• FINANCIAL & BUSINESS NEWS

Last Update on March 17, 2010 13:15 EDT

Stocks rising

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street is stuck in rally mode. Today's push higher for stock prices comes after U.S. and Japanese central banks reaffirmed their plans to keep interest rates low to encourage economic growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average is up for a seventh straight day.

The Fed said yesterday it would hold its key interest rate at historic lows. And, Japan led overseas markets higher after its central bank kept a key interest rate at 0.1 percent and expanded money available through its short-term lending program.

Senate OKs jobs bill for Obama's signature

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Companies that hire unemployed workers will get a temporary payroll tax holiday under a bill that has easily won final congressional approval.

The bipartisan 68-29 vote in the Senate sends the legislation to the White House, where President Barack Obama has promised to sign it into law.

Optimistic estimates predict the tax break could generate perhaps 250,000 jobs through the end of the year, but that would be just a tiny fraction of the more than 8 million jobs lost since the start of the recession.

It's the first of several election-year jobs bills Democrats have promised to enact.

February wholesale prices drop 0.6 percent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Prices at the wholesale level plunged in February by the largest amount in seven months as a big drop in energy prices offset higher food costs.

The Labor Department says that wholesale inflation dropped 0.6 percent in February. Excluding food and energy, prices edged up a slight 0.1 percent.

With inflation held at bay, the Federal Reserve has leeway to maintain record low interest rates in an effort to build momentum from stronger economic growth.

While overall wholesale prices have risen 4.4 percent over the past 12 months, core inflation, which excludes energy and food, is up a much more subdued 1 percent over the past year.

SEC boss: agency examining companies

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission confirms the agency is investigating several companies' actions in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said "it would be safe to assume" that the agency is looking very closely at the conduct of a number of firms during this time. She did not name the companies.

Schapiro spoke to a House panel weighing the agency's request for about $1.3 billion for the budget year starting Oct. 1, a 12 percent increase from the current year.

Lawmakers want to know if the sort of accounting gimmick recently uncovered that was used by the collapsed investment firm Lehman Brothers to mask billions in debt was widely deployed on Wall Street.

She said the SEC's review of the Lehman Brothers disaster has prompted a broader look.

IMF: Chance to overhaul global economy is slipping away

BRUSSELS (AP) -- The head of the International Monetary Fund warns that the opportunity to reform the global financial system may be slipping away.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn also said China's currency is undervalued but added that he expects it will appreciate as China starts to rely more on domestic demand, helping to rebalance global surpluses and deficits.

He told European lawmakers that he's worried that countries' "receding" commitment to international efforts to overhaul the world economy and the financial system in the wake of a blistering financial crisis could trigger protectionism.