One of the leading banks in United States, Bank of America is to take over the country's biggest mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, in a 4 billion US dollars deal.
United States securities regulators are reviewing whether investment banks' trades in shares of companies linked to merger and acquisition deals they were advising were based on coincidence or inside information, according to The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
United States seems intent in re-tracking relations with Argentina following the Kirchner administration fierce criticism of the US government for allegedly implementing a garbage operation to smear Argentine authorities.
The International Monetary Fund sees the US economy avoiding recession, despite financial sector turmoil and a housing sector slump. IMF praises actions taken by the US Federal Reserve as supportive and timely.
The United States trade deficit widened a sharp 9.3% in November to a larger-than-expected 63.1 billion US dollars, the highest in 14 months, mainly on soaring crude oil costs, reported the US Department of Commerce.
Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke has said that the outlook for the US economy in 2008 has worsened.
The feared recession in the US economy has already arrived, according to a report from Merrill Lynch. It said that Friday's employment report, which sent shares tumbling worldwide, confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession.
Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee have won their party caucuses in the US state of Iowa, the first test in the race to choose the candidates for president.
Toyota Motor Corp. overtook Ford Motor Co. to become the No. 2 automaker by U.S. sales in 2007, using new products and relentless strategy to break Ford's 75-year lock on the position. General Motors remained the US sales leader with 3.82 million vehicles.
The United States manufacturing sector will face turbulent times next year due in large part to the continuing housing collapse. As a result, the economic landscape will remain highly volatile in 2008 before rebounding in 2009, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI Quarterly Industrial Outlook, a report that analyzes 27 major industries.