IBT Staff Reporter

NEW YORK - Stocks tumbled on Tuesday, pulling the benchmark S&P 500 index to its lowest in three months, after a regional manufacturing report fell to a record low and financial shares slid further on signs of more trouble for European banks. Dismal economic data from Japan added to the gloom and made oil prices sink. Energy shares were the biggest drag on the Dow and S&P stock indexes, ...

NEW YORK - The Federal Reserve needs a more systematic approach to expanding U.S. money supply to avoid deflation as it combats a global recession that looks likely to last at least through the first half of 2009, a top Fed official said on Tuesday. A key near-term risk for 2009 is disinflation and possibly deflation, St Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said in remarks prep...

for U.S. credit cards rose to 7.82 percent in January from 7.71 percent in December, while the rate for loans at least 30 days delinquent increased to 5.02 percent from 4.78 percent. The McLean, Virginia-based company said it expects loan losses from U.S. cards to increase to 8.1 percent in the first quarter. In auto loans, Capital One's charge-off rate rose to 6.09 percent in January from 5.9...

Federal agents entered the Houston office of Stanford Financial Group on Tuesday, according to a Reuters eyewitness on the scene.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The Poseidon oil pipeline in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico will end emergency handling of Auger system crude after March 1, a Poseidon website announced Tuesday.

has made that tough. Maffei, however, said Liberty has been impressed with Sirius's operations and management team. Sirius XM's ability to grow subscribers and revenue in a difficult financial and auto market is indicative of how listeners view this as a must have service, Maffei said in a statement. Sirius said the deal does not constitute a change in control for the company under it...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for coordinated action to revive the global economy on Tuesday and invited Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso to meet President Barack Obama at the White House next week.

but also the less spread-out Grenache Noire and Mourvèdre grapes for the reds. The whites include grapes with romantic sounding names as Marsanne, Bourboulenc, Viognier, Clairette as well as Grenache Blanche. Secondary grapes are called Carignan, Cinsault, Counoise, Camarèse, Vaccarèse or Picpoul. But often it is not the grape that makes the wine but the soil. Habrard uses the same grapes for ...

NEW YORK - Verizon Communications is considering offering a $5-a-month home phone service that lets customers receive calls, but make only emergency service outgoing calls in an effort to stem the rate of phone service cancellations. The company is also looking at offering a $10 plan that includes limited outgoing calls to local numbers and compares with Verizon's current cheapest ...

NEW YORK - Stocks tumbled on Tuesday as investors confronted fresh signs that the recession is worsening and worried that efforts to stabilize the beleaguered financial system may not prove sufficient. The slide took the benchmark S&P 500 below the 800 level for the first time since the bear market low of November 21, weighed by financials, energy companies and big manufacturers. Shares of ...

It said handsets would have a micro USB interface, already used to transfer pictures from digital cameras to a computer.

Bank of America announced it made a $402 million payment to the federal government to pay back the U.S. government's investment as part of the $45 billion in bailout funds it received last year and early this year.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion economic stimulus bill into law on Tuesday as global markets plunged on fears that the recession would deepen despite government action in many countries

President Barack Obama was set on Wednesday to unveil a plan to stabilize the troubled housing market, a main cause of the economy's deepening slump.

Spanish oil company Repsol's chief executive said Tuesday that the global financial crisis and falling oil prices were making investment in new production projects less attractive, particularly in deep and ultra-deep waters.

Alcatel-Lucent is seen as a key supplier of network equipment for a big upgrade at Verizon Wireless, along with other top contenders such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and Huawei, according to analysts and experts.

Hundreds of people lined up at Texas billionaire Allen Stanford's Antiguan bank on Wednesday seeking to withdraw funds, a day after the tycoon was charged with an $8 billion fraud.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Franco-American telecoms gear maker Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA) sees no negative surprises in the coming months and has no plans for further hard belt-tightening, Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper quoted the company's chief executive as saying.

LONDON (Reuters) - The synthetic hormone Livial, designed as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy, makes it significantly more likely a woman's breast cancer will come back, Dutch researchers said on Tuesday.

NEW YORK - Stocks sank on Tuesday on concern that the recession is worsening and that efforts to stabilize the beleaguered financial system may not be enough. The slide took the benchmark S&P 500 below the 800 level for the first time since the bear market low of November 21 as financials and shares of big energy companies weighed. Shares of Bank of America fell 10.7 percent t...

NEW YORK - Stocks slid further in early trading on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 falling more than 4 percent as investors worried the recession is worsening and efforts to stabilize the global financial system may not be working. New York state manufacturing production fell in February to a record low. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 268.42 points, or 3.42 perc...

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc posted a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street forecasts, helped by higher sales at its namesake U.S. discount stores, and said it expects to outperform competitors as a global downturn forces shoppers to seek low prices. Shares in the world's largest retailer rose 3.5 percent on the results, as investors shrugged off fears of a deeper global recess...

has made that tough. Maffei, however, said Liberty has been impressed with Sirius's operations and management team. Sirius XM's ability to grow subscribers and revenue in a difficult financial and auto market is indicative of how listeners view this as a must have service, Maffei said in a statement. Sirius said the deal does not constitute a change in control for the company under it...

NEW YORK - Stocks tumbled at the open on Tuesday on concern that the recession is worsening and that efforts to stabilize the stricken global financial system may not be enough. A report showing that manufacturing production in New York state fell to a record low in February added to worries about the deepening recession among investors already fearful a new U.S. economic stimulus package won't...

NEW YORK - Even billionaire Bill Gates may be feeling the pinch these days. The value of Gates' investments fell by $3 billion, or almost 20 percent, in the fourth quarter as the worst financial crisis in decades and a deepening recession hammered stock prices. The investments of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation fell 19 percent to $9.07 billion, while those of Cascade Investment LLC, Ga...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian electronics company IPTE (IPTE.BR) reported a sharp drop in fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday and said it would continue restructuring in readiness for a difficult 2009.

NEW YORK - Stocks headed for a slide at Tuesday's opening on concern that the recession is worsening and that efforts to stabilize the stricken global financial system may not be enough. A drop on Wall Street would mark another leg of a global equity rout that hit Asian markets overnight and drove European stocks down about 2 percent as appetite for riskier assets ebbed. Top drags would includ...

from January's 26.14. The survey of manufacturing plants in the state is one of the earliest monthly guideposts to U.S. factory conditions. (Reporting by Burton Frierson; Editing by Tom Hals)

to try to ease the deepening recession, but some have been criticized for putting national interests before trade commitments. ACT TOGETHER What shocks me, you see, what bothers me a bit is that in the international arena ... everyone agrees that we need to work and act together, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn told France Inter radio. Then when everyone goes home, everyone has his nati...