NEW YORK (AP) -- A cut to the U.S. government's credit rating by Standard & Poor's was supposed to send Treasury prices down and interest rates up. But just the opposite happened. So why would investors buy U.S. government debt after it was downgraded from AAA to AA+ last Friday? In a word, fear. “Fear causes investors to make decisions that don't necessarily have a fundamental basis,” said Guy...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil plunged to its lowest price of the year Monday on concerns about the slowing global economy and future demand for oil and gas. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude fell $5.57, or 6.4 percent to settle at $81.31 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That is the lowest settlement price of the year for crude, but it's still higher than the $71.63 per barrel low of ...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Global stock markets tumbled Monday on the first trading day since Standard & Poor's downgraded long-term U.S. debt. The plunge came as investors grew anxious over a weakening U.S. economy and a widening debt crisis in Europe. Not everything went as expected. Some analysts had worried that Treasury yields would surge after S&P's downgrade. That would happen if investors demanded...

TOKYO (AFP) ― When Japanese beverage giant Kirin said this week it would take a large stake in Brazil’s Schincariol, it was the latest example of Asia’s growing thirst for South American markets and resources. In the same week, China’s JAC Motors said it would invest 900 million dollars in an auto plant in Brazil, a fellow BRICS nation and the continent’s economic powerhouse, lauded widely as a ...

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Timothy Geithner has told President Barack Obama that he will remain on the job as Treasury secretary, ending speculation he would leave the administration. The Treasury Department released a statement Sunday saying Geithner had informed the president of his decision to remain in the administration. Geithner is the only remaining top official on Obama’s original economics team...

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The borrowing costs of both Spain and Italy dropped sharply in early trading Monday after the European Central Bank signaled it would intervene in the markets to keep the two countries' bond prices supported. The yield on Italy's 10-year bonds was down 0.44 percentage points to 5.56 percent while the equivalent rate on Spain's tumbled 0.66 percentage point to 5.38 percent. Grow...

PARIS (AFP) -- Financial chiefs and central bankers of the G7 nations early Monday pledged to "take all necessary measures to support financial stability and growth" as nervous global markets re-opened. "We are committed to taking coordinated action where needed, to ensuring liquidity, and to supporting financial market functioning, financial stability and economic growth," a statement said as A...

TOKYO (AP) -- The world's leading economies on Sunday urgently discussed the stability of financial markets after a historic U.S. credit downgrade rattled investors already worried about European debt crises. Deputies from the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies talked by telephone Sunday about proposals to minimize market shocks, South Korea's central bank said. And the financial minist...

Rating agency says U.S. debt woes likely to continue WASHINGTON (AP) ― Standard & Poor’s says it downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating because it believes the U.S. will keep having problems getting its finances under control. S&P officials on Saturday defended their decision to drop the government’s rating to “AA+” from the top rating, “AAA.” The Obama administration called the move a ...

The U.S. had its AAA credit rating downgraded for the first time by Standard & Poor’s, which slammed the nation’s political process and said lawmakers failed to cut spending enough to reduce record deficits. S&P dropped the ranking one level to AA+, after warning on July 14 that it would reduce the rating in the absence of a “credible” plan to lower deficits even if the nation’s $14.3 trillion d...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Gripped by fear of a new recession, the stock market suffered its worst day Thursday since the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 500 points, its ninth-steepest decline. The sell-off wiped out the Dow's gains for 2011. It put the Dow and broader stock indexes into what investors call a correction -- down 10 percent from their hi...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama dodged a debt-ceiling fiasco Tuesday. He reacted with a wiped brow more than a victory lap, and with good reason. As Republicans gradually weigh a potential challenger, Obama's re-election bid faces daunting problems: high unemployment, a limping economy, lackluster approval ratings and a demoralized liberal base. The last-minute debt agreement prevented...