IBT Staff Reporter

The International Monetary Fund on Monday said a heavy dose of stimulus would ease the U.S. recession this year and lift growth marginally in 2010.

New York City real estate prices are looking increasingly shaky as instability in two of the city's sexier submarkets -- second homes in the Hamptons, and new condos in Manhattan -- register the latest signs of a housing downturn.

Citigroup Inc and the private sector arm of the World Bank have struck a deal to offer a $1.25 billion funding facility intended to stimulate emerging markets trade over three years.

U.S. stocks slid on Monday as retreating commodity prices drove a selloff in the shares of natural resource companies, while Goldman Sachs' downgrade of Wal-Mart Stores Inc pulled the discount retailer's stock down more than 2.6 percent.

The U.S. economy looks closer now to a turning point than it did just two months ago as the Federal Reserve's aggressive policies start to kick in more solidly, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank president Charles Evans said on Monday.

NASA officials announced plans in Monday to launch space shuttle Endeavor on Wednesday after delaying the Saturday’s initial launch due to a hydrogen leak.

The slumping factory sector in New York state shrank at a more severe rate in June than during the previous month, the New York Federal Reserve said in a report on Monday.

Oil fell to around $71 a barrel on Monday, extending its retreat from a near eight-month high as the dollar firmed and analysts said the market had rallied too quickly.

Lincoln Financial Group said it would take federal bailout money and sell stock and debt to raise $2 billion to shore up its insurance unit and repay older debt.

Goldman Sachs senior investment strategist Abby Joseph Cohen said on Monday that risk aversion has eased, while inventory rebuilding and new business spending bode well for an economic recovery that could provide a dramatic surge in corporate profits by year end.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday the financial system was beginning to thaw but any renewed pick-up in the economy would likely be slower than usual.

Goldman Sachs senior investment strategist Abby Joseph Cohen said on Monday she does not expect major announcements from a meeting of U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers next week, and that market fears of inflation are spectacularly premature.

Russian regional fixed-to-mobile telecom operator UralSvyazInform said on Monday its 2008 net profit rose by 10.4 percent, helped by growing sales of mobile and Internet services.

A second nuclear test by North Korea has wasted a long-awaited chance for progress in global nuclear disarmament and rekindled a climate of confrontation, the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog said on Monday.

Europe's airlines appear to have just suffered their worst month yet of the downturn, with preliminary traffic figures down 9 percent year-on-year in May, the Association of European Airlines said on Monday.

Investment in renewable energy will likely drop 38 percent worldwide in 2009, an official from the International Energy Agency said on Monday from Bucharest at the Eurelectric annual convention.

European Union foreign ministers welcomed Monday the Israeli prime minister's conditional endorsement of a future Palestinian state, but said it was not enough to raise EU-Israel ties to a higher level.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc has increased its floating storage capacity for fuel by about 1.3 million barrels, shipbrokers and traders said on Monday.

The dollar rose across the board on Monday after Russia said the U.S. currency's role as the world's main reserve currency was unlikely to change in the near future, hitting energy and commodity prices and related shares.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief urged Iran Monday to meet a U.S. offer of unconditional talks with goodwill gestures including giving inspectors easier access to monitor its atomic program.

Russian nuclear giant Rosatom has secured a 17 percent stake in a Western rival, Canada's Uranium One, gaining another foothold in North America as it pursues an aggressive programme of global expansion.

Swiss drugs company Novartis will not give free vaccines against H1N1 flu to poor countries, though it will consider discounts, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Palestinians voiced dismay on Monday over terms Benjamin Netanyahu set for a peace accord but the Israeli prime minister won U.S. and European praise over his conditional acceptance of Palestinian statehood.

The slumping New York state factory sector shrank at a more severe rate in June than during the previous month, the New York Federal Reserve said on Monday, confounding expectations of a slight improvement.

Senior Obama administration officials on Monday said in a newspaper op-ed piece that a landmark financial regulation reform plan to be released this week will target capital requirements, securitization and other problem areas blamed for the global financial crisis.

U.S. stocks extended losses on Monday as a broad pullback in commodities weighed on resource shares and profit-taking hurt big-cap technology companies.

Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd hopes to put its H1N1 vaccine through its first clinical trial by the end of July, as pharmaceutical firms race to put vaccines against the new flu virus into commercial production.

The International Monetary Fund on Monday said a heavy dose of stimulus would ease the U.S. recession this year and lift growth marginally in 2010.

GlaxoSmithKline took another step in building its business in emerging markets on Monday by signing an alliance with Indian generic drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories.