MARKETS / FINANCE

Just days after unveiling a Sony-branded Internet TV with Google, Sony's chief executive is set to meet rival Samsung Electronics, for possible alliances, as the Japanese consumer electronics maker aims to turn its TV business profitable with aggressive sales targets.

The United States suggested Europe's debt crisis would have minimal impact on global growth, but China took a more pessimistic view, warning it would impact demand for its exports and other regions would suffer too.

China struck a conciliatory note in talks with the United States on Monday by vowing to spur domestic demand and keeping a guarded opening to exchange rate reform, which the Obama administration says is needed to rebalance the global economy.

World stocks recovered some composure on Monday with emerging markets leading the way after a late Friday rally in banking shares on Wall Street ended what was otherwise a dismal week for equities investors.

Global miner Rio Tinto described Australia as its top sovereign risk on Monday and said it was reviewing all investments there as its raised pressure on Canberra to overhaul its planned new mining tax.

HSBC has no plans to change its management structure, the investment bank's Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan told CNBC television on Monday.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday the United States and China need to work together to reduce trade barriers and develop a more balanced global economy.

OPEC member Venezuela will increase oil production gradually in 2010, then even more next year, President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday.

Shares of Sprint Nextel could rise to about $6 a share, helped by the introduction of a mobile phone that works on the carrier's new high-speed network, according to business weekly Barron's.

Dubai plans to set up a program to address weaknesses in its financial system while the United Arab Emirates will open a debt management office to coordinate on issuance for state-linked companies, an official said on Sunday.

The Treasury is re-looking at plans to float the Asian unit of AIG in case a bid by Prudential to buy the AIA fails, two British newspapers reported on Sunday.

Volatility will be the name of the game on Wall Street this week as uncertainty over the euro-zone debt crisis remains and investors will need nerves of steel to make bets on risky assets like stocks.

Former Morgan Stanley banker John Hyman will not join Nomura to become its new co-head of global finance at its London operation as had been expected due to regulatory issues, a source said on Saturday.

Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies, which bought a $300 million stake in Facebook last year, is preparing to buy stakes in dozens of well-known Internet companies, its chief executive said.

Adalberto Lopez' family-run musical instrument shop in the bustling Arizona border city of Nogales sells guitars and accordions to foot-stomping banda musicians and mariachis who cross up from Mexico to shop.

Europe's financial crisis should have only minimal impact on the global recovery as governments put in place necessary policy counter-measures, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official said Sunday.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou ruled out defaulting on debt payments or restructuring in a Spanish newspaper interview published on Sunday.

The U.S. Justice Department has dropped a probe of American International Group Inc executives involving the credit default swaps that sent the insurer to the brink of bankruptcy and forced a huge taxpayer bailout, lawyers for the executives said on Saturday.

Germany's parliament approved on Friday a $1 trillion safety net to stabilize the euro as fears swirled that Europe's debt crisis and tougher financial regulation may choke economic recovery.

American International Group Inc on Saturday praised a Justice Department decision it did not specifically identify, but may relate to published reports that federal prosecutors will not charge company executives over credit default swaps.

Washington Mutual Inc and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp have reached a global settlement that will return $7 billion to the bank's creditors, a critical step in the bankruptcy involving the biggest bank failure in U.S. history.

Legg Mason Inc gave its biggest signal yet that its famed stock picker Bill Miller, who has underperformed in recent years, is preparing for retirement.

The U.S. Treasury Department has hired Lazard Ltd to advise the government on an initial public offering of General Motors Co, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Google TV, a service that will bring the Web to television screens, is likely to create more headaches for broadcast and cable executives already concerned with being sidelined by free online video shows on computers.

Google Inc has won U.S. approval to buy mobile advertising rival AdMob, after months of delay and rumor that the No. 1 Internet search engine was headed for a court fight with government officials over the $750 million transaction.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc shares rose as much as 5.4 percent on Friday on rumors of a possible settlement with regulators and a feeling that the stock could be oversold.

U.S. antitrust regulators gave Google Inc approval to buy mobile advertising rival AdMob, after months of delay and rumor that Google was headed for a court fight with government officials over the transaction.

A federal appeals court on Friday threw out a ruling requiring Verizon Wireless customers to resolve disputes over alleged fraudulent cell phone charges individually through arbitration rather than as a class.