NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Chevron Corp. said Tuesday it would pay an undisclosed sum to buy operating interests in three exploration blocks in the China Sea. Chevron bought a 100% interest in two blocks in the Pearl River Mouth Basin and a 59% interest in a third block from Devon Energy China, Ltd., a unit of Devon Energy . BP will acquire the remaining interest in the third block, named 42-05. The blocks cover an exploratory acreage of approximately 8,100 square miles. Chevron will be operator during the exploration phase under a production sharing contract with China National Offshore Oil Corp. .

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of ResCare Inc. jumped more than 6% in early trading Tuesday after the company announced it had agreed to be acquired by Toronto-based Onex Corp. Under terms of the pact, Onex will pay $13.25 a share for Louisville, Ky.-based ResCare. ResCare shares were up 6.1% to $13.21 in recent action.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Nautilus Inc. shares rose 8% to $8.41 early Tuesday after the struggling maker of Bowflex and StairMaster fitness equipment raised $5 million from a debt sale to its largest shareholder, Sherborne Investors GP, LLC. Nautilus said it will use the funds for working capital. Sherborne is controlled by Nautilus Chairman and Chief Executive Edward Bramson and board member Craig McKibben.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The cost of insuring Belgian government debt against default continued to rise Tuesday after three months of talks to form a coalition government failed last week. The spread on five-year Belgian sovereign credit default swaps widened by around 7 basis points to 137 basis points Tuesday, according to data provider Markit. That means it would now cost $137,000 a year to insure $10 million of Belgian debt against default for five years, up from $130,000 on Monday. The government defeated in the country's June 13 elections remains in place as a caretaker. Belgian King Albert II on Saturday acknowledged that a proposed government put together by Socialist leader Elio Di Rupo didn't have enough support. The elections saw the Flemish nationalist N-VA party, which advocates splitting the Dutch- and French-speaking parts of the country, win the most seats in parliament.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Retail stocks fell for the first time in the past four trading sessions, tracking the broader markets lower, amid concerns about the health of European banks. The S&P Retail Index fell 0.4% to 424.06. Talbots Inc. shares fell 1.5%. Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. inched lower 0.6%. Men's Wearhouse dropped 1.5%. Lululemon Athletica Inc. was little changed. These apparel companies and retailers report their quarterly results this week. Casey's General Stores Inc. shares rose 7.9% to $41.96 after the company's board recommended against Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.'s revised tender offer to acquire Casey's for $38.50 a share. It also said it's gotten a preliminary proposal from a "strategic third party" regarding a consensual transaction at $40 a share. While the company said that it's worth more than that, it said it's authorized discussions with the third party to see if an agreement can be reached.

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BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. financial stocks early Tuesday were the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 Index , which opened lower by 0.5%. The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund was off more than 1% in recent trading. The ETF's steepest percentage decliners were Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and Lincoln National Corp. . The Treasury Department on Tuesday said it plans to sell its warrants in Hartford and Lincoln that it received under the bank bailout.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Oracle Corp. stood out among tech stocks Tuesday as the software giant's shares climbed $1.61, or more than 7%, to $24.55 after the company hired former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Mark Hurd as co-president. Hurd will work alongside Oracle's other co-president, Safra Catz. Another Oracle co-president, Charles Phillips, resigned. Among other tech stocks, losses came from H-P, Apple Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. . The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 5.6 points to 2,228.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Airline stocks declined modestly and ahead of the wider market, with Ryanair Holdings in the lead downwards. The NYSE Arca Airline Index fell 1.5% to 40.13 with all but two of its 13 components trading down. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell less than 1%. Shares of American parent AMR Corp. fell 1.4% to $6.22, Delta Air Lines lost 2.4% to $10.77 and Alaska Air declined 2.2% to $46.28. U.S.-listed shares of Ryanair lost 3.4% to $28.42 after the Irish budget carrier said its load factor for August declined one percentage point.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Enterprise GP Holdings L.P. common units jumped 11% to $55.47 per unit on Tuesday morning after Enterprise Products Partners LP offered to buy the partnership in a deal valued at about $8 billion. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Enterprise GP Holdings unit holders would receive 1.5 units of Enterprise Products Partners for each limited partner unit they own at closing, for a price of $57.68 per unit. Enterprise GP Holdings disclosed 139.2 million units outstanding, in its annual report.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks opened lower Tuesday, starting a holiday-cut week with new worries about the health of Europe's banks unsettling investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 45.94 points to 10,401.99. The S&P 500 slid 6.75 points to 1,097.76. The Nasdaq Composite declined 8.72 points to 2,225.03.

