CHINA

Electronic parts suppliers Premier Farnell and Electrocomponents said huge demand for a British-designed credit card-sized computer, which aims to make programming easy for children, had helped them access new customers around the world.

A newly constructed portion of China's high-speed railway collapsed following heavy rain in the central Hubei province.

Indian cotton shipments will resume for previously registered sales, but the government ban on new cotton exports will remain in effect until a review within the next two weeks.

Commodities traders Cargill and Glencore are both interested in acquiring Viterra, Canada's biggest grain company, according to reports, setting up a potential deal that would further consolidate the food industry.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc will hold its annual board meeting in India later this month.

Stocks were set for a slightly lower open on Monday as economic data in China and this week's Federal Open Market Committee announcement gave investors reason to pause after a three-day rally.

Stock index futures edged lower on Monday as economic data in China gave investors reason to pause after a three-day rally.

Stock index futures were little changed on Monday as economic data in China gave investors reason to pause after a 3-day rally.

The closer the yuan is to an equilibrium, the bigger role market forces will play in the yuan exchange rate, PBOC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said Monday. He said the central bank will allow and encourage market forces to play a bigger role while decreasing its intervention in the market in an orderly manner.

The People's Bank of China set the yuan's midpoint against the dollar sharply lower on Monday, the second biggest single-day fall on record and the latest signal that China is willing to let its currency move within a wider range.

Investors await the Conference Board's employment trend index for February at 10 a.m. EDT, followed by the U.S. Treasury Department's budget-deficit figures for February.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc will hold its annual board meeting in India later this month in a sign of the U.S.-based bank's commitment to one of the fast-growing emerging markets, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday.

Asian stock markets ended lower Monday as disappointing Chinese trade data released over the weekend overshadowed stronger than expected US February jobs report.

Shares and the euro began trading within narrow ranges on Monday, retracing some of last week's gains, as investors paused to assess the effect of strong U.S. jobs data on the growth outlook and the potential for an end to central bank policy easing.

China will manage its $3.2 trillion of foreign currency reserves more creatively to ensure effective results, its central bank said on Monday, as it vowed to work harder to free the country's tightly controlled financial markets.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has hinted that his country will not back away from its nuclear ambitions threatened by the possibility of a U.S.-backed Israeli military strike.

Oil fell on Monday for the first time in four sessions, with Brent slipping towards $125 as global demand concerns took centerstage following weak Chinese exports, countering support from supply disruption worries in the Middle East and Africa and a brightening U.S. economic outlook.

China lowering its growth target will have no direct impact on policy and also will not necessarily mean that it is less supportive to growth in the rest of the world, according to a report by Capital Economics.

China's Sina Corp estimates 60 percent of the users of its popular microblogging Weibo platform would have registered their real identities by a March 16 deadline in compliance with government regulations, a company spokesman said on Monday.

The People's Bank of China on Monday fixed the yuan's mid-point against the dollar sharply lower, its second biggest single-day fall on record, in the latest sign China intends to let its currency move in a wider range.

Asian shares fell Monday as investors paused to assess the effect of strong U.S. jobs data, which scaled back expectations for more easing ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting, while concerns over China's slowdown also weighed on sentiment.