Hao Li

Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic taunted Srebrenica survivors on Wednesday at the start of his trial for genocide, running his hand across his throat in a gesture of defiance to relatives of the worst massacre in Europe since World War Two.

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 Avengers, the smash hit movie about Marvel superheroes who team up to save the Earth, crushed competitors for a second weekend with a record $103.2 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales and was poised to top $1 billion worldwide, studio estimates showed on Sunday.

Miami Heat forward LeBron James won this third regular season MVP award on Saturday.

Neither premium chicken sandwiches nor Angus burgers could tempt U.S. consumers to spend more on higher-priced items at McDonald's, as a tepid U.S. economic recovery kept restaurant spending in check.

Just three years into the bull market and in an environment of low interest rates and subdued sentiment, the U.S. stock market's valuation is already too rich, say asset management firm GMO LLC's Ben Inker and other investment experts

Hopes of government-sponsored bailouts rescued global markets once again this week, sending equities higher worldwide on Friday.

Gold stayed nearly flat in thin trade on Friday, on track to log declines for two of the past three weeks as investors took to the sidelines ahead of a key U.S. option expiration and a Federal Reserve policy meeting next week.

Gold rose above $1,645 an ounce on Friday as a better-than-expected German business sentiment survey lifted the euro versus the dollar, but trading was light as investors awaited further news on the euro zone crisis and U.S. monetary policy.

The International Monetary Fund is eyeing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, a bloc of countries commonly known as BRICS, to meet its goal, set by the institution's managing director Christine Lagarde, to raise at least $400 billion of additional funds to safeguard the global financial system against the euro zone sovereign debt crisis.

European economic data released on Friday topped analyst expectations, giving a boost to the region's stock markets.

The Spanish stock market plunged on Thursday, closing just 1.3 percent above its March 2009 low and reigniting fears about the euro zone sovereign debt crisis and the weak U.S. labor market.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), the second largest U.S. bank by assets, said its first-quarter earnings fell 68 percent due to a $4.8 billion accounting charge related to debt valuation.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX), the world's largest publicly-traded copper producer, reported lower first-quarter profits as production and sales fell at its giant Indonesian mine due to sometimes violent labor disputes. But results beat analyst expectations and shares jumped.

Cameron International Corp. (NYSE: CAM), a provider of flow equipment products, systems and services to the energy industry, has reached a deal to acquire Bergen, Norway-based TTS Group ASA's (OSE:TTS) drilling equipment business for $270 million plus additional payments for three years based on their revenues.

While chances of a third round of U.S. money-printing quantitative easing measures, or QE3, have dimmed, the World Gold Council, or WGC, remains positive on the yellow metal's outlook due to its international appeal and value in hedging against inflation and deflation.

Investment guru Jeffrey Gundlach's natural gas outlook for the long term is extremely bullish despite recent depressed prices, even as futures on the fuel breached a 10-year low on Wednesday.

Fresnillo, the world's largest primary silver producer, posted first-quarter output of the metal in line with its expectations and said production of gold was ahead of target, helped by the start-up of a new mine in Mexico.

Syria is trying to sell gold reserves to raise revenue as Western and Arab sanctions targeting its central bank and oil exports begin to bite, diplomats and traders said.

Gold eased on Wednesday, having fallen for the past three trading days, as the euro came under pressure from continued worries about the euro zone.

The U.S. economic outlook for next year is being shadowed by what economists are calling the fiscal cliff of 2013 -- the expiration of enormous tax cuts and transfer payments.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK/A) CEO Warren Buffett has been diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer, according a letter he released to the company's shareholders.

Gold prices rose slightly Tuesday on higher crude oil prices and a declining dollar.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to reduce their exposure to non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), which have given loans mostly against gold, sending shares of such companies sharply lower.

German investor confidence unexpectedly rose on in April, calming fears that the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis is weighing down the country's economy, according to a report from Mannheim, Germany-based Centre for European Economic Research, or ZEW.

Investment management firm Loomis Sayles' stock market forecast for 2012 and beyond is quite bullish.

Vacation is over and the euro zone crisis in 2012 is back as fundamental realities of high debt and low growth set in again, said economist Nouriel Roubini of Roubini Global Economics in a recent commentary amid rising yields for Spanish and Italian sovereign debt.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and Rosneft (LON: ROSN) are expected to cement a historic deal on Monday that would allow Exxon access to Russia's Arctic reserves and catapult Rosneft on the global energy stage by granting it entry into North America, reported Reuters, citing sources familiar with the matter.

KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE: KKR), a global private equity company, plans to list precision engineering components manufacturer MMI International on the Singapore Exchange, reported the Dow Jones Newswires, citing three people familiar with the matter, as financial market conditions stabilize on the island nation.