The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 11,000 for the first time in two years. Worries about Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, oil, and more caused the Dow to fall over 200 points so far. One portfolio manager told Bloomberg News, "It's the worst of both worlds. Watching two government-sponsored entities evaporate before our eyes from an equity perspective, and the damage that does to investor confidence on the one hand, and watching the price of......

Oil prices hit a new high, at close to $143/barrel today (but ended over $140/barrel), and the Dow fell 106 points to close at 11,346.41. The NY Times reported the Dow Jones Industrial Average "flirted with bear market territory" when it fell 120 points--"The bear peeked out of its cave on Friday. And then it retreated." The Dow Jones is close to a bear market, because it's down 20% (the "threshold for a so-called bear......

drunkie the snowman, by brainware3000 at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an officer shot on Vandalia Ave & Ardlsey Loop in Brooklyn, a gas leak at Dongan Pl. off Broadway in Manhattan, and an aircraft emergency at JFK in Queens. The City's investigating whether its artificial turf fields are poisonous. The Brooklyn Paper finds Obama did get votes in many Brooklyn districts (here's the congressional district breakdown for all of NYC). Blogging by......

The Federal Reserve's interest rate cut helped the stave off a huge drop the stock market yesterday. Though the Dow Jones did fall 465 points at one point, it ended 128 points down. Another feature of the rate cut: Home loan applications jumped. The global markets had tumbled on Monday (during the U.S. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday) because of U.S. recession fears, but Asian markets gained a little today after news of the......

Some of the really reassuring quotes about today's bad Thursday on Wall Street: "The problems seem to be intensifying. I can't remember a worse start to a year. We're in for some rough months.'' - John Carey, who helps oversee about $13 billion at Pioneer Investment Management in Boston, to Bloomberg “Basically every day now, you have more and more investors leaning toward the camp that yes, this is going to be a recession, and......

U.S. stock markets have not fared well in just the first dozen days of 2008, as indices are being dragged down by worries about the continuing subprime loan meltdown and the after-effects that a tightening in capital lending could have on the economy. According to The New York Times, Friday was just the worst of a bad stretch across the boards: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 246 points, or 1.9%, and is down 5%......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a white powder incident at 25 Beaver St. in Manhattan, report of a large crowd gathered at the center of the south side of the George Washington Bridge's upper level, and an explosion in the basement of a building at 77th St. and Lexington Ave. in Manhattan. Dedicated bike paths and fences separating them from traffic can only do so much when a cab driver really wants to take......

Whoa-- apparently the 0.5% interest rate cut the Federal Reserve announced a couple of hours ago wasn't entirely anticipated by the market! Currently the Dow Jones index is up more than 330 points, or more than 2.5%! The rate reduction was the first in four years, and was unusually steep by the Fed standards. The Times reports: While an interest rate cut was widely expected, there had been profound uncertainty about whether the Fed would......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water rescue off the beach at 105th St. and Shore Front Parkway in Queens, a person struck by a train at 77th St. and 4th Ave. in Brooklyn, and a shooting at Martin Luther King Pl. and Tompkins Ave. in Brooklyn. A middle-aged man was arrested Sunday evening after attempting to rob a McDonald's on Staten Island, but settling for ripping the clear acrylic box of donations for......

Now that Rupert Murdoch is on his way to owning the Wall Street Journal, not only does he get to enjoy owning the successful and admired newspapers, he gets to feel the brunt of its personnel headaches too! The NY Times reports that signs from contract-less employees, including the phrase "Show Me The Money," have been plastered on WSJ office walls, only for someone to tear them down...and for someone else to put them......

With the economy acting as though it's on a roller coaster given concerns about credit and mortgage markets, NYC real estate brokers are feeling the pains. Some potential buyers who would have qualified before issues with the mortgage markets now find themselves struggling to get the loans they need and being asked to put more of their money down. However, we will say it's hard to be sympathetic to someone looking for a $3.3......

Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 300 points by mid-day as worldwide financial markets worry about the U.S. credit market. The Dow Jones, as well as the Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq, have lost 10% since July, and a strategist at Absolute Strategy Research tells the Times, "The psychology is shifting notably today. When a market drops by 10 percent, people start to feel it in their portfolios. People are used to......

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has secured the votes necessary to purchase Dow Jones & Co., Inc. which includes The Wall Street Journal itself. The win comes after a lengthy proxy battle in which the Bancrofts––the family that has acted as stewards of the company from afar for more than a century––resisted a very generous overture from Murdoch. The Australian media tycoon eventually won the day by convincing a......

New Anchor, Same Old Tardiness There must be something about the morning shift at WABC. After just four days on the job as the permanent replacement for Steve Bartelstein, Ken Rosato, overslept and was late for the 5 a.m. edition of Eyewitness News. We think it is pretty safe to assume that he just overslept, since he probably hasn’t adjusted his body clock fully to the new hours, and that he wasn’t spending the night......

The owners of a controlling interest in Dow Jones & Company, Inc. may be considering a move to sell the company to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. When the news that Rupert Murdoch was interested in acquiring The Wall Street Journal and adding all of Dow Jones to his News Corp. media empire, we wrote about the potential reluctance of the majority owners of the acquisition––the Bancroft family––and their longheld view that family ownership of a......

Rupert Murdoch did not become a media tycoon by turning tail at the first sign of resistance in his business dealings. New York Times media columnist David Carr examines Rupert Murdoch's past successes in wooing reluctant sellers into folding their companies into the News Corp. family with promises of benign oversight and marginal interference at best, only to run roughshod over the company and imprint it with Murdoch's style before the ink is dry on......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: unstable scaffolding at Manhattan's 265 West 37th St., a police car multi-vehicle accident at Thomas S. Boyland St. and Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, and a suspicious package at East 161st St. and Grand Concourse in the Bronx. How could the McGreevey saga get any more strange? Maybe if Jim McGreevey decided to join the priesthood. He told WNBC that he is entering a seminary to become an Episcopal priest.......

The Bancroft family, who owns a controlling interest in publicly traded Dow Jones & Co., Inc., is considering an unsolicited bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to purchase The Wall Street Journal. Trading in Dow Jones shares was halted temporarily after their price jumped 57%, or nearly $21 during the day. Murdoch is reportedly offering $60 a share for the company, which would make the total offer worth approximately $5 billion. The New York Times......

Yesterday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 416 points (a significant 3.3% drop) after a plunge in Shanghai's stock market. Well, now the Asian stock markets have fallen again, because investors are worried about the American economy! The NY Times reports that share prices rebounded in China, rising "nearly 4 percent today after state-controlled media reported that the government might allow greater foreign investment in Chinese stocks and would not impose capital gains taxes on......

Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11,011.90, above 11,000 for the first time since June 7, 2001. Reaching 11,000, while symbolic, is still signifigant as it is a sign that the markets are going in the right direction. A big reason for yesterday's gain was the stock of GM, which has took a beating last year but was given some positive reports from Goldman Sachs, causing the stock to go up 7.7%. The......

The WSJWE has landed. People have been rumbling about it for months now. Dow Jones employees have been upset about the extra hours and extra employees it requires. The New York Times has been reorganizing itself to make way for its arrival (can't you hear the Grey Lady thinking "hmmm, why don't I move Maureen to Saturday, then they'll buy us too. And Times Select, let's do that the same weekend, that'll steal their......

Hooray for all of our freelancing writer friends:The American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild, and the National Writers Union today announced the filing of a motion for court approval of an $18 million settlement in a class action suit they and 21 freelance writers filed on behalf of thousands of freelance writers whose stories appeared in online databases without their consent. They expect preliminary court approval of the settlement within the next......

It might be the end of the world, but the stock market gained because we're closer to war. One anlalyst said, "There are a lot of people who have been doing absolutely nothing [in the past weeks and months]...This is an excuse for people to do something." More from CNN and MSNBC.......