IBT Staff Reporter

he interbank cost of borrowing euros for three-months fell to a record low on Monday, pushed lower by expectations that interest rates will stay low and the markets remain flush with liquidity for some time.

World stocks flirted with gains after two sessions of losses on Monday with Japan's Nikkei hitting an 11-week closing low but Europe climbing and Wall Street looking set for a positive start.

Oil fell toward $69 a barrel on Monday, extending the previous session's drop, pressured by jitters over the pace of U.S. economic recovery and easing concerns about Iran and Nigeria.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a newspaper that weekend warnings by bankers that overly restrictive capital rules could squeeze lending abilities was pure lobbying, and urged reforms to proceed unabated.

Stock futures pointed to a higher start on Monday to snap a four-day losing streak. The futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were up 0.5-0.6 percent at 4.22 a.m. ET.

Hong Kong stocks erased earlier losses to close up 0.26 percent on Monday, as investors hunted for bargains after shares fell to three-week lows, but concerns about the state of the U.S. economy capped gains.

European shares rose in early trade on Monday, having hit a four-week closing low on Friday, as the euro zone's services sector returned to growth, and with miners and banks gaining on positive broker comment.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher start on Monday to snap a four-day losing streak. The futures for the Dow Jones industrial average DJc1, the S&P 500 SPc1 and the Nasdaq Composite NDc1 were up 0.5-0.6 percent at 0822 GMT.

Corrects headline and story text to make clear Geithner was speaking in general about banks' warnings on capital rules, not specifically about comments by Deutsche Bank CEO

Microsoft's Chief Executive Steve Ballmer does not expect to make acquisitions to help the company challenge Google's dominance in the Internet search market, he told Reuters on Monday.

Microsoft's Chief Executive Steve Ballmer does not expect to make acquisitions to help the company challenge Google's dominance in the Internet search market, he told Reuters on Monday.

Ensuring secured creditors face losses when a financial institution fails could help rein in excessive risk-taking and strengthen the financial system, a top U.S. banking regulator said.

The U.S. Treasury Department will announce on Monday that three more funds have met requirements to get government financing that will let them begin purchases of banks' so-called toxic assets.

Senior U.S. officials deliberately created the impression last year that banks receiving huge government cash infusions were healthier than was the case, a Treasury Department watchdog's report released on Monday said.

World stocks flirted with gains after two sessions of losses on Monday with Japan's Nikkei hitting an 11-week closing but Europe climbing.

Senior U.S. officials deliberately created the impression last year that banks receiving huge government cash infusions were healthier than was the case, a Treasury Department watchdog's report released on Monday said.

Southeast Asia's largest developer CapitaLand will list 20-30 percent of its shopping mall arm in a Singapore initial public offering that sources said could raise at least $1 billion.

Asian stocks fell to a three-week low on Monday as soft U.S. jobs data heightened investor caution ahead of the third-quarter corporate results season, while speculation of an early interest rate hike boosted the Australian dollar.

Britain's Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings Plc said first-half revenue from continuing operations rose 56 percent and it was confident of executing its plans for the current year.

Japan's Mazda Motor Corp said on Monday that it would raise up to 95.9 billion yen ($1.1 billion) by issuing new shares and selling treasury stock.

Aviva, Britain's second-biggest insurer, said on Monday it expects to complete the planned stock market flotation of its Dutch unit, Delta Lloyd, in November.

Norway's Telenor and its key partner in Russia, the Alfa Group, will pool their Russian and Ukrainian holdings into a New-York listed mobile operator, ending one of the longest corporate wars Russia has ever seen.

South Korea's No.4 banking group Hana Financial, whose two biggest shareholders are Singapore wealth fund Temasek and Goldman Sachs, said it may raise capital via a new share sale, fuelling talk of financial sector consolidation and knocking Hana's shares down almost 15 percent.

Swiss digital TV technology company The Kudelski Group is trying to take full ownership of OpenTV Corp for the second time, with a higher offer valuing the interactive TV software maker at $215 million.

A member of the Cadbury family has described Kraft's takeover bid for the British confectionery group as a horror story.

Chinese steel and iron ore group Baosteel has proposed to pay 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) for a 30 percent stake in Anglo American's huge Minas Rio iron ore mine in Brazil, according to a report on Sunday.

Americans of Indian descent may have a heightened risk of diabetes, even when their weight is in the normal range, research suggests.

Adults aren't the only ones affected by the often disabling pain of a migraine. Many children and teens also are prone to the intense pounding, occasional nausea and aura that warns some migraine sufferers.

The risk for major depression more than doubles while women are going through menopause and afterward, according to research presented this week at the annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society in San Diego.