A handful of big banks recovered from steeper losses earlier in the day Friday, following reports that President-elect Barack Obama will tap New York Fed President Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/money_latest/~4/FYe6byOFFhQ" height="1" width="1"/

At east 80,000 job losses were announced around the world this week as the global recession tightened its grip in virtually every business sector

pFiled under: a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/business/" rel="tag"Business/a/pdiv align="center"img width="490" vspace="4" hspace="0" height="207" border="1" align="top" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/11/artaxfail.jpg" /br //div Industry folks have been joking that a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/10/midway-report-76m-in-losses-for-q308-pins-q4-hope-on-mk-vs-dc/"Midway is the new Atari/a; however, while a href="http://joystiq.com/tag/atari"Atari/a is finding a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/17/revenue-results-show-infogrames-atari-continuing-its-comeback/"redemption/a in a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/18/atari-outlines-more-of-its-extreme-makeover/"rebirth/a, Midway continues to sink deeper into the Swamps of Sadness. The latest bit of bad news comes from the New York Stock Exchange, which has put the publisher on a href="http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/midway-gets-delisting-warning-from-nyse/?biz=1"notice/a for potential delisting.br /br /NYSE states that a href="http://joystiq.com/tag/midway"Midway/a needs a closing price of at least $1 over 30 consecutive days -- the stock is currently trading at about 25cent;. According to NYSE rules, the publisher has six months to save itself from delisting. At this time, the house of a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/30/midway-secures-booty-for-long-haul/"Booty/a has its financial future pinned on the performance of a href="http://www.joystiq.com/tag/mk-vs-dc"Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe/a and a href="http://www.joystiq.com/tag/wheelman"Wheelman/a. Do you have the heart to tell Midway how this will end?p style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/21/midway-receives-delisting-notice-from-nyse/"Midway receives delisting notice from NYSE/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.joystiq.com"Joystiq/a on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:45:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./pp style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"nbsp;/ppa href=http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/midway-gets-delisting-warning-from-nyse/?biz=1Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/21/midway-receives-delisting-notice-from-nyse/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/forward/1379268/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/21/midway-receives-delisting-notice-from-nyse/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/cyZjfYoULW-QwTULaoG6CnxiQ9g/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/cyZjfYoULW-QwTULaoG6CnxiQ9g/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=07GCfQmp"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=07GCfQmp" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=Nm04AYRH"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=Nm04AYRH" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~4/5ZbM63eernw" height="1" width="1"/

img src="http://www.edge-online.com/files/imagecache/article_homepage_large_144x108/mk_vs_dc_0.jpg" alt="Midway May be Delisted" title="Midway May be Delisted" class="imagecache imagecache-article_homepage_large_144x108" /br /pstrongMidway could be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange for failing to meet the standard for continued listing, the Chicago-based game maker said this week./strong/p pThe firm failed to meet the listing standard that requires NYSE-listed companies to maintain a minimum average closing price of $1 per share over 30 consecutive trading days./p p Company stock was 25 cents just prior to market opening Friday morning./p pMidway, publisher of the new Mortal Kombat vs. DC, has recently been subject to financial losses, layoffs and studio closures./p pa href="http://www.edge-online.com/news/midway-may-be-delisted"read more/a/p

Question: I'm retired and my 401(k) has lost approximately 35% over the past year. My financial adviser tells me to stay the course, but the losses keep mounting. What should I do? -Dale Marcos, Lafayette, Indiana pa href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/money_latest?a=rP7ee4"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/money_latest?i=rP7ee4" border="0"/img/a/pimg src="http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/money_latest/~4/460656743" height="1" width="1"/

Shares in London today made small gains against heavy falls suffered earlier this week, following a strong recovery in Asia where the Bank of Japan held interest rates at 0.3 per cent and said it would consider further capital injections.

