Business live: 17 April 2015

tweets: Obama on Greek woes: No good trying to get blood from a stone but also G has to show that it's trying to help itself-making tough decisions

Greece has hit back at reports it needs to use all its cash for public sector pay and pensions. "News agencies' reports that refer to the state's cash reserves are groundless, we categorically deny them," the Finance Ministry said in a statement, without elaborating. Reuters reported earlier that Greece will need to use about €2bn to pay civil service wages and pensions at the end of the month.

Today's Dilbert is for those who work with someone who dines out (or drinks out) a lot on past glories.

US stocks are falling in early trading following steep losses in Europe and some disappointing results from big American firms. American Express fell 4.8%, to $77.02 as a strong dollar hit earnings.

• The Dow Jones industrial average fell 273 points, or 1.4%
• Germany's DAX slumped 2.6% and France's CAC 40 shed 1.55%
• Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.9%

Here's the latest from Bloomberg: "Service has been fully restored. We experienced a combination of hardware and software failures in the network, which caused an excessive volume of network traffic. This led to customer disconnections as a result of the machines being overwhelmed. We discovered the root cause quickly, isolated the faulty hardware, and restarted the software. We are reviewing our multiple redundant systems, which failed to prevent this disruption."

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tweets: What does World Bank think about AIIB, resettlement failures and ebola crisis? My interview w/ WB President Jim Kim http://bbc.in/1DrgpRt

The G20 economies will back action by regulators to ensure that clearing houses can withstand shocks to financial markets. Clearing houses, which sit between two sides of a deal, will grow quickly as more derivatives - bets - pass through them. This is part of a move to make markets more transparent. "We will identify and address gaps related to the resilience, recovery and resolution of central counterparties," G20 officials said in a draft prepared for a meeting underway in Washington, Reuters reports.

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Poundland, you'll remember, is trying to buy 99p stores. The Competition and Markets Authority regulator said the retailer may have to sell some stores if it doesn't want the CMA to do a more thorough investigation. Poundland has now rejected this and asked for three weeks' grace to "consider carefully" whether to endure the more thorough review "or to withdraw from the proposed transaction."

The head of Germany's central bank has criticised the emergency funding of Greek banks, saying the loans and bond-buying spree risked violating a ban on state financing by central banks. Jens Weidmann was speaking at a press event with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble as part of the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington.

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Argentina has begun legal proceedings against three British and two US companies for drilling oil near the Falkland Islands. BBC business editor Kamal Ahmed told the news channel: "What you are getting to is a revelation that the Falkland Islands could become rather valuable in resources... who then will get the economic benefit of that, will it simply be the Falkland Island government itself and possibly the British government or will the Argentine government also get a slice?"

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Edmund King, president of the AA, is now on the news channel. "We've found an anomaly between diesel prices and petrol prices. Wholesale prices are about the same," for the two types of fuel, he says. But at the pump, diesel buyers are paying about 6 pence extra per litre, he says. He can't resist a pun: "diesel drivers are being taken for a ride."

Ed Miliband has pledged to put an end to long-term unpaid internships if he becomes the next prime minister. Adam Marshall, executive director of the British Chambers of Commerce, has this to say: "Internships can provide a valuable stepping stone to introduce young people to the work environment. While no business should use unpaid interns as a substitute for paid staff, no government should put the prospect of work experience at risk through blanket legislation or regulation."

It is probable that the rises in average pay - both the headline rate and the real rate of disposable income - are disguising an uneven distribution of rises, such that those who have been in employment for longer and on higher pay are getting the lion's share of the improvement in living standards. Read more on Robert's blog.

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Financial data company Bloomberg says there is no sign that major disruption to its systems this morning had been caused by hackers, and that it had restored service to most customers. "There is no indication at this point that this is anything other than an internal network issue." Bloomberg said in a tweet. Pictured: owner Mike Bloomberg.

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US consumer prices rose 0.2% March, the Labor Department says, after a similar gain to the Consumer Price Index in February. In the 12 months to the end of March, the CPI slipped 0.1%.

UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority has said it is looking at the fallout for firms it supervises resulting from a disruption to Bloomberg's trading systems. "We are aware of the issue and are monitoring the impact on our firms," it said.

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Spanish tax agents have spent a second day searching the home of former IMF head Rodrigo Rato (left). Prosecutors are investigating Mr Rato for possible fraud, money laundering and asset concealment. He was detained yesterday and released at midnight in Madrid.

Following an outage of Bloomberg trading terminals which forced the postponement of a £3bn UK debt auction, the sale of UK Treasury bills is back on. The tenders are being conducted between 12.30 and 14.30. That's all from the UK debt management office.

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General Electric reported a first quarter loss of $13.57bn. The loss is mainly due to a charge related to the sale of assets belonging to GE Capital, its financing business. Last week GE announced plans to sell most of GE Capital, to focus on its industrial units.

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There are 50,000 more people employed across the manufacturing sector now, than this time a year ago, says Lee Hopley, chief economist, at EEF (which represents manufacturing firms) on BBC News Channel. There's a "real challenge" in hiring engineers and staff with the right technical skills. That's "bidding up" wages in some parts of manufacturing, she says.

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Greece will continue to negotiate with its international creditors on Saturday. "The Brussels Group is meeting this weekend, as of tomorrow afternoon, so work is ongoing and then the informal Eurogroup of April 24 will be the opportunity for finance ministers to take stock of progress," Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told reporters. That should keep Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis busy over the weekend.

The #UK has had to postpone borrowing £3 billion on the markets because of @Bloomberg trading computer problems. #bloombergdown #debt

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The pound has hit a four-week high against the dollar helped by that strong UK employment data. In morning trading £1 was buying around £1.50270.

"Since buying LucasFilm, Disney's shares price has rocketed by 132%, boosting its market cap by $108bn, 27 times that of the amount it paid for LucasFilm, which is an incredible return in two and a half years... Disney is becoming the Apple of Hollywood."

tweets: We are on the cusp of full employment; a job for everyone who wants one - PM

tweets: Biggest ever deal for @rollsroyce

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Consumer prices in the eurozone have risen for the second month running, but not enough to pull annual inflation out of negative territory, according to Eurostat. Eurozone annual inflation was -0.1% in March, an improvement on -0.3% in February.

tweets: Emirates boss Sir T Clark takes opportunity to say how gr8 A380 is. 7000 UK jobs created by the plane

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Japan's All Nippon Airways has promoted the new Star Wars movie by branding a Dreamliner aircraft with a Star Wars logo and an R2-D2 paint job. (For non-Star Wars fans, R2-D2 is a robot character from the franchise).

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Rolls-Royce says it has won a $9.2bn (£6.2bn) order to supply engines for 50 A380 aircraft for Dubai's Emirates airline. It's a boost for Rolls Royce, which has had a tough time with profit warnings over the past year.

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Wage growth is not exactly stellar, but at least it is running ahead of inflation, as the chart above shows.

With the jobless rate now only a fraction above its average of 5.3% seen in the decade before the recession, it is unsurprising that wage growth is gradually building. Admittedly, the headline growth rate of average weekly earnings including bonuses dipped from 1.9% to 1.7%. But this entirely reflected a shift in the timing of bonus payments. These rates of pay growth are still not strong enough to suggest that inflation will swiftly return to the MPC's 2% target. As a result, the likelihood of an interest rate rise within the next year still looks slim.

Bloomberg terminals are suffering a "global network problem", the company's technical department has acknowledged. "Our network teams are trying to resolve the problem," a Bloomberg representative says.

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In saying that Greece is welcome to look elsewhere for creditors, Germany appears to be "pretty much washing its hands of Greece", Brenda Kelly of IG Group, tells Business Live. "If Greece wants to leave the euro, if they want to default on their debt, that is going to be their own lookout at the end of the day." She adds that if you look at the wide divergence between bond yields, (which determine government borrowing costs) - low for Germany, and high for Greece , "you have to question whether this is going to end very well".

With inflation at zero in February, the 1.8% rise in average earnings (excluding bonuses) was the highest real terms rise for years.

Employment growth driven by full time employee positions. Labour market composition shifting towards that over last year. Total hours worked at 0.5% on the quarter. Just below NIESR GDP estimate suggesting weak but at least positive productivity growth.

The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.6% for the three months to the end of February, according to the Office for National Statistics. Average total pay for the three months to the end of February rose 1.7% from a year earlier. Regular pay (which excludes bonuses) rose 1.8%.

There are reports of problems with Bloomberg terminals this morning. If that does not mean much to you then don't worry. At considerable expense, Bloomberg terminals give traders real time market prices and up to date economic news and city traders use them heavily. Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC markets, tweets: "Bloomberg problems argggghhh".

UK unemployment figures for February are released at 09:30. The rate currently stands at 5.7%. There will be much interest in the data on wages. In the three months to January average earnings including bonuses rose 1.9%.

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Budget airline Ryanair may have to reduce its 29.8% stake in Aer Lingus to 5%. That's after the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) rejected an argument from Ryanair justifying the holding. Ryanair argued that a bid by British Airways owner, IAG, for Aer Lingus had changed the situation. But the CMA has 'provisionally' dismissed that argument, and will take responses before coming to a final decision.

