(Reuters) - Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday, pressured by a stronger dollar and concerns about global growth prospects after a slew of weak economic data, bringing losses to around 15 percent so far in May. ICE Brent for July fell 56 cents to $110.28 a barrel by 1245 GMT. U.S. crude futures for June delivery fell 67 cents to $96.70 a barrel on the day of the front-month expiry.

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(Reuters) - The Dow and the S&P 500 were trading higher on Monday, led by gains in materials and financial stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 4.65 points, or 0.04 percent, at 12,600.40. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 2.44 points, or 0.18 percent, at 1,340.21. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was down 6.43 points, or 0.23 percent, at 2,822.04.

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(Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX Group Inc and IntercontinentalExchange withdrew their hostile $11 billion bid for rival NYSE Euronext on Monday, saying it became clear they would not win U.S. antitrust approval. The withdrawal of the offer removes one major hurdle to NYSE Euronext's plans to sell itself to Deutsche Boerse AG for $10.2 billion. That deal must still win regulatory and shareholder approval in Europe and the United States.

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May 15 (Reuters) - A group of Canadian banks and pension funds are hoping their C$3.6 billion ($3.7 billion) offer for TMX Group will keep the nation's largest stock market from falling into foreign hands, but questions remained on Sunday whether that is reason enough to succeed. The C$48 per share offer for TMX from a consortium calling itself the Maple Group Acquisition Corp topped a $3 billion friendly bid for the exchange operator from the London Stock Exchange.

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(Reuters) - Lowe's Cos reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results on a slow start to the spring selling season, prompting the world's second-largest home improvement chain to cut its forecast for the year. The disappointing results in a key season renewed concerns about demand levels in an uneven U.S. economy and pushed Lowe's shares down 5.3 percent. Shares of Wolseley, the world's largest plumbers and builders merchant, also slipped on the news.

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(Reuters) - PIMCO's Bill Gross, manager of the world's largest bond fund, said on Monday it was a "misconception" the firm was short on U.S. Treasuries, saying the fund never actually bet against U.S. Treasuries. Gross told CNBC the firm was "very underweight" the U.S. Treasury market and holds other bonds that are doing better than Treasury securities.

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(Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers are expected to approve the EU/IMF bailout of Portugal at a meeting on Monday and will discuss further steps Greece must take to meet deficit-reduction targets. The meeting, overshadowed by the arrest of International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual assault charges, will also assess demands by Finland that private sector investors carry more of the risk in Portugal's aid package, and that the country begin privatizations to raise capital.

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(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc and Alibaba Group will find it difficult to resolve their feud over the Chinese company's transfer of a major Internet asset, raising questions over how long its troubled marriage would last. Yahoo shares have fallen 11 percent since Tuesday when the U.S. Internet company said Alibaba had restructured Alipay, an online e-commerce payment system similar to eBay Inc's PayPal, to Alibaba Chief Executive Officer Jack Ma.

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(Reuters) - J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N) reported a higher quarterly profit as it benefited from increased sales of its exclusive merchandise and cost-cutting, and the department store operator raised its full-year profit forecast, sending its shares up 6 percent. Penney in recent years has tried to turn itself into a more fashionable retailer, landing exclusive lines from Liz Claiborne and being the only U.S. department store to feature Spanish fast-fashion retailer Mango's store-in-stores.

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(Reuters) - Glencore International Plc GLEN.UL has tightened guidance for its planned $11 billion initial public offering (IPO), pushing up the mid-point of the marketing range, a source said, in a sign the commodities trader has seen stronger demand at the higher end of an indicative range. Glencore's IPO has entered the home stretch after a two-week road show, during which time commodity prices nosedived, raising some doubts about the success of the offer. But Glencore closed the books one day ahead of schedule, suggesting that the offer continued to generate interest.

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