AFP - The global economy could contract for the first time in 60 years in 2009, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned on Tuesday.

AP - European stock markets rallied Monday on hopes that the worst may be over for Citigroup Inc. after a leaked memo from the company's chief executive Vikram Pandit indicated that the troubled U.S. banking giant enjoyed its best financial performance in over a year during the first two months of 2009.

AFP - European stock markets surged 3.0 percent in mid-afternoon trade Tuesday following a strong opening on Wall Street, where troubled banking giant Citigroup offered an upbeat profit outlook and raised investor confidence.

AFP - The FTSE 100 index surged in mid afternoon Tuesday, adding 4.88 percent to finish at 3,715.23 points on strong gains in the finance sector.

AP - Wall Street got some good news from Citigroup, and responded with a huge rally.

Reuters - Stocks rallied strongly on Tuesday after Citigroup said it was profitable in the first two months of 2009 and a key lawmaker said he expects the reinstatement of a rule that hinders bets a stock will fall.

AP - The election of Barack Obama offered the promise of a new set of fixes for the financial crisis and the economy, a do-over that might help nurse the stock market back to health.

AP - Investors fixated on the faltering economy brushed off the type of merger news that normally starts rallies.

AP - Investors fixated on the faltering economy Monday brushed off the type of merger news that normally starts rallies. Uneasiness about the economy eclipsed a bounce in troubled financial stocks as well as news of a merger between drugmakers Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. Stocks rose in the early going but turned lower in a now familiar pattern where short-lived bursts of optimism give way to concerns about the country's economic woes.

Reuters - U.S. stocks fell in choppy trade and the Nasdaq slid to a fresh 6 and 1/2-year low on Monday as shares of the biggest drugmakers fell after Merck's proposed a $41 billion takeover of Schering-Plough .