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BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Idenix Pharmaceuticals were crushed in early action Tuesday after the company said that U.S. regulators are placing two of its hepatitis C drug programs on hold over safety concerns. Indenix shares were down 46% at $3.25. The two drugs, IDX184 and IDX320, are in Phase II testing, according to Idenix's website. Idenix said it has not yet received formal written notification of the clinical holds from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The drug sector's two key indexes were also down. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index slipped 0.4% to 292.64 and the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index eased 0.6% to 1115.71.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Oracle Corp. saw its shares jump more than 7% to $24.67 Tuesday morning. On Monday, Oracle announced that it has hired former Hewlett-Packard Co. to fill the post of co-president, replacing a departing Chuck Phillips. Hurd resigned from H-P last month amid an investigation by the company's board of directors into a claim regarding sexual harassment, though the board said it found no evidence of such, only that Hurd had violated certain of the company's standards of business conduct.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Linn Energy LLC said Tuesday it'll pay $352 million for Permian Basin energy fields in southwest Texas. The region includes areas south of Lubbock, Midland and Odessa. Houston-based Linn Energy said the acquisitions will close before the end of November.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. dollar fell to a 15-year low versus the Japanese currency Tuesday, trading as low as 83.53 yen as New York trading got under way. The move took out the previous low at 83.57 yen set on Aug. 24, according to FactSet Research. The dollar changed hands in recent action at 83.60 yen, a fall of 0.6% from Monday.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Department of the Treasury said it will conduct auctions over the next several weeks to sell its warrant positions in The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and Lincoln National Corp. that it acquired through the Capital Purchase Program. These offerings will be executed using a modified Dutch auction methodology that establishes a market price by allowing investors to submit bids at specified increments above a minimum price specified for each auction. More detailed guidance for the auctions will be available in prospectuses that will be filed by the warrant issuers prior to the opening of each auction. Deutsche Bank will be the auction agent and bookruning manager.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Emdeon Inc. said Tuesday it'll pay $260 million in cash to buy privately-held Chamberlin Edmonds & Associates, a health care firm focusing on acute care services. "Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Chamberlin Edmonds has a 24-year track record of patient advocacy and guiding uninsured patients through the complex processes associated with securing reimbursement from Medicaid, Social Security Disability, state disability, charity care and other community benefit programs," Emdeon said.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- HSBC Holdings said Tuesday that its Chairman Stephen Green will step down before the end of the year to become minister of state for trade and investment in January 2011. The bank said its non-executive directors had already been working on succession plans for several months and have appointed external advisers to help them identify potential candidates. "It was always the board's intention that it would be in a position to approve a successor to Mr Green before the end of the year, and that timetable remains on schedule," the bank said. Green joined HSBC in 1982 and served as CEO from 2003 to 2006. The announcement confirmed earlier reports that Green was poised to accept the trade minister role.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Treasury prices rallied Tuesday on worries that Europe's debt troubles could grow, with investors fleeing equities and other assets perceived as risky. The 10-year Treasury note climbed 19 basis points, its yield dropping to 2.633%.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures weakened as the dollar gained against the euro amid rekindled worries about Europe's banking sector. Gold futures for December delivery were down $1.6 at $1,249.50 an ounce in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The euro was down 0.7% against the U.S. dollar, curbing gold's allure as an alternative asset by making the dollar-priced commodity more costly for holders of other currencies.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures fell Tuesday as investors tracked moves in equities and fretted over high U.S. supply. Futures for October delivery fell $1.41 to $73.19 a barrel in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The front-month contract fell 0.8% last week to end at $74.60 a barrel.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. raised its full-year profit forecast on Tuesday because of strong European demand. For 2010, the Atlanta-based maker of sugary drinks said it now expects a profit of $1.78 to $1.82 a share, including a negative currency impact of about 7 cents a share at current levels. The prior outlook was for earnings in a range of $1.73 to $1.77 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet Research were looking for full-year earnings of $1.81 a share. For 2011, Coca-Cola said earnings per share would likely exceed its long-term objectives because of share repurchase activity. Shares of Coca-Cola Enterprises closed Friday at $29.37, up 1.3%.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Inergy L.P. said Tuesday it'll pay $725 million, plus reimbursements for capital costs, to buy the Tres Palacios natural gas storage facility from Tres Palacios Gas Storage LLC. Located in Matagorda County, Texas, Tres Palacios is a salt dome natural gas storage facility with approximately 38.4 billion cubic feet of capacity.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Beckman Coulter Inc. said Tuesday its chief exectuive officer, Scott Garrett, resigned. Garrett will continue as a full-time, non-executive employee of the company through Jan. 15. The board named J. Robert Hurley, an executive at the firm, as interim president and CEO. The Brea, Calif. maker of laboratory medical instruments launched a search for a new CEO.