Global markets have managed to turn themselves around despite a steady flow of dismal economic news that sparked sharp losses in early trade.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=MDBbO9C1"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=9ut2qXYu"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=9ut2qXYu" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=gsJOkZel"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=gsJOkZel" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/Elh-z6bfYWo" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/84645?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Brutal+share+sell-off+in+US+as+oil+falls+below+%2450+for+first+time+in+3%26frac12%3B+yearsch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=US+economy+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CMarket+turmoil%2CUS+news%2CWorld+news%2CSharesc5=Investments%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CUS+Economyc6=James+Doran%2CLarry+Elliottc7=2008_11_21c8=1121682c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=US+economyc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FUS+economy" width="1" height="1" //divpWall Street suffered its biggest battering in more than 10 years last night, while fears of a long and painful economic slump continued to stalk the markets./ppBoth stockmarket indices in the US - the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Standard Poor's 500 index - closed the day at levels not seen since before the burst of the dotcom bubble in 2000. And the price of oil dropped below $50 a barrel for the first time in 3frac12; years./ppYesterday afternoon, what little confidence remained in the market was sapped by a record rise in US unemployment, and Washington's refusal to offer a financial bail-out to the country's so-called Big Three carmakers./ppIn the final two hours of trading, the sell-off was brutal: the Dow plunged 444.99 points - or 5.6%- to 7552.29. The SP 500 slid 6.7% to 752.44, its lowest close since 1997. Banking shares were perhaps the hardest hit, with Citigroup closing the day down 26%. This latest share collapse left Citigroup - once the biggest bank in the world - with a market value of $25bn. Less than two years ago, the group was worth more than $250bn./ppGM And Ford both closed up but lost massive gains made earlier in the day when the prospect of a bail-out was still on the cards. Their share prices plunged as Paulson revealed his distaste for government intervention in the car market ./pp"No one thinks a failure of any company in [the auto] industry would be a good thing. It's something to be avoided," Paulson said. But: "It doesn't make any sense to put any money in, if there isn't a clear path to viability."/ppThe slumping markets were further buffeted by the worst unemployment data in the US for 16 years. /ppInitial claims for state unemployment benefits were a seasonally adjusted 542,000 in the week to November 15, compared with 515,000 a week before, the biggest weekly increase since 1992. /ppCalifornia had the worst increase, with 15,000 more out of work over the week. New York also posted record gains, with 3,700 newly unemployed people as a large number of layoffs from Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup begin./pp"These numbers are rotten," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard Poor's in New York. He said California's losses were so high because many businesses had been affected by the recent wildfires. America's national unemployment rate is running at 6.5%, while total claims lasting more than one week broke through the 4m mark, to hit a 25-year high./ppTo compound it all, the dollar weakened further still against major currencies. A euro cost $1.2534, up from $1.2526 on Wednesday. /ppIn the oil market, the cost of a barrel of benchmark Brent crude fell by almost $3 to $49.83 on commodity markets. US light crude, which tends to be slightly dearer than Brent, briefly dipped below the $50 level in New York trading./ppThe slump means British motorists are likely to see petrol prices come down by a further 7p a litre before Christmas./ppThe Opec oil cartel is contemplating supply curbs when it meets in Cairo next week, but oil analysts said the prospect of tumbling demand for oil outweighed any possible cut in production. /ppThe RAC said the tumbling cost of crude - dropping almost $100 a barrel since its July peak of more than $147 - would mean that it would be pound;17 cheaper to fill up the average car. But AA spokesman Luke Bodset warned that, while wholesale prices were being pushed down, "they are not necessarily being passed on to the consumer, because the pound has lost a quarter of its value over the last year"./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomy"US economy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/marketturmoil"Market turmoil/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/shares"Shares/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227235575618112102461559266"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227235575618112102461559266" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

