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Human Genome Sciences Inc has rejected an unsolicited bid worth around $2.6 billion from long-time partner GlaxoSmithKline Plc, marking a new takeover battle in a drugs sector that has been swept by M&A recently.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has put its wealth management units outside the United States up for sale, three sources familiar with the situation said, hoping to bring in up to $3 billion for the sub-scale business.

Volkswagen AG's luxury brand Audi is prepared to buy Italian superbike maker Ducati Motor Holding SpA for roughly €860 million ($1.12 billion) including debt, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse could announce the loss of up to 5,000 jobs in its investment banking business at its forthcoming first-quarter results, a Swiss newspaper reported on Sunday.

Analysts expect quarterly revenue of $19.85 billion, which would be a bump up from the $19.73 billion Citi posted a year ago. Net income is expected to be 99 cents a share, compared with $1 a share in the first quarter of 2011.

Global smartphones annual sales will cross the billion-unit mark in 2014, helped by strong demand from China and the launch of cheaper low-end handsets, Credit Suisse said.

Gold eased for a second consecutive day on Thursday, but was still set for its largest weekly gain in six weeks, thanks to the toll the re-emergence of the euro zone debt crisis has taken on investor risk appetite.

Splunk Inc., a developer of software that helps companies analyze data, plans to sell 13.5 million shares for $8 to $10 in its initial public offering.

The top after-market NASDAQ gainers Monday were: Complete Genomics, Affymetrix, MCG Capital Corp, Urban Outfitters, Oncothyreon and Ctrip.com International. The top after-market NASDAQ losers were: Zoltek Companies, Nortek, Cavium, Team, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and ArthroCare Corp.

Sears Holding Corp is mulling the sale of its Land's End clothing line to private equity firms, as the company hopes to ease ongoing problems with liquidity.

Gold prices slipped below $1,660 an ounce in Europe on Thursday, extending their retreat from two-week highs into a third session, as the dollar recovered from a near one-month low and crude oil prices turned lower.

Credit Suisse downgraded Safeway Inc to neutral from outperform saying the second-biggest U.S. supermarket operator has a larger-than-expected underfunded pension liability.

BATS Global Markets, the U.S. exchange operator that withdrew its public offering Friday after a computer glitch sent its newly-issued stock into a tailspin, should develop a "credible IPO plan" and go through with it in the second quarter, its founder and current director said.

Because of serious glitches in equity-market trading operations on Friday, Bats Global Markets Inc. announced it has scuttled its planned initial public offering, which had been scheduled to close on March 28.

Credit Suisse said it will resume issuance of shares of a controversial leveraged exchange-traded product that roiled markets a month ago.

Payment processor Vantiv priced shares in its $500 million initial public offering at the midpoint of its expected range on Wednesday, according to an underwriter.

Home prices in nearly half of China's major cities fell in February from the year-ago period, as Beijing showed its determination to tame the property market.

The fall in gold prices has prompted one or more central banks to buy as much as four tonnes of bullion in recent weeks, according to an industry source and a Financial Times report on Friday.

UPS will pay €9.50 a share in cash for Europe's second-biggest express-delivery provider, up from a February bid of €9 a share and 54 percent above TNT shares' closing price on Feb. 16. The deal is the biggest in UPS's 105-year history.

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.

India's budget proposal for 2012, although containing a few welcomed provisions, failed to convince the world that the ruling Indian National Congress party will make meaningful policy changes to tackle the country's structural problems.

Stocks were flat on Friday as data showed inflation remained in check last month as the domestic economy continues to improve, but consumer sentiment slipped.

GE was trading up $1.29 percent on Wednesday to $19.84 on a report from Credit Suisse analysts Julian Mitchell, Charles Clarke and Jonathan Shaffer which estimates that GE Capital will soon resume paying a dividend to its parent company, resulting in higher shareholder returns.

Britain's Financial Services Authority has fined Nicholas Kyprios, head of Credit Suisse's European Credit Sales business in London, 210,000 pounds ($327,900), alleging that he gave away confidential client information.

Apple Inc's new 4G-equipped iPad will cement the company's market dominance, and ward off competition from a slew of Windows 8-based tablets due later this year, while a cheaper iPad 2 will see stronger demand, said analysts.

Facebook Inc added 25 banks to help underwrite the company's initial public offering, meaning most of Wall Street will have a role in the share sale, according to an amended IPO filing on Wednesday.

The Treasury Department plans to sell $6 billion of American International Group stock and struck another deal for the insurer to pay down $8.5 billion more in obligations, taking a major step forward in an election year to unwind the unpopular crisis-era bailout.

The United States welcomes the Swiss parliament's backing of a proposal to help U.S. authorities crack down on wealthy Americans who evade taxes and will not put any further pressure on Switzerland at present, the U.S. ambassador to that country said on Tuesday.