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WASHINGTON - Construction of new homes posted the biggest increase in more than two years in April. While it was a rare spot of good news for the housing market, analysts said it's far too soon to declare an end to the prolonged slump.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - General Electric Co. said Friday that it plans to sell or spin off its iconic appliance business that for a century sold refrigerators, air conditioners and ovens for millions of homes.

WASHINGTON - Fannie Mae is doing away with higher minimum down-payment requirements for borrowers in parts of the country where home prices are dropping.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ground-breaking on single-family homes in the United States in April dropped to the slowest pace since 1991 while consumer confidence hit a 28-year trough, showing the economy still on shaky ground.

NEW YORK - Oil prices remained high Friday after Saudi Arabia's oil minister said the oil-rich nation boosted production by 300,000 barrels per day last week in response to requests from customers.

LONDON (AFP) - The price of oil rocketed to a record high point of 127.43 dollars per barrel on Friday, as US President George W. Bush prepared to urge Saudi Arabia to pump more crude, analysts said.

Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer confidence tumbled to its lowest in 28 years this month, a survey showed on Friday, as short-term inflation expectations reached the highest levels since the stagflationary early 1980s.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae, the nation's largest source of home financing, said on Friday it is lowering the amount of down payments required on mortgages it purchases in areas where home prices are falling.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States should cut barriers to its markets to help it tackle economic turmoil, and boost exports to deal with its current account deficit, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Teen apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co reported higher quarterly profit on Friday, topping Wall Street estimates, as a lower tax rate and a better gross margin helped offset the impact of lower same-store sales.

BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co confirmed on Friday it may sell or spin off its century-old appliances unit, saying the business was too focused on the United States.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Power LLP placed a $2 billion order for 667 wind turbines with General Electric to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, the Dallas Morning News reported Thursday.

TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd plans to launch a touch-screen version of the wireless e-mail device in the third quarter as an answer to Apple Inc's iPhone, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

At around $125 a barrel, crude oil has more than doubled in price since the end of 2006. How is it possible that the vast majority of government forecasters, stock analysts, economists, traders, and journalists who follow the oil market failed to foresee this? Moreover, how can it be that even today, the bulls and bears on oil are extremely far apart, disagreeing not only on the oil outlook but even the present situation?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday after the price of oil hit a record and consumer sentiment data came in surprisingly weak, reviving concerns over spending.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is now hiring store managers to work at Marketside, new smaller format stores the world's largest retailer is preparing to open in Arizona.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US homebuilding showed a surprisingly strong jump in April, signaling a ray of hope amid the rubble of the worst housing slump in decades, according to government data released Friday.

Kathy Cloninger, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of the USA since 2003, is in the process of transforming the venerable U.S. organization to ensure it remains as relevant to girls today as when it was founded in 1912. (I consider one of Kathy's predecessors as CEO, Frances Hesselbein, to be the greatest leader I have ever met.) The organization recently released a fascinating study on girls and their aspirations to leadership, so I invited Kathy to discuss what she sees for the next generation of women leaders. Edited excerpts of our conversation follow.

CINCINNATI - FAO Schwarz will open toy stores in close to 700 Macy's department stores over the next two years, the companies said Friday.

MANILA (AFP) - The Philippines, one of the world's largest rice importers, said Friday prices are softening after Japan offered to sell rice to Manila amid news of bumper world harvests for 2008.

HARTFORD, Conn. — Maverick oilman T. Boone Pickens' plan for a mammoth wind farm in the Texas Panhandle is a $2 billion bet that Congress will extend a tax credit critical to the environmentally friendly industry.

NEW YORK - Stocks declined Friday as enthusiasm over a surprise jump in home construction gave way to renewed concerns about how consumers will fare as oil pushes to fresh highs.

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.

LOS ANGELES - More U.S. homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments last month, driving the number of homes facing foreclosure up 65 percent versus the same month last year and contributing to a deepening slide in home values, a research company said Tuesday.