Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said Monday it has maintained sovereign credit ratings for oil-rich Kuwait at AA on strong financial resources with a stable outlook.

S&P "affirmed its 'AA/A-1+' long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Kuwait," said the ratings agency.

Standard & Poor's revised its outlook for Lebanon's credit rating to negative from stable on Monday, citing the ongoing unrest in neighboring Syria and the increased risk of domestic instability.

But S&P affirmed its 'B/B' long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings for the country.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has admitted the state is struggling to borrow, as its risk premium hit a euro-era record and fears spread over the country's stricken banks.

Rajoy sought Monday to calm investors after the distressed lender Bankia pleaded for the biggest state rescue in Spanish history.

Japan said Tuesday it will start direct currency trading with China for the first time, scrapping the dollar as an intermediary unit to boost ties between the two Asian economic giants.

The move, which will boost trade and investment between the traditional rivals, marks the first time Beijing has allowed a major currency other than the greenback to trade directly with the yuan.

Spain's troubled lender Bankia plummeted 28.66 percent on the Madrid stock market on Monday after the bank sought a record 19-billion-euro ($24-billion) state bailout.

Bankia shares dived 45 cents to 1.12 euros when trading was resumed after a suspension.

Lebanon’s national Carrier, Middle East Airlines, received the A320 plane from production plants in Hamburg, Germany, raising the MEA fleet to 16 airbus carriers, 15 owned and one chartered.

The plane’s first flight landed at Rafik Hariri International Airport on Saturday, with a media delegation and five engineers from the Masco Company that helped oversee the extradition process before delivery to the Company’s delegation.

Oil prices edged higher in Asian trade Monday as major crude producer Iran and Western powers failed to reach agreement over Tehran's nuclear programme, analysts said.

Markets were also supported by signs Greeks would elect a pro-austerity government in upcoming polls, easing concerns the debt-wracked country would exit the eurozone and trigger a global economic crisis.

South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries has won a $700 million order from a Norwegian company to build the world's largest semi-submersible oil rig, it said Monday.

Hyundai said the rig would be delivered to Norway's Fred Olsen Energy in March 2015 and would be used in the North Sea.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has opted not to take $75 million in dividend payout on restricted shares of stock he owns in the maker of iPhones, iPads, iPods and Macintosh computers.

Documents on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said that while other Apple employees will be awarded quarterly "dividend equivalents" of $2.65 on restricted shares, Cook asked not to be included.

JPMorgan Chase's embattled chief executive Jamie Dimon will be hauled before Congress on June 7 to explain recent huge trading losses, legislators announced Friday.

Dimon will testify before the Senate Banking Committee as committee chair Tim Johnson vowed to "get to the bottom of the massive trading loss."