AP - A barrage of bad news including yet another record high for oil drove stocks sharply lower Thursday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 360 points to their lowest level in almost two years.

AP - Wall Street companies scaled back their borrowing from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending program over the past week, while commercial banks stepped it up.

Reuters - General Motors Corp's assurance on Thursday that it has sufficient liquidity did not prevent credit investors pricing in a 75 percent chance that the largest U.S. automaker would default on its debt in the next five years.

AP - Stocks plunged Thursday as Wall Street contended with a barrage of bad news: another surge in oil prices and warnings of trouble in the key financial, automotive and high-tech industries. The major indexes showed losses of about 2 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which shed more than 300 points and dropped to its lowest level in nearly two years.

Reuters - The pace of existing home sales rose in May to a 4.99 million-unit annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said in a report on Thursday that slightly beat analyst expectations.

Reuters - Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose in May and the glut of homes for sale shrank, but prices were off sharply from a year ago, suggesting the housing sector remains a big weight on the economy.

AFP - Oil prices slid Wednesday after official data revealed an unexpected rise in crude stockpiles in the United States, the world's biggest energy consumer, traders said.