to secure a financial lifeline to keep the country afloat beyond late March.

Specifically, Athens asked for an extension to its so-called "Master Financial Assistance Facility Agreement" with the euro zone, the official told Reuters. However, Greece is proposing that the terms are different from its current bailout obligations, the official said.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chairman of the Eurogroup of finance ministers of the currency area, confirmed the news, tweeting: "Received Greek request for six-month extension." He gave no further details.

The request boosted hopes for a last minute compromise to avert a Greek bankruptcy and exit from the euro zone however it was not clear if the proposal would be acceptable to euro zone partners who insist Athens comply with all bailout terms.

Senior euro zone officials were due to hold a teleconference later on Thursday to discuss the Greek application. If they are satisfied, then Eurogroup finance ministers will hold a conference call on Friday to conclude an agreement, euro zone sources said.

The wording chosen could help satisfy at least some of the concerns that have held up agreement over the past two weeks, allowing Athens to avoid saying it is extending the current program that it opposes while creditors can avoid accepting a "loan agreement" without strings attached.

However, crucial details remain to be clarified on fiscal targets, labor market reforms, privatizations and other measures due to be implemented under the existing program.

Government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis dismissed a German newspaper report that Athens was under pressure to impose capital controls, telling Reuters that such a scenario "had no bearing on reality".

An ECB spokeswoman also denied the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report, saying there had been no discussion of capital controls at a meeting of the central bank's governing council on Wednesday, which slightly raised the limit on emergency lending to Greek banks.

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GERMAN-owned luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce on Wednesday unveiled plans to launch its own sports utility vehicle, mirroring recent moves by fellow upmarket rivals Bentley and Jaguar.

The British brand, which is owned by Germany's BMW, revealed in an open letter from Rolls-Royce chairman Peter Schwarzenbauer and chief executive Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes that it was in the process of developing its first-ever 4x4 car.

"Today we confirm that we are developing an all-new Rolls-Royce with exceptional presence, elegance and purpose ... A car that offers the luxury of a Rolls-Royce in a vehicle that can cross any terrain," the letter read.

The automaker added that the new model would be "a high-bodied car, with an all-new aluminium architecture", but gave no indication of price or when production would begin.

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Mobile game maker King Digital Entertainment's quarterly revenue and profit handily beat market estimates as newer games such as Candy Crush Soda Saga more than made up for the declining popularity of older titles.

King Digital, whose shares jumped 18% in extended trading yesterday, also said it would buy Seattle-based game developer Z2Live.

Total gross bookings, an indicator of future revenue, increased 8% to $586 million in the fourth quarter ended 31 December from the third quarter 2014.

Analysts on average had expected bookings of $541.4 million, according to market research firm StreetAccount.

Candy Crush Saga, a free game that makes money by selling virtual items to gamers who move candies to line up at least three of the same color, accounted for about 45% of the bookings.

Bookings from the game, however, declined from a quarter ago.

Candy Crush Soda Saga, a sister title of the original, also follows a similar match-three format.

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Tickets in North Carolina, Puerto Rico and Texas have matched all six numbers to split a $564.1 million Powerball jackpot, lottery officials said Thursday.

Sue Dooley, senior drawing manager and production coordinator for the Multi-State Lottery Association, said the Puerto Rico ticket was the first Powerball jackpot winner ever sold outside the continental United States.

Puerto Rico joined Powerball less than a year ago. Besides 44 states and Washington, D.C., the game is also played in the Virgin Islands, but there has never been a jackpot winner there, Dooley said.

The Texas Lottery posted on Twitter early Thursday that one of the winning tickets was sold at Appletree Food Mart in Princeton, Texas. There was no immediate information on the cities or stores that produced the winners in North Carolina or Puerto Rico.

It had been nearly a year since a Powerball prize reached the giant number people have come to expect recently. That was last February, when someone won $425.3 million.

Wednesday's jackpot was the third-largest in Powerball history and the fifth-largest U.S. lottery prize. The last time a Powerball jackpot climbed so high was May 2013 when a Florida ticket won a $590.5 million prize.

