Economy News

NEW YORK - Wall Street headed for a modestly higher open Friday, with investors nervous about new record highs for oil prices but relieved about a surprising jump in new home construction.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US housing starts showed a surprisingly strong jump in April, signaling a glimmer of hope in the troubled housing market, government data showed Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Construction starts on new U.S. homes rose by a surprisingly strong 8.2 percent in April and applications for new building permits turned up for the first time in five months, the Commerce Department said on Friday in a report showing that the hard-hit housing sector still had some spring vigor.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Inflation is too high but may be slowing and the economy is suffering a "pronounced and serious downturn," Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures added to gains on Friday on optimism about the housing market after the government said construction starts on new U.S. homes rose in April and applications for new building permits turned up for the first time in five months.

FRANKFURT, Germany - The euro traded slightly higher against the U.S. dollar Friday after data showed a drop in U.S. industrial production and unexpectedly strong first-quarter economic growth in Germany.

UNITED NATIONS - The world economy is "teetering on the brink" of a severe downturn and is expected to grow only 1.8 percent in 2008, the United Nations said in its mid-year economic projections Thursday.

WASHINGTON - Wall Street investment companies are borrowing from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program at a fairly steady pace.

NEW YORK - Oil futures ended a whipsaw session slightly lower Thursday as the expiration of options played havoc with prices, driving crude near record high levels at times and down by more than $3 a barrel at others. Retail gas prices, meanwhile, advanced past $3.77 a gallon.

WASHINGTON - Commercial banks and other financial institutions need to beef up their ability to detect and protect themselves against risks like the credit and mortgage debacles, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Recent turmoil in financial markets underscores the need for banks to hold "generous" capital cushions, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday as he urged them to actively raise money.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. factory sector started the month on a weak note after declining in April, according to data released on Thursday, while the number of workers stuck on jobless rolls hit a four-year high.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sixty nine percent of Americans see gasoline prices as a serious problem for their families but only 41 percent favor a temporary repeal of the gasoline tax as proposed by presidential candidates John McCain and Hillary Clinton, a poll released on Thursday said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing claims for initial jobless benefits rose by 6,000 in the latest week while the number on benefit rolls after a first week of aid hit a four-year high, a government report showed on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices were tamer than expected in April on a lower energy price reading, giving the inflation-wary Federal Reserve a little breathing space as it seeks to fortify an anemic economy.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bond fund leader Pimco's Mohamed El-Erian on Wednesday said the Federal Reserve's monetary policy may not help the economy to escape a severe recession caused by falling home values and rapidly rising consumer prices.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Oil prices fell heavily Wednesday as traders reacted to an increase in US crude stocks and as profit-taking occurred a day after prices struck a record high.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mortgage applications rose for a second consecutive week, fueled by a jump in demand for home refinancing loans as interest rates dropped, an industry group said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. home foreclosure filings in April edged up from March and were a whopping 65 percent higher than a year earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Wednesday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. economic data suggests the world's biggest economy could face a mild recession, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted as telling Asian investors on Wednesday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is in a recession and stimulus from a government tax rebate later this quarter will only temporarily stem a fall in consumer spending, a Merrill Lynch economist said on Wednesday.

ZURICH (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of soccer fans will spend millions of francs on beer, bratwurst and beds at Euro 2008 next month.

Wal-Mart's low prices lured cash-strapped shoppers to its stores in the first quarter, raising the retail behemoth's earnings on Tuesday slightly above Wall Street views.

A veto-proof majority in the Senate voted Tuesday to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to curtail soaring gasoline prices.

NEW YORK - Treasury prices fell Tuesday as signs of modestly better-than-expected consumer spending and rising inflation made safe government securities less attractive to investors.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Confidence of American consumers continued to plummet as a result of weakening economic conditions and escalating gasoline prices, according to a weekly survey published on Tuesday.

Apple is selling more Macintosh computers than ever before -- and that's having unexpected benefits for Microsoft. Sales of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac are triple the volume for the previous 2004 version of the productivity software and are the highest in the product's history, Microsoft announced Tuesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Toll Brothers Inc , the largest U.S. luxury home builder, said on Tuesday the spring selling season was weak and it expects to report a 30 percent drop in quarterly home-building revenue, sending its shares down 2 percent.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US retail sales declined 0.2 percent in April, as consumers put a brake on purchases of fuel-guzzling sport utility vehicles, a government report showed Tuesday.