(Reuters) - New single-family home sales in the United States fell in August to a 6-month low in a sign the crippled housing market will not provide much support for the flagging economy anytime soon. The Commerce Department said on Monday sales slipped 2.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted 295,000-unit annual rate.

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(Reuters) - Euro zone officials played down reports on Monday of emerging plans to halve Greece's debts and recapitalize European banks to cope with the fallout, stressing that no such scheme is yet on the table. Europe came under fierce pressure from the United States and other major economies at weekend talks in Washington to take swift, decisive action to stop the Greek debt crisis engulfing bigger euro zone states and derailing world economic recovery.

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(Reuters) - McGraw-Hill (MHP.N) Cos Inc (MHP.N) said U.S. regulators may charge its Standard & Poor's ratings unit with violating federal securities laws with ratings on a repackaged mortgage bond in 2007. The company said it received a Wells Notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that commission staff may recommend a civil lawsuit against the unit for a rating on 2007 collateralized debt offering (CDO) known as "Delphinus CDO 2007-1." The staff may recommend that the SEC seek monetary penalties, the company said in a statement today.

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(Reuters) - The United Auto Workers union and Ford Motor Co (F.N) will begin "high-level financial discussions" on Monday in an effort to reach a new labor deal that workers expect to be richer than one with General Motors Co (GM.N). On Saturday, UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles, the lead negotiator with Ford, met with his administrative assistants to prioritize his agenda in preparation for this week's meetings with Ford executives, the UAW said in a memo.

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(Reuters) - Stocks turned lower in at midmorning on Friday in volatile trading, weighed down by energy shares as crude prices fell. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 77.31 points, or 0.72 percent, to 10,656.52. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 4.39 points, or 0.39 percent, to 1,125.17. The Nasdaq Composite Index edged down 2.40 points, or 0.10 percent, to 2,453.27.

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(Reuters) - Talk of a possible Greek default gained pace on Friday while a pledge by the world's major economies to prevent Europe's debt crisis from undermining banks and the global economy failed to lift financial markets for long. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was quoted by two newspapers as saying an orderly default with a 50 percent haircut for bondholders was one of three possible scenarios for resolving the heavily indebted euro zone nation's fiscal crunch.

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(Reuters) - The board of UBS (UBSN.VX)(UBS.N) extended on Friday its meeting amid the glamour of Singapore's Grand Prix event to decide the future of its scandal-hit investment bank and CEO Oswald Gruebel, on whose watch it lost $2.3 billion in alleged rogue trading. Top executives at the Swiss bank, which has staggered from crisis to crisis over the past three years, are under pressure to downsize or fence off risky trading activities and protect its core business of managing private investors' wealth.

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(Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co named former eBay Inc Chief Executive Meg Whitman its president and CEO, replacing the harshly criticized Leo Apotheker in a bid to restore investor confidence in the iconic Silicon Valley company. The decision was made without a formal CEO search and piled renewed criticism on the board, which investors have blamed -- at least in part -- for the storied company's recent missteps.

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(Reuters) - Dunkin' Brands Group Inc (DNKN.O) said on Friday that Neal Yanofsky is leaving after just four months as its international president. "We mutually agreed that this was not a good fit for Neal or Dunkin' Brands, and we will not disclose any further details," a company spokesman said.

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(Reuters) - Stocks tumbled on Thursday, extending losses for a fourth straight session, as the Federal Reserve's weak outlook for the U.S. economy and disappointing data China heightened fears about a global recession. Big banks were the top decliners, a day after Moody's lowered debt ratings for large lenders.

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