(Reuters) - McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) reported a lower-than-expected sales increase at established stores in the United States in May as high gas prices and unemployment crimped its business. The world's biggest hamburger chain, whose shares fell 1.8 percent in premarket trading, said sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months rose 2.4 percent. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting a 2.8 percent rise.

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(Reuters) - Applications for home mortgages eased last week, although demand for refinancing improved as interest rates edged down, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, slipped 0.4 percent in the week ended June 3.

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(Reuters) - The euro zone edged closer on Wednesday to a compromise on a second Greek bailout package under which private creditors would be asked to swap their sovereign debt holdings for bonds with longer maturities. Several euro zone bankers, including the head of French heavyweight Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA), said they would support a maturity extension, a move that would not reduce Greece's massive debt burden but could buy it more time to meet its fiscal targets and avoid a harsher restructuring.

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(Reuters) - Citigroup (C.N) has agreed to sell a portfolio of private equity assets to AXA Private Equity (AXAF.PA) for $1.7 billion, the French insurer said on Wednesday, the latest move by the U.S. bank to unload non-core assets. For AXA Private Equity, the deal is part of a series of acquisitions of private equity investments originally owned by other investors, including the purchase of a $1.9 billion portfolio from Bank of America (BAC.N) in April 2010.

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(Reuters) - Private-equity firm Najafi Companies is one of the suitors looking to buy the bulk of bankrupt bookseller Borders Group Inc's (BGPIQ.PK), the Wall Street Journal reported, citing multiple sources. Phoenix, Arizona-based Najafi is moving quickly to complete due diligence on Borders to acquire its remaining 265 superstores, the paper said, citing one person familiar with the matter.

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(Reuters) - Europe's Airbus (EAD.PA) trailed U.S. rival Boeing (BA.N) in terms of plane orders in the first five months of the year as the companies gear up for their annual battle for customers at this month's Paris Air Show. Airbus, in a lull before the event when it traditionally makes a slew of customer announcements, added just seven orders in May, taking its gross total for the year so far to 176, behind Boeing's 182.

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(Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged European countries and bondholders to prevent a "disastrous" default by Greece and pledged U.S. support to help tackle the country's debt crisis. Obama, whose political prospects have suffered from persistently high unemployment and ballooning U.S. debt, has pinpointed the euro zone crisis as one foreign "headwind" hitting the U.S. economy.

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(Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Tuesday, a day after the S&P 500 hit its lowest level in over two months taking out important technical levels as investors grew more bearish on the economy, but analysts said a recent downtrend was likely to remain in place. "We did get oversold and we're probably due for this bounce, but I don't think it's anything more than a bounce in a continued downtrend," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co in New York.

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(Reuters) - The IMF's release of its next block of aid for Greece still requires tough decisions to be taken by Europe, it warned on Tuesday, as ratings agencies and German banks cast doubt on one part of a planned second bailout. A senior Greek official also said the government expected parliament to vote by the end of June on its medium-term austerity plan, a condition for the new international package as Athens struggles to avoid defaulting on its debt.

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(Reuters) - The U.S. economy is on increasingly unsteady footing, hurt by stubbornly high unemployment and volatile oil prices, the head of General Motors Co told reporters on Tuesday. "There's a lot of uncertainty about a jobless recovery, how strong is the recovery going to be? There's a lot of concern about oil prices ... so there's some question about how strong the recovery will be," said Daniel Akerson, who has served as chief executive of the largest U.S. automaker since September 2010.

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