U.S. stocks plunge on Bear Stearns bailout; wipe out week's gains

Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:06:03 (GMT)
U.S. stocks plunge on Bear Stearns bailout; wipe out week's gains

U.S. stocks are hammered for a third session this week after Bear
Stearns Cos. says it is in need of a bailout from the Federal Reserve
and J.P. Morgan Chase, with shares of the investment bank plunging 55%.

Bear Stearns goes on life support as trading crisis turns dire

Bear Stearns Cos. says it got short-term financing from J.P. Morgan and
the Federal Reserve as its liquidity has "significantly
deteriorated" during the past 24 hours.

Financial Stocks: Bear Stearns almost halved, drags sector lower

Investors hammer financial stocks, highlighted by Bear Stearns losing
more than half its value amid bailout news.

Optimistic Bush says economy will bounce back

President tells New York Economic Club the U.S. economy will emerge from
its current problems "better and stronger than ever."

Economic Report: Consumer inflation moderates in February on energy's
drop

Led by a quirky decline in energy costs, U.S. consumer inflation
moderated in February, opening the door for the Federal Reserve to keep
cutting interest rates to support flagging economic growth. The consumer
price index was flat in February, the Labor Department said Friday. Wall
Street economists had expected a 0.2% increase. In addition, core prices
-- which exclude volatile food and energy costs -- were also unchanged,
below the 0.2% gain in retail-level inflation that economists surveyed
by MarketWatch had been looking for. This was the lowest core rate since
November 2006.