MARKETS / FINANCE

Banking and keeping track of finances, shopping and searching for jobs are the main tasks of Internet users around the globe, according to a new international survey.

Wall Street looked set to open slightly lower on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.07 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.07 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.01 percent at 4:21 a.m. E.D.T. (0821 GMT)

Raymond Kwok, the billionaire co-chairman of Hong Kong property company Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd , said he and his brother Thomas did nothing wrong, in their first public appearance since being arrested last week on suspicion of corruption.

Search giant Google Inc engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by allowing misleading paid advertisements to be shown with Internet search results, an Australian court ruled on Tuesday.

Google Inc will continue to invest in China, where it has a testy relationship with the government, with a focus on growing its fast-growing display and mobile advertising businesses, its Asia chief said on Tuesday.

Britain must sell its Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds stakes as soon as possible because keeping them is allowing politicians to gamble with people's money on bank shares, according to a lobby group representing taxpayers.

China may loosen overseas investment rules for private investors, the country's central bank chief said on Tuesday, less than a week after the government gave the go-ahead for pilot financial reforms in a coastal city.

Australia's central bank opened the door wide for a rate cut in May even as it held rates steady at 4.25 percent at a review on Tuesday, saying it wanted to see coming inflation data before deciding whether to ease policy.

The pace of growth in manufacturing picked up last month, even as measures of new orders and exports eased, underscoring how the economy is recovering at a gradual clip.

Coty Inc disclosed on Monday that it had offered $10 billion for Avon Products Inc but the larger company, which is grappling with sliding sales and a bribery probe, rejected the bid as too low and opportunistic.

An MF Global bankruptcy trustee asked a judge on Monday to release $25 million in insurance money to pay defense costs for Jon Corzine and other former MF Global officers facing civil lawsuits over the broker's October collapse.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc has named Jim Schiro to replace lead independent board director John Bryan, who plans to retire in May.

UBS AG named several executives to senior positions in the United States and Europe, in the latest move by the Swiss bank to rebuild its business after a massive trading scandal and departures by scores of bankers in recent years.

With an economy four to five times the size of Greece, a financial collapse and bailout of Spain would be unthinkable for Europe.

Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb has intensified his firm Third Point's proxy battle with Yahoo Inc, launching a website calling for a management shakeup at the online media company.

The take-home pay of U.S. chief executives grew at least 10 percent in 2011, propelled largely by a stock market rally, according to consultants' estimates.

U.S. stocks started the second quarter with a bang on Monday, with the S&P 500 climbing to a fresh four-year high as manufacturing data from the United States and China helped support the outlook for economic growth.

Stocks ended higher on Monday, starting the second quarter with a bang. The S&P 500 climbed to a fresh four-year closing high as manufacturing data from the United States and China helped support the outlook for economic growth.

Oracle Corp and Google Inc have reached an irreconcilable impasse in settlement negotiations in a high-profile intellectual property lawsuit and the companies' lawyers should prepare for trial, a U.S. magistrate judge ruled on Monday.

Stocks extended gains in late afternoon trading on Monday, with the Nasdaq Composite up 1 percent and the S&P 500 at a fresh four-year high as encouraging data from the United States and abroad helped ease concerns about the pace of economic growth.

Tribal fighting has broken out in post-civil war Libya while militias do battle for territory in Tripoli. Is the government strong enough to respond?

The S&P 500 climbed to a fresh four-year intraday high on Monday, the first trading day of the second quarter, as upbeat Chinese and U.S. manufacturing data overshadowed a report showing more weakness in Europe.

India's Titan Industries, a jewellery maker promoted by the Tata group, has got approval from the government to directly import gold, its key raw material, said a government official, a move which will help the company save its operating costs.

Gold prices rose above $1,680 an ounce on Monday as the dollar steadied off earlier one-month highs against the euro, with the U.S. unit further paring gains after U.S. construction spending and manufacturing data.

Stocks were little changed on Monday on the first trading day of the second quarter as data showing a modest pickup in U.S. manufacturing offset a report showing a dimmer view of factory activity in Europe.

Construction spending in February recorded its largest drop in seven months as investment in private and government projects fell, which could cause economists to slightly mark down their first-quarter economic growth forecasts.

Unemployment in the euro zone reached its highest level in almost 15 years in February, with more than 17 million people out of work, and economists said they expected job office queues to grow even longer later this year.

Wells Fargo & Co opened its new Abbot Downing business on Monday, merging two of its wealth management units under a new brand it hopes will expand its market share of America's richest families.

The Harkis were Algerians who fought to preserve colonial rule in France during the war of independence