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• ANALYSIS-New miner wants in on the chummy global potash club

  NEW YORK, Feb 4- Potash miner Prospect Global Resources Inc won't open its first mine until at least 2015, but the American upstart is already upsetting the multibillion-dollar fertilizer industry where a few players control a crucial ingredient in the global food chain.

• US Getting Ready to Fight Cyberstrikes

  

  A secret legal review on the use of America's growing arsenal of cyberweapons has concluded that President Obama has the broad power to order a pre-emptive strike if the United States detects credible evidence of a major digital attack looming from abroad, according to officials involved in the review. The New York Times reports.

• ANALYSIS-Small lenders ride US mortgage wave as big banks cut back

  Feb 4- Guaranteed Rate, Inc, a home loan company, opened shop in 2000 in Chicago with a single office. Most of that growth has come in the last two years and Chief Executive Victor Ciardelli said in an interview he is not planning to slow down.

• PRECIOUS-Gold crawls up but economic recovery hopes limit gains

  *Spot gold neutral in $1,657.54- $1,681.70/ oz- technicals. Investors remain fairly optimistic in the U.S. recovery, which makes gold less attractive, even though recent data is rather a mixed bag, "said Chen Min, an analyst at Jinrui Futures in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen."

• Brent steadies above $116 on economy hopes, Middle East worries

  SINGAPORE, Feb 4- Brent crude steadied above $116 per barrel on Monday, holding near a more than four-month high, as data from top consumers United States and China reinforced a view that the global economy was headed for a modest uptick this year.

• PRECIOUS-Gold slips as upbeat U.S. data trims safe-haven draw

  SINGAPORE, Feb 4- Gold ticked lower for a second session in three on Monday as a string of data pointing to a U.S. economy on the mend gave investors less reason to buy assets deemed as safe-haven. *Spot gold slipped $1.43 to $1,665.11 an ounce by 0056 GMT.

• NYMEX-U.S. crude steady after longest winning streak since 2004

  SINGAPORE, Feb 4- U.S. crude futures steadied above $97 per barrel in early Asian trade on Monday after data from China and the United States last week reinforced expectations that economic growth in the world's two biggest energy consumers may be better this year than last.

• This Week, Watch What Central Bankers Say, Not Do

  

  Central banking is in a state of flux as policymakers from Tokyo to Washington ditch prevailing orthodoxies to try to grab a bigger share of a slow-growing global economic pie.

• Nikkei seen strong on further signs of U.S. recovery, weak yen

  TOKYO, Feb 4- Japan's Nikkei share average was expected to climb on Monday after robust data pointed to a U.S. economic recovery on track, lifting U.S. stocks to five-year highs and helping the dollar extend gains against the yen.

• Solid US Jobs Growth Trend to Continue: Pro 

  

  Bob Baur, MD & Chief Global Economist, Principal Global Investors says the upward revision of U.S. employment data shows good evidence of solid job growth. He expects the trend to continue.

• BlackBerry Searching High and Low in India, Indonesia

  

  The company must chart a tough course: quickly launch cheaper handsets to woo lower-end subscribers while restoring its tattered brand among the countries' status-conscious.

• Sri Lanka bars human rights panel from visiting country

  COLOMBO, Feb 3- Sri Lanka said on Sunday it would not allow into the country an international human rights panel due to visit after the government's controversial sacking of the chief justice.

• BlackBerry searching high and low in India, Indonesia

  NEW DELHI/ JAKARTA, Feb 4- Research in Motion Ltd must chart a tough course in its two key emerging markets of India and Indonesia: quickly launch cheaper handsets to woo lower-end subscribers while restoring its tattered brand among the countries' status-conscious.

• MF Global Customers Will Get Money Back: Freeh

  

  Former customers of Jon Corzine's collapsed brokerage MF Global would recover most, and probably all, of their money under the latest projections by the trustee liquidating its bankrupt parent company.

• Reid: US Congress Will Pass Immigration Legislation

  

  The top Senate Democrat on Sunday predicted that Congress will pass and send to President Barack Obama legislation overhauling the U.S. immigration system, saying "things are looking really good." Obama last week expressed hope Congress can get a deal done on immigration, possibly in the first half of the year.

• Top Senate Democrat: revenue must be part of any US budget deal

  WASHINGTON, Feb 3- The top U.S. Senate Democrat said on Sunday tax revenue must be part of any deal to replace looming automatic spending cuts, despite Republican warnings that they will not buckle over this issue after conceding on tax rises for the rich a month ago.

• GLOBAL ECONOMY-Watch what central bankers say, not what they do

  LONDON, Feb 3- Central banking is in a state of flux as policymakers from Tokyo to Washington ditch prevailing orthodoxies to try to grab a bigger share of a slow-growing global economic pie.

• Higher US Bond Yields Could Impede Economic Recovery

  Housing sector most vulnerable if yields keep rising

• MF Global customers to get most of their money back - Freeh

  NEW YORK, Feb 3- Former customers of Jon Corzine's collapsed brokerage MF Global would recover most, and probably all, of their money under the latest projections by the trustee liquidating its bankrupt parent company.

• ANALYSIS-Deadly Pemex blast tests Mexico's new president

  *Opportunity for Pena Nieto to show a more transparent PRI. MEXICO CITY, Feb 3- A deadly blast at Mexican state oil firm Pemex's headquarters is the first key test of new President Pena Nieto's promise that his party has broken with a past of shady cover-ups, and if handled properly, could help him overhaul the lumbering giant.