UNEMPLOYMENT

U.S. employment growth ground to a halt in August as sagging confidence discouraged already skittish businesses from hiring, piling pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more stimulus to aid the economy.

Stocks of large financial companies, such as Bank of American and Goldman Sachs, have taken a pounding Friday over a likely lawsuit concerning mortgage sales.

Where do President Barack Obama and the Republican presidential candidates stand on the U.S. economy? Here's a summary of their differing proposals.

The DoJ opposes the $39-billion deal, largely on anti-trust grounds, but also cited that such a transaction would cost thousands of jobs -- in an economy that simply cannot withstand anymore job losses.

Give credit to the co-manager of trading at Themis Trading, Sal Arnuk, for encapsulating Friday's lousy economic data, slumping stock market and clueless American president.

A 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocks Alaska, U.S. employment numbers completely stagnate in July, Kiss front man Gene Simmons is finally getting married, and more in today's Daily Scoop.

In the opening minutes of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq are all down about 1.80 percent.

Employment growth ground to a halt in August as sagging consumer confidence discouraged already skittish U.S. businesses from hiring, keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary stimulus to aid the economy.

The U.S. economy created no net new jobs in August -- a disappointing report that will likely increase pressure on the U.S. Federal Reserve to deploy additional monetary tactics to help rev-up GDP growth to create the millions of jobs the nation needs. Also, the unemployment rate remained the same, at an eye-sore level of 9.1 percent.

U.S. employment growth ground to a halt in August as sagging consumer confidence discouraged already skittish U.S. businesses from hiring, keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary stimulus to aid the economy.

Amid a dismal August jobs report Friday that showed a net zero jobs were created in the U.S. last month, fueling concerns that the nation is heading for another recession, pressure mounts on President Barack Obama ahead of his major jobs speech before Congress on Sept. 8.

The Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Friday that America needs “a major adjustment in the occupancy of the White House.”

College graduates in debt-stricken Portugal have been migrating in large numbers to its former colonies such as Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique to find work

Sagging consumer confidence probably discouraged already skittish U.S. businesses from stepping up hiring in August, keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary stimulus to aid the economy.

Sagging consumer confidence probably discouraged already skittish U.S. businesses from stepping up hiring in August, keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary stimulus to aid the economy.

Manufacturing unexpectedly grew in August and fewer Americans filed new claims for jobless aid last week despite a slump in confidence that threatened to push the economy back into recession.

Although the nation's unemployment rate currently stands at 9.1 percent, the U.S. refused to be swayed by AT&T's offer of job creation, and has moved to block the merger between the telecom giants.

President Barack Obama didn't mind move the date of his major jobs speech before Congress for Republicans, and now he's planning to get it over in time on Sept. 8 so that it doesn't conflict with the season-opening NFL game that night between the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints.

Sluggish growth and stubbornly high unemployment will continue to plague the economy next year, according to a Office of Management and Budget analysis that offered a potentially grim portent of President Barack Obama's re-election chances.

The combination would also cut down the number of big-time players in the sector to just three: AT&T, Verizon (NYSE: VZ), and Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S).

The pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector ticked down to a crawl in August, faring better than economists had forecast but remaining at the lowest level in two years, an industry report showed on Thursday.