Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Europe gave a cool reception to a demand from the International Monetary Fund's new head Christine Lagarde to force its banks to bulk up their capital, saying the continent had done enough already.

ROME (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund has slashed its growth forecasts for the United States and says the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank must be ready to ease policy, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Monday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Many of the world's biggest energy companies may have to surrender most of the gas from Iraq's vast southern oilfields to a processing and export project led by Shell, a final draft contract between Baghdad and Europe's biggest company, obtained by Reuters, shows.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Figuring out what the People's Bank of China is doing can be as perplexing as parsing a statement from Alan Greenspan, the notoriously opaque former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hurricane Irene is expected to have caused substantial property losses, though figures are still hard to come by because of uncertainty about wind damage, catastrophe modeling company Eqecat said on Monday.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Credit rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's slashed their ratings on the debt of Chinese forestry company Sino-Forest on Monday, a day after Allen Chan, chairman and CEO of the Toronto-listed company, stepped down in the face of fraud accusations.

U.S. stocks rose Monday after Tropical Storm Irene wound up being less severe than many analysts anticipated. European stocks also jumped after two major Greek banks said they would combine to better weather that country's debt crisis.

The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes fell in July, further evidence that the depressed housing market remains a drag on the economy.

Consumer spending grew in July by 0.8 percent, the largest amount in five months. That followed a decline in June and helped ease fears that the U.S. economy is on the verge of another recession.

Airports in the New York area are open again now that Tropical Storm Irene has left town, but airlines warn it will be days before all stranded passengers find their way home.

Utility crews scrambled to restore power after Hurricane Irene raked across the Eastern Seaboard. But even with help from thousands of out-of-state repair crews, power companies say it may be days before some people see the lights back on.

A scorching drought in the southern Plains has caused hay prices to soar, benefiting farmers to the north but forcing many ranchers to make a difficult choice between paying high prices or selling their cattle.

Oil is climbing on a rebound in U.S. consumer spending.

President Barack Obama has chosen labor economist Alan Krueger for a top administration post as the White House scrambles for solutions to boost a fragile economy with the 2012 election looming.

Israel is tired of Hollywood filming Jesus' crucifixion in Italy and the Crusader invasion of the Holy Land in Morocco.

Marcio Christiansen reeled off tales of the growing ranks of rich Brazilians who visit his luxury Ferretti yacht showroom, where clients sip espressos on an oversized sable sofa and electronic music bubbles in the air.

Consumer spending grew in July by 0.8 percent, the largest amount in five months. That followed a decline in June and helped ease fears that the U.S. economy is on the verge of another recession.

The recent turmoil on financial markets threatens economic recovery in the European Union, the bloc's top economic official said Monday.