Reuters - U.S. consumer confidence fell to a 28-year low in May, a survey showed on Friday, as soaring prices for food and fuel soured sentiment and pushed long-term inflation expectations to the highest in more than a decade.

Reuters - Bear Stearns' two top economists, David Malpass and John Ryding, will not join JPMorgan Chase & Co, which is set to close its purchase of Bear, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.

AP - Americans are shell-shocked at $4-a-gallon gas. But consider France, where a gallon of petrol runs nearly $10. Or Turkey, where it's more than $11.

AP - Feeling woozy about the fortune you've just pumped into your gas tank? Drivers around the world share the sensation.

AP - The first round of economic stimulus checks gave a boost to personal incomes in April but a huge question remains: Will people spend the checks quickly enough to keep the economy afloat?

AP - The reality of rising fuel prices cost students in a Tennessee school district their bus ride to school this week on the last day of the year.

Reuters - Personal spending rose by 0.2 percent in April as forecast and a key gauge of core inflation slowed, government data on Friday showed, but real spending adjusted for higher inflation overall stagnated.

Reuters - Business activity in New York City grew in May for the first time in four months, helped in part by easing worry over credit conditions, according to an industry report released on Friday.

AP - Retail gas prices jumped a cent Friday to a new national average over $3.96 a gallon, putting them on a course to hit $4 by early next week. Oil futures, meanwhile, traded in a narrow range as investors tried to determine whether recent price declines were temporary.

Reuters - U.S. consumer confidence fell to a 28-year low in May, a survey showed on Friday, as soaring prices for food and fuel soured sentiment and pushed long-term inflation expectations to the highest in more than a decade.

Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday he has some problems with the housing rescue plan under consideration in the U.S. Senate, but will work to craft a bill that President George W. Bush can sign.

AP - The first round of economic stimulus checks gave a boost to personal incomes in April but a huge question remains: Will people spend the checks quickly enough to keep the economy afloat?

AFP - The US economy grew at an annual 0.9 percent pace in the first quarter of the year, the government said Thursday in an upward revision that calmed the nerves of some economists.