Paul Walsh / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Recount, Day 2: Coleman, Franken trade gains, losses  —  Today is Day 2 in the Minnesota recount of ballots in the overtime election struggle between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken.  The candidates traded modest gains and losses throughout the day.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - News of fresh job cuts worldwide and a strong jump in US unemployment darkened the global economic outlook and sent financial markets into convulsions.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/43959?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Rolls-Royce+to+cut+2%2C000+jobs+after+aviation+downturnch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=Rolls-Royce+Group+%28Business%29%2CAutomotive+industry+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CRedundancy%2CPoliticsc5=Motoring%2CPersonal+Finance%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Marketsc6=Mark+Milnerc7=2008_11_21c8=1121534c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Rolls-Roycec13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FRolls-Royce" width="1" height="1" //divpBritish industry was hit by a further wave of job losses yesterday across the defence, aerospace and pharmaceutical sectors./ppThe aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce said it was planning to reduce its global workforce by up to 2,000 to cope with the global downturn and delays to the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A380./ppThe company has already opened talks over cutting 140 jobs at its Derby assembly and test facility and there are concerns there could be further job losses in Britain, which accounts for 60% of the company's 39,000-strong workforce./ppIn the defence sector, BAE Systems said it was cutting 200 jobs across plants within its armoured fighting vehicles business. The company's shipbuilding joint venture, BVT, is reducing the number of administrative positions by 300 - though BAE said natural wastage and vacancies meant it was only seeking 135 redundancies. /ppBVT, the company formed from the merger of VT shipbuilding with BAE's surface shipbuilding operations, is involved in constructing two new aircraft carriers and destroyers for the Royal Navy. BVT said the job losses were from cutting out duplication between the merged firms./ppElsewhere, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said 250 jobs would go in Macclesfield as part of a programme that will see 1,400 job losses and three plant closures in Europe over the next five years. The company said the job reductions, which will see factory closures in Spain, Belgium and Sweden, would improve the company's productivity and efficiency./ppMeanwhile, Arjowiggins began talks over the future of the 127 staff at Dartford Paper Mill in Kent./ppBAE Systems said its decision to shed 200 jobs at sites in Newcastle, Leeds, Leicester, Barrow and Telford had been prompted by a fall in the workload from the Ministry of Defences (MoD) armoured fighting vehicle programme. The announcement led to a political row, with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats attacking the government./ppLiam Fox, shadow secretary of state for defence, said: "Losing crucial defence jobs at a time when we are still involved in two conflicts abroad is testament to the incompetence and inefficiency of Labour's entire defence policy. The losers in this saga are British workers and British soldiers."/ppNick Harvey, Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, said: "The MoD's staggering incompetence over its armoured vehicle procurement programme now seems to be taking its toll on British jobs./pp"It is hard to believe that while our troops in Afghanistan are facing a crippling shortage of suitable vehicles, the jobs to make those vehicles are still being cut in the UK. The recession is already hitting jobs hard in Britain. The last thing we need is for this to be compounded by government incompetence."/ppAn MoD spokesman said: "BAE Systems continues to support our existing fleet of armoured fighting vehicles on operations and has the capacity to do so, but the terrain and threat in Afghanistan requires different types of vehicle such as Mastiff, Ridgback and Jackal, which are manufactured and integrated by different companies. We prioritise getting the right vehicles for current operations, with over pound;1bn spent on a wide range of vehicles." /ppRolls-Royce said it had looked at the potential impact of the global downturn as well as delays to the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787, for which it supplies engines. It said: "While it is too early to be specific about the precise implications for the number and location of job losses, the group's current assessment is that in 2009 it will be necessary to implement job reductions across the various sections and functions of around 1,500 to 2,000 on a worldwide basis, including the reduction announced today."/ppBernie Hamilton, of the Unite union, called the announcement "bitterly disappointing". "Rolls-Royce must take a measured approach ... In the past the company has cut too many jobs and struggled to meet the upturn in the market. Unite is urging the government to use the pre-budget report to support UK manufacturing and encourage companies to retain workers so when market conditions improve a skill shortage is not the outcome./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/rollsroycegroup"Rolls-Royce/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/automotive"Automotive industry/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/redundancy"Redundancy/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727892112100421654622"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Businesscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227227727892112100421654622" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

Economic downturns are hard for everyone, at both work and at home. Week after week there are requests for managers to further reduce budgets, lay off more people and cut projects that were previously classified as “necessary to sustain normal business operations.” These pressures forge managers made of diamond, and those who perform well in both boom and bust are destined for greatness. The very best managers get out ahead of downturns and take action early to minimize shareholder losses and, ideally, create shareholder value.

