All Three Markets Rise on Earnings Beats; Government Now Citi’s Biggest Shareholder; Jobless Claims Up but Subsiding; Crude Surges More Than 5%; Motorola Surprises; Recession Takes a Toll on House of Mouse; Ballmer Defends Yahoo Partnership; Southwest Makes Bid for Frontier

India Cuts Repurchase Rate to 5%; Private Employers Cut 697,000 Jobs in Feb.; U.S. Auto Sales Down 41% in February; Oil Rallies to Six-year High; Merrill’s Top 10 Execs Paid $209 Million Last Year

JPMorgan Cuts 2,800 WaMu Jobs; GM Post $30-Billion Loss; Hong Kong Exports Sink; IGM Retains 2009 Outlook; Jobless Claims Spike; Oil Rises for Second Day in a Row

U.S. crude stocks rise to 18-month high… U.S. data at 1330 GMT expected to show more job losses…  OPEC signals it may cut output further…

Oil rally fades ahead of US inventory data … American Petroleum Institute data due at 2130 GMT…

Rattner Floated as Car Czar; Sources: Barclays Planning 2,100 Lay Offs; BG Group Pumping Billions into Brazil Oil; Pfizer Cutting 800 Research Posts; Oil Snaps Week-Long Skid; Commercial Banks Borrowing Less Than Investment Banks; Companies Scramble to Fill Pension Plan Gaps

Oil above $40 a barrel; geopolitical risk returns… Israeli air strikes go into third day… China to build up oil reserves while price is low

Oil prices fell again yesterday (Wednesday) – dropping below $40 for the first time in four years – as weak demand and growing inventories overshadowed a record cut in production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

South Africa Cuts Interest Rates; BlackRock Cans 500; Empire Co. Posts 13% Profit; KB Toys Files for Bankruptcy; Citi and UBS to Buy Back $30 Billion in Securities; Bank of America to Cut 35,000 Jobs

Speculation that oil prices are beginning to bottom helped push crude contracts higher yesterday (Wednesday), as traders closed out short positions and rumors surfaced that both Russia and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are planning to cut production next week.