Economy News

Senator John Warner wants to enforce a national speed limit as an answer to soaring gas prices

New-home sales fell less than expected in June and inventories dropped to a 31/2-year low, the government said Friday, fueling hopes that the worst of the housing slump is over. Meanwhile, durable goods orders and consumer sentiment unexpectedly rose.

WASHINGTON - After weeks of one negative report after another, the economy finally got some news Friday that wasn't half bad.

THE LATEST: A jump in military spending helped boost new orders for big-ticket durable goods by a surprisingly strong 0.8 percent in June while new home sales dropped by a smaller-than-expected 0.6 percent. Consumer sentiment rebounded slightly in July from a 28-year low.

CHICAGO - Consumer spending is down and gas prices are up. That's bad math for the scores of destination retailers across the country that want customers to fill up the tank for a gas-guzzling day of retail therapy.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Friday as a drop in oil prices, and stronger-than-expected data on consumer sentiment and housing blunted the latest concerns about the health of U.S banks.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - New US home sales ticked down in June, government data showed Friday, but the better-than-expected figures sparked a glint of hope that the worst housing slump in decades may be scraping bottom.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fortune Brands Inc reported a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street's lowered expectations on Friday, after the consumer products maker had warned that weak consumer sentiment, the U.S. housing slump and higher taxes would depress earnings more than expected.

Zimbra is offering an office productivity suite. The Yahoo-owned provider of open-source messaging and collaboration tools announced Thursday a free beta of Yahoo Zimbra Desktop, which offers a centralized location for managing e-mail even when a user is not connected to the Internet, plus a tool for creating documents and spreadsheets.

An awful lot of the oil produced in the United States comes from the nation's northernmost state. So why are gas prices at Alaska's filling stations among the highest in the country?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer sentiment rebounded in July from a 28-year low and business investment rose unexpectedly last month, according to data on Friday that showed rare signs of resilience for the U.S. economy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of newly constructed U.S. single-family homes were stronger than expected in June, and inventories shrank to three-and-a-half-year low, a government report showed on Friday, providing a glimmer of hope for the beaten-down housing market.

NEW YORK - Wall Street ended a volatile week with uneven gains Friday after better-than-expected economic data placated a market pummeled a day earlier by concerns about housing and the financial sector.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumer sentiment recovered from early 1980s lows in July as Americans received tax rebate checks from the government but remained pressured by high gasoline prices and falling home values.

WASHINGTON, July 25 Reuters) - New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose unexpectedly in June on a surge in defense orders while a gauge of business investment was also higher than forecast in signs of economic resilience, a government report showed on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home foreclosure filings rose 14 percent in the second quarter, the eighth consecutive quarterly climb, and more than doubled from the same period a year-earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Friday.

LONDON (AFP) - The dollar fell against the euro and yen on Friday as the market awaited publication of US housing figures and data on consumer sentiment in the world's biggest, but struggling, economy.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumer products company Fortune Brands Inc reported lower quarterly profit on Friday, hurt by the U.S. housing slump, weak consumer sentiment, higher commodity costs and an unexpected Australian tax hike.

1 Disappointing existing-home sales data chilled stocks, especially builders and financials. The NYSE composite fell 2.5% and the Dow 2.4%, their worst drops since June 26. The S&P 500 skidded 2.3% and the Nasdaq 2%. Russia's Mechel led a rout in metals. But volume fell. The 10-year Treasury yield fell 13 ticks to 4.01%. More on B1, B2

Sales of existing homes fell more than expected in June to their lowest level in at least nine years, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday, as buyers showed little interest amid falling real estate prices and uncertainty about jobs and the economy.

NEW YORK - Energy market investors managed to win back modest gains Thursday following oil's big drop a day earlier, but again drove natural gas prices sharply lower as a three-week sell-off of that fuel continued unabated.

WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes tumbled more sharply than expected in June, pushing activity down to the lowest level in more than a decade.

WASHINGTON - Banks stepped up their borrowing over the past week from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program, while Wall Street firms didn't draw such loans.

Locally grown produce is in vogue as even the biggest grocers try to appeal to shoppers and save on fuel costs. Among the big names selling homegrown food are Whole Foods Market, Safeway, Tesco, and Wal-Mart. As gas prices remain high and the popularity of local food grows--the number of local farmers markets has more than doubled in the past decade, the Department of Agriculture says--grocers are reviving the old practice of buying from smaller regional farms.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jobless claims jumped last week and the pace of existing home sales tumbled to a 10-year low as slowing growth hit hiring and a glut of unsold homes weighed on the real estate market, data on Thursday showed.

Gas prices and GDP woes may have us Americans tightening our belts, but that doesn't mean we're happy about it.

WASHINGTON - The government reports that the number of newly laid off people filing claims for unemployment benefits bolted past 400,000 last week as companies trimmed their work forces to cope with a slowing economy.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co posted a record $8.7 billion quarterly loss on Thursday as it wrote down the value of slumping truck and SUV operations and revamped plans in a bid to break its reliance on the gas-guzzlers that have been its franchise vehicles for a decade.

DETROIT - General Motors Corp., pummeled by falling U.S. sales and high gas prices, lost the global sales lead to Toyota Motor Corp. in the first half of this year, but the churning market makes it difficult to predict which automaker will end the year on top.