LONDON (AP) — Stocks fell sharply worldwide Monday following declines on Wall Street last week amid investor pessimism over the U.S. government’s stimulus plan to prevent a recession.
U.S. markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but the downbeat mood from last week’s market declines there circled through Europe, Asia and the Americas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hiring practically stalled in December, driving the nation’s unemployment rate up to 5 percent, a two-year high. The new figures fan fears the economy could slide into a recession.
Last month, employers added the fewest new jobs to their payrolls in more than four years, said the jobs report released Friday by the Labor Department. The report also showed that employment conditions are deteriorating, strained by a housing slump and credit crunch that are sapping economic strength.
THE Dow soared 200 points in a Christmas rush on Friday that belied emerging details that US banking, mortgage companies and credit rating faced collapse while the nation’s mortgage insurance industry plunged into chaos.
Nearly 180,000 US local councils were placed on credit watch, with the credit agency Fitch releasing another $US5.3 billion in credit downgrades involving 27 mortgage companies. The news emerged on Friday night, when the nation’s newspapers, even if they were following the story, would miss it.
So it was that Henry Paulson came up with an idea… the ‘teaser freezer‘ plan. The ARM teaser freezer is being sold to the public as a way to protect homeowners. But it has another purpose, says a reporter from the San Francisco Gate, to help save the banks from their own bad judgment.
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