Oil fell to just above $59 a barrel for the first time since May 2009 on Tuesday, extending a six-month selloff as slowing Chinese factory activity and weakening emerging-market currencies added to concerns about demand.
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U.S. housing starts fall, but trend points to recovery
U.S. housing starts and permits fell in November, but remained at levels consistent with a gradually improving housing market. Groundbreaking declined 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.028 million units, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. October's starts were revised up to a pace of 1.045 million units.
Insurer Delta Lloyd sells Belgian bank to China's Anbang
Dutch insurer Delta Lloyd NV (DLL.AS) has agreed to sell its Belgian banking operations to China's privately-held Anbang Insurance Group for 219 million euros ($273 million).
Legoland operator Merlin puts blocks in place for growth
Destined to form models of the Burj Khalifa and Tokyo Tower, 90 million toy bricks will be used in new Legoland Parks in Dubai, Japan and Korea by 2017, building blocks in British operator Merlin's (MERL.L) expanding empire.
World set to end year in brittle economic state
The global economy is ending the year in a fragile state with factory activity shrinking in China, euro zone business growth remaining weak, and emerging market giant Russia in a spiraling currency crisis.
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Sliding oil prices and a downbeat China factory survey weighed on Asian shares on Tuesday, while the ruble jumped against the dollar after Russia sharply increased its benchmark interest rate in a bid to halt a collapse in its currency.
Activity in China's factory sector contracted in December for the first time in seven months, the latest in a string of weak economic indicators that will intensify calls for more stimulus measures to head off a hard landing.
A U.S. government lawyer faced tough questioning in an appeals court on Monday as he sought to defend a judge's ruling that Apple Inc conspired with five publishers to raise e-book prices.
Corporate lobbyists, news organizations and academics joined forces with Microsoft Corp on Monday in the software company's legal battle with the U.S. government over access to customer data stored overseas.
U.S. President Barack Obama pressed China's Xi Jinping during recent talks on the use of Chinese antitrust policy to limit royalty fees for foreign companies, an issue at the heart of a probe into U.S. mobile chipset maker Qualcomm Inc.
Sony Pictures Entertainment advised its current and former employees to be on the alert for fraudsters looking to use their stolen data, which included detailed personal information.
Olam International Ltd (OLAM.SI) will buy Archer Daniels Midland Co's (ADM.N) cocoa business for $1.3 billion, it said on Monday, catapulting the Singapore-based commodities merchant into the top tier of the niche bean processing industry.
Standard Chartered (STAN.L) has agreed to sell its Hong Kong-based consumer finance business to a consortium that includes Pepper Australia Pty Ltd and a Chinese group, in a deal estimated between $600 million to $700 million, two people with knowledge of the deal said.
Volvo Car Corp said it will start selling vehicles online as it rolls out new models to compete with German luxury rivals such as BMW (BMWG.DE).
