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.

Fitch Ratings downgraded Japan's credit rating by one notch after the government failed to take steps in this fiscal year's budget to offset a delay in a sales tax increase, the agency said on Monday.

World shares hit a new high on Monday, led by China, though the global rally faded in Europe as investors looked ahead to central bank meetings in the United States and worried over Greece.

China will likely cut the number of its central government-owned conglomerates to 40 through massive mergers, as Beijing pushes forward a sweeping plan to overhaul the country's underperforming state sector, state media reported on Monday.

The dollar steadied in the lower half of an increasingly intransigent range on Monday, after sliding late last week following another round of disappointing U.S. economic data.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is convening a group of financial industry veterans for the first time next month to consider stock market reforms, but one group will be conspicuously absent: retail brokerages.

Brent crude prices held near a 4-1/2 month high above $65 a barrel on Monday, supported by concerns about fighting in Yemen disrupting Middle East supplies and signs that U.S. shale output may have started to decline.

A flood of cheap money risks creating bubbles in financial markets if interest rates remain low for a long period, European Central Bank Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed in a phone conversation on Sunday to maintain contact during talks between Athens and its lenders to reach a debt deal, a Greek government official said.

Most central banks have been easing policy since the start of the year and are set to do more, but it still isn't clear whether that new activism, which has pushed stock markets to record highs, will help the global economy much.

"We're going bust." "No, you're not." "You're strangling us." "No we're not." "You owe us for World War Two." "We gave already."

At least five investment banks are vying to win a mandate from Banca Popolare di Milano (BPM) (PMII.MI) and find it a partner as Italian cooperative lenders gear up for a wave of mergers following a landmark reform of the sector.

Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of the holding company of India's Tata conglomerate, has acquired a stake in Xiaomi Technology [XTC.UL], a deal that is likely to bolster the Chinese phone maker's presence in the world's third-largest smartphone market.

Finland's Nokia denied reports in Chinese media that it planned to return to manufacturing phones. "Nokia notes recent news reports claiming the company communicated an intention to manufacture consumer handsets out of a R&D facility in China. These reports are false," Nokia said in a statement posted on its website.

Steven Polasck of Corpus Christi, Texas, liked math and science in high school. He considered attending a four-year college but ultimately decided to use his strengths to get a two-year degree in instrumentation from Texas State Technical College. He has not looked back.

The premier of the German state of Lower Saxony, which owns 20 percent of Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), said the resignation of VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech announced on Saturday was necessary to create clarity about the carmaker's leadership.

Xerox Corp cut its full-year profit forecast, blaming a strong dollar, and the company reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue as its printer sales fell and costs rose.

Sales of Manny Pacquiao boxing gear and effects have soared as much as 10 times ahead of his May 2 megafight with Floyd Mayweather, with Philippine retailers struggling to cope with demand from fans snapping up any paraphernalia they could find.

The chief executive of France's telecom leader Orange said on Saturday he believed the price war in the national telecoms sector was coming to a close.

Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and state-owned China Telecom Corp Ltd have tied up to sell inexpensive smartphones aimed at boosting mobile commerce in smaller cities and rural areas.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble hinted on Saturday that Berlin was preparing for a possible Greek default, drawing a parallel with the secrecy of German reunification plans in 1989.

Healthcare companies on a seven-year tear have been top performers so far in 2015, helping to push broad stock indexes to record levels, but traders are now looking to protect themselves from a selloff as they await major earnings reports in the sector.