Construction started last month on 610,000 houses at an annual rate, the most since November, according to the median forecast of 53 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before an Oct. 20 Commerce Department report. Sales of existing homes rose to a two-year high and the gauge of the economys future course advanced for a sixth month, other reports may show.
Housing is stabilizing as Americans take advantage of government programs, including credits for first-time buyers and efforts to lower borrowing costs, aimed at stemming the recession. Some - - - - >

By reaching into those reserves, major oil producers like Saudi Arabia shielded their economies from the worst of the slump by maintaining government spending and injecting liquidity into domestic banking systems rattled by the credit crisis.
Doing so not only blunted the impact of the downturn on their own economies, but also helped shore up the economies of neighboring countries without large oil reserves, the IMF said.
“By and large, they all responded quickly and decisively. … They continued spending,” the IMFs Middle East and Central Asia Director Masood Ahmed said of the major oil exporters. “This acted, if you like, as - - - - >

Oil demand is likely to average 86.1 million barrels a day next year, 350,000 barrels a day more than the IEA estimated in September, a monthly report showed. Prices fell earlier as the dollar rose after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said monetary policy will be tightened once the economy improves.
“The IEA 2010 demand numbers keep creeping higher,” said Christopher Edmonds, the managing principal of FIG Partners Energy Research & Capital Group in Atlanta. “The oil price is telling you that investors believe that we - - - - >

The officials said in their closing statement after meeting Saturday in Istanbul that decisive moves by governments had improved conditions for the world economy and financial markets.
But they warned against “complacency” since growth prospects remained “fragile” and unemployment continues to rise. Figures on Friday showed the U.S. economy shedding more jobs than expected in September, with unemployment at a 26-year high of 9.8 percent.
They agreed it was too soon to withdraw the stimulus measures such as government deficit spending and rock-bottom interest rates that have helped re-start growth.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the United States will unwind the “extraordinary” - - - - >

The brightening outlook in Europe and Asia and the improvement in U.S. credit markets and indicators reflect heavy government stimulus spending. Many analysts question whether the top economies can sustain recoveries after stimulus measures and easy-credit policies have run their course - and in the absence of significant new consumer spending, especially among Americans.
“Its not clear that these economies can continue to move forward without stimulus,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moodys Economy.com. “And thats in part why stock markets across the globe are nervous.”
It will be difficult for other countries to pull out of recession until the U.S., - - - - >

From a North Carolina machine maker to an Oregon heating-and-cooling company, small business owners say they need to see several months of rising sales before they start adding staff.
Because labor is the biggest expense for most companies, that kind of caution is typical at the end of recessions. After the last one, in 2001, unemployment kept rising and didnt peak until June 2003 - 19 months into the economic recovery.
This time around, some economists say unemployment may not return to healthy levels until 2013. Companies have been slashing workers hours, squeezing more work out of the employees who are left - - - - >

The federal rebates of up to $4,500 to drivers who trade in a gas guzzler for a more fuel-efficient vehicle are steering cash to car dealers, giving a boost to troubled automakers and generating much-needed sales taxes for cities.
All this will help the economy grow faster in the second half of the year than previously forecast. Yet the rebates will also steal economic growth from the future: They make car sales happen now that would have been made later anyway.
“Cash for clunkers,” soon to be a $3 billion program after an expected extension from Congress, comes at a critical time - - - - >

That grim picture was reinforced Thursday by the latest government report on jobless benefits. The number of first-time claims - a proxy for the pace of layoffs - remained below the peak levels of the spring. At the same time, though, the total number of people receiving unemployment aid topped 9.1 million.
“We are left with a bifurcated job market, with fewer newer claimants but a rising tide of long-term unemployed,” said Cary Leahey, an economist at Decision Economics. “Some will exhaust all their benefits and be at wits end to make ends meet.”
The National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, - - - - >

The figure, announced by the statistics bureau in Beijing today, exceeded the 7.8 percent median forecast of 20 economists in a Bloomberg survey and a 6.1 percent gain in the first quarter that was the slowest in almost a decade.
China, the biggest contributor to global growth, overtook Japan as the worlds second-largest stock market by value yesterday after a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package spurred record lending and boosted share prices. The first-half expansion laid the foundation for meeting the years 8 percent growth - - - - >

Payrolls declined by 467,000 and followed a 322,000 drop in May, according to Labor Department figures released yesterday in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 9.5 percent, the highest since August 1983. Earnings per hour climbed at a 0.7 percent annual pace on average over the last three months, the smallest gain since records began in 1964.
Stocks tumbled and bond yields fell as investors bet the 18th straight month of job cuts will further sap consumer spending, weakening a recovery from the deepest recession in half - - - - >