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HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- China rebuffed pressure to reform its currency on Tuesday, amid visits by two senior U.S envoys in Beijing. "Exchange rate reform can't be pressed ahead under external pressure," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu was cited as saying in reports. She added that China would "firmly oppose" politicizing any trade and economic issues, during comment at a briefing related to the visit of of U.S. National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon. Jiang reportedly said Beijing would press ahead with reforms leading to "dynamic management" of the its exchange rate, but did not specify a timeline, according to reports.

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FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- Germany's manufacturing orders dropped 2.2% in July from the previous month, the economics ministry reported on Tuesday. Economists expected a rise of 0.5% month-on-month, according to Action Economics. Orders in June increased by an upwardly revised 3.6%, the ministry said. Following the data, the euro traded down 0.7% to $1.2740.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Morgan Stanley on Tuesday raised its rating on Nokia Corp. , the world's largest maker of mobile phones, by two notches to overweight from underweight, and lifted its price target to 9 euros from 6.50 euros. The broker told clients that recent checks with retailers and suppliers suggest a better-than-expected take-up of the upcoming N8 smartphone at a lower discount than feared. This implies, Morgan Stanley said, that the average selling price of a Nokia handset could grow in 2011 for the first time since 2000 and may help the Finnish maker increase market share in the fourth quarter. The broker said Nokia still has plenty to prove but the risk/reward has now turned positive.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Barclays Capital on Tuesday shuffled its ratings in the telecoms sector. The broker downgraded France Telecom [s:fte] to underweight from equal-weight, citing pricing pressure in its domestic fixed-line business and the risk that the company may pace a hefty price to enter new African markets. Barclays also lowered its rating on Spain's Telefonica , to equal-weight from overweight, citing the recent strong share price performance. The broker said that for the stock to outperform over the next 12 months investors need to see the repatriation of the $1.8 billion cash pile in Venezuela, an earlier-than-expected economic recovery in Spain and a successful integration of mobile operator Vivo into its Brazilian fixed-line assets.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The Swedish krona fell Tuesday after the nation's National Debt Office on Tuesday said it would begin unwinding its bet on a stronger currency. The office said the unwinding of its position, equal to 50 billion kronor ($6.8 billion), will take up to a year. The euro rose 0.3% to trade at 9.3251 kronor, while the U.S. dollar gained 0.7% to change hands at 7.2910 kronor. In a statement, the debt office said the krona could continue to appreciate, but that it considered current levels to be "relatively normal." The debt office had increased its exposure to foreign currency in early 2009. The office said it bought Swedish krona versus the euro when the the euro traded between 10 and 11.50 kronor. The debt office said its unrealized profit on the position by the end of August was around 6 billion kronor.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Goldman Sachs on Tuesday cut its rating on U.K. tour operator TUI Travel to neutral from buy, saying it sees better value elsewhere in the sector. The broker noted recent media reports suggesting that TUI AG , which owns 54% of TUI Travel, is considering buying the minority interests in the company to refocus on tourism. "While we do not rule out a takeover of the minority interests in TUI Travel, our analysis suggests that such a bid is unlikely to be imminent," Goldman said. The broker prefers Thomas Cook Group , on which it has a buy rating.

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TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Tropical storm Hermine has moved into southern Texas, and the storm is forecast to weaken to a tropical depression this afternoon, the National Hurricane Center reported. At 1 a.m. U.S. Central Time, the storm was 20 miles northwest of Brownsville, Texas, and blowing winds of 60 miles, or 95 kilometers, an hour, the hurricane center reported. It was moving north-northwest at 14 miles an hour. Hermine is likely to move inland over southern Texas today and into central Texas early Wednesday, the center said. Rain of 4 to 8 inches -- and as much as 12 inches in some parts -- is possible from southern Texas into the north-center of the state, the center said. That amount of rain could cause flash flooding, the center said. "Isolated tornadoes are possible along the lower and middle Texas coast through this morning," the forecaster said.

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