Market Updates: Citigroup (NYSE: C) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)

Japanese officials are likely to be more focused on the exchange rate of the yen versus China’s yuan rather than against the U.S. dollar, according to Citigroup (NYSE: C), citing the fact that China is Japan’s biggest trading partner. For this reason the level at which Japanese authorities may intervene to temper the yen’s gain will be at 12.30 per yuan, equivalent to 84 per dollar. Gains in the yen versus the dollar stalled near the 101 level in 1999 and again in 2004, and at about 12.30 per yuan, the analysts wrote. -Bloomberg

Gold prices tumbled nearly 5 percent to a one week low below $1,140 an ounce today as investors fearing debt default in Dubai sought safety in dollars and cash. "It’s mainly driven by this news out of Dubai, which has had a large impact on risk appetite and resulted in a sharply stronger dollar," said Daniel Major, metals analyst with RBS Global Banking & Markets. Dubai stated on Wednesday that two flagship firms planned to delay repaying billions of dollars in debt. State-backed Dubai World has $59 billion of liabilities, a big chunk of the emirate’s total debt of $80 billion. -Reuters

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.78% this week, matching an all-time low in Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of conforming mortgage rates, released Wednesday. The mortgage averaged 4.83% last week and 5.97% a year ago. This week’s average matched a low set the week ending April 30. The federal home buyers tax credit, set to expire in July, and low mortgage rates make the next six to nine months a good time to buy a house, if you plan to live in it, says real estate economist Ken Rosen. "Interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate loans are currently 0.8 percentage points below this year’s peak set in mid-June, which shaves roughly $100 off the monthly payments on a $200,000 mortgage," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist. –MarketWatch

Dutch Financial Company ING Group stated today that the company has priced its €7.5 billion ($11.2 billion) rights issue at a hefty discount in a move aimed at repaying half the €10 billion state aid it received during the financial crisis. The company confirmed that it will issue new shares at €4.24 each, representing a 52% discount to yesterday’s closing price, or 37.3% after taking into account the dilution. –Wall Street Journal

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) top lawyer, David Drummond, appealed to a London audience last month to help fight censorship of the World Wide Web. He mentioned China, Turkey and Thailand as some of the worst offenders of free Internet speech. However, Italy is where prosecutors want Drummond to serve a yearlong prison term because of a 2006 video posting on Google. Prosecutors blame him and three other Google executives for not stopping teenage boys in Turin from loading a three minute clip that they believe violated Italy’s privacy law. However extreme, that is but one example of the muddle in the state of Internet law. Bedrock principles in one nation’s culture and law, say, free speech, barely count in a nation that values some other principle more, like privacy. “Can we live in a world that has borderless communication technology and still have bordered law?” asks Eric Goldman, who teaches at Santa Clara University School of Law in California and tracks that very issue. -Bloomberg