Dow tallies biggest first-session-of-year point drop ever

Date: Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:06:13 (GMT)

Dow tallies biggest first-session-of-year point drop ever

U.S. stocks on Wednesday started off 2008 with a whimper instead of a
bang as escalating commodity prices and a gauge of manufacturing
activity fueled worries about the economy, propelling the Dow to its
steepest start-of-a-year point drop ever.

Futures Movers: Crude hits $100 a barrel on supply concerns, Nigeria
violence

Crude-oil futures hit the $100 mark Wednesday and closed up nearly $4 on
expectations that U.S. crude inventories fell for a seventh consecutive
week and on concerns that violence in Nigeria may cut output from
Africa's biggest oil producer.

Marshall Loeb: The candidates are better than you might think

NEW YORK
As election year 2008 begins at last and voters in Iowa and New
Hampshire let us know their preferences, many people throughout the
nation are asking an irksome question: Why, in a nation so rich and
varied as ours, can we not come up with a more exciting list of
candidates for the presidency than the mediocre bunch we appear to be
stuck with?

The Fed: Dec. rate cut had little opposition in FOMC

WASHINGTON
With Federal Reserve officials surprised by the weakening of the credit
markets and the economy, and worried that things could get even worse,
nearly all members of the Federal Open Market Committee backed the
quarter percentage-point cut in the federal funds rate at the Dec. 11
meeting, according to a summary of the meeting released Wednesday by the
Fed.

Auto makers seen posting worst sales year since 1998

Major auto makers on Thursday will close their books on what is expected
to be the worst year of car sales in almost a decade, as buyers were too
busy dealing with ballooning gas prices and persistent housing woes to
flock to showrooms.