Union workers at nine U.S. oil refineries were striking Monday for a second day after contract negotiations with plant owners broke down.

But only one of the nine plants had curtailed production as a result of the strike, Bloomberg News reported. 

U.S. and EU negotiators began their latest round of talks Monday seeking to push through the world's biggest-ever free trade deal, which after nearly two years remain bogged down by public opposition.

The eighth set of talks on the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Pact, or TTIP, take place in the face of attacks by activists and mixed signals from key governments, including Europe's biggest economy Germany.

President Barack Obama has put forward a $4 trillion budget loaded with spending and tax reforms that will likely be dead on arrival at the Republican-controlled Congress.

Using a healthier economy to turn away from years of austerity-first policies, Obama's plan includes sizable spending on infrastructure, research and the military, according to details released Monday. 

Indonesia's inflation rate slowed in January, official data showed Monday, after the cost of fuel in Southeast Asia's biggest economy fell on the back of lower oil prices.

Inflation rose 6.96 percent year-on-year, slowing from an 8.36 percent rise in December, according to data from the national statistics agency. 

The world's gambling capital Macau saw another month of decline in casino revenues in January, figures showed Monday, as a corruption crackdown by the Chinese government continues to rein in big spenders.

Official figures published by the former Portuguese colony showed that gaming revenues fell 17.4 percent year-on-year to 23.75 billion patacas ($2.97 billion) in January -- cementing an eight month losing streak for the gambling hub.

US authorities are investigating the credit rating agency Moody's over its glowing assessments of mortgage deals in the runup to the 2008 financial crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Citing people familiar with the situation, the newspaper said Justice Department officials had met with several former Moody's executives. It wasn't yet clear if the probe would result in a lawsuit.

Greece will not deliver a strong economic recovery unless authorities loosen austerity programs, U.S. President Barack Obama suggested in remarks that aired Sunday.

"You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression," Obama told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" when asked about the situation in crisis-hit Greece.

Greece's anti-austerity government was to begin a European charm offensive Sunday aimed at building consensus on renegotiating its 240-billion-euro ($270 billion) bailout, even as Germany insisted it would not support any debt relief.

Just hours before Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis headed to Paris to seek support for a renegotiation of the bailout, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he believed a deal could be reached with the EU and IMF.

China's housing prices rose in January for the first time in nine months, a survey showed Saturday, breaking a decline that has weighed on growth in the world's second-largest economy.

The average price of a new home in China's 100 major cities rose 0.21 percent from December to 10,564 yuan ($1,690) per square metre, according to the independent China Index Academy, the first rise since April 2014.

Strong earnings from Apple, Boeing and some others were not enough this week to offset Wall Street angst over the strong dollar, crashing oil prices and the Greek election.

U.S. equities finished firmly lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 507.65 points (2.87 percent) to 17,164.95.