The US Treasury has stopped re-investing in a retirement fund, a major step in its efforts to avoid exceeding the debt ceiling.
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/ 8 September 2011
US stocks rallied for the first time in three days after a German court backed the country’s role in bailing out other European countries.
Record high oil prices at a barrel deepened worries about inflation on Thursday and weighed on some Asian stocks although Japanese shares ended slightly higher, as dealers trimmed their bets on further weakness. The dollar trudged higher against the euro after earlier hitting a one-month low after the Federal Reserve slashed its United States 2008 growth forecast
Oil set new record highs above a barrel on Tuesday as investors sought to hedge against a battered dollar. United States crude rose by ,80 to ,56 a barrel at 2.05pm GMT, after touching a record high of ,93. London Brent crude was up by ,91 at ,75, after a record high of ,85.
The head of the crisis-hit investment bank Bear Stearns has blamed short sellers and market manipulators for spreading negative financial rumours to induce a collapse of the 85-year-old Wall Street institution. Bear’s chief executive, Alan Schwartz, told the senate’s finance committee in Washington that his firm had been as well-capitalised as its rivals.
China is too far down the road toward a market economy to turn back from reforms now, even if United States financial market turmoil is causing it some qualms, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Thursday. Paulson told reporters the biggest threat to continued reforms came from firms in China that want to be protected against competition.
China urged the United States to understand the true nature of the Dalai Lama clique — which it blames for stirring up last month’s violence in Tibet — and support China’s ”just position”, state media said on Thursday. China blames Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, whom it labels a separatist, for stirring up the Lhasa violence.
High food prices around the world? Blame — at least in part — the investors who moved their money into commodities in the past five years, looking for better returns than they were getting from stocks and bonds. Global investment funds saw the potential for profits in commodities outstripping those from the stock market, and from 2002 started diving into oil.
JP Morgan Chase set a deal to buy stricken rival Bear Stearns for a rock-bottom price, while the United States Federal Reserve expanded lending to securities firms for the first time since the Great Depression to prop up the financial system. The shock news, the biggest sign yet of how devastating the credit crisis is for Wall Street, slammed the US dollar to a record low against the euro,
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/ 30 January 2008
United States growth skidded lower in the fourth quarter and was the weakest in five years for all of 2007, according to a government report on Wednesday that highlighted the toll an enfeebled housing sector has taken on the national economy. The dollar’s value declined against other major currencies on the soft GDP data.
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/ 15 January 2008
The price of gold is hitting new record highs owing to the troubled United States economy and a cocktail of other supportive factors, leading some analysts to predict  000 per ounce could happen soon. In recent days the precious metal has blasted past in a record-breaking run. On the London Bullion Market on Monday, gold blazed a trail as high as ,30 dollars per ounce.
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/ 19 November 2007
The momentum towards regional integration in East Africa received encouragement from the United States this week, with US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson saying that it should boost economic growth in the five-member East Africa bloc. "This is a region that has showed great economic growth over the last couple of years," he said.
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/ 4 November 2007
Citigroup chief executive Charles Prince plans to resign this weekend, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday, as the widening subprime mortgage crisis brings to an end the reign of Sanford Weill’s troubled successor. The largest United States bank by assets plans to hold an emergency board meeting on Sunday, at which Prince will step down.
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/ 28 September 2007
United States President George Bush on Friday called for a ”strong and transparent” way for nations to measure progress on fighting climate change, but said each country should set its own approach. In a speech to a US-sponsored conference of major emitting countries, Bush also called for the creation of a global fund to promote clean technology.
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/ 12 September 2007
The dollar plunged to a record low against the euro on Wednesday as an expected interest-rate cut next week from the Federal Reserve has dampened the United States currency’s appeal. The dollar also dropped to a fresh 15-year trough against a basket of currencies.
United States President George Bush will outline reforms on Friday to help struggling subprime mortgage borrowers and his central bank chief will deliver a speech which will be pored over for hints of a looming rate cut. Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke speaks on ”Housing and Monetary Policy” at around 2pm GMT.