Reuters - Honda Motor Co (7267.T) said it would build fewer cars in Japan, Europe and North America to reflect an increasingly bleak outlook for sales as the global economic crisis discourages big-ticket purchases.

Reuters - Deflation would be very damaging to the United States economy and with nominal interest rates already very low, quantitative easing may be needed to keep it at bay, a top Federal Reserve official said on Thursday.

AP - Singapore's economy has skidded into a recession for the first time since 2001, the government said Friday, warning that it could contract by up to 1 percent next year as a global slowdown saps export demand.

Reuters - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009, as the government moves to stem the tide of home losses plaguing the economy.

AP - Mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are suspending foreclosures for about 16,000 households during the holiday season.

AFP - The two US mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said on Thursday they halt home foreclosures until early January as they modify loans to help keep owners in their homes.

Reuters - European and Asian shares managed to rise and oil rose toward $50 on Friday as expectations of further interest rate cuts helped to cushion deepening gloom about the financial and auto sectors as well as the broader economy.

Reuters - Democratic congressional leaders, seeking to salvage a bailout of the Big Three automakers, demanded executives provide a business survival plan in exchange for their support of up to $25 billion in loans.

Reuters - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor.