Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is weighing whether to ask Congress for the remaining $350 billion of the financial bailout fund, with White House aides approaching President-elect Barack Obama's transition team about the idea, an Obama aide said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Legg Mason's Bill Miller, a celebrated investor whose stock picking is far off the mark this year, said on Wednesday the "bottom has been made" in U.S. equities.

Reuters - Online retail spending rose 15 percent on the all-important Monday after Thanksgiving from a year earlier, sounding a positive note in an otherwise bleak holiday season.

Reuters - Private employers cut 250,000 jobs in November, an unexpectedly large number and the biggest in seven years, while the service sector, which powers most of the economy, posted its worst slump on record.

Reuters - All options were on the table on Wednesday as congressional committees scrutinized auto company restructuring proposals and an urgent appeal for $34 billion in aid ahead of make-or-break hearings.

Reuters - Stocks stumbled on Wednesday. driven down by energy companies as investors grappled with more dismal data and gloomy outlooks from global heavyweights, including Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc .

Reuters - An investor lawsuit contends that Citigroup Inc insiders, including senior counselor and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, sold more than $150 million of their own shares at inflated prices while concealing the bank's true financial health.

Reuters - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said Wednesday the union would surrender job security protections and delay payments into a historic retiree healthcare trust in concessions intended to help U.S. automakers clinch government aid to survive a sales downturn.

AP - European Union businesses called on EU governments Wednesday to buy up company debt to ease financing and help prevent bankruptcies as the economy shrinks.

Reuters - The weak U.S. economy has finally caught up with Research In Motion, forcing the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone to cut its quarterly profit estimate as sales slow, margins narrow and a stronger U.S. dollar compresses revenue.