CHINA

Several parts of Homs were shelled Wednesday morning while Damascus witnessed overnight explosions, close on the heels of UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's warning that the recent violence had left Syria at a tipping point.

Futures on major U.S. indices point to a lower opening Wednesday ahead of anticipated reports on the Mortgage Applications Index and Pending Home Sales.

India strongly responded Tuesday to a Chinese media report which argued that the three Indian traders, who were kidnapped and abused by Chinese suppliers, bore the responsibility for the incidents by delaying or defaulting on payments after having made the purchases in advance.

Asian markets fell Wednesday amid Spanish banking sector woes and a report that China is not planning further stimulus measures to lift its economic growth.

Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook said he would like to see more of the company's products assembled at home than in China and contain more U.S. components such as semiconductors.

China and Japan, not exactly the world's best friends, will soon be walking away from the dollar, hand-in-hand. Although the two countries have their share of diplomatic problems, June 1st will mark a historic day in Sino-Japanese relations, as they move to conduct trade directly using their own currencies.

A boatload of Russian arms will arrive in Syria next weekend, a Western source told the Al Arabia television station on Tuesday.

Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp. (Tokyo: 8002), which has been on a global shopping spree in recent years so it can become a dominant grain supplier to China, just took a strategic step toward that goal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the P5+1 group on Tuesday for being too lenient on Iran.

Graft and debt are crippling China's railway industry and eroding trust in the government's management of a crucial sector of transportation -- and may kill the dream of becoming the world's leader in high-speed trains

Production of the highly anticipated MacBook Pro update seems to be in full swing, after a new report claims that Apple's Foxconn factory is outsourcing to keep up with demand for the revamped laptop.

Shares of Chinese electric carmaker BYD Company Ltd. (Hong Kong: 1211), which is partially owned by Warren Buffett, recovered some of the losses suffered after one of its e6 electric cars caught fire in a crash which killed three people in southern China.

European stocks recovered from early losses Tuesday as traders anticipate the U.S. data to show improving consumer confidence and a stabilizing housing market. Meanwhile, Asian equities rallied for a second straight day on hopes that China may introduce further stimulus policy. U.S. index futures rose.

Futures on major U.S. indices point to a higher opening Tuesday ahead of the report on consumer confidence for May.

Asian Markets rose Tuesday as expectations that China will take measures to lift its economic growth undermined the euro zone concerns amid Spanish banking woes.

The economic calendar is quite full this week, with most of the focus on the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. The Institute for Supply Management, or ISM, manufacturing index and the second estimate of U.S. first-quarter gross domestic product also will draw a lot of attention.

In a thinly veiled attack, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, suggested on Monday the U.S. military would be weakened if President Barack Obama gets his way on budgetary matters.

Asian stock markets mostly advanced Monday as concerns of potential Greek exit eased after recent opinion polls showed that pro-austerity parties could be able to form a coalition government.

The atrocities committed in the Syrian village of Houla on Friday -- when dozens of men, women, and children were killed, and hundreds more were wounded -- were condemned in the strongest possible terms by the United Nations Security Council on Sunday.

Central banks in emerging markets continued to gobble up gold last month, and analysts anticipate this trend has legs. Why are these central banks doing it? And why should you care?

Iran announced it will continue enriching high grade uranium while adding a nuclear power plant in 2014 and rebuffed calls to allow U.N. inspectors to visit the suspected home of the country's nuclear weapons research.