ECONOMY & MARKETS

During a Tuesday morning appearance on the talk show The View, President Obama attributed JPMorgan's $2 billion trading loss to a lack of financial regulation.

The euro pulled back from a four-month low against the dollar during Asian trading Tuesday after Germany, the euro zone's largest economy, announced first-quarter GDP growth of 0.5 percent.

Homebuilder confidence in the U.S. single-family home market rose to a five-year high in May as buyer traffic increased and sales improved, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index released Tuesday.

U.S. business inventories rose in March at a slower pace than economists predicted, even as sales rallied, a datapoint that shows firms have not been as confident as economists and equity investors that the current economic recovery will proceed at a firm pace.

Stronger-than-expected growth in Germany helped the euro area avoid its second recession in three years at the start of 2012 but stagnation in France and contraction in southern Europe underlined the huge economic disparities across the single currency bloc.

U.S. retail sales growth slowed last month as warm weather earlier this year pulled shopping that normally occcurs in April into February and March, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Consumer prices in the U.S. were flat in April amid signs that a spike in gasoline costs was ebbing, according to government statistics released on Tuesday, supporting the Federal Reserve's view that the jump in fuel costs is only temporary.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade Tuesday are: Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc, Infosys Ltd, UBS AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Avon Products, Inc, The Home Depot, Inc and Nokia Corporation.

Home Depot Inc. (HD.N) reported weaker-than-expected quarterly sales on Tuesday after demand slowed in April following a jump in home improvement projects spurred by warm weather earlier in the year.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with the futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones up 0.6 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.8 percent at 0733 GMT.

The euro zone just avoided recession in early 2012, but the region's debt crisis sapped the life out of the French and Italian economies and widened a split with paymaster Germany.

Asian markets fell Tuesday as concerns over Greece's future in euro zone increased with the continuing standstill in talks to form a government.

Global bank stocks fell Monday as investors panicked that a weekend electoral impasse in Greece might be a prelude to that country to leave the 17-member euro zone.

Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), the troubled electronics retailer, said Monday founder Richard Schulze was resigning as chairman and would be replaced by director Hatim Tyabji, after Schulze didn't tell the board that former CEO Brian Dunn was having an inappropriate relationship with a female employee.

India's inflation accelerated in April to 7.23 percent, higher than expected and amid sluggish growth, as food and manufacturing costs jumped.

The almighty dollar was the investment of choice Monday morning, as international investors - in a classic flight to safety after various major news breaks last week - piled into greenback-denominated cash and cash equivalents.

The main event this week is April?s retail sales report, which could see some payback after the unseasonably warm weather boosted March?s results. In Europe, investors will get a look at how the region?s economies fared in the first quarter.

German government bond yields hit fresh all-time lows while Spanish borrowing costs rose sharply Monday as worries intensified over whether Greece is edging towards leaving the euro zone, sapping demand for riskier assets.

European stocks plunged Monday as fears that Greece will leave the euro zone turned into a virtual consensus about the debt-choked nation's departure. The downdraft also hammered U.S. stocks, which opened sharply lower.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday, with S&P 500 futures down 1 percent and contracts for the Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 down 0.9 percent.

JPMorgan will move to limit the fallout from a shock trading loss that could reach $3 billion or more by parting company with three top executives involved in its costly failed hedging strategy, sources close to the matter said.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade Monday are: Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Avon Products, Chesapeake Energy Corp, Micron Technology, Ancestry.com, Herbalife Ltd, Schlumberger, Symantec Corp, JPMorgan Chase and Alcoa Inc.

Asian stock markets advanced on Monday after People's Bank of China announced a second cut this year in the reserve ratio to boost economic growth.

Yahoo Inc. CEO Scott Thompson resigned, succumbing to growing pressure over a fraudulent resume entry that has haunted the embattled executive since early this month. Thompson will be replaced on an interim basis by Yahoo's global media head Ross Levinsohn

China's economic growth has been comparatively anemic lately, so the People's Bank of China will give it a transfusion by cutting the banks' reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage point (50 basis points) on May 18, according to the country's official Xinhua News Agency.

India's emergence as an economic superpower has been accompanied by a disturbing and unexpected phenomenon: an apparent increase in sexual assaults on women.The actual number of rapes in Delhi -- and India as a whole -- is likely to be dramatically higher than indicated by published statistics.

German sportswear company Adidas has filed a criminal complaint with the Indian law enforcing authorities seeking a probe into the alleged financial irregularities in its Indian arm Reebok India.

The top after-market NASDAQ gainers Friday were The Hackett Group, Inc., Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., Multimedia Games Holding Company, Inc., Leap Wireless International, Inc. and XOMA Corporation. The top after-market NASDAQ losers were: American Capital Mortgage Investment Corp, Brightpoint Inc., magicJack VocalTec Ltd., Energy XXI (Bermuda) Limited (EXXI) and JetBlue Airways Corporation.

Asian markets fell at week's end as Greece's inability to form a government, uninspiring Chinese industrial output growth and JPMorgan's trading losses affected investor sentiment.