Bernanke urges banks to raise capital if needed - Business

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Business News

Wall Street tumbles, led by financials (Reuters)

Reuters - Stocks tumbled more than 2 percent on Thursday after a report showing yet another drop in U.S. home sales prompted investors to take profits in financial shares, which had rallied over the past week.

Microsoft CEO backs Web spending, "done" with Yahoo (Reuters)

Reuters - Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday defended Microsoft Corp's need to make heavy investments in its Internet businesses but said the company was "done," for now, with pursuing Yahoo Inc .

Wachovia CFO Wurtz to leave (Reuters)
Reuters - Wachovia Corp , which posted a record $8.86 billion second-quarter loss Tuesday, said Chief Financial Officer Thomas Wurtz will resign from the fourth-largest U.S. bank after a successor is named.

Home sales at 10-year low, jobless claims jump (Reuters)

Reuters - Jobless claims jumped and the pace of existing home sales tumbled to a 10-year low as slowing growth hit hiring and a glut of unsold houses weighed on real estate, data released on Thursday showed.

Morgan Stanley aggressively recruiting brokers (Reuters)

Reuters - Morgan Stanley said on Thursday it is poaching brokers from Merrill Lynch and other rivals, accelerating the expansion of its global wealth management business during a period of turbulence on Wall Street.

Jobless claims jump as housing market gets weaker (AP)

AP - Two cornerstones of the economy Â— jobs and housing Â— sank to new depths Thursday, with unemployment claims bolting higher and home prices recording one of their steepest drops on record.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Financial market turmoil underscores the need for "generous" capital cushions, and banks need to actively raise money as needed, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday."I strongly urge financial institutions to remain proactive in their capital-raising efforts," Bernanke told a conference on bank structure and competition in Chicago."Doing so not only helps the broader economy but positions firms to take advantage of new profit opportunities as conditions in the financial markets and the economy improve," Bernanke said.Bernanke said regulators were also pushing for better disclosure by banks to increase transparency and to strengthen market discipline, and blamed lax risk management practices at financial firms for contributing to credit turmoil.The Fed chief said some financial institutions permitted weaknesses to develop in their risk management practices, so when subprime mortgages began to sour it turned out that risks were far less dispersed than many had thought.Bernanke said, in hindsight, it was evident "problems occurred at each step of the credit-extension chain" and had contributed to the credit crisis that the economy encountered.He said that stiffened capital requirements set by the newly introduced Basel II regulatory standards will help bring more discipline to the industry but won't be a panacea."Although Basel II will by no means eliminate future episodes of financial turbulence, it should help to make financial institutions more resilient to shocks and thus enhance overall financial stability," Bernanke said.While acknowledging financial turbulence continues, Bernanke pointed to some positive signs that banks and other financial institutions were taking necessary steps to prepare for an eventual return to normal conditions.

Other news from Business category:

SEC, Fed push for authority over investment banks - 25, Jul 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday urged Congress to give his agency authority to oversee investment banks, even as a top Federal Reserve official said the central bank needed similar powers to do it
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Ford posts $8.7 billion second-quarter loss on truck slump - 25, Jul 2008
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 ve
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New York State sues UBS, alleges auction-rate fraud - 25, Jul 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
filed a civil lawsuit on Thursday against UBS AG ,
accusing the Swiss bank of deceptively steering customers into
auction-rate securities that this year became impossible to
sell amid the cre
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Home sales at 10-year low, jobless claims jump - 25, Jul 2008
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jobless claims jumped and the pace of existing home sales tumbled to a 10-year low as slowing growth hit hiring and a glut of unsold houses weighed on real estate, data released on Thursday showed.

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Wachovia CFO Wurtz to leave - 25, Jul 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wachovia Corp , which posted a record $8.86 billion second-quarter loss Tuesday, said Chief Financial Officer Thomas Wurtz will resign from the fourth-largest U.S. bank after a successor is named.

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Wall Street tumbles, led by financials - 25, Jul 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks tumbled more than 2 percent on Thursday after a report showing yet another drop in U.S. home sales prompted investors to take profits in financial shares, which had rallied over the past week.

More
3M profit tops view, international demand strong - 24, Jul 2008
BOSTON (Reuters) - Diversified manufacturer 3M Co reported a 3 percent rise in quarterly earnings on Thursday, topping the average Wall Street forecast, as strong international demand more than offset a slowing U.S. economy.

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Housing bill key to cutting mortgage cost: Pimco - 24, Jul 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cutting the cost of mortgages via the U.S housing bill and rescue package for mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is the best way to help the ailing housing market recover, the manager of the world's biggest bond fund
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Investors grab Fannie, Freddie after House vote - 24, Jul 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors snapped up shares of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before Wall Street opened on Thursday, a day after the House of Representatives passed a massive rescue package to shore up the struggling housing marke
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Nokia patent deal with Qualcomm boosts both stocks - 24, Jul 2008
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia , the world's top cellphone maker, has ended three years of legal battles with wireless chip developer Qualcomm and signed a patent agreement that boosted both companies' shares.

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Software News

Hasbro Orders Facebook to Remove 'Scrabulous' (PC Magazine)
PC Magazine - While "DMCA" may not be a valid word in "Scrabble," it may be the "Scrabulous" software that loses a turn -- or all of them.

Why iPhone 2.0 won't yet rule the roost in the enterprise (InfoWorld)
InfoWorld - Most of the world, it seemed, drank the Steve Jobs Kool-Aid about the new iPhone being a BlackBerry killer when the Apple CEO first announced the device earlier this year. But after nearly two weeks with the new iPhone 2.0 software on my iPod Touch, I can tell you that Apple has not yet delivered on that promise.

Attack Code Released for New DNS Attack (PC World)
PC World - Attack code has been released for a major flaw in the Internet's DNS software.

Facebook to help some programmers, punish others (AP)

AP - Facebook Inc. is introducing more tools to help the software applications fueling the online hangout's popularity and is promising to intensify its efforts to weed out programs that violate its rules for protecting users' privacy.

Facebook expands winning open platform formula (AFP)

AFP - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg painted a vision of an Internet future with the website in its soul to a faithful throng of software developers at the Internet firm's annual "F8" conference..

Microsoft's Online Woes Hint at Larger Vulnerability (PC World)
PC World - Microsoft has built its massive software business by watching other companies take the lead in emerging technology markets and...

SEC, Fed push for authority over investment banks - 25, Jul 2008

Ford posts $8.7 billion second-quarter loss on truck slump - 25, Jul 2008

New York State sues UBS, alleges auction-rate fraud - 25, Jul 2008

Home sales at 10-year low, jobless claims jump - 25, Jul 2008

Wachovia CFO Wurtz to leave - 25, Jul 2008

Wall Street tumbles, led by financials - 25, Jul 2008

3M profit tops view, international demand strong - 24, Jul 2008

Housing bill key to cutting mortgage cost: Pimco - 24, Jul 2008

Investors grab Fannie, Freddie after House vote - 24, Jul 2008

Nokia patent deal with Qualcomm boosts both stocks - 24, Jul 2008