Reuters - The Nasdaq rose on Thursday as top technology companies and other exporters benefited from tumbling oil prices, seen as easing strains on global economic growth.

Reuters - Congress should examine preferential loans to two Senate Democrats, including the sponsor of a major housing bill, by mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp, a senior Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday.

AP - Rates on 30-year mortgages kept surging this week, rising to the highest level in nearly nine months, reflecting more concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do to combat a growing inflation threat.

AP - More than 400 real estate industry players have been indicted since March — including dozens over the last two days — in a Justice Department crackdown on incidents of mortgage fraud nationwide that have contributed to the country's housing crisis.

AFP - Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers were indicted Thursday, officials said as they unveiled charges against more than 400 people in a wide-ranging probe of mortgage abuses during the US housing boom.

Reuters - The Senate will begin debate on a major housing market rescue bill on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Wednesday, spurning calls for delay by Republicans who cited concerns about a controversy involving two Democrats and a mortgage lender.

Reuters - Soaring energy costs pushed U.S. producer prices up sharply last month and housing starts fell to 17-year low, according to data on Tuesday that spotlighted the dilemma the Federal Reserve's faces in trying to tackle weak economic growth amid high inflation.

Reuters - Stocks fell on Tuesday after a major brokerage warned that U.S. banks would have to raise as much as $65 billion in capital to shore up balance sheets weakened by the mortgage crisis.

Reuters - Citigroup Inc has offered early retirement to the 1,350 employees of its Japanese consumer finance unit, as the subprime-hit U.S. bank retreats from consumer lending in the world's second-largest economy.

Reuters - U.S. housing starts slid 3.3 percent in May to their lowest level in more than 17 years, while permits for future construction also fell, signaling more weakness ahead for the battered U.S. housing sector.

AFP - US housing starts slid 3.3 percent in May to the slowest pace in 17 years amid a prolonged slump in the real-estate sector, government data showed Tuesday.