Thursday Afternoon Business Brief

Stocks are continuing to slide lower. With two hours left in the trading session, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 113 points at 13,060. The Standard and Poor's 500 index had lost eleven points and was at 1,403. The Nasdaq Composite index is down 21 points at 3,053.

• Oil prices have done an about-face after a Federal Reserve official said further action to stimulate the economy may not be necessary. The price of benchmark crude, which had risen above $97 a barrel, fell $1.19 to $96.08 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says it has sold the last of the securities that it bought as part of the rescue of insurance giant AIG. It says taxpayers come out ahead after the sale, with a net gain of $6.6 billion.
• Two key European leaders say Greece must keep pursuing painful reforms as it strives to keep its place in the eurozone. Neither the German chancellor nor the French president mentioned Greece's hope of getting more time to carry out those reforms and spending cuts.
• Microsoft has a new corporate logo for the first time in 25 years. It has the Microsoft name in a lighter and straight font instead of the italic bold typeface used in the old logo. The new logo includes the familiar red, blue, yellow and green colors that are used in the flag on Microsoft's Windows operating system in a square box.