Rebel News - Independent News and Analysis

The US Labor Department figures show the world's biggest economy is still battling the recent recession, as its unemployment rate has increased to 9.6 percent in August.

The figures provide millions of unemployed men and women across the United States with an insight into the status of their ailing economy in terms of current and prospective job markets.

The advertising budget of the oil company BP has been tripled since last April, compared to the expenditure of the same period last year.

The company spent over $93 million on media ads to counter images of its developing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday, quoting the spill investigation report by the US House of Representative's Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The private sector in the United States has cut 10,000 jobs in August to underscore a weakening labor market, the ADP Employer Services says.

The drop last month represented the first monthly decline since last December, while it failed to meet economists' estimates that recruiting would edge higher.

Apple Inc unveiled a snazzier line of its iPod on Wednesday, with new designs for every model of the popular media device in hopes of kick-starting holiday sales.

"We've gone wild," Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said. "It's the biggest change in the iPod lineup ever."

Stocks jumped Wednesday after surprisingly strong growth in U.S. and Chinese manufacturing allayed some of the worries that had been building over the global economy in recent weeks.

The new reports snapped a string of disappointing economic data that sent stocks slumping in August. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index, the benchmark most widely used by professional investors, lost 4.7 percent in the month, its worst August performance since 2001.

Americans' confidence in the economy improved slightly in August, but the mood is still gloomy amid job worries, according to a monthly survey.

The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index improved slightly to 53.5, up from a revised 51.0 in July. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected 50.5. The improvement comes after two straight months of declines.

US stocks have plunged with a triple-digit point decline as investors lost confidence over figures showing a slowdown in the country's economic recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 141 points at closing on Monday. The Nasdaq Composite also fell 33.66 points, or 1.56 per cent, to 2,119.97. The technology-heavy index has so far dropped 6% this month.

The latest survey by National Association for Business Economics reflect a division between economists over ways the US government should stimulate the economy.

In the NABE's semiannual survey in August, 60 percent of economists surveyed believed that the US economy is threatened by deflation in the short run and inflation in the long run.

A leading American economist has warned that chances of an emerging second phase of an economic crisis in the US are mounting, as its financial recovery is losing steam.

Robert Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University, says the world's biggest economy may face the second dip down of a so-called double-dip recession in the near future.

The United States auto manufacturing giant, Ford Motors, is recalling 575,000 vehicles in the US and Canada over corrosion concerns, a report says.

According to federal regulators the recall covers Windstar vans made between 1998 and 2003 due to the possibility that their rear axles can corrode and potentially break after exposure to road salt, Reuters reported.