World shares shuffled away from all-time highs on Tuesday as surging Chinese stocks took a breather and investors began to retreat to the sidelines ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) beat Wall Street's revenue and profit forecasts on Monday as it sold more iPhones in China than the United States for the first time, but the company gave no sales figures for its new Apple Watch.

Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N) is open to merger discussions with Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) following a failed $45 billion bid by Comcast Corp CMSA.O, according to people familiar with the matter.

Asian stocks pulled back from a seven-year peak scaled on Tuesday as sentiment gave way to caution ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy two-day meeting scheduled to start later in the session.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday reshuffled his team handling talks with European and IMF lenders, a move widely seen as an effort to sideline embattled Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis to a less active role in negotiations.

Whisper it, but the next challenge for financial markets and policymakers may not be deflation, but the remarkable surge in oil prices from the six-year low touched in January.

Wall Street was higher at the open on Monday and the Nasdaq inched closer to its record intraday high ahead of Apple's (AAPL.O) results after the close.

“Downing Street has discreetly let it be known in the City that it would oppose any takeover of BP,” the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Cap Gemini plans to buy United States-based IGATE Corp for $4 billion cash to make North America its biggest market and is raising its sales outlook for 2015 after a solid first-quarter, the French IT services company said on Monday.

One by one, Japan is turning off the lights at the giant oil-fired power plants that propelled it to the ranks of the world's top industrialized nations. With nuclear power in the doldrums after the Fukushima disaster, it's solar energy that is becoming the alternative.