AFP - Chinese share prices closed down 5.21 percent Monday, extending Friday's steep decline as investors rushed to dump stocks after losing hope that government support was imminent, dealers said.

Reuters - Six leading drugmakers sent a letter Friday to U.S. accounting-rule lawmakers objecting to a proposed rule that would require companies to disclose estimate costs of all continuing litigation, the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday.

Reuters - Swiss bank UBS will separate its wealth management business from investment banking, a move that could herald a spin-off or sale of the business that made it Europe's top casualty of the markets crisis.

Reuters - September Dow Jones and Standard & Poor's were both down about 0.3 percent on Tuesday, while Nasdaq 100 futures were off 0.2 percent, indicating a slight dip at the start of trade. The indicative Dow Jones index (.DJII) was down 1 percent.

Reuters - Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Japan's largest bank, said it would bid $3 billion to buy the rest of UnionBanCal Corp a Californian bank it already owns two-thirds of, as it seeks growth beyond Japanese shores.

Reuters - JPMorgan Chase & Co incurred losses of about $1.5 billion for the quarter to date, as it continued to be hurt by wider credit spreads, lower levels of liquidity, as well as the disruption in the credit and mortgage markets, the U.S. investment bank said in a regulatory filing.

AP - Amid the pile of downbeat sales reports for July from retailers, there was a sliver of hope: Second-quarter profits may not be as bad as expected when merchants such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Macy's Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. post their results starting this week.

Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) will raise prices of hybrid cars and commercial vehicles by 1-3 percent in Japan as early as this year amid soaring raw material costs, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.

Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) is considering exporting U.S.-made vehicles as it sees potential demand for its large pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles overseas, the automaker's U.S. manufacturing chief said on Monday.

Reuters - Stocks rallied on Monday as oil prices fell below $114 per barrel for the first time in more than three months, improving the outlook for consumer and business spending, and Amazon.com's shares jumped after a broker said a key product appeared to be selling well.

Reuters - The long-awaited authorized biography of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the first written with his cooperation, is scheduled for release on September 29, the publisher said on Monday.

Reuters - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office, which is investigating Wall Street's sales practices in auction-rate securities, told JPMorgan Chase & Co , Morgan Stanley and Wachovia Corp on Monday that it wants to begin settlement talks immediately.

Reuters - Waste Management Inc , the largest U.S. trash hauler, raised its unsolicited takeover bid for rival Republic Services Inc by about 9 percent to $6.7 billion on Monday to try to thwart Republic's agreement to acquire Allied Waste Industries Inc .