Athletic clothing maker Under Armour on Wednesday announced it is building its digital muscle with a pair of fitness application makers.

Under Armour said that it is paying $475 million for San Francisco-based MyFitnessPal and that it paid $85 million for Endomondo in Copenhagen.

Oil turned lower in Asia Thursday as an early rally fizzled out after the euro was hit by fresh concerns over Greece, further hurting demand in the face of an oversupply, analysts said.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for March delivery was down 32 cents to $48.14 in afternoon trade and Brent crude for March tumbled 16 cents to 54.03. Both contracts started higher in early Asian trade.

Middle Eastern and North African states are expected to invest $755 billion in energy projects over the next five years despite the plunge in world oil prices, a key lender says.

The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) said its projection for the 2015-19 period was only slightly down on the $760 billion that it forecast for 2014-18, although estimates for the coming period have been slightly inflated by an increase in project costs.

Kingdom Holding Co, chaired by billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has reduced its stake in Rupert Murdoch's media giant News Corp over the past year, the Riyadh-based firm said Wednesday.

Kingdom's stake has fallen from more than 13 million Class B shares, or about 6.6 percent, to two million shares, which represent about one percent ownership, a statement said.

Asia extended a global stocks rally Wednesday while the euro held on to healthy gains as hopes grow that Greece will be able to hammer out a debt deal with its European partners.

Traders followed the lead from across Europe and the United States after Greece's new leadership impressed with their charm offensive aimed at getting backing for a renegotiation of its bailout.

President Barack Obama's pick to run the Pentagon says he will seek better use of taxpayer dollars but that Congress must bring stability back to the military's budget.

Ashton Carter, in prepared remarks for his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, acknowledges that the Defense Department must end wasteful practices that undermine public confidence even as he criticizes the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

Turkey on Wednesday defended the seizure of an Islamic bank allied to an arch-foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the latest crackdown against US-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Bank Asya has suffered major losses since last year after becoming embroiled in a bitter feud between Erdogan and his former ally Gulen, whom the president accuses of seeking to overthrow him.

With pro-Russians and ex-Communists in the cabinet, Greece's new hard-left government has sparked concerns of a strategic shift towards Moscow -- but Athens has its eyes firmly on Europe, experts say.

The main governing Syriza party no longer advocates Greece leaving NATO, but Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has highlighted the country's historic ties with Russia and condemned the EU's "spasmodic" approach to Moscow.

Turkey's central bank, under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to aggressively lower rates, on Tuesday rejected the option of an unscheduled rate cut as inflation slowed less than expected.

Erdogan and his allies have over the last weeks lambasted central bank Governor Erdem Basci for failing to radically lower interest rates to stimulate faltering growth.

Greece's radical new leaders flew into Rome Tuesday seeking to build support for new proposals aimed at ending a stand-off with the country's creditors and its European Union partners.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the leftist-dominated government in Athens would be making proposals for "a menu of debt swaps" that would avoid the need for any of the country's mountain of foreign debt to be written off.