Here are six simple questions to determine if you are one of these managers.

• Do you treat economic hardships in your business as a time to relax, or do you look to improve your skills?
• Do you constantly push back when new budget cuts come along, or are you offering up cost savings ahead of requests from higher level executives?
• Do you complain that you are too short handed to accomplish your mission, or do you spend time developing tools, systems and metrics that help you determine how to get more done with less people?
• Are your top performers worried about losing their jobs, or do you spend time nurturing them and growing them to be even more successful in their positions?
• Do you complain that you need all of your folks, or are you constantly weeding your team of underperformers without replacing them when times are rough?
• Do you treat hiring freezes as interview freezes, or are you constantly looking to find bigger and better talent so that you can move quickly when it’s time to hire again?

These questions help illustrate some of the steps we believe define exemplary leaders and managers in tough economic times. Put more directly, we think that the following are some of the five things that great managers and leaders do during economic downturns that help prove they are “the best of the best”:

1. Upgrading skills. This can be anything from getting an additional degree in your area of expertise, to getting a degree in a field adjacent to yours (technologists getting an MBA or marketing folks deepening their technology), to taking continuing education courses or just taking some time to become current with your job through professional reading. The best leaders and managers see being “the best” as a journey rather than a destination. We cover this in more detail in “To Get Better You Must Practice.”

2. Make More with Less. Stop talking about being the best and prove it. Put the systems in place that allow you to measure how much shareholder value you create with every dollar you spend on headcount or systems. Show how you can do more next year with the same budget or — better yet — more with less money. If you aren’t doing this as a standard operating procedure, start doing it while the economy is struggling, and you will absolutely be seen as being one of the best.

3. Mind Your Flowers. Whether you are making difficult headcount cuts or not — but especially if you are — you need to take care of the folks who are creating the most shareholder value within your organization. Exit the economic downturn with your best people on your side — not the folks with the longest tenure but the folks who create the most value.

4. Weed Your Garden. The best managers during great times are always looking to remove underperformers from their teams and upgrade them with superior performers. The best managers during economic hard times are ahead of the headcount cuts with a list of the folks who should be removed from their team for poor performance. Don’t ask if other organizations are getting their fair share of cuts; focus on what’s right for the shareholder and get it done ahead of the request!

5. Get Ready for Spring Planting. It may not seem like it today, but things will turn around; if not for your current employer then for your next employer. You need to have that list of great talent with whom you’ve been interviewing ready so that you can quickly augment your existing team as the need arises, or build your next team if your current employer doesn’t survive the downturn. Leadership is as much about people as anything else, and great leaders focus on building great teams.

Marty Abbott and Michael Fisher are partners with AKF Partners.

Economic downturns are hard for everyone, at both work and at home. Week after week there are requests for managers to further reduce budgets, lay off more people and cut projects that were previously classified as “necessary to sustain normal business operations.” These pressures forge managers made of diamond, and those who perform well in both boom and bust are destined for greatness. The very best managers get out ahead of downturns and take action early to minimize shareholder losses and, ideally, create shareholder value.

Here are six simple questions to determine if you are one of these managers.

