Ben Bernanke said in a letter to an influential New York Senator that the Federal Reserve is ready to act as needed to help the US economy if the current market turmoil spills over into the broader economy.
United States shares recovered Wednesday almost all of Tuesday's heavy falls with the Dow Jones index gaining 1.9% as investors looked to pick up bargains. Increased hopes that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates following a letter from Chairman Ben Bernanke buoyed investors
Improved trade and investment figures helped the US economy grow at an annual rate of 4% in the second quarter, according to the latest release from the Commerce Department.
Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega can be extradited to France after completing his U.S. prison sentence on a 1992 drug trafficking conviction, according to a Tuesday ruling from a US federal judge.
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).
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.
World markets on Friday reacted firmly back to positive following the Federal Reserve announcement that it would cut the rate at which it lends banks to inject more liquidity into the financial system
United States Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the current turmoil in financial markets will slow economic growth but should not spark a recession, according to a report published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.
Global markets plunged again on Thursday with London's main FTSE 100 index seeing its sharpest fall in four-and-a-half years, but in New York Wall Street shares staged a dramatic recovery after suffering heavy losses earlier in the day.