FEDERAL RESERVE

Wall Street hopes for more Fed action and clear signs European leaders will follow through on their new urgency to tackle the euro zone debt crisis if U.S. stocks are to build on their best week since early July.

Rep. Ron Paul won the California straw poll on Saturday, receiving almost half of all the votes.

Gold rallied 1 percent on Friday in volatile trade, as the safe-haven bid for precious metals returned when a survey showed U.S. consumers gloomy about the economic outlook.

Former President Jimmy Carter appeared on MSNBC Thursday night and endorsed candidate Mitt Romney for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. Could the endorsement doom Romney's nomination chances?

At a meeting with E.U. finance ministers, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made the case for a leveraged E.U. buyout fund ala the U.S.'s successful 2008 TALF, to help address Europe’s banking crisis, but the structure and size of any beefed-up intervention mechanism remained undetermined as of Friday night in Europe.

Gold prices rebounded Friday, along with other safe-haven investments, literally hours after dropping sharply on word that the world's biggest central bankers were jointly moving to protect the eurozone's commercial financial institutions.

Stock futures pointed to a weaker open for equities on Wall Street on Friday after strong gains in the previous session, with futures for the S&P 500, for the Dow Jones and for the Nasdaq 100 down 0.4-0.7 percent.

World shares rose half a percent to one-week highs on Friday while the euro clung to gains from the previous session on hopes that European policymakers would finally come up with a bold plan to combat a deepening debt crisis.

Gold and silver prices moved higher late Thursday after posting big losses in the New York futures market.

Gold and silver fell hard Thursday after five major central banks announced a coordinated plan to inject U.S. dollars into European banks straining under the load of the continent's sovereign debt crisis.

The world's major central banks, led by the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve, in a coordinated effort Thursday intervened to provide dollar loans to commercial banks in an effort to maintain liquidity in Europe and check institutional investor concern about Europe's private sector banks. What will be the impact on U.S. stocks?

The new loan offers will be conducted in October, November and December.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will discuss with European finance ministers the possibility of leveraging the euro zone's bailout fund to make it more effective in fighting the debt crisis.

The unemployment rate for college graduates (that is, those holding at least a Bachelor’s degree) is only 4.3 percent.

Claims for unemployment benefits last week rose more than expected, hitting their highest level in more than two months. In addition, manufacturing in a key northeastern region fell more quickly than expected, developments that may pressure the Federal Reserve to try to stimulate business activity.

New jobless claims rose last week to their highest since June and a gauge of New York State manufacturing contracted in September, sustaining the view the Federal Reserve could take new action to boost growth.

Gold prices slipped below $1,800 an ounce on Thursday as stock markets extended gains, with assurances from Germany and France about keeping Greece in the euro bloc boosting appetite for assets seen as higher risk at the precious metal's expense.

Paul has repeatedly denied that he is a racist (as have his devoted supporters).

The initial public offering of Facebook has been pushed back to next year, according to people familiar with the situation.

During every presidential campaign season, a number of underdog candidates decide to run for the White House – most of whom have no hopes of ever getting elected.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called for tax reform to be part of an urgent effort to put the U.S. economy back on track.