AP - Wild gyrations on Wall Street, a loss of confidence in the U.S. banking system and worries the economy will be weak for some time are raising Americans' anxiety level.

AP - Arthur Levitt, the one-time chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, blamed his former agency Thursday for failures he said helped cause the financial meltdown.

Reuters - International Business Machines Corp , the biggest technology services company, said it expects to meet long-term profit forecasts despite economic turmoil, partly due to continued growth in emerging markets.

Reuters - Financial institutions ran to their lender of last resort for record amounts of cash in the latest week, under extreme pressure from the worst global financial crisis in a generation, Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday.

Reuters - Google Inc profits surpassed Wall Street quarterly forecasts, sending its shares up more than 10 percent as the Internet search and advertising leader held deepening economic gloom at bay.

Reuters - Equities rose across the world on Friday after encouraging earnings signals from technology firms such as IBM and a slowly improving tone in beleaguered short-term money markets helped ease recession fears.

Reuters - Asian policymakers held emergency talks to find ways to bolster their banks on Friday before a meeting between U.S. and French presidents that Nicolas Sarkozy said could help launch a "refoundation of capitalism."

Reuters - U.S. industrial output posted its biggest drop since 1974 in September, while a regional factory index slumped this month and labor markets showed softness, suggesting the economy has fallen into recession.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said a Web search advertising deal with Yahoo Inc makes economic sense and may still be possible, though the two sides are not in any discussions.

Reuters - Turmoil in housing and credit markets drove Citigroup Inc to its fourth straight quarterly loss, reflecting more than $13 billion of loan losses and write-downs for complex and risky debt.

Reuters - General Motors Corp will lay off 1,500 hourly workers at plants in Michigan and Delaware where it builds pickup trucks, large cars and a two-seat roadster due to slowing demand, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Reuters - The Dow and the S&P 500 slipped in a choppy session on Thursday, pressured by nervousness that the economy might be sliding into a recession.

Reuters - U.S. shoppers will spend more on holiday-related purchases this year, but that spending will increase by the lowest level in at least six years, according to a survey released by an industry trade group on Thursday.