By Richard Hubbard LONDON (Reuters) - Bonds, shares and commodities fell sharply around the world on Thursday and the dollar rose after the U.S. Federal Reserve explicitly signaled an end to easy money and data showed China's economy slowing down. The sell-off began after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke confirmed that U.S. economic growth was strong enough to begin tapering back on its $85 billion in monthly asset purchases later this year. ...

PARIS (Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus sought to finalize a flurry of orders on Thursday to avoid a rare defeat to U.S. arch-rival Boeing at its domestic Paris Airshow. As of Wednesday, Airbus lagged its competitor with 211 firm orders against 265 for Boeing. Airbus had commitments for a further 165 jets, compared with 127 for Boeing. The order tallies from both planemakers included major purchases of narrowbody medium-haul jets from Europe's two biggest low-cost carriers, Ryanair and easyJet . ...

By Jonathan Cable LONDON (Reuters) - The euro zone's private sector slump has eased more than expected this month, business surveys showed on Thursday, but a continued slide in new orders suggested a full recovery is still some way off. The data will come as good news for the European Central Bank as the decline eased across the 17-nation bloc. Markit's Flash Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers' Index, which makes up around 85 percent of the final reading and is seen as a reliable economic growth indicator for the bloc, rose to 48.9 in June from May's 47.7. ...

By Kevin Yao BEIJING (Reuters) - China's factory activity weakened to a nine-month low in June as demand faltered, a preliminary survey showed, heightening the risk of a sharper second quarter slowdown and increasing the heat on the central bank to loosen policy. China's economy grew at its slowest pace for 13 years in 2012 and so far this year data has been weaker than expected, bringing warnings the country could miss its growth target of 7.5 percent for this year, though possibly not by much. ...

By Mari Saito TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp shareholders pressed its chief executive for a response to hedge fund Third Point's proposal for a partial spinoff of its profitable entertainment arm but Kazuo Hirai pleaded for patience as management reviews the bold plan. Daniel Loeb, the billionaire hedge fund manager of Third Point and Sony's top shareholder, wants the electronics empire to sell to the public as much as one-fifth of its entertainment units and use the proceeds to bolster its struggling hardware divisions. ...