UNITED STATES

Oil prices slipped below $71 a barrel on Monday, as the dollar's strength and worries about high oil inventories helped counter earlier gains on the back of rising Asian stocks amid hopes for an economic recovery.

Banks in the United States are poised to make $38.5 billion in customer overdraft fees this year, the Financial Times said, citing research by Moebs Services.

Oil prices were little changed at $71 a barrel on Monday, paring earlier losses as rising Asian stocks bolstered sentiment over an economic recovery while the dollar dipped, lending support to the commodities complex.

Fed Treads Carefully, Old Ads Meet New, Details Stall Tax Deal

A new action movie based on the G.I. Joe line of toy soldiers crushed enemy forces at the worldwide box office during the weekend, ending the three-week reign of the sixth Harry Potter fantasy.

The Federal Reserve meets this week with the delicate task of curbing a surge in expectations that it is ready to starting raising interest rates, without snuffing out crucial optimism on the economy.

The US Dollar lost considerable ground against the Pound and EURO early last week with both currencies breaking through the physiological resistance barriers of 1.70 and 1.44 respectively.

The Aussie dollar rallied momentarily following Friday's release of the RBA's quarterly statement on Monetary Policy spiking from 0.8395 to an intraday high around 0.8420.

Oil fell toward $70 a barrel on Monday, extending the previous session's decline, as strength in the U.S. dollar encouraged investors to take profit from a recent rally.

Recession has shaken nearly every corner of the U.S. economy but Trinity Yachts is still turning out custom-built luxury boats, thanks in part to a sagging U.S. dollar.

A much slower pace of U.S. job losses in July and improvement in housing and manufacturing lifted U.S. stocks on Friday, but a more surprising beneficiary of the news was the U.S. dollar.

Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada -- also known as the three amigos -- begin a summit on Sunday in Mexico to talk about simmering trade issues and the threat of drug gangs.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed Angola on Sunday to do more to fight corruption during a two-day visit to the oil-producing country aimed at bolstering ties between the two nations.

Wall Street's rally could persist this week as investors' conviction grows that the U.S. economy is on track for a recovery. But retailers' results, CPI and other consumer data could cast a pall if shoppers fail to show signs of life.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Angola on Sunday in a bid to bolster opportunities for U.S. business in the major oil producer.

U.S.-Swiss talks to settle a tax evasion row against UBS have stalled as the two states have yet to agree legal details on how to allow the transfer of some bank client data to Washington, a Swiss paper said on Sunday.

The majority of big banks that deal directly with the Federal Reserve are confident the central bank can exit from its unorthodox policies, though they don't expect the Fed to have to raise rates until 2010 or later.

Bank regulators closed three banks on Friday, bringing the number of failures so far this year to 72 as the weakened economy takes its toll on the financial services sector.

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had frequent conversations with Goldman Sachs Group Inc's chief executive during last fall's financial crisis, raising questions about his ties to his former firm, according to a New York Times report.

Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in on Saturday as the first Hispanic, and the third woman, to sit on the United States Supreme Court bench.

An Iranian court on Saturday charged a French woman, two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran and dozens of others with spying and aiding a Western plot to overthrow the system of clerical rule.