Reuters - Major automakers reported plunging U.S. sales for September -- led by a 34 percent slide at Ford Motor Co -- as an escalating credit crisis hit the slumping industry and raised new doubts about when the world's largest auto market would stabilize.

Reuters - General Electric Co plans to raise $15 billion through stock sales -- including $3 billion from Warren Buffett -- to improve liquidity and give it the option of more acquisitions at a time of intense market turmoil, the U.S. conglomerate said on Wednesday.

Reuters - U.S. securities regulators on Wednesday extended an emergency ban on short selling in more than 950 financial stocks to give Congress time to finish legislation to rescue the financial system.

Reuters - The U.S. Senate endorsed a revised $700 billion plan to tackle a financial crisis that has shaken world markets and drawn warnings of approaching economic catastrophe.

Reuters - Federal Reserve officials are weighing further interest rate cuts, even if Congress approves a $700 billion financial industry bailout, because of a worsening economic outlook, the Wall Street Journal said on Thursday. A rate cut is still far from certain, partly because of inflation worries, the WSJ said in an unsourced report on its website.

Reuters - Oil fell on Wednesday as U.S. government data showed supplies rising and global markets awaited a U.S. Senate vote on the financial sector rescue package.

Reuters - IBM shares tumbled 6 percent on Wednesday, their biggest drop in three years, on concern the world's biggest computer services company's results missed Wall Street targets in the quarter that ended Sept 30.

Reuters - French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde denied on Wednesday that France was planning a 300 billion euro ($424.4 billion) EU bank rescue package.

Reuters - A revised $700 billion U.S. financial bailout plan is significantly more likely to pass Congress, the White House said Wednesday, as European leaders scrambled to agree on their own bank rescue package.

Reuters - Stocks fell in choppy trading on Wednesday as tight credit markets and U.S. jobs weakness kept investors on edge before a Senate vote on a revamped rescue plan for the financial sector.

Reuters - General Motors Corp said on Wednesday that U.S. light vehicle sales fell 16 percent in September to 282,806 units, pressured by the sharp downturn in demand for light trucks.

Reuters - Wal-Mart Stores Inc is cutting prices on popular toys and ramping up the opening of Christmas shops in its U.S. stores as the retailer tries to win sales from cash-strapped shoppers ahead of what could be the worst holiday season in 17 years.

Reuters - President George W. Bush on Tuesday signed into law a mammoth spending bill to keep the government running until early March 2009 that includes a $25 billion loan package for troubled automakers.