Yahoo! News: Economy News

Economy News

• World stocks dive as panic spreads (AFP)

  AFP - Panic spread in global stock markets Thursday as a jump in US jobless figures and fresh job cuts worldwide deepened fears of recession and sent investors fleeing for cover.

  
  

• Banks, investment firms reduce Fed loans (AP)

  AP - Commercial banks and investment firms reduced borrowing from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program over the past week, although demand for the loans was still elevated.

  
  

• More job losses darken global economic outlook (AFP)

  AFP - News of fresh job cuts worldwide and a strong jump in US unemployment Thursday darkened the global economic outlook and sent financial markets into convulsions.

  
  

• Dems delay auto bailout vote, seek plan from Big 3 (AP)

  AP - Democratic leaders in Congress sidetracked legislation to bail out the auto industry Thursday and demanded the Big Three develop a plan assuring the money would make them economically viable. "Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a hastily called news conference in the Capitol.

  
  

• Paulson defends handling of U.S. financial crisis (Reuters)

  Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday defended his handling of the financial crisis but refused to say whether any further help will be offered to struggling bank Citigroup.

  
  

• Senate extends jobless benefits (AFP)

  AFP - The US Senate on Thursday extended unemployment benefits by an extra seven weeks, in a bid to mitigate the impact of rising job losses as the economic crisis deepens.

  
  

• Paulson: crisis happens once or twice in 100 years (AP)

  AP - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called the financial crisis now plaguing the world economy a "once or twice" in a 100 years event, even as he warned Thursday against imposing too-strict regulations to prevent a repeat calamity.

  
  

• Senate sends Bush expanded jobless benefits bill (Reuters)

  Reuters - The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed and sent to President George W. Bush legislation to extend jobless benefits for those who have been unemployed for a prolonged period in an economy that has been shedding jobs.

• Oil prices plunge below 50 dollars per barrel (AFP)

  AFP - Oil prices crashed below 50 dollars a barrel on Thursday as plunging equities and weak US data sparked fresh fears that a worldwide recession would ravage energy demand.

  
  

• US Fed expands December meeting to two days (AFP)

  AFP - The US Federal Reserve said Thursday its upcoming policy meeting would be expanded to two days and be held December 15 and 16.

  
  

• US agrees to bail out money market fund (AFP)

  AFP - The US Treasury announced Thursday a rescue of a money market fund operated by investment manager The Reserve, with some 6.3 billion dollars in assets.

  
  

• Fed extends meeting in December to 2 days (AP)

  AP - The Federal Reserve announced Thursday that it will hold a two-day meeting in December to weigh its next move on interest rates and to make a fresh assessment of the economy.

• JPMorgan cuts investment banking jobs: sources (Reuters)

  Reuters - JPMorgan Chase & Co is cutting 10 percent of its investment banking staff -- about 3,000 jobs -- as the economic slowdown starts to bite into its earnings, people familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

  
  

• Reform US financial regulation, but not 'in haste': Paulson (AFP)

  AFP - US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Thursday that reform of financial regulation was crucial but warned against hasty action that could lead to harm.

  
  

• Jobs data miserable, regional factories slump (Reuters)

  Reuters - The number of American workers on the unemployment rolls surged to the highest in a quarter century and a regional manufacturing gauge slumped as U.S. economic misery intensified.

  
  

• APEC ministers urge free trade against crisis (Reuters)

  Reuters - Trade and foreign ministers from the United States, China and other economies around the Pacific Rim called on Thursday for new free trade deals as a way out of the global economic crisis.

  
  

• Zimbabwe deadlock reaps 'health and food emergency': US (AFP)

  AFP - Cholera and starvation are spreading in Zimbabwe as a political deadlock and economic meltdown trigger a manmade "food and health emergency," the US ambassador to Harare James McGee said Thursday.

  
  

• Lawmakers fault Treasury, Fed on bailout (Reuters)

  Reuters - Exasperated U.S. lawmakers criticized Federal Reserve and Treasury Department efforts to shore up the faltering economy on Thursday, telling officials that their financial rescue efforts have not reached small businesses or homeowners.

  
  

• Jobless claims jump unexpectedly to 16-year high (AP)

  AP - New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening job market expected to get even worse next year.

  
  

• U.S. stocks slide as auto bailout this year in doubt (Reuters)

  Reuters - Fears of a deep, long global recession intensified on Thursday as stock markets hit new lows on reports of more U.S. job losses and oil prices below $50 a barrel, as prospects dimmed for a bailout of U.S. automakers.