| 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.
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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 .
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Jobless claims jump as housing market gets weaker
(AP)
 AP - Two cornerstones of the economy — jobs and housing — sank to new depths Thursday, with unemployment claims bolting higher and home prices recording one of their steepest drops on record.
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| Fed sees some healing in scarred credit markets - 16, May 2008 |
By Ros Krasny
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Top Federal Reserve officials on Thursday cited progress in alleviating months of turmoil in financial markets, but said a full return to normalcy was still some time away.
The recent credit woes underscore the need for banks to hold "generous" capital cushions, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said, as he urged banks to actively raise money and prepare for better times that lie ahead.
"I strongly urge financial institutions to remain proactive in their capital-raising efforts," Bernanke said in a speech at the Chicago Fed's 44th annual bank structure conference. This year's theme is "Credit Market Turmoil: Causes, Consequences and Cures."
"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," he said.
Bernanke and the New York Fed's William Dudley, who oversees financial markets for the U.S. central bank, provided plenty of grist for the analysis mill.
Fed watchers believe that the Fed is pushing banks to redouble efforts to get past the months-long credit crisis -- just as the Fed has raised its own game, innovating ways to bolster market liquidity when it was desperately needed.
Cary Leahey, an economist with Decision Economics in New York, said Bernanke was urging banks to redouble their efforts to get rid of less productive assets so that they can resume more normal lending patterns.
"The Fed thinks it has done a lot to ease the credit crisis and now the financial institutions have to pick up the ball and run with it," Leahey said.
(c) 2008 Reuters
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| Other news from Business category: |
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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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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 (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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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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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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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.
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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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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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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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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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