Finance News Update, what you need to know

WORLD FINANCE UPDATE:

The Australian dollar is lower, as global risk appetite slightly wanes.

At 0630 AEDT on Monday, the local unit was trading at 89.75 US cents, down from 89.98 US cents on Friday.

And the Australian share market looks set to open flat after Wall Street finished modestly lower following weak housing figures but European markets rose as traders digested mixed retail sales data out of Britain.

ELSEWHERE:

WASHINGTON - Moody's has raised Spain's sovereign credit rating by one notch, citing progress in reforms to put the economy on a more sustainable track.

SYDNEY - The United States has offered to assist the Ukraine in rebuilding its battered economy following three months of devastating protests that have plunged the country into its worst crisis since independence.

WASHINGTON - Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has admitted it violated US securities laws and will pay $US196 million ($A218 million) to settle the charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission says.

MADRID - Spanish oil major Repsol says as part of a compensation deal struck with the Argentine government for the expropriation of its former unit, YPF, it will take a charge of 1.28 billion euros ($1.76 billion) on its 2013 earnings.

CHICAGO - The city of Detroit has filed a plan to emerge from the biggest municipal bankruptcy in US history and reverse a decades-long decline by slashing debt, improving services and cleaning up miles of blight.

BERLIN - Europe's biggest car maker, Germany's Volkwagen, says it's making a 6.7-billion-euro ($9.19 billion) offer to grab the nearly 40 per cent of Swedish truck manufacturer Scania it does not already own.

CELAYA - Honda has unveiled a second factory in Mexico, seizing on the nation's rising power in the sector to boost its North American foothold.

BARCELONA - Microsoft will update its Windows system this northern spring to address some of the gripes people have had when they use devices without touch capabilities.