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Hong Kong based Wing Lung Bank Ltd. has picked China Merchants Bank Co. as its preferred bidder after the Wu's family announced to sell its whole 53 percent stake.

Financial shares fell on Tuesday, triggered by renewed concerns about the economy.

An Openheimer & Co group of analysts led by Meredith Whitney cut their earnings outlook for major U.S. banks, saying the current credit crisis is not close to ending.

U.S. stocks plunged on Tuesday after oil soared to nearly $130 a barrel fueling concerns that commodity prices will further dampen U.S. consumption levels, while analysts forecast more credit losses and faster inflation.

Shares of major U.S. financial institutions were mixed on Friday as the broader market advanced on easing fears of poor market liquidity.

California and Florida are driving losses in Bank of America's global-consumer and small business banking segment, said the president of the unit on Tuesday.

Westpac Banking Corp entered into an agreement to buy the smaller St. George Bank Ltd for A$18.6 billion ($17.6 billion) in an all stock deal to create the largest Australian home lender and one of the biggest banks by market value.

U.S. stocks fell as Yahoo dropped the most in almost two years after Microsoft Corp. abandoned its $50 billion bid for the company and Countrywide Financial Corp. tumbled on concern its suitor will abandon its pending takeover.

Countrywide Financial Corp.'s credit rating was cut to junk on Friday by Standard & Poor's rating, after a regulatory filing called into question whether Bank of America would repay the troubled lender's outstanding debt after their planned merger.

Dollar recovered against the euro with markets awaiting the interest rate decision from Federal Reserve on Wednesday.

Countrywide Financial Corp, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender by value of loans, reported an $893 million loss for the first quarter on missed mortgage payments, rising home foreclosures and writedowns.

Dollar paired gains due to profit booking after a three day rally ahead of the FOMC meet.

Bank of America Corp, seeking approval to buy the largest U.S. mortgage company, said it would help reduce home foreclosures by modifying or working out hundreds of thousands of mortgage loans to help more than 265,000 customers.

Dollar managed to close higher for the third day in a row continuing recovery from the record low levels against the Euro despite a downbeat consumer sentiments report from the US.

Dollar extended gains yesterday continuing recovery from the record low levels against the Euro finding support in slightly encouraging data from the US Labor market.

Dollar recovered from record low against the Euro after soft economic data and comments from European policymakers

Dollar fell against the Euro yesterday and touched a new all time low after recent comments by European Central Bank officials stirred talk that the ECB's next move may be to raise interest rates.

Dollar fell against the Euro on Monday due to the unexpectedly weak result from the Bank of America which dampened the investors in the banking sector and also renewed concerns about the US economy.

Treasuries fell on Monday on concerns that investors will move away from buying government debt as expectations for additional interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve diminish.

The dollar fell against the euro on Monday after Bank of America reported a bigger than expected plunge in profit and a European Central Banker dashed hopes for a euro interest rate cut soon.

National City Corp. said it will raise $7 billion in capital on Monday, following the lead of other major lenders, after reporting a first quarter miss due primarily to provisions for future losses in the falling housing market.

Bank of America Corp., the second largest U.S. bank, reported a steep 77 percent drop in profits on Monday, missing Wall Street expectations and sending shares plummeting.

U.S. stocks declined for the first time in five days on Monday after Bank of America Corp. and National City Corp. reported earnings that fell short of expectations and added to concern that banks are being hard hit by the subprime mortgage crisis.

Shares of Talbots Inc., the women's clothing department store, plunged more than 30 percent on Wednesday, a day after the company announced it had lost $265 million in credit.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third largest U.S. bank beat expectations on Wednesday, despite reporting a 50 percent drop in first quarter profit as it wrote down $5.1 billion in assets linked to mortgages and other loans.

Charles Schwab Corp, the discount brokerage said on Tuesday its earnings from continuing operations rose 29 percent, spurred of by a higher-than-expected number of new client sign ups.

U.S. Bancorp, the sixth-largest U.S. bank, said on Tuesday first-quarter profit fell about 3.5 percent, on higher provision for credit losses, but managed to beat earnings estimates by a penny.

Kinetic Concepts Inc. which elaborates products to heal wounds agreed to buy $1.7 billion in cash for LifeCell Corp. to expand the diversity of its products.

Stocks fell on Friday after data pointed to more deterioration in the economy and the largest loss in insurer American International Group Inc's history signaled the worst was far from over for the beleaguered financial sector.Benchmark indexes sank to session lows after two widely watched surveys indicated U.S. consumer sentiment was at its lowest in 16 years and Midwestern business conditions were the weakest in more than six years.