*Foreign investors remain optimistic on China. In China, the CSI300 and the Shanghai Composite both eased 0.7 percent with energy and banking shares hit by mild profit-taking. Utilities were weak in Hong Kong. led by a 3.4 percent drop for CLP Holdings after it $982 million in new shares to fund expansion.
Dec 12- U.S. oil and gas company Hess Corp said on Wednesday it made an oil discovery off Ghana at the Deepwater Tano/ Cape Three Points license. The oil found at Hess's Pecan-1 well marks its fifth discovery in the block, the New York company said. Shares of Hess climbed nearly 3 percent to $51.98 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading.
*Technology shares lift markets, Apple up 2 pct. NEW YORK, Dec 11- Wall Street opened higher on Tuesday, lifted by gains in shares of technology companies as investors picked up some recent laggards, including Apple. Apple was recently up 2.5 percent at $543.18.
Dec 11- Billionaire John Malone's Liberty Interactive Corp took control of travel information site TripAdvisor Inc after it bought about 5 million shares in the company from media veteran Barry Diller. Shares of TripAdvisor jumped 7 percent to $41.12 on the Nasdaq, while those of peers Expedia Inc and Orbitz Worldwide Inc were also up in morning trade.
The CSI300 of top Shanghai and Shenzhen listings fell 0.6 percent to 2,258.5 while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.4 percent to close at 2,074.7.
*MSCI Asia ex- Japan edges up to 16- month high. European shares were likely to crawl higher too, with financial spreadbetters predicting London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX will open as much as 0.3 percent higher. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan nudged up 0.3 percent to a 16- month high.
Dec. 10 marks the busiest shipping day of the year for FedEx. The couriers and drivers will deliver 19 million packages on Monday — a nearly 11% increase from 2011.
TOKYO, Dec 10- Japan's Nikkei share average rose to a seven-month high in early trade on Monday after a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report, while a weak yen also boosted the shares of exporters.
OTTAWA, Dec 7- Shares of Nexen Inc and Progress Energy Resources Corp tumbled after the Canadian government scheduled a media briefing on Friday amid expectations that it would announce decisions on high-profile bids by China's CNOOC Ltd and Malaysia's Petronas to buy the energy producers.
Dec 6- Talison Lithium Ltd said on Thursday it is now backing a sweetened takeover bid from China's Chengdu Tianqi Industry Group Co, which values the lithium producer at C $847 million. Shares of the Perth- based, Toronto- listed miner rose more than 6 percent Thursday morning but were still below the revised Tianqi offer of C $7.50 per share.
FRANKFURT, Dec 6- German carmarker Daimler raised over $2 billion from a lightning sale of shares in Airbus parent EADS on Thursday, making it the first beneficiary of a shake-up of the European aerospace company that sent EADS shares higher.