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The FTSE 100 is higher in early trading. Shares in publishing group, Pearson are the biggest winners so far, rebounding 1.8% after seeing some of the biggest losses on Thursday. Utility firms are also among the winners, with Severn Trent up 1.6% and Centrica up 1.2%.

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The price of petrol has started to rise again, despite oil prices having halved since June. Edmund King, president of the AA, tells the Today programme: "Oil prices are fairly low, there's zero inflation, but petrol has gone up 7p a litre since the 1 February. Petrol is now averaging about £1.13 a litre... Drivers are pretty frustrated." However, oil prices and petrol prices don't move in tandem due to factors such as taxation - around 60% of the price goes to the Treasury - and currency fluctuations, he says.

BloombergCopyright: Bloomberg

Yields on Greek debt have eased a little, after shooting higher on Thursday. But yields remain eye-wateringly high. On three-year debt the yield is 26.48% after hitting 27.77% on Thursday. The yield indicates how much the Greek government would have to pay in interest if it wanted to borrow money on the financial markets and reflects deep concern over the solvency of the Greek government.

More from the newspapers. The Wall Street Journal reports that senior shareholders and labour representatives at Volkswagen held a meeting with chief executive Martin Winterkorn to try to end the "leadership crisis" at the car maker. In its business pages the Guardian says that Greece has been pushed "a step closer to default" after the IMF ruled out giving Greece extra time to repay its debts. The Telegraph reports on the increasingly bitter struggle for control of the investment fund Alliance Trust.

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Don't worry, investment bankers are going to be OK. The front page of the Financial Times reports that strong results from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup indicate that the industry may be "escaping the malaise that has gripped it for more than five years". The Times business section reports that nearly a third of 2,300 staff at Morrisons' HQ will be cut. The money saved will be used to hire 5,000 extra shop floor staff.

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The new Star Wars trailer added almost $2bn (£1.3bn) to the value of Disney after it was released yesterday, the Daily Telegraph reports. Disney shares climbed 1% to an intraday high of $108.30, before closing 20 cents lower.

NestleCopyright: Nestle

The maker of Kit Kats and Perrier water, Nestle, has reported first quarter organic sales growth of 4.4%. (Organic sales exclude growth from the purchase of new businesses or mergers.) That figure was better than analysts had been expecting. It follows strong results yesterday from another giant consumer goods maker, Unilever.

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A strong pound is denting UK exports, and was a factor in Diageo's net sales decline reported on Thursday, James Bevan from CCLA tells the Today programme. "A lot of people would like to see a slightly weaker pound... We had Diageo's results yesterday, for example, where they were identifying some real problems in exporting to Asia, because the demand for Scotch whisky has been held back by the relative strength of the pound."

Almost 330,000 people have called their insurers for more information on new pensions freedoms since those reforms came into force on Easter Monday, according to the Association of British Insurers. Wake Up to Money speaks to one saver who called the government's Pension Wise advice service. It took two weeks to get an appointment, but he says it was "well worth while".

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The government's handling of the economy has been praised by the head of the IMF. Speaking in Washington Christine Lagarde said that compared to the growth rates of other European countries, "it's obvious what's happening in the UK has worked". Mr Osborne was sharing a panel with her when she made the remarks.

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The World Bank is open to working with the new Chinese-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), reports the BBC's Rico Hizon from Singapore on Wake Up to Money. "There's no question we are going to be working very closely with them," the chief of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, has told the BBC. The US and Japan have been somewhat cool on the AIIB, saying it might have weak lending standards and safeguards.

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It seems increasingly unlikely that Greece will reach an agreement with its international creditors in time for the meeting of eurozone finance ministers on 24 April. That has raised fears of a Greek default on its debt. James Bevan from CCLA Investment Management told Wake Up to Money: "For me the real deadline is going to be the 20 July when we [Greece] have a huge payment back to the ECB."

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The latest data on UK unemployment and wages is released at 09:30 this morning. Unemployment looks likely to fall to 5.6% says Brian Hilliard, chief UK economist at Societe Generale on Wake Up to Money. Growth in total earnings is likely to remain unchanged at 1.8%. In the early part of the recovery there were a lot of part time jobs, but in the last year or two new jobs have been "predominantly" full time, he says. But a lot of those jobs are low paid, he adds.

Good morning and happy Friday. The brinkmanship over Greece's bailout funds continues. And at 09:30 the latest UK unemployment data is released. If you want to get in touch you can email bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk or tweet @bbcbusiness.