J.J. McGrath

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy proposed on Saturday that the 17 countries in the euro zone create a common fiscal authority, with each surrendering a significant amount of its national sovereignty to send a signal to financial markets about the certainty of their single-currency experiment.

Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter ever for the New York Mets as he blanked the visiting World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals 8-0 at Citi Field on Friday.

Two-plus years after the so-called Flash Crash wreaked havoc in the U.S. equity market on May 6, 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday it has OK'd two proposals designed to dampen extraordinary volatility in individual securities and the broader stock market.

With the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing report and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Situation Summary both weaker than analysts' consensus estimates on Friday, U.S. stocks closed a holiday-shortened trading week by dropping like so many hot pennies scattered in cold snow.

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong indicated more work may be needed for the country's ruling party to regain support after it lost a by-election in the Hougang district on Saturday, according to Bloomberg News.

The atrocities committed in the Syrian village of Houla on Friday -- when dozens of men, women, and children were killed, and hundreds more were wounded -- were condemned in the strongest possible terms by the United Nations Security Council on Sunday.

The Golden Gate Bridge -- across the Golden Gate Strait between San Francisco and Marin County -- was a larger-than-life engineering project undertaken against dangerous odds, and it opened 75 years ago on Sunday against vehement protest, at the cost of 11 lives.

Dario Franchitti of Edinburgh, Scotland, started the 96th Indianapolis 500 in the middle of the pack but finished the race ahead of it on Sunday as he joined a select few drivers who have won the premier event of the IndyCar Series three times.

Greece's conservatives have regained an opinion-poll lead that could foreshadow the formation of a pro-bailout government committed to keeping the country in the euro zone, a batch of new surveys showed on Saturday.

Top officials of the United Nations on Saturday condemned in the strongest possible terms the confirmed killing of dozens of men, women, and children -- and the wounding of hundreds more -- in the village of Houla, outside Homs.

At least one Indianapolis 500 record appears likely to be set on Sunday, as the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory counseling people in the vicinity of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that record-breaking heat is possible.

Spain's Bankia S.A. requested the country's government provide it with a bailout worth ?19 billion ($24 billion) on Friday, the same day Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it lowered its ratings on five financial institutions based in the Iberian nation.

It's been 35 years since George Lucas' brainchild, Star Wars, premiered in theaters, launching a multibillion-dollar franchise -- along with Harrison Ford's acting career -- and eventually making every fanboy's wet dream come true: Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa in the iconic golden bikini.

U.S. equities closed a moderately green week with a moderately red day on Friday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 74.92 points, or 0.60 percent, to 12,454.83, the S&P 500 index dropped 2.86 points, or 0.22 percent, to 1,317.82, and the Nasdaq Composite index dipped 1.85 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,837.53.

China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo confirmed Sunday night they have reached an agreement that will allow the two online media giants to eventually go their own ways. Alibaba initially will pay an estimated $7.1 billion in cash and preferred stock to Yahoo.

Nasdaq is humbly embarrassed by the technical issues that plagued trading in shares of Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) on Friday, Robert Greifeld, CEO of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (Nasdaq: NDAQ), told reporters on a conference call on Sunday.

Capping an extraordinarily eventful four weeks, Chen Guangcheng -- a blind attorney known as the Barefoot Lawyer -- flew to the U.S. from China on Saturday. Chen began the day in a Beijing hospital and ended it in a New York apartment building, according to multiple media reports.

By winning first the Kentucky Derby on May 5 and then the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, I'll Have Another is on pace to win the coveted U.S. Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing this year.

Concho Resources Inc. (NYSE: CXO) has agreed to acquire all the crude-oil and natural-gas assets of the Three Rivers Operating Co. and certain affiliated entities for $1 billion in cash, Concho announced Sunday.

Financial-market participants around the world have reasons for both optimism and pessimism at the dawn of this trading week. But nobody appears to care, really. Unless the reason centers on Greece -- and, by implication, the future of the euro zone.

The estimate of California's budget deficit in its next fiscal year has ballooned to $16 billion from $9 billion, state Gov. Jerry Brown divulged in a YouTube video posted this weekend. Brown said the widening gap was caused by changing conditions on both the revenue and the cost sides of the ledger.

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.

Arrests of Occupy London demonstrators were made by City of London police at a protest outside the Bank of England on Saturday, but representatives of the two sides gave BBC News conflicting reports on the number of them.

With the call for a fresh round of snap elections to the Hellenic Parliament appearing closer by the hour, European central bankers are getting ready for the possibility Greece may depart the euro zone.

Euro-zone paymaster Germany may be willing to consider additional measures to promote growth in Greece, but the Hellenic Republic must still carry out its previously agreed reforms, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview with Welt am Sonntag this weekend.

The New York Knicks, led by Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire, avoided a sweep at the hands of the Miami Heat and ended an 11-year playoff victory drought with an 89-87 win at their home Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Ballots continue to be counted in France and Greece -- where the architects of the austerity solution to Europe's sovereign-debt problem have been advised to turn over their drafting supplies -- but investors are still voting, with their feet, as they appear to be moving out of higher-risk asset classes into lower-risk ones.

Both the center-right New Democracy and the center-left Pasok parties could be in for beatings on Sunday as Greece conducts its first general parliamentary elections since the country's sovereign-debt crisis mushroomed in late 2009.

Yahoo Inc. could be weeks away from selling between 15 percent and 25 percent of Alibaba Group's stock back to China's largest online commerce company, in a deal designed to eliminate complexities that had scuttled the parties' previous negotiations, a person familiar with the matter said.