(Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N) sealed deals worth $10 billion with two airlines in China, the world's fastest growing market that is likely to buy more than 2,000 aircraft over the next five years. China expects to order 1,100 new transport aircraft and 1,000 general aviation aircraft, Wang Changshun, vice minister of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at an Asian aerospace conference on Tuesday.

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(Reuters) - Stocks edged higher on Monday as a flurry of acquisition activity boosted optimism about share prices and oil prices eased from earlier highs sparked by tensions in the Middle East. Western Digital Corp (WDC.N) jumped 16.7 percent to $35.02 as the world's No. 2 computer hard drive maker agreed to buy Hitachi Ltd's (6501.T) hard disk drive operations for about $4.3 billion in cash and stock.

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(Reuters) - "Just one word ... plastics." That well-known line from the classic 1967 movie "The Graduate" may sum up the recent investment strategy of some top hedge fund managers, including James Dinan and David Einhorn. A wave of managers snapped up shares of LyondellBasell Industries, which makes chemicals like propylene and polyethylene, the stuff that goes into plastics.

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(Reuters) - Moody's slashed Greece's credit rating by three notches on Monday due to an increased default risk, raising the spectre that the distressed euro zone sovereign may have to restructure its debt, perhaps before 2013. The move increased pressure on euro zone leaders to ease repayment terms on bailout loans to Athens, just as Germany and its allies seem to have turned their backs on more radical steps to help it reduce its debt through bond purchases or buy-backs.

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(Reuters) - Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley (MS.N) has stopped trading oil with Libya, a trade source said on Monday, in an early indication that sanctions could hit exports from the north African producer. The firm canceled all crude oil and refined products in the past week "due to the OFAC," the source familiar with the firm's transactions said, referring to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, which controls trade sanctions.

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(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve cannot rule out expanding its $600 billion stimulus as political upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa heighten U.S. economic uncertainty, a top Fed official said on Monday. "My first inclination is to be very cautious about extending asset purchases after June," Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart told a conference sponsored by the National Association for Business Economics.

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(Reuters) - Bob Diamond, the new chief executive of British bank Barclays Plc, was paid a bonus of 6.5 million pounds ($10.6 million) for last year and received a similar amount in shares under a long-term plan. His bonus was topped by the two new heads of the bank's investment bank arm - Jerry del Missier and Rich Ricci - with each paid over 10 million pounds, according to pay details released by the bank on Monday.

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(Reuters Legal) - When the Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta in an administrative proceeding -- rather than in federal court -- it signaled a possible new front in the SEC's pursuit of insider-trading cases. The SEC typically sues insider-trading defendants in federal court; Gupta will instead be defending himself in a court that is an arm of the agency that is suing him, in a proceeding overseen by an administrative law judge who works for the agency.

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(Reuters) - A spike in food and oil prices has made the threat of inflation more acute, leading central banks said on Monday, but they warned tightening of policy in response will not proceed at the same pace. Jean-Claude Trichet, speaking as chair of talks on the global economy at a Bank for International Settlements meeting, said the latest rise in oil prices heightened a warning he sent on inflationary pressures in January, though so far the global economy was set for relatively robust growth.

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(Reuters) - France's LVMH will take over Italy's Bulgari in a 3.7 billion euros ($5.19 billion) deal to add luster to the No.1 luxury group's jewelry business and bring it more exposure to emerging markets. The offer, which priced Bulgari's shares at a 60 percent premium to its average level over the last month, could herald the return of consolidation in the luxury market, which bounced back from the 2009 slump much faster than analysts expected.

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