Home resales hit 8-year low; Dow erases 200-point drop on Fed cut rumor

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[Music] stock staged a late day comeback on unconfirmed rumors that the Federal Reserve is set to make an emergency interest rate cut ahead of next week's regularly scheduled meeting the Dow erased nearly all of a 200o plunge to dip a point the NASDAQ Composite gave back 24 there's no end in sight to the real estate slump home resales Nationwide tumbled 8% last month to the lowest level in 8 years stricter lending standards and higher interest rates are making it more difficult for people to qualify for mortgages that pushed the number of unsold homes on the market to more than 4 million and the average price of a home Nationwide continues to fall down 4% to just under $212,000 economists say falling home prices could lead consumers to pull back on spending and that could tip the economy into a recession one of the nation's top home builders is slashing prices to combat the housing recession s Tech says it's lowered home prices in many neighborhoods to levels that would enable buyers to qualify for government backed mortgages and Merl Lynch is biting the mortgage bullet the Wall Street Brokerage giant swung to a loss last quarter after a nearly $8 billion mortgage hit that's your money watch track the latest business headlines at cbsnews.com in New York I'm Alexis christopherus

Amazon profits surge 300%; Dow up 109 on Apple record

CBS News

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[Music] Real estate moves back into the spotlight on Wall Street today when we get the latest figures on home resales for September. In August, they sank to a 5-year low. Amazon.com could power another tech rally on Wall Street. The online retail giant said quarterly profits skyrocketed 300% as sales topped $3 billion. And it expects a strong holiday shopping season. Investors went Apple picking on Wall Street Tuesday, sending shares of the tech company to a record high. Strong sales of Macs, iPods, and iPhones helped the company's bottom line last quarter. And that helped ignite a rally on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 109 points. The Nasdaq rallied 45. Expect profit report cards from companies including Microsoft, Sony, and XM Satellite Radio. Energy giant BP has reportedly agreed to pay more than $300 million in fines to settle civil charges that it manipulated propane prices three years ago. The settlement is expected to be announced later today by the Justice Department. And in need of a little relief from telemarketers, federal regulators say they won't drop phone numbers off the do not call registry after all. While Congress considers making that list permanent, when the program was launched back in 2003, the FTC planned to remove numbers after 5 years, forcing people to re-register. That's your money watch. Click on cbsnews.com for more business headlines in New York. I'm Alexis Christopherus.