European indexes followed Asian markets lower, with trading gaining momentum as Britain and the U.S. come back from a long weekend.
The International Monetary Fund has said Russia's GDP could drop as much as 6% this year — the most pessimistic outlook so far.
Trailing California in over-the-month job losses were: Texas, which saw 39,500 jobs vanish; Michigan, which lost 38,400 jobs; and Ohio, where payrolls fell 25,200, according to a U.S. Labor Department report issued today.
The cost of three-month dollar loans slid to a new record low today after Bank of America Corp. said it had raised around $13.5 billion to shore up its capital position.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says a new public-private partnership to help U.S. banks shed their bad assets will begin operating in the next six weeks.
Consumer prices were unchanged in April as both food and energy costs declined to offset gains elsewhere. Prices over the past year fell by the largest amount in more than a half-century.
Germany saw output plunge by 3.8% as demand for its cars and factory machinery collapsed.
MBIA Inc. is the target of a lawsuit by a group of 18 financial institutions claiming that the bond insurer's separation of its businesses early this year was fraudulent, The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday.
The financial health of Social Security and Medicare, the government's two biggest benefit programs, worsened in the past year because of the severe recession.
The European Central Bank cut its main interest rate by a quarter point to 1 percent Thursday and is poised to unveil more measures to help boost the 16-nation euro zone economy.
