Stock futures point to opening gains of 1 percent

tock index futures pointed to a market rise of more than 1 percent at the open on Monday following four weeks of equity losses as stocksrebounded globally, led by defensive shares.

European stocks gained 2.1 percent, with defensive sectors such as pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and utilities leading a rally following last week's sharp losses. The MSCI world equity index rose 0.3 percent. .EU

Equities have been pressured by growing concerns about the economy, given a string of weaker-than-expected economic data and the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

Investors also looked ahead to a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday at the central bank's annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Some investors hope the Fed will announce new stimulus after the central bank promised earlier this month to keep interest rates near zero for at least two more years,

Wall Street sinks for fourth straight week

Wall Street ended a fourth week of losses on a down note on Friday as most buyers left the market before the weekend on growing fears of another U.S. recession and destabilization in Europe's financial system.

Investors already reeling from big losses in growth stocks were thumped by a dismal outlook from Hewlett-Packard, which dropped nearly 20 percent, its worst day since the stock-market crash of 1987.

It was the latest discouraging event in a month full of bad surprises ranging from the U.S. credit rating downgrade to a sharp slowdown in world growth. The S&P has lost 13.1 percent so far this month -- on track for its worst month since October 2008.

"What I'm seeing right now is a basically a crisis of confidence,

Beaten-down Wall Street slammed by recession fears

  

Rising fears of another recession hammered U.S. stocks on Thursday, sending major averages sharply lower in a return to the extreme fluctuations investors endured a week ago.New worries about the health of European banks set the tone before the market's open, and a dismal report on regional U.S. manufacturing fueled a downward spiral in which the Dow dropped as much as 528 points, spurring a flight to safe-haven assets like gold.

The Nasdaq ended more than 5 percent lower, the S&P 500 more than 4 percent and the blue-chip Dow off more than 3 percent.

"Are we going to go into recession? Most market participants were looking for slow and steady growth, but the statistics and the financial situation here and in foreign economies have disturbed that view," said Richard Weiss, a Mountain View,

Fitch affirms U.S. AAA rating, disagrees with S&P

Fitch Ratings on Tuesday confirmed the United States' top-notch credit rating and, in blatant disagreement with rival Standard & Poor's, gave a vote of confidence to Washington's deficit-reduction efforts.

Fitch also kept a stable outlook on its U.S. AAA rating, less than two weeks after S&P downgraded the United States to AA-plus with a negative outlook.

The agency said, however, that it will revisit its decision at the end of the year. It threatened to slap a negative outlook on the rating at that time if lawmakers fail to implement the $2.1 trillion in savings that were agreed earlier this month or

China costs start to worry U.S. multinationals

For years, low prices on China-sourced goods helped dampen inflation in the United States. Now China's efforts to boost domestic consumer spending, reducing reliance on exports, are leading to higher costs for multinationals that manufacture goods there.

Eventually, China could export its inflation.

Conglomerates ranging from Emerson Electric (EMR.N) to Honeywell International (HON.N) feel pressure on margins from double-digit wage increases in China. So have toymaker Mattel (MAT.O), fast-food chain Yum! Brands (YUM.N) and computer maker Dell (DELL.O),

BofA talks to Gulf funds to cut $17 billion CCB stake: sources

Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) has held exploratory talks with the principal investment funds of Kuwait and Qatar about selling part of its $17 billion stake in China Construction Bank (0939.HK), three sources with direct knowledge of the talks told Reuters.

Bank of America, which owns about 10 percent of CCB's (601939.SS) Hong Kong-listed shares and is scurrying to raise capital for its mortgage-scarred balance sheet, will be contractually free to sell the bank shares after August 29.

BofA, the largest U.S. bank by assets,

U.S. stock futures rise in Asia but Europe will be key

U.S. stock futures rose 1.5 percent on Thursday after a sharp drop in the cash index overnight, limiting Asian share losses, though focus will shift quickly to how European markets hold up to a sovereign debt crisis that has spread to its banking system.

The Australian dollar, often a measure of investors' willingness to take risks, bounced toward $1.03 as Asian equities pulled back from their lows,

World stocks claw back ground on Fed rates pledge

World shares clawed back more ground on Wednesday as investors rattled by a run of heavy losses took comfort from the Federal Reserve's pledge to keep interest rates near zero for two more years.

They also welcomed data showing China's export growth accelerating in July, calming fears that weak demand from Europe and the United States would hit the world's second biggest economy.

The MSCI all-country world index, which has fallen as much as 20 percent from a May high, rose 1 percent. Emerging market shares were up more than 2 percent.

European equities gained around half a percent in choppy trade,

Chance of U.S. recession rises to 1-in-4

The United States faces one-in-four odds of slipping back into recession, and a weaker economic outlook is raising the likelihood the Federal Reserve will soon do more to boost growth, a Reuters poll shows.

The world's biggest economy is still expected to pick up in the second half of the year as it shakes off high gasoline prices and factory disruptions created by Japan's earthquake in March, according to the monthly survey of more than 70 economists.

But recession fears have risen substantially in recent weeks. Stocks on the S&P 500 .SPX plunged more than 6 percent on Monday after Standard & Poor's downgraded U.S. sovereign debt late on Friday,

Market rout deepens global economic crisis

The global economy stumbled deeper into crisis as stock markets slumped further on Tuesday, with investors losing confidence that the United States and Europe can rein in their debt burdens quickly and avert a double-dip recession.

Even as Asian equity markets pulled back from another day of staggering losses as they closed, European shares tumbled for an eighth session running, with news of an unexpected drop in British factory output in June highlighting the weakness of the economy.

