AP - Orders to U.S. factories turned in the weakest performance in three months in May, reflecting slumping demand for autos, heavy machinery and steel.

Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Wednesday that high oil prices, further home price declines and capital markets turmoil will prolong the American economy's slowdown, while Europe and the UK were also showing signs of slower growth.

Reuters - Stocks extended losses on Wednesday as the price of oil hit a record, exacerbating concerns about the toll that soaring oil is taking on the economy and corporate profits.

Reuters - U.S. private employers slashed 79,000 jobs in June while planned layoffs at U.S. firms rose nearly 50 percent above year-ago levels, according to data that may spell bad news for a government payrolls report this week.

AFP - US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday that the US economy was enduring "a rough period" and warned that home foreclosures would likely remain high in the near future.

AP - Stocks gave up a brief rally Wednesday and resumed their sell-off after oil hit a new record and factory orders showed the weakest performance in three months in May.

AP - Nearly all the major automakers reported steep sales declines for June, but for General Motors at least there was consolation: Toyota, its leading international competition, had it worse.

Reuters - Manufacturing expanded in June for the first time in five months, helped by a weak dollar, but inflation pressures soared to their highest level since the stagflation-ravaged 1970s, according to a report that highlighted the bind facing policy-makers.

AP - High gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans' views on energy and the environment with more people now viewing oil drilling and new power plants as a greater priority than energy conservation than they did five months ago, according to a new survey.

AP - Each week, Ira Cooper opens a letter from another supplier with the same message as the last: We're raising our prices, effective immediately. We can't tell you how long the new prices will last.

Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Tuesday said the United States and Germany agreed that a breakthrough in the Doha round of trade talks would help control world food price inflation, but high oil prices required longer-term solutions.

Reuters - Soaring commodity costs are denting manufacturing activity in Asia and Europe and the outlook looks bleak as new orders drop off in the face of rising prices, surveys showed on Tuesday.

AP - The Federal Reserve has auctioned another $75 billion in loans to squeezed banks to help them overcome credit problems and announced it will provide a fresh batch of the loans this month.