Mari Pangestu, trade minister of Indonesia says the U.S. has given quite a strong message it is ready to negotiate, and she sees 2010 as a realistic time frame to conclude the stalled Doha trade talks. She talks to CNBC's Martin Soong and Sri Jegarajah.

Justin O'Brien, senior advisor at Citi, discusses the implications of Sinosteel's hostile takeover offer for Midwest, with CNBC's Oriel Morrison.

Lower gas prices and refining margins hit profits at Spanish energy giant Repsol in the third quarter. COO Miguel Martinez spoke to CNBC about the earnings Thursday.

The global financial crisis did not present that many acquisition opportunities for YTL, says its managing director, Francis Yeoh. He tells CNBC's Managing Asia why.

Dante Peters from Magus Financial Management and Jason Witcombe from Evolve Financial Planning joined CNBC to give their advice to investors.

Expect more merger and acquisition activity to come into the Australian market, says Lucinda Chan, division director at Macquarie Private Wealth, speaking to Ron Cameron, senior analyst at Ord Minnett and CNBC's Karen Tso.

"There's still so much money on the sidelines that I think that's going to buffer any real severe double dip," Ken Kamen, President of Mercadien Asset Management told CNBC Thursday when considering the economic outlook.

The economy is starting to show green shoots of recovery, but the holiday-shopping season will be key, Ken Kamen, president of Mercadien Asset Management told CNBC Thursday. Julian Pendock from Senhouse Capital joined the discussion.