
Wall Street shares cast a shadow over global stock markets again after warnings that the problems in credit markets will hit big banks' profits. The Dow Jones suffered its biggest fall since 9 August on Tuesday, closing down 280.3 points or 2.1% at 13,041.9.

Mercosur member countries received 300 billion US dollars in foreign direct investments between 1990 and 2004, reported the United Nationd Economic Commission for Latinamerica and the Caribbean, Cepal.

Argentina trusts China will not adopt reprisals following the latest trade restrictions on imports recently decided by President Nestor Kirchner's administration and which affect many Chinese goods, Argentine Secretary of Commerce Alfredo Chiaradía said on Wednesday.
China's Finance Minister Jin Renqing has been transferred to a government think-tank and will be replaced by the country's top tax collector, confirmed on Wednesday Beijing sources following press reports.

Laid-off Brazilian factory workers have their jobs back. Nicaraguan farmers are getting low-interest loans. Bolivian mayors can afford new health clinics.

The risk of massive defaults on sub-prime mortgages and heavy debts now poses a bigger threat to US economic prosperity than terrorism, a panel of US business economists said Monday.
Concern that United States house prices could fall sharply has returned after a key survey showed that sales fell to a near five-year low in the year to July. Sales of existing homes fell 0.2% to 5.75 million units in the year, the lowest since November 2002, said the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Punta Arenas figures as the second most expensive city in Chile behind the capital Santiago, according to the latest report from the Business School of the Universidad del Desarrollo released this week.

Countrywide Financial Corp Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo said on Thursday the U.S. housing downturn is likely to lead the country into recession, but that the largest U.S. mortgage lender will survive.

The Bank of Japan decided Thursday to keep its key interest rate unchanged at 0.5% for the sixth month in a row.