AFP - Europe's main stock markets slid on Tuesday as oil prices shot higher toward record highs.

Reuters - Consumer sentiment slid to a 16-year low in June while house prices suffered record annual drops in April, according to data Tuesday that suggested a retrenchment in spending that will keep squelching economic growth.

Reuters - The U.S. Federal Reserve began a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday that was expected to end with benchmark interest rates on hold and little evidence the central bank is going to raise borrowing costs soon.

Reuters - United Parcel Service Inc shares fell 4.6 percent on Tuesday to their lowest point since late 2003, the morning after the world's largest package-delivery company cut its second-quarter profit outlook citing high fuel costs and a weak U.S. economy.

Reuters - The U.S. corporate profit outlook is deteriorating rapidly, with S&P 500 earnings for the second quarter now seen falling at a double-digit pace from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters Proprietary Research released on Tuesday.

Reuters - Stocks edged higher on Tuesday as investors looked for bargains among beaten-down financial shares and the price of oil slipped, offsetting a profit warning from United Parcel Service

AFP - Leading shares closed higher on Monday, as the anticipation of a bounce on Wall Street turned the FTSE 100 around, with Shire a top blue chip riser following a Goldman Sachs upgrade.

Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday urged oil-producing nations to boost their output and warned that soaring energy costs threatened to prolong a U.S. economic slowdown.

Reuters - British gas producer BG Group launched a hostile $13.1 billion bid for Australia's Origin Energy, as it seeks to boost its position in Asia-Pacific's fast-growing gas market.

Reuters - Miner BHP Billiton may be forced to scrap its plan to rewrite the way billions of dollars of iron ore are sold every year after rival Rio Tinto struck a benchmark deal with China, analysts said on Tuesday.

Reuters - A South Korean high court on Tuesday cleared U.S. private equity house Lone Star of manipulating the stock price of a former credit card unit of Korea Exchange Bank (004940.KS), rejecting an earlier ruling.