Financial news on May 3rd, 2008

Business and Financial news
20,000 Jobs Lost in 4th Month of Decline

Many economists took the losses as powerful evidence of a recession, but the cuts’ limited scope raised hopes that a slump would be mild. Read more..

By PETER S. GOODMAN and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM - The New York Times

Actors Extend Their Contract Talks

Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said on Friday that they would extend their current round of contract talks through Tuesday. Read more..

By THE NEW YORK TIMES - The New York Times

Chevron Profit Rises Even as Production Falls

Chevron said first-quarter profit rose 9.5 percent, beating Wall Street estimates. Read more..

By BLOOMBERG NEWS - The New York Times

Fed Moves to Loosen Tight Credit

The Federal Reserve announced it would increase the size of its cash auctions to banks and allow financial institutions to put up credit card debt, student loans and car loans as collateral for Fed loans. Read more..

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN - The New York Times

Higher Offer by Microsoft Brings Yahoo to Table

The companies are in active merger talks, people involved said, and Microsoft is said to have increased its offer. Read more..

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and MIGUEL HELFT - The New York Times

Investors Flee Chief’s Fund at Citigroup

The chief executive of Citigroup, Vikram S. Pandit, finds himself in the position of having to restructure or make changes at the hedge fund he co-founded and that Citigroup purchased. Read more..

By ERIC DASH - The New York Times

Listen to Your Statement

Even if the standard personal finance guidance is to monitor one’s spending over a longer period of time, reviewing a monthly bank statement can be just as valuable. Read more..

By M. P. DUNLEAVEY - The New York Times

Mortgage-Free, but Not Free From the Temptation to Borrow

For those people who own their homes mortgage-free, the question is what to do with a houseful of equity. Read more..

By JANE BIRNBAUM - The New York Times

No Budging Is Detected in Bidding for Newsday

Rupert Murdoch and Mortimer B. Zuckerman have not signaled they would increase their bid for Newsday to match a higher offer from Cablevision. Read more..

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA - The New York Times

Pursuing the Next Level of Artificial Intelligence

Daphne Koller’s work has led to advances in artificial intelligence that can be used to predict traffic jams, improve machine vision and understand the way cancer spreads. Read more..

By JOHN MARKOFF - The New York Times

See what else happened on May 3rd, 2008