Mark Brooks

The board has already been working under a cloud since January, when a federal appeals court said the president violated the Constitution by filling vacancies on the board through recess appointments without Senate confirmation.

June gold fell $9.30, or 0.7 percent, to $1,386.90 an ounce.

French President Francois Hollande argued that the 17-nation eurozone should integrate more, calling for greater pooling in the long run of political and financial resources.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades also told the Associated Press in an interview Thursday that limits on bank transactions that were put in place last March to prevent a bank run will be fully lifted eventually, but authorities won't act "hastily."

Russia has seen more than a decade of largely uninterrupted economic growth, thanks to its lucrative oil and gas industries, to become the world's eighth largest economy.

The government is pursuing unpopular budget cuts to reduce debt as a condition of its international rescue package.

Members of the Republican-led House Education and Workforce Committee planned on Thursday to finish up a bill that would keep interest rates from doubling on new subsidized Stafford loans on July 1.

The meeting comes in the aftermath of an investigation by a Treasury inspector general that found that the IRS, in examining applications for tax exempt status, improperly selected conservative groups for further review.

Gold for June delivery fell $28.30 to settle at $1,396.20 an ounce Wednesday, a decline of 2 percent.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 9 cents to finish at $94.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell as low as $92.13 in the morning before rising in tandem with U.S. stock markets.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said that about 30 percent of PPC's resources would be spun off to create a rival company, while the company-owned transmission operator, Admie, would also be sold.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said Wednesday that nine of the 17 eurozone countries are in recession, with France a notable addition to the list. Overall, the euro region's economy contracted 0.2 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months.

Gold for June delivery dropped $9.80 to settle at $1,424.50 an ounce on Tuesday. Gold prices have lost 3 percent this month.

Last year's deficit was $1.1 trillion, capping four consecutive trillion dollar-plus deficits during President Barack Obama's first term.

Benchmark oil for June delivery dropped 96 cents to close at $94.21 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has declined $2.41 a barrel over the last four trading sessions.

Fitch set Greece's outlook as stable, meaning the risks of an upgrade or downgrade are balanced.

The bill is one of President Francois Hollande's signature pieces of legislation designed to overhaul the country's notoriously hidebound labor market.

The deal is expected to save 108.6 million euros ($141 million) this year and 182.6 million euros in 2014 for debt-laden Slovenia, which is struggling to avoid becoming the sixth of the 17 EU countries that use the euro to need financial aid.

The finance ministers from the 27-nation bloc met Tuesday in Brussels to hammer out the new rules on how to fund bank rescues as part of their wider project to set up a banking union.

Gold for June delivery dropped $2.30 to settle at $1,434.30 an ounce on Monday. It has lost more than 14 percent this year.