Federal Reservations

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks Thursday flirted with losses after a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia threw some cold water on optimism following Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley results, and a drop in jobless claims to 352,000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average turned lower and recently traded with less than a point loss at 12,578.76. The S&P 500 was up less than 2 points at 1,310. The Nasdaq Composite rose 11 points to 2,780. The Philly Fed's manufacturing index edged up to a reading of 7.3 January, short of the 9.3 expected by economists polled by MarketWatch.

Originally from MarketWatch

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (Reuters) The U.S. economy is unlikely to slip back into recession, and an improvement in recent indicators has been encouraging, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart said on Tuesday.

Originally from Reuters: Business News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures fell on Wednesday as investors waited to see if the Federal Reserve launches a fresh effort to boost the sluggish economy.

Originally from Reuters: Business News

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Tanking factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region helped send the Dow down 500 points at the low Thursday morning, and has increased pressure on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to step in to help America's ailing economy.

Manufacturing activity in the Philly region for July plunged to a -30.7, according to the latest survey by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve. The reading massively missed expectations. Consensus estimate was only looking for the index to slip to a reading of 1 from 3.2 in the prior month. Briefing.com only was predicting a decline to 0.

The latest reading of factory activity is comparable to the level seen in the spring of last year. New orders sunk to a low last seen in March 2009 and the reading on the employment component in the overall index retracted to October 2009 levels. ...

Originally from TheStreet

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Sunday downplayed the risk of a double-dip recession in the United States, saying its domestic economy was in better shape compared to its European peers.

Originally from Reuters: Business News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures dipped on Wednesday as investors were cautious on what direction the Federal Reserve would take to deal with renewed weakness in the economy.

Originally from Reuters: Business News

After six straight down weeks the S&P 500 is down only 6% from its April peak. That’s not near enough to factor all the negatives into stock prices. Those negatives include the rapidly slowing U.S. economy, sharply rising global inflation, plunging global markets as central banks raise interest rates to ward off inflation, the cuts in government spending yet to hit the U.S. economy as Washington and individual states tackle their record budget deficits, and the end of the Fed’s QE2 stimulus program.

Originally from The Market Oracle

Forex Pros – Asian stock markets declined on Thursday, as concerns over the U.S. economic outlook weighed on market sentiment, while shares in Tokyo Electric Power Company plunged to a record low. <br /><br />During late Asian trade, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slumped 1.3%, South Korea’s Kospi Composite fell 0.57%, while Japan&rsquo;s Nikkei 225 Index shed 0.11%. <br /><br />In its Beige Book published Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said that the pace of the U.S. … [visit site to read more] or compare Best Credit Cards and Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Originally from DailyMarkets.com

Martin Hutchinson writes: Despite what U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in his speech at the International Monetary Conference yesterday (Tuesday), it looks very much like we're headed for a double-dip recession. Indeed, the economic reports of the last week or so demonstrate that the U.S. job machine was never really jump-started after the Great Recession of 2008-09.

Originally from The Market Oracle

Financial stocks are modestly lower after a scheduled speech by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on the U.S. economic outlook.

Originally from MarketWatch