New home sales hit 7-year low; Halo 3 pulls in $170M in one day

CBS News

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[Music] More pain for homebuilders. New home sales fell into the basement last month, dropping more than 8% to a 7-year low. And the average home price fell to 225,000, 7 12% lower than last year and the biggest drop in nearly 37 years. That dismal housing report gave Wall Street hope for another interest rate cut from the Fed. The Dow rallied nearly 35 points. The NASDAQ climbed more than 10. Walmart is expanding its $4 prescription generic drug program. 11 drugs will be added to the discount list, including treatments for acne, ADD, and glaucoma. The retailing giant says the program saved consumers more than $600 million since it began a year ago. And Halo 3 has proved heavenly for Microsoft. Diehard video gamers plunked down about $170 million on copies of Halo 3 in its first day on the market. The game, which is the last in the Halo trilogy, plays exclusively on Microsoft's Xbox 360. That's your money watch. Log on to cbsnews.com for more business headlines in New York. I'm Alexis Christopherus.

Bear Stearns up 10% on Buffett stake talk; Dow gains 99

CBS

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Bear Stearns brought out the Bulls on Wall Street shares of the Wall Street brokerage firm shot up ten percent late Wednesday on news it wants to sell a minority stake in the firm it's talking with several suitors including billionaire investor Warren Buffett bank of america and wachovia are also said to be interested in buying a piece of bear stearns the securities firm was hit hardest by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market shares of General Motors ran up as much as ten percent as investors applauded the end of a two-day nationwide strike at the auto giant that helped drive the Dow up 99 points the Nasdaq climbed more than 15 later today we get figures on new home sales for august and we find out how fast the economy grew in the second quarter Chevron plans to buy back up to 15 billion dollars in stock as the energy giant tries to return some of its windfall from higher oil prices to shareholders it ties with conocophillips for the biggest stock buyback ever by an oil company and the buyout of Sallie Mae is in jeopardy the group of investors that agreed to by the student loan lender says it may back out of the 25 billion dollar take over a measure approved by Congress and expected to be signed today by President Bush would reduce government subsidies to loan makers by about 21 billion dollars over five years that has Sallie Mae's buyers concerned about the value of the company that's your money watch log on to cbsnews.com for more in New York I'm Alexis Christopher asst