AP - Energy market investors managed to win back modest gains Thursday following oil's big drop a day earlier, but again drove natural gas prices sharply lower as a three-week sell-off of that fuel continued unabated.

AP - Wall Street abruptly ended an earnings-driven rally and closed sharply lower Thursday after a steeper-than-expected decline in existing home sales and worries about the financial sector chilled the market's recent optimism. The major indexes fell about 2 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which lost more than 280 points.

Reuters - (Reuters) Futures for the Nasdaq were up 0.4 percent at 4:17 a.m. EDT on Friday while the the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P were both up 0.1 percent.

Reuters - Ford Motor Co posted a record $8.7 billion quarterly loss on Thursday as it wrote down the value of slumping truck and SUV operations and revamped plans in a bid to break its reliance on the gas-guzzlers that have been its franchise vehicles for a decade.

Reuters - Stocks fell on Thursday as a rise in oil's price and a report showing a drop in sales of existing U.S. homes to a 10-year low renewed worries about the economy and profit growth.

Reuters - Jobless claims jumped last week and the pace of existing home sales tumbled to a 10-year low as slowing growth hit hiring and a glut of unsold homes weighed on the real estate market, data on Thursday showed.

AP - The number of newly laid off people filing claims for unemployment benefits bolted past 400,000 last week as companies trimmed their work forces to cope with a slowing economy and fallout from a collapsed housing market.

AFP - US home sales fell another 2.6 percent in June as inventories rose and prices fell with buyers still hesitant in the face of a horrific market slump, industry data showed Thursday.

AP - Sales of existing homes fell more sharply than expected in June as the housing industry continued to be bruised by the worst slump in more than two decades.

AP - Stocks skidded lower Thursday after a steeper-than-expected decline in existing home sales wiped away some of the market's optimism about upbeat earnings reports. The major indexes fell more than 1 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which fell more than 200 points.

AP - Energy market investors tried but failed to start a rally in crude Thursday, and continued to drive natural gas prices sharply lower as a three-week sell-off of that fuel continued unabated.

Reuters - The United States faced increasing inflationary pressures in recent weeks amid slowing economic growth, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday, as it described conditions in some areas as "grim," "morose" or "bleak."