Financial 411: This Week's Business and Economic News
More mixed news about the nation's economy. First, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that new home sales in August were the second-slowest on record. The annual sales pace last month was just 288,000 homes -- unchanged from July. Economists had forecast sales would increase. The Commerce Department also reported today that U.S. businesses increased purchases of business equipment -- from computers to machinery -- in August. The increase came after sales fell in July.
Investors on Wall Street chose to focus on this second report, as a sign that the economic recovery could be stabilizing. Stocks finished up at the end of trading today. The Dow Jones closed at 10,860, up nearly 200 points, or 2 percent. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 also rose more than 2 percent.
Citigroup will settle charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission over accusations it hid its exposure to subprime mortgage debt from investors -- and a judge has given her approval to the $75 million deal. That's according to The New York Times. But the judge has also inserted a number of caveats, including compensation for shareholders who lost money. The bank and the SEC have two weeks to ratify the new language.
This week, Republicans signed a "Pledge to America" that they say will restore the nation's economy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a hiring freeze at city agencies and two television networks announced personnel shakeups at the top. Greg David, director of the Business & Economics Reporting Program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, discusses this week's news. He also gives his thoughts on the sequel to the 1987 movie "Wall Street."
