Wall Street has started September with a slump, following a four-day rally at the end of August. The Dow Jones industrials fell 120 points yesterday, the Nasdaq was down 33 and the S&P 500 lost 14. Many investors chose to sell ahead of the August employment report coming out this morning.
- Asian markets closed lower today. And in early trading, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.8 percent, Germany's DAX declined 2.7 percent and France's CAC-40 shed 2.3 percent. Wall Street is set to open lower, with Dow Jones industrial futures down 0.6 percent while S&P 500 futures are down 0.8 percent.
- Oil prices hovered below $89 a barrel Friday in Asia. Benchmark oil for October delivery was down 25 cents to $88.68 at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose 12 cents to settle at $88.93 on Thursday. In London, Brent crude for October delivery was down 11 cents at $114.18 on the ICE Futures exchange.
- Economists expect a mixed picture when the government issues its August employment report today. Analysts surveyed by Factset believe the economy added 93,000 jobs in August, suggesting that businesses likely shrugged off recession fears and kept hiring last month. But the unemployment rate is expected to remain 9.1 percent.
- The problem with illegal or questionable mortgage paperwork is far more widespread than thought. The Associated Press has discovered that county officials carefully going through mortgage paperwork dating back to 1998 are finding that different people are signing the same name on documents and some papers were improperly notarized. And sometimes it can't be proven who owns the home.
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