Stocks fell on Monday, led by losses in financial companies, as worries about spillover from the subprime mortgage market lingered despite the Federal Reserve's surprise discount rate cut on Friday.
Struggling mortgage investor Luminent Mortgage Capital Inc and home loan lender Thornburg Mortgage Inc took steps to bolster liquidity on Monday, but the companies signaled the trouble is not completely gone.
Calm returned slowly to financial markets on Monday, but there were lingering signs that credit problems persist despite policy-makers' insistence that the global economic growth would remain solid.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government is struggling to weather a crisis as communist allies threaten to end support over a nuclear energy deal with the United States.
Countrywide Financial Corp on Monday ran advertisements seeking to reassure customers it's safe to do business with the company, while a published report said the largest U.S. mortgage lender has begun layoffs to help cope with a credit crunch.
Lowe's Cos. reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Monday, and its shares rose more than 6 percent as the home-improvement retailer said sales were improving in some regions despite the soft U.S. housing market. The company, which ranks second behind Home Depot Inc., said difficult sales comparisons were starting to lessen, but still cut its full-year profit and sales forecast.
Gold gained on Monday with a drop in the dollar and recovery in stocks, but investors remained cautious as they digested the U.S. federal reserve's surprise move to slash the rate it charges banks on loans.
The yen fell on Monday, giving up some of last week's steep gains, as some risk appetite returned to the market after the Federal Reserve's surprise decision on Friday to cut its discount lending rate.
Mortgage lenders' and financial companies' debt insurance costs fell on Monday, continuing improvements from Friday when a Federal Reserve discount rate cut sparked a rally in most global markets.
American Airlines, the world's largest airline, said on Friday it sued Internet search leader Google Inc for selling search words involving its name.
Microsoft Corp is cutting the European price for its Xbox 360 video game console by 50 euros to 349.99 euros ($470), following a similar cut in the United States. Faced with unexpectedly strong competition from Nintendo Co Ltd's cheaper Wii console, Microsoft is aiming at expanding the appeal of the Xbox 360 to an audience outside its core fan base of young men.
Stocks were little changed on Monday as investors mulled the likelihood of more Federal Reserve action after Friday's surprise cut in the rate at which banks borrow from it.
India is committed to developing its nuclear energy capability and other sources of power as its oil bill will impose an unbearable burden as growth continues, the prime minister said on Monday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy returned from his summer break on Monday to a sluggish economy, a court decision to scrap a tax break he promised and a scandal over a pedophile who says a prison doctor gave him Viagra.
Mankind's response to climate change will shift how the world gets its energy and is already making green barons out of early investors in renewable energy, clean technologies and carbon trading.
Upcoming deals such as Sirius Satellite Radio's planned takeover of XM Satellite Radio could be helped by a court decision in favor of a takeover deal between two organic food retailers.
SunTrust Banks Inc., the seventh-largest U.S. bank, on Monday said it expects to eliminate about 2,400 jobs by the end of 2008 as part of a plan designed to save $530 million annually by 2009.
Investors boosted stocks and moved back into other riskier assets on Monday as immediate fears of a credit crunch waned following the Federal Reserve's confidence-building move last week.
Policymakers and investors breathed a sigh of relief on Monday as Federal Reserve action brought calm to shaken financial markets, but experts said it was too soon to discount a global credit crisis.
Asian companies will have a tough time raising funds and face weaker export demand if the global credit squeeze persists and a deteriorating U.S. housing market crimps consumer spending.
Google Inc revealed on Monday that it had acquired a stake in Chinese community Web site Tianya.cn, indicating a foray by the global search leader into social networking in the world's second-largest Internet market.
U.S. index futures pointed to a firmer start on Wall Street on Monday, building on gains in the previous session after the Federal Reserve cut the discount rate it charges banks, and with little scheduled news on the agenda.
