Asian shares edged up to a 16-month high on Tuesday and the euro firmed, but prices were capped as investors waited for the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy decision this week and any progress in U.S. budget talks. European shares were likely to crawl higher too, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and

OPEC's oil exporters look set this week to avoid a quarrel about how much crude they produce and argue instead about who should be the group's next secretary-general. Oil prices are roughly where OPEC wants them – comfortably above $100 a barrel – but there is deadlock over who should replace Libyan Abdullah El-Badri as

Italian carmaker Fiat is investing 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in luxury brand Maserati, hoping technology and dealerships from its tie-up with Chrysler will help it to take on German rivals BMW and Porsche. While previous attempts to grow its Maserati and Alfa Romeo brands have fallen flat, Fiat hopes Chrysler's 2,300-store U.S. dealer network

Opel said efforts to try to rescue its Bochum car plant in Germany had been to no avail and it still intended to stop vehicle production there in 2016. "The main reasons are the dramatic declines in the European car market and the enormous overcapacity in the entire European auto industry," the unit of U.S.

U.S. stocks rose on Monday, helped by gains in McDonald's and technology stocks, but Italian shares and bond prices sank after Prime Minister Mario Monti's decision to resign stoked concern about who will lead the euro zone's third biggest economy out of its debt crisis. The euro had earlier weakened, but it managed to rebound

Britain's benchmark share index rose to its highest closing level in nearly 9 months on Monday, with many traders betting that worries over Italy would fail to halt a traditional year-end equities rally. The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed up 0.1%, or 7.23 points higher, at 5,921.63 points – its highest close since finishing at 5,961.11

President Mohamed Mursi suspended planned tax increases on Monday, hours after they were formally announced, in a policy swivel that might complicate Egypt's efforts to secure a $4.8 billion loan from the IMF. Opposition groups, locked in a battle with the government to over a constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday, began attacking the tax increases