Oil was mixed in thin year-end Asian trade Wednesday as Iran warned it would lock down the crucial Strait of Hormuz if the West imposed sanctions on its oil exports, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for February delivery, gained two cents to $101.36 per barrel in the afternoon.

Brazil beamed with pride Tuesday on news that it has powered past Britain to become the world's sixth biggest economy but officials say it will take another 20 years before the country can match the Europeans' standard of living.

"From a psychological standpoint, this is a fantastic year-end victory," Ricardo Teixeira, an administration professor at the prestigious Getulio Vargas foundation in Rio, told Agence France Presse.

Saudi Arabia will need a breakeven crude oil price of $74 per barrel to generate the funds required to meet its widening expenditure next year, Jadwa Investment said on Tuesday.

The OPEC kingpin announced on Monday yet another expansionary budget with spending marked at 690 billion riyals ($184 billion), and revenues reaching 702 billion riyals.

The German economy is starting the new year in "downright robust" form, Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said in a newspaper interview Tuesday.

"Our economy is downright robust, even if the environment, both at an international and a European level, has become more difficult," Roesler told the business daily Handelsblatt.

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia on Monday posted a budget surplus of 306 billion riyals (81.6 billion) for 2011, as revenues turned out to be double the forecast, the finance ministry said.

The world's largest crude oil exporter had expected a deficit of 40 billion riyals ($10.7 billion), or 7.4 percent, with planned expenditure of 580 billion riyals ($154.7 billion).

Turkey and Azerbaijan signed on Monday an agreement to build a pipeline to carry 10 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas to European markets starting in 2017, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The deal comes as the EU's plans to build the so-called Nabucco pipeline across Turkey to bring in Caspian Sea gas and reduce Europe's dependence on Russia has struggled to sign up suppliers.

The struggling state-backed developer of Abu Dhabi's Formula One complex and other major real estate projects is considering selling off additional assets as it copes with an ongoing property slump.

Aldar Properties said in a regulatory filing Monday its board will meet Wednesday to discuss what holdings might be sold.

London Underground drivers on Monday walked out in a row over pay, threatening disruption for shoppers at the start of the post-Christmas sales and football fans hoping to catch a festive fixture.

Members of train drivers' union ASLEF voted overwhelmingly to hold a 24-hour strike on Boxing Day and on three more dates in the coming weeks in a move business chiefs warned could hit ailing retailers.

The euro, rolled out as a cash currency with a string of promises about easy travel, European unity and stable prices, has left crisis-rattled consumers decidedly ambivalent a decade on.

On the streets of Berlin, Madrid, and Bratislava, the view is similar: despite its clear upsides, the transition to the euro hiked the cost of living even as it introduced deep political and economic uncertainty in the bloc.

Chinese and Japanese leaders have unveiled initiatives to tighten financial links between East Asia's economic giants and sometime rivals — measures that could expand use of China's tightly controlled currency abroad.

During a visit to Beijing by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, the two governments said in a surprise announcement Sunday they will encourage use of their own currencies in bilateral trade, which now is conducted mostly in U.S. dollars.