AP - The first week of the third quarter will probably be a quiet one as many fund managers, having put the final touches on their portfolios last week, leave on their Fourth of July vacations.

FT.com - London equities fell in early trade on Monday, tracking weak sessions in Asia and the US on lingering concerns over the impact of tightening credit.

AP - Japanese stocks edged higher Tuesday for a fourth straight session, led by brokerage and oil shares. The Nikkei 225 index gained 3.60 points, or 0.02 percent, on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to 18,149.90 points, adding to gains of 1.66 percent over the previous three trading sessions.

AFP - Europe's main stock markets rose Wednesday on the back of takeover talk in the hotels sector, sparked by a huge private equity-backed deal for US group Hilton Hotels Corporation.

AP - U.S. stock futures rose slightly Thursday on a slew of deal-making news and ahead of data on the U.S. service sector.

FT.com - The Japanese stock market was dominated on Friday morning by some large share moves due to corporate and sector-specific news, which left the broad Topix index down 0.8 per cent.

Reuters - Japan's Nikkei average rose 0.67 percent to its highest close in 7 years on Monday after a strong jobs report in the U.S., and higher-than-expected machinery orders in Japan spurred buying of machinery and tech stocks including Fanuc Ltd. (6954.T).

AP - Alcoa Inc. started the second-quarter earnings season by reporting a 4 percent drop in net income, as outages at two of the aluminum maker's U.S. plants eroded profits despite overall second-quarter sales growth.

Reuters - Japan's Nikkei average slipped 1.11 percent on Wednesday to its lowest finish in nearly two weeks, hurt by a tumble in U.S. stocks and a stronger yen by offering to buy a further 25 percent stake in the ailing chip maker for $1.25 billion.

AP - Chief Executive Officer Ed Zander's job at Motorola Inc. is on the line more than ever after he warned that the struggling company's cell phone unit will be unprofitable at least until 2008.

FT.com - A bounceback in chip-related shares and sturdy performance overnight by US stock markets pushed the Japanese share market up strongly on Friday morning.

AP - Wall Street ended an extraordinary and record-setting week Friday by surging higher again, sending the Standard & Poor's 500 index past a trading high set in March 2000 and thrusting the Dow Jones industrial past 13,900 for the first time.

Reuters - Asian stocks edged higher on Monday following a strong performance by Wall Street last week, but Seoul shares eased from a record high as Kookmin Bank dropped after being ordered to pay back taxes.

AP - U.S. stocks headed for a largely flat open Monday following back-to-back sessions last week that brought fresh records for several major market indexes and amid word of a big buyout.

FT.com - Japanese stocks fell slightly Tuesday, with exporters dropping because of a slight rise in the yen. Monday's earthquake in the northwestern part of Honshu, Japan's main island, hit insurers.

Reuters - The dollar slid to a record low against the euro on worries about U.S. subprime mortgages and hit a 26-year trough versus sterling on Wednesday after British data bolstered expectations for higher interest rates in Britain.

FT.com - Declining property stocks partly offset a rise in the shares of steelmakers, leaving Japanese stocks a tad up Thursday morning.

Reuters - The dollar hovered near a record low against the euro on Friday due to continuing concerns about weakness in the U.S. housing market and its impact on the broader economy.

AP - Wall Street faces home sales data and more earnings reports this week, as it decides whether growth is strong enough to justify pushing the Dow Jones industrial average back above 14,000.

FT.com - Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index sank to its lowest close in almost four weeks Monday, hit by the poor performance Friday of US shares.

FT.com - At current rates of progress it will take 200 years for there to be as many women as men in the House of Commons and 65 years to achieve boardroom equality at FTSE 100 companies, according to the final report from the Equal Opportunities Commission.

FT.com - Japan's Nikkei 225 share index hit a six-week low on Wednesday morning, dragged down by the combination of an overnight slide in US stocks and a rise in the yen.

AP - Shares of Amazon.com Inc. soared 26 percent on Wednesday, a day after the Web retailer reported its second-quarter profit more than tripled on strong sales of books, music and electronics.

FT.com - Asian stockmarkets on Friday joined a global tumble amid a flight away from risky credits and fears about banks' growing exposure to leveraged buy-out debts.

AFP - Japanese stocks fell more than one percent in early deals Monday, hit by recent losses on Wall Street and fears of domestic policy gridlock after a weekend election blow for the government, dealers said.

FT.com - Last week's four-day rout in stock and bond markets eliminated half the accumulated surplus in pension schemes run by FTSE 100 companies that has been built up since the market trough in 2003, according to Hewitt Associates (NYSE:HEW).

FT.com - Tokyo shares were mixed in morning trade on Tuesday in response to a mixed bag of earnings announcements.