The worsening market trauma has piled pressure on the U.S. Federal Reserve to announce fresh measures of support for the U.S. economy at a regular policy meeting on Tuesday, but analysts said its options are limited.

"You have got to a situation of capitulation and panic selling, and these things will keep running until we get some sort of policy response," said Peter Hickson,

China's Wen urges global action to calm markets

China's Premier Wen Jiabao urged nations to work together to stabilize turbulent financial markets on Tuesday as global stocks swooned on fears the world economy is headed for a downturn.

Speaking after a regular meeting by the Chinese cabinet, Wen alluded to debt problems in the United States and Europe and called on "relevant" countries to implement responsible monetary policy and rein in fiscal deficits.

His remarks marked the first public comment from Beijing on the rout in global markets in the past week following a downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating and Europe's worsening debt crisis.

In a sign that China may soften its policy stance in the face of mounting uncertainties,

Fed under pressure to act as world markets swoon

The Federal Reserve gathers on Tuesday under growing pressure to take some type of action to stem a financial market meltdown linked to fears of a new U.S. recession.

The trouble is, the Fed's policy toolkit looks rather depleted, making some question the likely effectiveness of any further monetary stimulus.

While most analysts expect the Federal Reserve to not make any major changes in policy at its meeting on Tuesday, some wonder whether market disruptions of recen

Obama: U.S. Will Always Be a Triple-A Country

President Barack Obama Monday blamed a downgrade in the United States' credit rating on political gridlock in Washington and said he would offer some recommendations on how to reduce federal deficits.

Obama stopped short of sharp criticism of Standard & Poor's for its downgrade of U.S. debt to AA-plus from AAA on Friday. Senior administration officials have accused S&P of going ahead with the downgrade despite a $2 trillion mathematical error.

``Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we have always been and always will be a triple-A country,'' Obama said.

As Obama spoke, stock markets were registering another steep decline,

Asia shares nosedive; gold scales another peak

Asian stock markets nosedived on Tuesday and the Swiss franc held near a record high, as investors dumped riskier assets in a global rout triggered by fears that political leaders are failing to tackle debt crises in Europe and the United States.

Major indexes across the region fell between 2 and 5 percent, following drop of more than 6 percent on Wall Street in the first trading session since the historic downgrade of the United States' AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor's.

The panicked flight-to-safety pushed gold to the latest in a string of record peaks, boosted the Swiss franc and the yen and lifted Japanese government bonds and, ironically,

S&P cuts Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae after U.S. downgrade

Standard & Poor's cut Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) and Fannie Mae's (FNMA.OB) long-term ratings one notch on Monday.

S&P said the downgrades from the top-notch Triple-A were due to its lowering of the U.S. sovereign credit rating late on Friday.

"The downgrades of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reflect their

ECB backs Italy and Spain in bid to halt euro crisis

The European Central Bank intervened dramatically in bond markets on Monday, backing up a verbal pledge to support Spain and Italy with action in an attempt to avert a financial meltdown in the euro zone.

Significant ECB bond-buying -- the only practical result of a weekend of frantic G7 and G20 crisis diplomacy -- forced down Italian and Spanish borrowing costs in an initial reaction.

But stock markets fell across the globe as investors rattled by a historic downgrade of the United States' credit rating piled out of shares and into safe haven assets such as gold and German bonds.

Traders said the ECB had bought some 700 million euros (995.7 million pounds) in Italian and Spanish debt by 3:30 a.m. EDT,

Debt issuers brace for impact from downgrade

A downgrade of United States' top-tier credit rating has Wall Street scrambling to figure out the knock-on effects for the financial system, from mortgages to banks to markets that rely on U.S. Treasuries for collateral.

The immediate effects of the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the country's AAA credit rating late on Friday are likely to be modest, largely because it was expected and already at least partly discounted, experts said.

Many downplayed the likelihood of the sort of financial contagion experienced when Lehman Brothers went under in September 2008. Few had expected it to have to file for bankruptcy, and few were prepared for the fallout. Money market funds froze,

World shares slide despite G7, ECB hopes boost euro

Shares tumbled on Monday despite efforts by global policymakers to stem a collapse in investor confidence after S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating, but the euro jumped on hopes the ECB will act to stop Europe's debt crisis from engulfingItaly and Spain.

Major Asian equity markets fell by 2-4 percent, with South Korea slumping more than 7 percent at one point.

S&P 500 futures shed 2.6 percent, indicating no respite for Wall Street, and financial bookmakers predicted the main European markets would open down 1-2 percent. .N .EU

Fears that the world's largest economy may be sliding back into recession, worries about a downgrade of the U.S. AAA rating and Europe's

U.S. Stock Futures Tumble After Ratings Cut

U.S. stock futures fell sharply on Sunday following the steepest weekly retreat since 2008 as traders reacted to Standard & Poor's downgrade of America's credit rating and ongoing concerns over the euro zone debt crisis. 

In early trading Sunday evening, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures plummeted 258 points to 11,144, S&P 500 futures tumbled 27.8 points to 1,170 and Nasdaq 100 futures slid 45.8 points to 2,141. 

                                                                                                                                       
For the first time in history, S&P cut America's top-notch credit rating one notch to AA-plus

Wall Street braces for impact from downgrade

 A downgrade of United States' top-tier credit rating has Wall Street scrambling to figure out the knock-on effects for the financial system, from mortgages to banks to markets that rely on U.S. Treasuries for collateral.

The immediate effects of the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the country's AAA credit rating late on Friday are likely to be modest, largely because it was expected and already at least partly discounted, experts said.

Many downplayed the likelihood of the sort of financial contagion experienced when Lehman Brothers went under in September 2008. Few had expected it to have to file for bankruptcy, and few were prepared for the fallout. Money market funds froze,