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Blockbuster sales of the iPhone and strong Asian business again helped Apple Inc crush Wall Street's expectations, driving its shares up more than 7 percent to a record high and boosting Asian stocks.

Stocks opened higher as encouraging quarterly results from blue-chip companies and a hint of housing optimism gave a boost to investor sentiment.

Google recently announced its Q2 2011 earnings on July 14, 2011. [1] For the quarter, total advertising revenues surged by about 33% over Q2 2010 values driven by increased paid clicks as well as higher cost-per-click rates over the same quarter last year.

European risk assets remain under pressure as investors digest the latest round of bank stress tests by the European Banking Authority.

LinkedIn’s stock opened at $83 after its IPO was priced at $45 and reached an intra-day high of around $123 on the first day. And then a month of carnage started which saw the stock plummeting by 51% from its all-time high. Even though the stock has impressively recovered, climbing almost 75% from its June 20 lows of $60, we remain fundamentally bearish on LinkedIn.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Deutsche Boerse AG pulled off a $9.7 billion takeover of NYSE Euronext as shareholders approved a deal to create the world's largest exchange operator amid resistance in Frankfurt.

The spot price of gold set fresh intraday records after Moody's put its long-standing triple-A rating of U.S. Treasurys on review, triggering fresh buying of the yellow metal and prompting bulls to eye a break above $1,600 a troy ounce.

Morgan Stanley analysts downgraded Google Inc shares to "equal-weight" from "overweight" on Friday, citing an expected decline in margins in this year and the next.

The New York Stock Exchange, an icon of American capitalism, is expected to take a crucial step toward ceding control to a German company on Thursday, with little opposition expected from investors.

A credit agency warning that Greece could face default if it follows an international plan designed to help the country cope with its massive debts caused Asian markets to stall Tuesday.