Oil rose above $76 a barrel in choppy trade on Wednesday, but remained on course for its first quarterly decline since 2008 as stresses in financial markets and weak employment numbers weighed on the pace of recovery.
Refinancing drove total U.S. mortgage applications to an eight-month peak, as loan rates fell to or near record lows, but demand to buy homes sank toward 13-year lows last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.
Ford Motor Co said on Wednesday it was reducing its debt by $4 billion, and has cleared $7 billion of debt from its overloaded balance sheet this quarter.
The former head of the American International Group unit that precipitated a $182 billion bailout pledge from taxpayers stood by a 2007 proclamation that the insurer would not lose even a dollar on a portfolio of securities that included subprime mortgages.
Global rice ending stocks for 2009-10 are expected to be 90.4 million tons against the early estimation due to the lower export by the major growers, said International Grain Council. However, the global rice production is projected to decline in 2009-10 owing to poor output in countries such as India, where worst drought impacted the production, IGC noted.
Oil rose by one percent on Wednesday to move back above $76 a barrel, but was still headed for its first quarterly drop since 2008 as stresses in financial markets weighed on expectations about the pace of recovery.
Goldman Sachs and bailed out insurer American International Group face a rough two days of questioning about the destructive relationship that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis.
Stock index futures rose on Wednesday, rebounding from a steep sell-off, as investors were comforted that European banks were less reliant on funding from the European Central Bank.
Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4 to 0.5 percent, pointing to a firmer start on Wall Street on Wednesday, after steep losses in the previous session.
Gold steadied in Europe on Wednesday, giving up early gains, after relatively low demand at the European Central Bank's latest bank refinancing operations eased some concerns over euro zone bank finances.
Asian stocks fell on Wednesday and ended the second quarter with their worst performance since the collapse of Lehman Brothers as investors got out of shares and high-yielding currencies on concerns over bank funding in Europe.
The euro rebounded on Wednesday after two days of steep losses, but investors remained worried about the global recovery and concerned the European Central Bank may be pulling back emergency funds too quickly.
The yen kept the euro and the Australian dollar pinned down near lows on Wednesday, after a heavy round of leveraged trade unwinding, and the euro also struggled above a record low on the safe-haven Swiss franc.
Oil edged lower on Wednesday, heading for its first quarterly drop since 2008 as risk aversion over Europe's debt crisis offset the effect of rising demand in the United States and China, the world's top two consumers.
The euro and Australian dollar edged up against the yen but stayed near recent lows on Wednesday, after a heavy round of leveraged trade unwinding, while the euro was also within range of a record low on the safe-haven Swiss franc.
Gold gained on Wednesday after holdings in the world's largest bullion-backed ETF hit another record as investors sought safety from tumbling stock markets.
Asian stocks slid and the euro struggled near a two-week low on Wednesday as investors unwound risky positions before the quarter-end amid heightened concerns over banks' funding conditions in Europe.
Gold prices advanced further in Asian trade Wednesday mainly on weak stocks amid rising concerns over Europe's credit crisis and weak US economy.
Democrats on Tuesday stripped out a controversial $17.9 billion tax from their landmark financial reform bill in a scramble to win the votes needed to pass it through Congress.
Bank of America has leap-frogged U.S. rival JPMorgan to rank as the world's top bank in terms of capital strength while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tops the profit league, according to a new study.
Venezuela's parliament declared on Tuesday that 11 oil rigs seized from U.S. company Helmerich and Payne were now state-owned property, formalizing a move by the government to nationalize them.
U.S. companies could face as much as $1 trillion in additional costs as a result of new laws designed to reduce risks in the $450 trillion, privately traded derivatives market, a derivatives trade group said on Tuesday.
