China’s Ministry of Finance set schedule for major bond issues this year.

The California Republican Party has agreed to pay $18,000 fine to the state’s political ethics agency for campaign finance violations.

Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii health woes kept markets guessing on Tuesday on whether he will remain in his post, saying he was still awaiting test results after being hospitalized last week suffering from exhaustion.

European stocks fell Tuesday on Profit-Taking, which may prove too tempting after the very positive start to the year’s trading globally.

Investors kicked off 2010 in bullish mood. Financial markets kicked off 2010 on an upbeat note on Monday with world stocks close to 15-month highs on hopes for a sustainable economic recovery.

Novartis aimed to buy rest of Alcon from Nestle, the world’s largest food group, for $39 billion, boosting its holding in Alcon to 77 percent. The Swiss drugmaker bought an initial 25 percent stake in 2008.

The House voted Wednesday to slap higher taxes on Wall Street investment managers to help pay to extend $31 billion in tax breaks for a wide range of Americans, including popular deductions for local and state sales and property taxes. The tax breaks include a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in the nine states without local income taxes, a property tax deduction for people who don’t itemize and lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and development.

Treasury decides not to sell its Citigroup stock too cheaply. In a striking reversal of its attempts to unwind the government’s financial stakes in big banks, the Treasury Department is backing out of plans to sell its stake in Citigroup.

Benjamin Franklin’s maxim that “nothing is certain but death and taxes” remains true. But a congressional stalemate has left the federal estate tax, the levy on assets left to heirs, in doubt for at least part of 2010. The tax is poised to expire Thursday, though the House and Senate are expected to pass a reauthorization, possibly retroactive to Jan. 1, next year.

Hacker pleads guilty in credit card theft case. A computer hacker who helped orchestrate the theft of tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers from major retailers in one of the largest such thefts in U.S. history pleaded guilty Tuesday in the last of three cases brought by federal prosecutors.