Asian stocks slipped on Thursday after Wall Street continued to pull back from record highs ahead of Friday's closely-watched U.S. jobs data, while the nervous euro languished at an 11-year low prior to the European Central Bank's policy meeting.

It is too early to discuss a third bailout package for Greece, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday, stressing the focus of talks with Athens was implementing measures already agreed with the euro zone.

China's defense budget this year will rise about 10 percent compared with 2014, a top government official said on Wednesday, outpacing the slowing economy as the country ramps up investment in high-tech equipment such as submarines and stealth jets.

HBO is in talks with Apple Inc to be its launch partner for the highly anticipated HBO Now video streaming service, according to a report in Wednesday's International Business Times.

Qatar Airways would like to raise its stake in the owner of British Airways and Iberia at some point and may invest in other well-run airlines, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve should wait until next year before raising interest rates or risk undermining the very recovery it has helped engineer, a top U.S. central banker said on Wednesday.

A gauge of growth in the U.S. services sector was modestly stronger than expected in February, helped as an index on employment rebounded from recent weakness.

U.S. stocks closed down on Wednesday for the second day in a row as investors stepped back after a recent rally ahead of jobs data due later in the week.

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) on Wednesday promoted more foreigners to senior posts, including the first woman and first African-American to hold executive titles, diversifying a management team long dominated by Japanese men.

Saudi Arabia's oil minister said on Wednesday he expected oil prices, which hit a near six-year low in January, to stabilize, signaling cautious optimism about the market outlook.

German carmakers are shifting their focus toward high-end electric vehicles such as the Audi R8 e-tron and away from cheap city cars, in the latest effort to revive environmentally-friendly but unpopular zero-emission vehicles.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is launching a cloud computing hub in Silicon Valley on Wednesday, the e-commerce giant's first outside of China, underscoring its global ambitions in the face of stiff and entrenched competition.

International Business Machines Corp said on Wednesday it had acquired AlchemyAPI, a fast-growing startup selling software that collects and analyzes unstructured text and data in ways big enterprises, website publishers and advertisers find useful.

Applications for U.S. home mortgages edged up last week as interest rates dipped, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, rose 0.1 percent in the week ended Feb. 27.

Brent crude oil steadied above $60 a barrel on Wednesday after Saudi Arabia's oil minister said he expected the oil market to balance itself.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is discussing a settlement in a lawsuit brought by electric car battery maker A123 Systems, which accused the iPhone maker of poaching top engineers to build a large-scale battery division.

Global equities pulled back from recent record highs on Wednesday, with investors turning cautious after underwhelming euro zone PMI data and ahead of central bank meetings.

In a smart building in an upscale neighborhood of Gaza City, Salah El-Zanin is seeing a growing number of clients. Trained in Greece, he is the only plastic surgeon in Gaza with European qualifications, and his business is booming.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's top enforcement chief warned on Tuesday that too many pharmaceutical companies are failing to accurately portray their dealings with federal drug regulators - a problem that could get them in trouble.

China's Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL], the world's second-biggest maker of network gear, is beefing up its patent portfolio ahead of 5G, the next generation of mobile equipment, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Google Inc (GOOGL.O) said on Tuesday that they have developed fixes to mitigate the newly uncovered 'Freak' security flaw affecting mobile devices and Mac computers.

U.S. chief executive officers are modestly more upbeat about the economy and almost half plan to increase capital spending over the next six months, a quarterly business group survey said on Tuesday.

Pimco's top investment officer said on Tuesday that "late decision makers" are largely behind a rush of withdrawals from its flagship bond fund some five months after the departure of longtime manager Bill Gross, but the outflows should taper off before long.

U.S. retailer Target Corp on Tuesday said it planned to cut several thousand jobs, mainly from headquarters locations, as part of a restructuring that will cut $2 billion in costs over two years.

U.S. stocks finished down on Tuesday, a day after the S&P and Dow hit records, and the Nasdaq retreated with technology stocks.

Two years after U.S. legislators branded it a national security threat, China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is planning a campaign to win over U.S. consumers, rolling out new mobile phones and wearable devices backed by a marketing effort.

Iraq is discussing a possible bond issue worth nearly $6 billion with Deutsche Bank and Citibank as part of its efforts to cover a huge projected budget deficit this year, Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said.

Swiss cement maker Holcim (HOLN.VX) is considering offering its shareholders a sweetener to win their approval for a planned merger with France's Lafarge (LAFP.PA), a Swiss newspaper reported on Sunday without citing a source.

Chances of Greece leaving the euro zone in the next 12 months are the highest since late 2012 even though Athens's financial lifeline has been extended, a survey of investors based mainly in Germany showed on Tuesday.

U.S. economist Stephen Ross was named winner of the Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics on Tuesday for helping to create models that have helped markets assess prices for options and other assets for the past three decades.