Should the winners select the lump sum option, each would get a one-third share of $381,138,450.16 before taxes. The other option is an annuity, under which the lottery would make payments 30 times over 29 years.

The largest payout in U.S. history was to three ticketholders in the Mega Millions game, the other national lottery drawing. That was a $656 million prize won in March 2012 by players in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland.

In 2012, state officials who run Powerball and Mega Millions changed ticket prices and lowered the odds of winning jackpots in hopes the moves would increase the number of huge prizes and draw more players. The new rules worked, causing jackpots to repeatedly climb to record levels. More than half of the top 10 US jackpots have been reached in the past couple of years.

The winning numbers in Wednesday's drawing were: 11, 13, 25, 39, 54 and the Powerball 19.

The jackpot now goes back to $40 million for the next drawing on Saturday.

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The company added to its trophy case Tuesday when its value surpassed $700 billion. That wasn't just a record for Apple, it was a new record for any U.S. company.

(Apple briefly touched this valuation in November, but Tuesday marked the first time it closed at that level, a far more significant achievement.)

Apple is in a league of its own. The next largest company, Exxon Mobil, (XOM) is worth $382 billion.

The stock rallied after Apple announced a partnership with First Solar (FSLR) on a nearly 3,000-acre solar energy farm that will funnel electricity to the tech giant's offices in California. That comes on the heels of Apple's best quarterly earnings ever in January and the ongoing expansion of Apple Pay.

Beyond that bright news, the company had a very successful bond sale last week, another indicator of just how excited investors remain about the company.

The stock closed at an all-time high of $122 a share Tuesday, and it's up 64% over the past year. Billionaire hedge fund manager Carl Icahn has predicted the stock could go to $200.

When Steve Jobs passed, there were concerns whether Tim Cook could lead the company. Those concerns seem quelled now.

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Tomorrow sees two big meetings in Europe, the success or failure of which could have major repercussions for markets, and the European political landscape.

In Minsk, Belarus, the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia are due to meet to try to hammer out a peace agreement.

Failure to reach an agreement will lead to further EU economic sanctions against Russia, which were delayed at yesterday's EU foreign minister's meeting to allow time for the diplomatic offensive tomorrow.

Failure would also make it easier for The United States to step up its plans to send lethal aid to Ukraine - plans that US president Barack Obama has not yet committed to.

If the prospect of all-out war on its eastern border is not enough for Europe to worry about, there is also the real prospect of a major sovereign debt blow-up on its southern border.

Tomorrow evening the finance ministers of the euro area meet to see if a new deal can be done for Greece.

Greece is pushing for a 10 billion euro bridging loan to allow it avoid a funding crunch, while also giving the new Greek government time to come up with a new plan for the sustainability of Greek finances.

So far Greek plans have met with very little support from other euro area finance ministers, with German's Schaeuble saying that Greece must agree to a full plan, rather than a bridging loan, or commit to the existing bailout program.

There are hints this morning that there may be some room to compromise on both sides ahead of the meeting tomorrow, but with both the Greeks and the other euro area finance ministers still seeming so far apart on the details, chances of failure are still high.

The meeting of euro area finance minister starts at 17:30 CET, with the press conference due to start at 21:00 CET. There is no scheduled time for a Minsk press conference yet.

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Nerves over Greece's future in the euro and the conflict in Ukraine dragged on European markets on Tuesday, while bets on the likelihood of a US interest rate hike nudged the dollar higher and oil prices held steady after a rebound.

European stocks fell 0.3 percent and the euro slipped towards $1.13 ahead of what is set to be a tense, Greece-dominated meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Wednesday.

The global disinflation/deflation story was also back on investors' radar as Chinese inflation fell below 1 percent to its lowest in five months, drawing talk of further easing from China's central bank, the PBOC.

That had sent shares in Shanghai up more than 1 percent, though other Asian stocks eased on more generalized risk aversion.

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