MARKETS / FINANCE

The China hard-landing debate is a classic tail risk story -- an unlikely scenario, but if it materializes the consequences could be catastrophic.

Oracle Corp plans to buy online customer service company RightNow Technologies Inc for about $1.5 billion, sparking speculation of bids for other so-called cloud technology companies that deliver software, data and computing power over the Internet.

Just weeks before fallen hedge fund tycoon Raj Rajaratnam was sentenced to 11 years in prison for insider trading, U.S. prosecutors pressed him to turn on his friend, former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta, The Daily Beast online newspaper reported.

- The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a global public authority and a central world bank to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises.

Upticks in ICE Brent and WTI crude prices are expected to remain limited, and losses below the recent lows are favoured to follow.

New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said on Monday the U.S. economy still faces serious headwinds, including spillover effects from Europe, adding the central bank will continue to do everything within its power to help.

The European Union is now discussing two options for giving the euro zone rescue fund more firepower -- an insurance model and a special investment vehicle , a paper obtained by Reuters on Monday showed.

TomTom, the Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker, is switching focus away from the cash-bleeding personal navigation devices that made it a household name to its auto and mapping services to restore growth and profits.

Japan's finance minister put traders on alert for possible currency intervention on Monday as the yen's rise to a record high against the dollar threatened to further squeeze exporters' profits and hold back economic recovery.

TomTom, the Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker is taking steps to be less dependant on its cash-bleeding consumer business and refocus on its automotive and services units to restore growth and profitability.

A group of small-business owners in China has expanded a protest against higher fees to target Alipay, the country's leading online payment platform, after its corporate sibling, Taobao Mall, announced up to tenfold fee hikes for some businesses using its service, Chinese media reported on Monday.

The Motorola Droid Razr and the Samsung Galaxy S II are fighting out with each other. The Razr, declared the thinnest smartphone by Motorola Mobility, was unveiled a few days back. In a very short period of time, the phone (boasting a marvelous design and smart specs) is neck-and-neck with the Galaxy S2, which hit the markets in April earlier this year. The Samsung device has been ruling the markets since its launch.

Stock index futures edged lower on Monday after the S&P 500 posted its third straight week of gains as investors had doubts European policymakers would come up with an agreement to fix the region's debt crisis.

Saudi Arabia will not need to tap into its reserves this year to finance additional budget spending but it is considering whether to issue Islamic or conventional bonds to help fund specific projects, the country's Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf told Reuters.

The euro zone's private sector tipped further into decline in October, according to business surveys on Monday that showed the bloc's economy is in serious danger of lurching from stagnation into outright recession.

European Union leaders made some progress toward a strategy to fight the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis on Sunday, nearing agreement on bank recapitalization and on how to leverage their rescue fund to try to stop bond market contagion.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is placing an early bet on a slowdown in the Chinese economy and plans to expand into Hong Kong in the next six to nine months with its $2 billion special situations unit, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

Samsung Group confirmed that it had named a group led by online shopping mall operator Interpark as preferred bidder for its procurement arm iMarketKorea Inc, in a deal to buy Samsung's up to $342 million stake in the firm.

InterContinental Hotels Group , the world's biggest hotelier, is enjoying higher revenue growth at its American operations, highlighting industry resilience in the face of a global economic slowdown.

Saudi Arabia will not need to tap into its reserves this year to finance additional budget spending but it is considering whether to issue Islamic or conventional bonds to help fund specific projects, the country's Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf told Reuters.

TomTom, the Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker, said it will cut 50 million euros ($69.7 million) in costs, including jobs, to help improve profitability as it posted a dip in quarterly sales on lower demand and falling prices.

Stock futures pointed to a higher open for equities on Wall Street on Monday, building on sharp gains in the previous session, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 up 0.4 to 0.5 percent.

EA DICE is just hours away from the official release of “Battlefield 3”.

World stocks put in solid gains on Monday as investors bet on a positive outcome to the euro zone crisis talks and took comfort from signs that China's economy may not be in as much danger as feared.

China's vast manufacturing sector expanded moderately in October to snap three months of contraction, reflecting the resilience of robust domestic demand that is likely to soothe fears of an abrupt slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

European stocks were set to open higher on Monday after data about China helped allay fears of a hard-landing in the world's second-largest economy, while the euro steadied on hopes that Europe's leaders were making some progress toward tackling the region's debt crisis.

China's vast manufacturing sector picked up moderately in October, snapping a three-month contraction and underscoring the resilience of the world's second-largest economy backed by robust domestic demand.

Japan's exports rose at a faster pace than expected in the year to September, suggesting that resilience in exports is underpinning the economic recovery despite a global slowdown and the strong yen.

Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said on Monday that Japan will take decisive action on excessive and speculative foreign exchange moves and that he did not believe the strong yen, at less than 76 per dollar, reflected economic fundamentals.