Forex News and Rumors – Afternoon Update

U.S. jobless claims rise, home sales fall
The number of newly laid off U.S. workers filing claims for jobless benefits rose last week and sales of previously owned homes fell in March, data showed on Thursday, indicating the 16-month old recession was far from over.

At the same time, the number of people claiming benefits after drawing an initial week of aid vaulted to another record high in early April, for the 14th consecutive week, the Labor Department said. More

Oil rises as dollar outweighs inventory build
Oil rose on Thursday as a drop in the dollar outweighed rising U.S. inventories and economic concerns.
U.S. crude rose 14 cents to $48.99 a barrel by 1:53 p.m. EDT. London Brent crude traded down 21 cents at $49.60 a barrel.
The euro gained against the dollar as demand rose on better-than-expected earnings results from banks and as data on euro zone industrial new orders showed a smaller-than-expected decrease. More

Fix financial systems or prolong recession, says World Bank chief
Governments in the US and Europe must do more to fix their shattered financial systems or risk prolonging the world recession, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the World Bank, warned today.
Speaking in Washington on the eve of the IMF’s spring meetings, Strauss-Kahn said leaders at the G20 London summit had promised to clean up their banks; but he was disappointed at how much action had so far been taken. More

Lewis: Paulson and Bernanke urged silence
Bank of America Corp CEO Kenneth Lewis testified under oath that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pressured him to keep quiet about losses at Merrill Lynch & Co, which the bank was buying, the Wall Street Journal reported.Testifying before New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in February, Lewis said “it wasn’t up to me” to reveal Merrill’s fourth-quarter losses as they were becoming apparent in December, the newspaper said, citing a deposition transcript. More

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