• Do you treat economic hardships in your business as a time to relax, or do you look to improve your skills?
• Do you constantly push back when new budget cuts come along, or are you offering up cost savings ahead of requests from higher level executives?
• Do you complain that you are too short handed to accomplish your mission, or do you spend time developing tools, systems and metrics that help you determine how to get more done with less people?
• Are your top performers worried about losing their jobs, or do you spend time nurturing them and growing them to be even more successful in their positions?
• Do you complain that you need all of your folks, or are you constantly weeding your team of underperformers without replacing them when times are rough?
• Do you treat hiring freezes as interview freezes, or are you constantly looking to find bigger and better talent so that you can move quickly when it’s time to hire again?

These questions help illustrate some of the steps we believe define exemplary leaders and managers in tough economic times. Put more directly, we think that the following are some of the five things that great managers and leaders do during economic downturns that help prove they are “the best of the best”:

1. Upgrading skills. This can be anything from getting an additional degree in your area of expertise, to getting a degree in a field adjacent to yours (technologists getting an MBA or marketing folks deepening their technology), to taking continuing education courses or just taking some time to become current with your job through professional reading. The best leaders and managers see being “the best” as a journey rather than a destination. We cover this in more detail in “To Get Better You Must Practice.”

2. Make More with Less. Stop talking about being the best and prove it. Put the systems in place that allow you to measure how much shareholder value you create with every dollar you spend on headcount or systems. Show how you can do more next year with the same budget or — better yet — more with less money. If you aren’t doing this as a standard operating procedure, start doing it while the economy is struggling, and you will absolutely be seen as being one of the best.

3. Mind Your Flowers. Whether you are making difficult headcount cuts or not — but especially if you are — you need to take care of the folks who are creating the most shareholder value within your organization. Exit the economic downturn with your best people on your side — not the folks with the longest tenure but the folks who create the most value.

4. Weed Your Garden. The best managers during great times are always looking to remove underperformers from their teams and upgrade them with superior performers. The best managers during economic hard times are ahead of the headcount cuts with a list of the folks who should be removed from their team for poor performance. Don’t ask if other organizations are getting their fair share of cuts; focus on what’s right for the shareholder and get it done ahead of the request!

5. Get Ready for Spring Planting. It may not seem like it today, but things will turn around; if not for your current employer then for your next employer. You need to have that list of great talent with whom you’ve been interviewing ready so that you can quickly augment your existing team as the need arises, or build your next team if your current employer doesn’t survive the downturn. Leadership is as much about people as anything else, and great leaders focus on building great teams.

Marty Abbott and Michael Fisher are partners with AKF Partners.

The head of one of Europe's biggest private equity groups on Thursday painted a bleak picture for his industry, predicting substantial job cuts at buy-out firms, as they suffer heavy losses on many recent deals, sparking lawsuits with some investors

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value as new support from its largest individual investor failed to ease worries over whether it will have enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=MOGc9NLr"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=TMLmQfM5"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=TMLmQfM5" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=Aclhuzxd"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=Aclhuzxd" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/MGKgLvPkMbw" height="1" width="1"/

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009, one of the biggest moves to date by the government to stem the tide of evictions and home losses.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=caKGtm6p"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=P0gTb5og"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=P0gTb5og" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.reuters.com/~f/reuters/topNews?a=s5kS36jP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/topNews?i=s5kS36jP" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~4/QQNBy1k75nU" height="1" width="1"/

Mortgage rates fell for the third week in a row amid reports of record-high job losses, weak retail sales and a home-construction market in a deep slump. pa href="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/money_latest?a=UtU9LM"img src="http://rss.cnn.com/~a/rss/money_latest?i=UtU9LM" border="0"/img/a/pimg src="http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/money_latest/~4/459951010" height="1" width="1"/

Shares of tax preparation and personal finance software maker Intuit Inc. climbed 6 percent on Thursday, a day after the company's quarterly results beat Wall Street expectations even though it saw losses widen.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?a=rUxIN"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?i=rUxIN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?a=vpC2n"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?i=vpC2n" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?a=HKJWn"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?i=HKJWn" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ibtimes/tech/~4/459919880" height="1" width="1"/

Trans World Entertainment, Barnes amp; Noble, Hastings Entertainment post quarterly losses.