Reuters - A rescue for the U.S. financial system unraveled on Thursday amid accusations Republican presidential candidate John McCain scuppered the deal, and Washington Mutual was closed by U.S. authorities and its assets sold in America's biggest ever bank failure.

Reuters - HSBC Holdings , Europe's biggest bank, said on Friday it was cutting 1,100 jobs in its global banking and markets operation, or 4 percent of the unit's total, as it weathers the global financial crisis.

Reuters - Washington Mutual Inc was closed by the U.S. government in by far the largest failure of a U.S. bank, and its banking assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.9 billion.

Reuters - General Electric Co warned that turmoil in global credit markets could drive profit down as much as 12 percent this year, confirming Wall Street's fears about the vulnerability of the company's finance arm.

Reuters - Orders for costly U.S. manufactured goods plunged in August and new-home sales hit a 17-year low, while new claims for jobless benefits shot up last week, according to government reports on Thursday that showed the economy rapidly weakening.

Reuters - General Motors Corp Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said on Thursday that September U.S. auto sales were running about flat from August, but held out hope a federal auto loan package, tax breaks and a banking bailout, all pending in Congress, would support demand.

Reuters - Stocks soared on Thursday as Congress neared a deal on a $700 billion financial sector bailout that investors hope will thaw credit markets and revive lending.

Reuters - Lawmakers reached basic agreement on a massive financial bailout plan, lifting world stock markets, sending the dollar up and breathing life into troubled money markets.

AP - President Bush said Wednesday that lawmakers risk a cascade of wiped-out retirement savings, rising home foreclosures, lost jobs and closed businesses if they fail to act on a massive financial rescue plan. "Our entire economy is in danger," he said.

Reuters - Nike Inc quarterly earnings beat Wall Street estimates as the world's largest athletic footwear and apparel company reported robust U.S. sales and orders growth, sending its shares up 5 percent.

Reuters - An unusual surge in Goldman Sachs' share price in the last 10 minutes of trading on Tuesday raised eyebrows on Wall Street, as it came two hours before news of Warren Buffett's big investment in the bank.

Reuters - The Dow and S&P 500 edged lower on Wednesday as uncertainty about when Congress might approve a proposed $700 billion financial sector bailout offset Warren Buffett's $5 billion bet on Goldman Sachs.

Reuters - Congress looked close to reaching a deal to approve a $700 billion plan to bail out the U.S. financial system and President George W. Bush called an emergency meeting for Thursday to hammer out details.