Stocks News

Oil rose slightly on Friday as the dollar slumped following bleak employment data in the United States, the world's top energy consumer.

Standard & Poor's Announces Changes to U.S. Index Comtex NEW YORK, Nov 07, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Standard and Poor's will make the following changes to the S&P 500 index: -- Unisys Corp.

Zsolt Kerecsen, a 34-year-old software developer with three kids and a mortgage, is no high roller. But like thousands of other middle-class Hungarians he gambled by borrowing to buy a home in Swiss francs.

He's now paying a rising price as Hungary's forint _ the currency he gets paid in _ loses value during the global financial crisis. The currency fluctuations are making it harder to predict how many forints he will need each month to cover his mortgage payments.

'I'm definitely more worried now,' Kerecsen said, especially as his investments on the stock market also were hit hard. Just in the last few months, his monthly payments of around 110,000 forints ($550, 410 euros) have risen by as much as 20,000 forints ($100, 75 euros).

These reductions in personnel, along with strategic reductions in other noninterest expense areas, are expected to result in over $3 million in expense savings on an annualized basis.

U.S. and European stock markets rose Friday after two days of losses as stocks appeared excessively beaten down to some and U.S. unemployment data turned out better than the market's worst fears.

Asia markets also finished mostly higher, as did those in Latin America, with the exception of Argentina, where stocks sold off after lawmakers approved a plan to nationalize pension funds.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 248.02, or 2.85 percent, to 8,943.81 with investors hungry for bargains following the Dow's worst two-day performance in 20 years.

The Treasury official overseeing the government's $700 billion financial bailout plan on Friday defended banks that want to use federal money to buy competitors.

Net income for the Omaha, Nebraska-based insurance and investment company declined to $1.06 billion, or $682 per Class A share, from $4.55 billion, or $2,942, a year earlier.

The former heads of the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland have called for the resignation of the chairman and chief executive of HBOS.

Regulators shut down Houston-based Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on Friday, bringing the number of failures of federally insured banks this year to 19.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Franklin Bank, which had $5.1 billion in assets and $3.7 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30, and of Security Pacific Bank, with $561.1 million in assets and $450.1 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.

The co-founder and chairman of parent Franklin Bank Corp., Lewis Ranieri, is credited with inventing mortgage-backed securities two decades ago, but apparently was unable to save his own company from getting ensnared in the home-loan bust.

Regulators shut down Houston-based Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on Friday, bringing the number of failures of federally insured banks this year to 19.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Franklin Bank, which had $5.1 billion in assets and $3.7 billion in deposits as of Sept. 30, and of Security Pacific Bank, with $561.1 million in assets and $450.1 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.

The co-founder and chairman of parent Franklin Bank Corp., Lewis Ranieri, is credited with inventing mortgage-backed securities two decades ago, but apparently was unable to save his own company from getting ensnared in the home-loan bust.