Reuters - Record high U.S. gas prices threaten a new level of pain for casual dining restaurants stuck between value-oriented fast food and high-end eateries whose customers can afford to shrug off the economy's woes.

Reuters - Manufacturing contracted in May for the fourth consecutive month and inflation pressures surged to their highest in four years, heightening fears the world's largest economy could be sliding toward stagflation.

Reuters - Standard & Poor's in a sweeping move on Monday that rocked markets cut ratings on a number of major U.S. securities firms including Lehman Brothers Inc and said outlooks on the large U.S. financial institutions are now mostly negative.

AP - Gasoline held steady near an average $3.98 a gallon at the pump Monday as a recent slide in oil futures stalled gas' advance to the $4 mark. Oil prices, meanwhile, rose on concerns about heating oil supplies and after an OPEC official said there's no need for the cartel to pump more oil.

AP - Brent Saba had just dropped a church group off at Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday morning and was heading north on Interstate 95 when it happened: His 15-passenger van ran out of gas.

Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Sunday leaders of Gulf oil producing states had told him that abandoning their currency pegs to the dollar will not solve their inflation problems.

Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Saturday the dollar peg for currencies in the Gulf Arab countries had served the region well and any changes to the peg would be a sovereign matter.

Reuters - 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 - 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 - 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.