ECONOMY & MARKETS

U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson, 68, was hospitalized late Saturday near Los Angeles after allegedly being involved in two hit-and-run accidents, the San Gabriel Police and Los Angeles County Sheriff?s Departments said.

Chinese banks are ramping up their lending to retain the country's pace of growth in the face of a listless global economy.

Telefonica SA (NYSE: TEF), Europe's largest telecommunications operator by revenue, will sell part of its stake in China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) for $1.4 billion to reduce debt as the eurozone debt crisis stresses Europe's economy and corporations based there.

This week's data releases could reignite hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon provide more policy stimulus. May's producer price index and consumer price index should show that inflationary pressures are easing, with the latter falling below the Fed's 2 percent target rate. Retail sales and industrial production figures for May are likely to come in on the soft side, as well.

Credit rating agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) Monday said that India could lose its investment grade rating due to its weak GDP growth rate and political roadblocks to economic policymaking.

Among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Monday are: Micronetics, Banco Santander, Mellanox Technologies, NVIDIA, Bank of America, Perrigo, QUALCOMM, Jive Software and Nokia.

Futures on major U.S. indices point to a higher opening Monday following the agreement by the eurozone finance ministers to lend Spain 100 billion euros ($125 billion).

Asian markets rose Monday as investors were encouraged by the announcement of the Spanish bank aid deal and a report of less worrisome data from China over the weekend.

Crude oil futures rallied Monday as market participants welcomed Europe's plan to provide financial assistance to Spain to properly restructure its troubled banks.

Stock markets in China and Hong Kong gained Monday as sentiment was buoyed on news that the euro zone will provide financial assistance to help Spain's troubled banks.

Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose Monday as euro zone finance ministers Saturday agreed to provide Spain with aid while May exports in China grew above expectations.

China's easy money and Spain's hard choice to accept a bailout of its cash-strapped financials sector appear to have market participants feeling pretty chipper in the early going on Monday.

Many analysts anticipated China's balance-of-trade figures for May would be OK, but the customs numbers reported Sunday were better than that expectation: Year on year, the country's exports rose 15.3 percent, and its imports rose 12.1 percent.

As a weak economic recovery and cheaper gasoline alter the travel plans of Americans from international trips to domestic jaunts, the Gulf Coast could be a big winner.

Developments in Greece and Spain could lead first to rating reviews and then to rating actions on all 17 countries in the euro zone, Moody's Investors Service announced Friday.

Within a week of Facebook Inc.'s (Nasdaq: FB) $16 billion initial public offering, at least six lawsuits were filed against its top officials, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as well as six investment banks involved in the deal. That in itself is not surprising, considering the IPO flopped. What would be surprising is if the shareholders actually get anything near what they feel they deserve.

The rupee weakened on Friday on worsening global risk sentiment, but posted its first weekly gain against the dollar in more than two months as the local currency recovers from oversold conditions.

Asian stock markets reported their first weekly gains in six weeks amid hopes that major central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, might act to tackle deteriorating global economic conditions.

The top after-market NYSE gainers Friday were: RPC, Digital Domain Media Group, SuperValu, AK Steel Holding and Rogers Communication. The top after-market NYSE losers were: Metropolitan Health Networks, Yelp, Visteon Corp, Halcon Resources and Standard Pacific Corp.

Asian markets rose this week amid hopes that policy makers would take concrete measures to tackle the financial crisis and regain the economic growth momentum.

China's inflation cooled in May, giving Beijing more wiggle room to loosen policy and stimulate growth. Its consumer price index rose by 3 percent, and its producer price index fell by 1.4 percent.

Lower U.S. demand for crude oil and petroleum products in April helped shrink the nation's balance-of-trade deficit from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Friday, but the trade deficit with China worsened.

After George Soros, the influential hedge fund manager, posted a speech he gave at an economics conference in Italy last week, the financial blogosphere lit up. It got lots of praise as the best analysis yet of the ongoing fiscal debacle in Europe. But at over 4,400 words, it's definitely not for the ADD-challenged. Which is why we've turned it into a handy illustrated video.

A deluge of data is due over the weekend and next week, including almost all of China's key barometers of economic health. The worsening European debt crisis is casting a pall over everything, and has slowed down growth in the world's economic powerhouse.

Lower U.S. demand for crude oil and petroleum products in April helped shrink the nation's balance-of-trade deficit from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Friday, but the trade deficit with China worsened.

As a weakening economic recovery and cheap gas lead Americans to curtail international vacations, domestic tourism is poised for a solid summer.

The world's economies have fallen to their weakest level since the recession officially ended in 2009. German and U.S. bonds actually charge buyers interest rather than pay buyers interest. The euro zone's survival appears at genuine risk and China's red-hot economy, the second-biggest in the world, is not so red hot any more.

After George Soros, the influential hedge fund manager, posted a speech he gave at an economics conference in Italy last week, the financial blogosphere lit up. It got lots of praise as the best analysis yet of the ongoing fiscal debacle in Europe. But at over 4,400 words, it's definitely not for the ADD-challenged. Which is why we've turned it into a handy illustrated video.

The Federal Reserve is proposing that U.S. banks, large and small, abide by a rigorous interpretation of an international capital standards agreement known as Basel III.