Stocks, Stock Market | featured news

Japan's central bank injected a record 7 trillion yen ($85.5 billion) into money markets and the Tokyo stock market nosedived Monday on the first business day since an earthquake and tsunami devastated the country's northeast and raised dire worries about the economy.

After seeing oil prices skyrocket from days of turmoil in Libya, investors now must grapple with political protests in the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and the impact of Japan's biggest earthquake on record.

Stocks tumbled Thursday, hit first by new worries about global growth and then by reports that Saudi police had fired on protesters.

Upbeat economic data, and slipping oil prices, sparked a broad rally Thursday, lifting the blue chips to their biggest percent gain since December. 

Stocks fell sharply and oil prices spiked to their highest level in two years on Tuesday as investors worried about the increasingly violent unrest in Libya.

U.S. regulators should stem the growing tide of anonymous stock-trading and consider charging high-frequency traders fees for the disproportionate amount of orders they send into the marketplace, said a panel of experts advising how to avoid another "flash crash."

NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Borse agreed on Tuesday to a $10 billion all-stock merger, bringing together two stock exchanges into a trans-Atlantic powerhouse.

The online travel website has seen better quarters, with higher taxes, increased spending on technology and content, and a push and pull between airlines and global distribution systems that took a toll in the last quarter of 2010. The stock was down more than 18% Friday at $21.06.

Shares in eBay jump almost 8% after the online auction site's Paypal unit said its revenues would double by 2013.

Germany's Deutsche Boerse is in advanced talks to buy NYSE Euronext, and the London Stock Exchange has agreed to buy Canadian stock market operator TMX, as exchanges globally look for ways to boost their markets and cut costs.