Macau Gambling Revenue Slows in May: Hot Trends

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Popular searches on the Internet include Macau on reports that the Chinese city known for its casinos and gaming operations saw its casino gambling revenue slow to a 7.3% increase in May. That's the slowest pace of growth since July 2009.

By comparison, Macau saw 22% growth in April and monthly growth rates as high as 90% in 2010. Although the growth slowed, the results for the month were still the second highest level on record and were in line with analysts' expectations.

Wal-Mart (WMT) is also trending as the retail chain's executives and board members will face shareholders in an annual meeting Friday.

On the same day as the company's 50th anniversary party, some shareholders are expected to call for board members to be removed after a recent scandal at the company's Mexican subsidiary. Following bribery allegations that have sparked investigations by U.S. and Mexican authorities, large shareholders are expected to vote against the re-election of some board members.

In April, a New York Times investigation found that management at Wal-Mart de Mexico allegedly participated in $24 million worth of bribes to help the company grow quickly, incidents which were said to be covered up by Wal-Mart's top executives.

Google(GOOG) is another popular search after accusing Microsoft(MSFT) and Nokia(NOK) of colluding on its intellectual property rights to cash in on Google patents.

Google filed a complaint to the European Commission alleging that Microsoft and Nokia had transferred 1,200 patents to MOSAID, otherwise known as a "patent troll" -- which takes legal action over patent infringement in order to make money.

Now, Nokia is firing back at Google and denying the accusations claiming that it, as well as Microsoft, has its own intellectual property rights portfolios and is operating independently. Microsoft has called Google's complaint about antitrust in the smartphone arena a "desperate tactic."

Nokia and Microsoft work together on smartphones that are in competition with Google Android devices.