There’s more bad news ahead for the U.S. economy as home foreclosures continue to rise. One out of every 483 U.S. households is at some stage of the foreclosure process, and with that many displaced or struggling homeowners, the economic recovery may well take longer than expected.

This week saw Lehman Brothers replace two of its top executives: CFO Erin Callan and COO Joseph Gregor. The two will remain at the bank in lesser roles.

“As recently as a month ago,” says Justice Litle in Taipan Daily, “Erin Callan was on top of the world.”

The WSJ did a glowing piece on her rise through the ranks. Condé Nast’s Portfolio magazine dubbed her the most powerful woman on Wall Street.

Lehman Replaces CFO and COO; Thompson Mortgage Posts Enormous 1Q Loss; South Africa Raises Interest Rates Again; OGX Petroleo Opens with $3.58 Billion IPO; Citi Closes Old Lane; Corn Hits Sixth Straight Record High; Competition for Esmark Heats Up; China’s Inflation Eases.

As recently as a month ago, Erin Callan was on top of the world. The WSJ did a glowing piece on her rise through the ranks. Condé Nast’s Portfolio magazine dubbed her the most powerful woman on Wall Street.

Gold rose quietly during trading in the Far East and Europe…and started showing signs of life just before the Comex open in New York. From there, gold rose about $10 to just over $880…and there it sat. And it hasn’t done much since…except decline as soon as the Hong Kong market opened this morning.

Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest US investment bank, is at the centre of a storm of bad news stories.

Shares in the Wall Street powerhouse tumbled 31% last month on the NYSE on expections of heavy Q2 losses and the likelihood that the bank will have to raise cash to cover subprime-related writedowns. However, unlike rival Bear Stearns, the word on the Street is that Lehman will survive.

“On Wall Street, after Bear Stearns fainted, the other financial firms took smelling salts,” says Bill Bonner in The Daily Reckoning.

It’s only the fifth day in June, but already investors are getting nervous about end of quarter earnings reports. There’s still almost a month to go before most public companies close out their books for the second-quarter, ending June 30.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has rattled Wall Street by downgrading investment banks Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley.

S&P’s said the “outlooks on the large financial institutions sector in the U.S. are now predominantly negative” and that “the pace and extent of earnings improvement could be considerably more muted than we previously anticipated.”

Good morning Australia. It’s another triple digit mid-day decline on the Dow. Is this the Obama Rally?

Struggling U.S. financials Citigroup Inc. (C) and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (MER) may get another equity injection from state-owned Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the fund’s managing director told Reuters.