CHINA

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: YRC Worldwide, Take-Two Interactive Software, Oracle, Iconix Brand Group, Rightnow Technologies, Dress Barn, Activision Blizzard, Research In Motion, China MediaExpress Holdings, and OmniVision Technologies.

The new export control policies proposed by the Obama administration may address some previously identified weaknesses but leave many more open, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said on Thursday

Taiwan's economics ministry approved on Friday a plan by AU Optronics Corp to build a new LCD plant in China, paving the way for the world's No.4 LCD maker to tap future growth potential on the mainland.

World stocks advanced on Friday, partly lifted by firmer commodities as the dollar fell, while Irish and Portuguese bond yields rose after Moody's cut Ireland's rating by five notches.

The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that its board of governors had approved reforms that will shift more voting power to emerging-market countries like China.

The U.S. can expect greater legal software sales in China, the top U.S. trade official said Wednesday.

Standard & Poor’s upgraded its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on the People’s Republic of China to ‘AA-’ (its fourth-highest ranking) from ‘A+’.

The Asia-Pacific region will continue to be the fastest-growing region of the world in 2011, according to a forecast by IHS Global Insight. However, the report says the region faces significant risks in the backdrop of the fragile state of some of the largest economies in the world, the raging sovereign debt crisis in the European Union and 'deep-seated structural problems facing Japan.

According to Gartner, the industry had a nice recovery in 2010 after two straight dismal years.

Apple Inc's iPad and bustling retail business have encouraged investors to shrug off the shaky economy and snap up the company's shares as 2010 comes to a close.

India and China agreed to bolster bilateral trade and to reduce the massive trade deficit between the two countries, it was announced on Thursday during Chinese PM Wen Jiabao's visit to India.

South Korea will hold live-fire exercises on Yeonpyeong Island, officials in Seoul stated on Thursday. The military drill, which will be the first such maneuver on Yeonpyeong Island since last month North Korea attack, is likely to revive tension in the region as the North warned nuclear assault in retaliation to any provocations.

China has been on a commodity price-control overdrive in the past few months in a bid to tame inflation, allay fears of shortages and crack down on hoarding and price-gouging. However, the Chinese commodity boom may not last forever and the prices could likely fall, an analyst has said.

The British government on Wednesday said all the nine electric cars, which will be bought in the country, are eligible for a subsidy of up to £5,000 (or $7,935).

The top after-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Tower Bancorp, Capitol Federal Financial, Orthofix International, Pulaski Financial, Energy Recovery, Energy Conversion Devices, China Ritar Power, EZchip Semiconductor, and Hercules Offshore.

Chinese banks should ensure that the normal demand for loans is satisfied this month, the banking regulator said on Thursday, signaling that the government wants to avoid an over-tightening of credit.

Residential real estate in 35 large and medium-sized cities in China is, on average, about 29.5 percent overpriced, according to estimates of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The groundwork is in place for a stable yuan because China's current account surplus is trending down and other currencies have been swirling about in choppy trade, an official newspaper said on Thursday.

Edward Yardeni thinks copper prices can double in 2011 because there will be a shortage of it.

Starwood Hotels will oversee the investment of $5 billion to build 35 new Sheraton hotels by 2013 -- half of them in China, the company told Reuters.

Social unrest in China has significantly increased this year, with people in small towns and rural areas particularly unhappy with their lives, according to a study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a Chinese think-tank.