European shares fell on Monday for a third consecutive session and the safe-haven dollar rose as worries about faltering global growth and Europe's intractable debt crisis continued to sap investor confidence. .EU

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM.TO) is considering splitting its business in two, separating its struggling handset manufacturing division from its messaging network, The Sunday Times reported.

A last-minute decision by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services to pull its ratings on a deal backed by commercial real estate loans is being examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing employees questioned by the regulator. The inquiry relates to the credit rating agency's July 2011 decision to pull its ratings on a new, $1.5 billion commercial-mortgage-backed security, or CMBS, issued by Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) and Citigroup (C.N).

Julius Baer (BAER.VX), in talks with Bank of America (BAC.N) about buying Merrill Lynch's non-U.S. wealth management unit, is particularly interested in its presence in Asia and Latin America, Chief Executive Boris Collardi told a newspaper.

U.S. group Hewlett Packard (HPQ.N), the world's largest personal computer maker, may cut as many as 1,000 jobs in Germany as part of planned European-wide redundancies, WirtschaftsWoche reported, citing an unnamed staff representative.

Brazilian authorities want U.S. investment banking giant Morgan Stanley to return about 113 million reais ($54 million) associated with a stock sale by shareholders of troubled lender Banco Cruzeiro do Sul, which was seized by the central bank this month, Folha de S.Paulo newspaper reported Sunday.

Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) expects sales of its new Galaxy S III, launched at the end of last month as a main rival to Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone, to top 10 million during July, making it the South Korean group's fastest selling smartphone.

U.S. regulators have ruled against Shire (SHP.L) in a battle over generic copies of its hyperactivity drug Adderall XR, approving a cut-price version of the medicine from Watson Pharmaceuticals' (WPI.N) Actavis unit.

Brent crude slipped further and U.S. crude turned negative as trade moved to European trading hours on Monday with concerns about faltering global growth and Europe's intractable debt crisis hitting investor confidence.

On the macro front, investors awaited the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for May, due at 1230 GMT, new home sales for May, due at 1400 GMT, as well as Dallas Fed's June Texas Manufacturing Index.

U.S. stocks ended higher on Friday, led by gains in bank shares, as the S&P 500 index bounced back from its second-worst decline of the year.

The gains were not enough to push stocks into positive territory for the week, however.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 67.21 points, or 0.53 percent, at 12,640.78. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 9.51 points, or 0.72 percent, at 1,335.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 33.33 points, or 1.17 percent, at 2,892.42.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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