The world's gambling capital Macau saw another month of decline in casino revenues in January, figures showed Monday, as a corruption crackdown by the Chinese government continues to rein in big spenders.

Official figures published by the former Portuguese colony showed that gaming revenues fell 17.4 percent year-on-year to 23.75 billion patacas ($2.97 billion) in January -- cementing an eight month losing streak for the gambling hub.

US authorities are investigating the credit rating agency Moody's over its glowing assessments of mortgage deals in the runup to the 2008 financial crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Citing people familiar with the situation, the newspaper said Justice Department officials had met with several former Moody's executives. It wasn't yet clear if the probe would result in a lawsuit.

Greece will not deliver a strong economic recovery unless authorities loosen austerity programs, U.S. President Barack Obama suggested in remarks that aired Sunday.

"You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression," Obama told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" when asked about the situation in crisis-hit Greece.

Greece's anti-austerity government was to begin a European charm offensive Sunday aimed at building consensus on renegotiating its 240-billion-euro ($270 billion) bailout, even as Germany insisted it would not support any debt relief.

Just hours before Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis headed to Paris to seek support for a renegotiation of the bailout, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he believed a deal could be reached with the EU and IMF.

China's housing prices rose in January for the first time in nine months, a survey showed Saturday, breaking a decline that has weighed on growth in the world's second-largest economy.

The average price of a new home in China's 100 major cities rose 0.21 percent from December to 10,564 yuan ($1,690) per square metre, according to the independent China Index Academy, the first rise since April 2014.

Strong earnings from Apple, Boeing and some others were not enough this week to offset Wall Street angst over the strong dollar, crashing oil prices and the Greek election.

U.S. equities finished firmly lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling 507.65 points (2.87 percent) to 17,164.95.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has met with the head of a powerful Chinese regulator, days after authorities accused the e-commerce giant of allowing "illegal" actions on its multi-billion-dollar online shopping platform.

The meeting Friday between Ma and State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) director Zhang Mao may signal a de-escalation of the dispute, which saw the regulator deliver an unprecedented public dressing-down of the prominent Chinese firm.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday rejected the prospect of debt relief for Athens, adding to tensions between the radical new Greek government and its international creditors.

"There has already been voluntary debt forgiveness by private creditors, banks have already slashed billions from Greece's debt," Merkel said in an interview with the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper published Saturday.

Qatar Airways on Friday said it had purchased almost 10 percent of IAG, parent of British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia, the second European entry by a Gulf carrier.

"As part of efforts to enhance operations and strengthen existing commercial ties... Qatar Airways has acquired a 9.99 percent stake in IAG," the company said in a statement.

Greece's new anti-austerity government is set to hold its first talks Friday with its eurozone partners about its ambitions to secure a reduction in the massive debts linked to its 240-billion-euro ($269 billion) international bailout.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is due to meet Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the current head of the eurozone group of finance ministers in an encounter that Athens said would mark the start of Greece's negotiations on revising the conditions of its massive bailout.