MADRID/BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and European Union officials are urgently exploring ways to rescue Spain's debt-stricken banks although Madrid has not yet requested assistance and is resisting being placed under international supervision, European sources said on Wednesday.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares hit one-week highs on Thursday, and commodity prices and the euro firmed, on signs that Europe was dealing urgently with Spain's banking crisis and that the United States could embark on fresh monetary stimulus.

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe is riding a gathering wave of Chinese direct investment that could bring in $250 billion to $500 billion in fresh capital this decade, generating jobs but giving policymakers headaches in return, a report released on Thursday said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended flat on Monday after recent sharp losses, though worries about the European debt crisis and weaker U.S. data kept investors wary of equities.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc, told jurors at the insider-trading trial of one of the investment bank's former directors that "all parts" of a 2008 board meeting the two attended were confidential.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jon Corzine failed to address MF Global Holdings Ltd's growing liquidity needs as he tried to build the commodities broker into a global investment powerhouse, helping create the conditions that led to its downfall, a trustee in MF's bankruptcy said on Monday.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The chief executive of Chrysler Group LLC said there was "no need" for the No. 3 U.S. automaker to follow its larger U.S. rivals in offering white-collar pension buyouts.

(Reuters) - The government said it would be "impracticable" to enforce an order of restitution against financier Allen Stanford to victims of his estimated $7 billion Ponzi scheme and that it should be permitted to compensate fraud victims with forfeited assets.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Four out of five Facebook Inc users have never bought a product or service as a result of advertising or comments on the social network site, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows, the latest sign that much more needs to be done to turn its 900 million customer base into advertising dollars.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp , the world's largest publicly traded energy company, is considering exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, CEO Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday.

SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Oracle Corp violated a clear contract with Hewlett-Packard Co when it decided it would no longer make new versions of its database software compatible with HP's Itanium-based servers, a lawyer for HP said in court.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The law firm Brown Rudnick has been tapped to represent the committee of unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy of legal giant Dewey & LeBoeuf - a bankruptcy that is expected to be contentious and could drag on for years.