(Reuters) - U.K. bank Barclays will pay $453 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle allegations that it manipulated key interest rates, increasing pressure on other banks to cooperate in a probe that could cost the financial industry billions of dollars. The settlement raises fresh questions about the reliability of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which underpins some $360 trillion of loans and financial contracts.

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(Reuters) - Stocks fell on Monday as investors turned cautious ahead of a European Union summit this week that many fear will do little to calm concerns about the escalating euro zone debt crisis. Energy and bank stocks led the decline on the S&P 500. U.S. crude futures dropped near last week's eight-month low, and news that Spain had requested help for its struggling banks pressured financial stocks. The S&P 500 energy sector index .GSPE was off 2.6 percent and the financial sector index .GSPF lost 2.2 percent.

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(Reuters) - Quest Software Inc has received an improved bid from Dell Inc to buy the maker of enterprise management software for about $2.32 billion, a source close to the matter said on Monday. Two bidders have recently been competing to buy Quest: a buyout group led by private investment firm Insight Venture Partners, and an undisclosed bidder.

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(Reuters) - New single-family home sales surged in May to a two-year high and prices rose from a year ago, further signs the housing market recovery was gaining some momentum. The Commerce Department said on Monday sales jumped 7.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted 369,000-unit annual rate, the highest since April 2010.

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(Reuters) - Shareholders are betting Shell (RDSa.L) will up the stakes in a bid battle for explorer Cove Energy (COVE.L) after Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production PTTE.BK extended the deadline for investors to accept its $1.9 billion offer. Cove shares were up 0.3 percent to 265.5 pence at 1021 EDT on Monday, still above the 240 pence per share PTT has offered, as investors eyed a potentially higher bid from Shell. PTT said on Monday that investors would now have until July 6 to accept its offer, after it won acceptances from only 0.25 percent of Cove shares by last Friday's deadline.

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(Reuters) - More monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve would stoke inflation without doing very much for U.S. economic growth, Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, a consistent dissenter on the Fed's policy committee, said on Monday. Lacker told Fox Business in an interview that the U.S. central bank had done enough to support growth. He said keeping interest rates near zero was appropriate for now, but that borrowing costs might need to rise in late 2013. That was a shift from April, when Lacker thought a mid-2013 rate-hike might be appropriate, and reflects growing signs of weakness in the U.S. economy.

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(Reuters) - The combination of Mexico's growing beer market, big cost savings and control of Corona beer exports have sparked Anheuser-Busch InBev's (ABI.BR) interest in a buyout of Grupo Modelo (GMODELOC.MX), but the Mexican brewer sounded cautious on Monday. Family-controlled Modelo confirmed Monday it was in talks about expanding a relationship with the Belgian brewing giant, but said in a statement it would be premature to speculate on any outcome of the talks.

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(Reuters) - Stocks fell on Thursday after a raft of data showed an overseas economic slowdown was adding to U.S. weakness. Energy and materials shares led declines on Wall Street, as U.S. crude futures slipped below $80 a barrel for the first time since October and copper tumbled 2.7 percent. Both the S&P energy sector index .GSPE and the materials index .GSPM lost about 2 percent.

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(Reuters) - Manufacturing grew in June at its slowest pace in 11 months and the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits fell slightly last week, pointing to an economy mired in a soft patch. The weakening economic tone was also underscored by other reports on Thursday showing a gauge of factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region tumbled to a 10-month low in June and a pullback in home resales in May.

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(Reuters) - Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) said it will raise its quarterly cash dividend by 6 percent to 17 cents a share, consistent with the increase in each of the prior three years. The company said the first dividend at the new rate will be payable October 2 to shareholders of record as of September 11. Best Buy has been dealing with a slew of problems of late, with Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn abruptly leaving the electronics chain and its founder and chairman Richard Schulze resigning and exploring options for his 20.1 percent ownership stake.

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