The stunning implosion of Bear Stearns stirred fear among investors worldwide that other banks had sizable exposure to troubled credit markets. Stocks fell sharply in Asia and Europe and oil prices set fresh records in Asian trading.

JPMorgan close to deal to buy Bear

United Airlines said Friday it boosted its ticket prices by as much as much as $50 round-trip, raising the stakes in the airline industry’s battle against rapidly rising fuel costs.

“The objective here is to get the balance right — regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investors confidence but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it,“ Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said.

The cost of filling up the family car climbed to a record high Tuesday, adding to the challenges consumers already face with falling home values and rising food prices.

The grocery chain Kroger Company says its fourth-quarter profits slipped 16 percent, partly because of one fewer week in the period than the previous year.

In an investor presentation today, Altria projected that cigarette sales volume will fall between 2.5 percent to 3 percent in the U.S. over the next few years.

After Verizon unveiled the plan three weeks ago, AT&T matched it within hours, followed by T-Mobile USA

It was the third straight triple-digit decline for the Dow, which has lost a total of more than 530 points in three days.

Sprint said Monday it was releasing a software update for the Mogul phone, made by HTC Corp. of Taiwan, that will enable the phone to connect at Rev. A speeds. Downloads speeds should be 600 kilobits per second to 1,400 kbps. It will be capable of uploads of 350 to 500 kbps.

Stefan Jacoby, chief executive of Volkswagen Group of America, said yesterday that his goal is to sell 1 million vehicles annually by 2018—800,000 from the Volkswagen brand and 200,000 from the Audi brand.

The departure of two high-level executives at Circuit City Stores Inc. had nothing to do with recent rumblings from disgruntled shareholder Mark Wattles, a company spokesman said

To help fuel that transformation, the company is teaming with a prominent venture capital firm to offer $100 million to lure developers to the iPhone to create the next generation of applications.

A spokesman for the nation’s No. 2 electronics retailer says the company’s stores are accepting returns of HD DVD players within 90 days of purchase, instead of 30 days. The policy doesn’t apply to HD DVD movie discs.

U.S. factories saw demand for their products drop sharply, while the country’s service sector contracted, fresh evidence of an economy hobbled by housing and credit crises.

A top Energy Department official says market speculation may be adding as much as $12 to the price of crude oil and that prices may not yet have peaked.

Even with some relief efforts under way by industry and government, foreclosures and late payments on home mortgages are likely to rise “for a while longer,“ Ben Bernanke warned.

Declining issues led advancers by a 17-to-14 margin on the New York Stock Exchange

General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said Monday they would cut second quarter production in the face of falling U.S. sales and weakened consumer confidence, while Toyota Motor Corp. said plummeting sales of sport utility vehicles and large sedans contributed to its 3 percent drop in U.S. sales for February.

Decliners on the New York Stock Exchange hold an 8 to 7 lead over advancers.

Oil prices surged to a new record high Monday as the dollar weakened to another low against the euro

U.S. manufacturing activity declined in February to its weakest level in nearly five years, an industry group survey showed Monday, heralding more instability in the job market and further frailty in the overall economy.

Construction spending took its biggest nosedive in 14 years and manufacturing activity contracted, fresh trouble signs for a struggling economy.

StellarOne Corp. has completed a merger of equals between Virginia Financial Group Inc. and FNB Corp.  The combined companies adopted the StellarOne name, and the new company began trading yesterday on the Nasdaq market under the symbol STEL.

Disgruntled investor Mark Wattles, who owns 6.5 percent of the chain, submitted a proposal that each board member besides the five nominated by the firm should be removed, according to a statement distributed this morning.

Regulators and aircraft manufacturers are not keeping adequate tabs on the quality of plane parts made domestically and abroad, potentially raising risks for fliers, government investigators said in a report released Friday.

The Federal Reserve announced Friday that it will auction another $60 billion in March as it continues to combat the effects of a severe credit crisis. It repeated a pledge to keep holding the auctions “for as long as necessary.“

General Motors Corp. says it will temporarily shut down three more pickup truck factories due to a strike at a key parts supplier

Crude prices extended their march into record high territory Thursday, shooting up more than $2 a barrel as a falling dollar and the prospect of lower interest rates attracted more investors to the oil market. Retail gas prices, meanwhile, rose closer to records above $3 a gallon.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is proving to be a quick study in navigating a treacherous housing slump and credit crisis that could push the economy into a recession. He also seems to be learning fast on an equally perilous course - avoiding political land mines in Washington.