BUSINESS

Apple Inc said it plans to pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share and authorized a $10 billion stock buyback program to be carried out over three years.

U.S. stocks were poised for a lower open on Monday, indicating equities may pull back from nearly 4-year highs after cash-rich Apple said it will begin paying a dividend and buying back stock.

United Parcel Service will pay 5.2 billion euros ($6.85 billion) for Dutch peer TNT Express in a deal that will make the world's largest package delivery company the market leader in Europe.

U.S. stock index futures slipped on Monday, indicating equities may pull back from nearly 4-year highs as investors waited to hear what Apple will do with its massive $98 billion cash stockpile.

RUSAL , the world's top aluminum maker, took a $1.4 billion hit in its 2011 financials on Monday on the value of its stake in Norilsk Nickel , whose fate is at the centre of a row between two Russian billionaire shareholders.

World share markets edged back from near eight-month highs on Monday with European banking stocks under pressure ahead of an auction to determine the payout on Greek credit default swaps, while a broadly firm dollar kept riskier currencies in check.

U.S. stock index futures slipped on Monday, indicating equities may pull back from nearly 4-year highs as investors waited to hear what Apple will do with its massive $98 billion cash stockpile.

Some big investors have shown interest in buying foreclosed properties being sold in bulk by Fannie Mae , the largest U.S. home funding source, the Wall Street Journal said citing people familiar with the process.

Global economic growth will slow this year, with the United States looking much improved but risks still to the downside as Europe's financial markets remain fragile, the deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund said on Monday.

Call it spring fever. For the third year in a row, optimism is spreading that growth in the United States could be poised to accelerate and drive the economy into sunnier pastures.

Call it spring fever. For the third year in a row, optimism is spreading that growth in the United States could be poised to accelerate and drive the economy into sunnier pastures.

Mexico will include possible steps to blunt the impact of sharp capital flows on the Group of 20's policy agenda after discussions with Latin American neighbors, Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said on Sunday.

Investors are beginning to wonder if this Energizer Bunny of a rally can just keep going without taking a break or a fall.

Outgoing Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackermann said he had no plans for further jobs besides several prominent European-based board seats such as Swedish family-run Investor and German group Siemens .

Police Saturday night arrested dozens of Occupy Wall Street protesters who assembled in New York's Zuccotti Park to mark the six-month anniversary of the movement.

Activists of Ukranian women's rights group Femen staged a topless protest in front of the state prosecutor's office in Kiev Thursday, demanding capital punishment for the three influential men accused of allegedly gang-raping an 18-yer-old teenage girl, strangling her and setting her on fire in the Ukranian city of Mykolayiv earlier this month.

The global economy has stepped back from the brink of danger and signs of stabilization are emerging from the euro zone and the United States, but high debt levels in developed markets and rising oil prices are key risks ahead, the IMF said on Sunday.

China cannot delay reforms to rebalance its economy and will set policies to achieve relatively fast growth and stable prices that should help total trade maintain double digit growth this year, Vice Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday.

China's economic policy priority is to maintain relatively fast growth, but Beijing cannot lower its guard against inflation risks, the head of the country's top planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, said on Sunday.

Average annual home prices in China's 70 major cities remained unchanged in February from a year ago, easing from a rise of 0.5 percent in January, according to Reuters' calculation using official data published on Sunday.

Greek banks hard-hit by the country's debt swap might not need all the aid earmarked by the EU and IMF to help them weather the crisis, central bank chief George Provopoulos was quoted as saying on Saturday.

The Federal Reserve bank said on Friday it had made mistakes in calculating bank losses in stress test results released this week.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc scored at least one victory in an otherwise tough week - this one against a coalition of religious groups.

A top regulator on Friday slammed a House bill to boost small business growth, adding to the chorus of critics who appear poised to derail passage of a rare bi-partisan bid to spur growth in an election year.

The Federal Trade Commission is examining whether Google deceived consumers by planting so-called Internet cookies in Apple's Web browser without users' consent, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

The primary advocate group for former MF Global customers is undertaking an effort to convert the commodities broker's bankruptcy status to one that allows a more streamlined liquidation process, saying it would preserve more potential payback for customers.

Consumer prices rose the most in 10 months in February as the cost of gasoline spiked, but there was little sign that underlying inflation pressures were building up.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is examining whether Google deceived consumers by planting so-called Internet cookies in Apple's Web browser without users' consent, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone's LightSquared lost its main business partner, Sprint Nextel Corp , but gained $65 million from the breakup that may help its last-ditch effort to get regulatory approval to establish a high-speed wireless network.