In February, the European Commission estimated a 1.4% rise in GDP for the EU this year.

The SEC proposed a rule that would expand the pool of so-called accredited investors, who are permitted to buy investments such as private equity, hedge funds, venture capital funds and stock in start-ups.

Making sense of Disney's earnings, with CNBC's Melissa Lee and the Fast Money traders, Guy Adami, Tim Seymour, Steve Grasso and Karen Finerman.

Power struggle between Bashar al-Assad and first cousin sparks rare family fissure and leaves public aghast

A defiant tyrant and his ruthless wife square up against the family oligarch, with the spoils of a nation at stake. It could be standard Ramadan television fare, but not this year. Instead, all the intrigue of Syria’s ruling family has been laid out in a spectacular real-life drama that has gripped the country and the region.

Leading the cast is the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, and Syria’s first lady, Asma al-Assad, but star billing has so far been taken by the president’s first cousin, Rami Makhlouf, who last week took to Facebook to do the unthinkable: air the normally inscrutable family’s dirty laundry.