CHINA

Stock index futures pointed to a pause on Wall Street on Monday after last week's strong rally fueled by better-than-expected U.S. jobs data.

Any rise in the yuan's exchange rate will be gradual, China's trade chief said on Monday in comments that underline the competing interests at the heart of Chinese policy-making.

Toyota Motor Corp's president said on Monday he believed that sales in North America could recover in March after a sharp decline last month.

Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina jointly bid more than $3 billion for Australia's Arrow Energy.

Any speculation that China might stop supporting the dollar in the next few years is absolute nonsense, a top state banker said.

China flagged on Saturday it will let the yuan resume its rise at some point as it unwinds the super-loose policies it has been pursuing to prop up the world's third-largest economy.

China has pledged to punish hackers who attacked Google if there is evidence to prove it, but said it has yet to receive any complaint from the world's top search engine.

The United States and Britain are threatening to withhold support for a $3.75 billion World Bank loan for a coal-fired plant in South Africa, expanding the battleground in the global debate over who should pay for clean energy.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Sunday that relations with the United States had been seriously disrupted, after a rise in friction between the two big powers.

Pork producers attending their annual meeting here are looking for China to be the next major market to open fully to U.S. pork following word this week that certificate problems with Russia have been solved and exports could start soon to that country.

China's huge and fragmented steel sector is facing a painful period of restructuring and only the best companies will survive, the head of one of the country's biggest mills said on Saturday.

China is pushing for the yuan to be added to the basket of currencies that comprise the IMF's special drawing rights, aiming for its inclusion in 2015, Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun said on Saturday.

China's central bank pledged on Saturday to keep the yuan's exchange rate basically stable in 2010 and said it will enhance coordination with its foreign counterparts on major policy issues.

Four Democratic senators entered into the clean energy vs. jobs fray, charging that too much federal stimulus money for wind energy projects is going to foreign suppliers and creating jobs abroad instead of in the U.S. The administration and the domestic wind energy industry immediately rejected the lawmakers' charges, as the political pressure to reduce unemployment continued to fuel the economic debate in Washington.

Jobs data indicating that U.S. economic recovery might be picking up steam finally pushed crude oil futures decisively over the stubborn $80 a barrel threshold. Nymex's benchmark West Texas Intermediate settled Friday at $81.50 a barrel, a seven-week high, after topping $82 in intraday trading. An unchanged unemployment rate of 9.7% and a smaller-than-expected drop in payrolls propelled both stocks and commodities higher on Friday. Earlier in the week, industry job data also came out better than...

Oil rose to a seven-week high above $82 a barrel on Friday after a report showed the United States lost fewer jobs than expected in February and on signals China will maintain its economic stimulus measures.

Britain's Prudential Plc may quit some countries in Asia should it seal a $35.5 billion buy of American International Group's AIA, sources directly involved with the deal said on Friday, allowing the bulked-up insurer to focus on key markets.

China said on Friday it wants to sign a broad economic agreement with Taiwan, which would slash import tariffs and open the banking sector, as part of a drive to promote peaceful ties with the self-ruled island.

Britain's Prudential Plc may quit some countries in Asia should it seal a $35.5 billion buy of American International Group's AIA.

Swiss-based commodity trader Glencore bought back its prized Prodeco coal operations in Colombia from mining group Xstrata and it was still talking to possible partners.

Giant private equity fund Blackstone Group hopes to close its first Australian deal this year and is looking at a deal in Japan and South Korea.