BRUSSELS (AP) -- The borrowing costs of both Spain and Italy dropped sharply in early trading Monday after the European Central Bank signaled it would intervene in the markets to keep the two countries' bond prices supported.The yield on Italy's 10-year bonds was down 0.44 percentage points to 5.56

PARIS (AFP) -- Financial chiefs and central bankers of the G7 nations early Monday pledged to "take all necessary measures to support financial stability and growth" as nervous global markets re-opened."We are committed to taking coordinated action where needed, to ensuring liquidity, and to support

TOKYO (AP) -- The world's leading economies on Sunday urgently discussed the stability of financial markets after a historic U.S. credit downgrade rattled investors already worried about European debt crises.Deputies from the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies talked by telephone Sunda

Rating agency says U.S. debt woes likely to continueWASHINGTON (AP) ― Standard & Poor’s says it downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating because it believes the U.S. will keep having problems getting its finances under control.S&P officials on Saturday defended their decision to drop the gover

 

The U.S. had its AAA credit rating downgraded for the first time by Standard & Poor’s, which slammed the nation’s political process and said lawmakers failed to cut spending enough to reduce record deficits. S&P dropped the ranking one level to AA+, after warning on July 14 that it would reduce the

NEW YORK (AP) -- Gripped by fear of a new recession, the stock market suffered its worst day Thursday since the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 500 points, its ninth-steepest decline.The sell-off wiped out the Dow's gains for 2011. It put the Dow

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama dodged a debt-ceiling fiasco Tuesday. He reacted with a wiped brow more than a victory lap, and with good reason.As Republicans gradually weigh a potential challenger, Obama's re-election bid faces daunting problems: high unemployment, a limping economy

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Moody's Investors Service said Tuesday that the United States will retain its triple-A bond rating following passage of legislation to boost the debt ceiling. But the agency put a “negative” outlook on the rating, raising the specter of a future downgrade.Moody's said in a stateme

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The U.S. avoided a feared and catastrophic default on the American debt, as lawmakers on Tuesday passed a measure that ties an agreement to raise the government's capacity to borrow to steep cuts in government spending.The Senate passed the measure Tuesday, a day after it passed th

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Monday night criticized a newly minted Republican plan to avert an unprecedented government default and said congressional leaders must produce a compromise that can reach his desk before the Aug. 2 deadline.“The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional government,” the president said in a hastily a

PARIS (AFP) -- Moody's Investors Service said on Monday it had downgraded Greece's sovereign debt rating by three notches, leaving it one away from default, and warned creditors would lose out from the latest bailout deal.The ratings agency said in a statement that it has "downgraded Greece's local- and foreign-currency bond ratings to Ca from Caa1 and has assigned a developing outlook to the rati