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Having lost out on Javier Pastore to Paris Saint Germain, Chelsea are now rumoured to be considering a fresh bid for Tottenham's Croatian midfielder Luka Modric as well as Real Madrid star Kaka.

The tentative deal to avoid a crushing debt default is at best a mild relief for the U.S. economy that nearly stalled in the first half of the year and has yet to show signs of any realistic pickup.

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) should unveil a half-year profit of near $11 billion on Monday, flat from a year earlier as weak investment bank trading and wobbly U.S. and European economies offset growth in Asia.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc will appeal a court order upholding the rushed sale of its North American business to Barclays PLC nearly three years ago, a deal Lehman said afforded Barclays an $11 billion windfall.

Lawmakers were still unable to reach an agreement on the U.S. debt ceiling on Friday, but there is no arguing that the dollar's safe-haven appeal should remain trumped by the Swiss franc and Japanese yen.

Chelsea face fellow Premier League side Aston Villa in the Barclays Asia Cup final on Saturday, but by then, they'll know whether they have been successful in their pursuit of Palermo star Javier Pastore.

Fortune Brands Inc (FO.N) announced a tender offer on Thursday for up to $1 billion of debt using funds from the company's planned sale of its Acushnet golf business.

Lehman Brothers Holdings has made a preliminary deal to sell most of a commercial real estate property in Rosslyn, Virginia, to a Goldman Sachs unit, raising at least $385 million to help pay back creditors, according to court documents.

Chelsea will face Aston Villa in the final of the pre-season Barclays Asia Cup after breezing through against Hong Kong side Kitchee at the Hong Kong Stadium.

Former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc executives, directors, auditors and underwriters lost their bid on Wednesday to dismiss an investor lawsuit seeking to hold them responsible for losses tied to the investment bank's collapse.

Will the sky fall on August 2 if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling?

Dunkin' Brands (DNKN.O) has raised $422.75 million after pricing its IPO at $19 per share, well above the range set by underwriters, signaling strong demand for this week's biggest deal.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) issued its quarterly 10Q which stated that the company's contribution to the recently announced Nortel patent win will be $2.6 billion, once the deal closes.

The new MacBook Air products in particular could be a source of upside for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the second half of calendar 2011, Barclays Capital said in a note to clients.

Will the sky fall on August 2 if the U.S. Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling?

At the once-feared commodity trading arms of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the pressure to do better in the second half of this year has never been more intense.

Stocks tumbled on Monday as political brinkmanship in Washington over the debt ceiling sparked fears of a U.S. rating downgrade, sending world equities lower and pushing gold to a record high.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Monday are: Roper Industries, Netflix, International Paper, Computer Sciences, Safeway, SUPERVALU, Chesapeake Energy, Boeing, Baker Hughes, Suntrust Banks, Micron Technology and EMC Corp.

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Friday are: PolyOne Corp, Novo Nordisk, National Bank of Greece, Motorola and Credicorp Ltd. The top after-market NYSE losers are: Bridgepoint Education, Neustar, Fusion-IO, Noble Corp and Polaris Industries Inc.

The Blues are currently touring Malaysia ahead of the Barclays Asia Trophy.

The bankruptcy trustee for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's brokerage arm is appealing a February decision awarding Barclays PLC about $1.1 billion associated with Barclays' purchase of Lehman's North American unit at the height of the financial crisis.

Apple's new line of 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air notebooks, which went on sale on Wednesday with the new Mac OS X Lion pre-installed, will pose a threat to PC sales, according to analysts.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: InterDigital, Express Scripts, Alaska Communications Systems Group,Mellanox Technologies, and BioSante Pharmaceuticals. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Travelzoo, Seagate Technology, LM Ericsson Telephone, F5 Networks, and The Cheesecake Factory.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Thursday are: Medco Health Solutions, Robert Half International, Morgan Stanley, Express Scripts, Stryker, CVS Caremark, Nokia, Genworth Financial, AmerisourceBergen and Whirlpool Corp.

A New York judge approved a deal on Wednesday that will allow Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc to present its latest bankruptcy exit plan without opposition from two key creditor groups, moving the failed investment bank an inch closer to ending the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

The man who pied faces the courts next week.

News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch faced a surprise attack from a man during a parliamentary committee hearing on Tuesday over the phone hacking scandal. The unexpected incident forced a 10-minute halt of the proceedings.

Even though he was the main force behind the company's rise to power, Rupert Murdoch leaving News Corp. would actually benefit the company's stock price.

Pressure on Europe's banks to raise more capital increased on Monday after last week's stress tests revealed their holdings of European sovereign debt, with likely losses on Greek bonds a growing concern.