Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Sales of previously-owned homes - by far the largest segment of the real estate market - surged in October to the highest level in more than 2-1/2 years.

The National Association of Realtors says that existing home sales rose 10.1% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million units, up from the downwardly revised rate of 5.54 million in September.

Sales activity is the highest since February 2007, when the annual rate was 6.55 million. Keep reading

More Americans are expected to travel for the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday than they did last year, although air travel will decline.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

When it comes to the financial crisis, there's been a lot of blame-shifting and finger-pointing. But in a surprise move, one of the nation's biggest banks is now admitting it played a part in the debacle.

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has apologized for taking part in the era of free and easy money.

"We participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret," Blankfein said at a corporate conference in New York. "We apologize."

Blankfein’s comments came the same day that Goldman announced it’s launching a $500 million initiative called "10,000 Small Businesses," aimed at unlocking the job creation and economic growth potential of America's small companies.

The project's advisory council features an array of business luminaries, including Warren Buffett, the bank’s largest shareholder

It’s worth pointing out that Goldman Sachs earned an eye-popping $3.2 billion in the third quarter, as revenue from trading rose fourfold from a year ago.

We have new signs today that the recovery in the housing market is tenuous at best.

Keep reading

More than 15 million taxpayers may owe the IRS, according to a report released by the Treasury Dept. on Monday.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

More than 15 million taxpayers may be getting paid more of the Making Work Pay credit than they should, according to a report from a Treasury Dept. inspector general that was released Monday. That means they either will get less of a refund than they expected, or will actually owe money to the IRS on their 2009 taxes.

The taxpayers most vulnerable are those in two-earner couples; those who have dependents who earn wages; single or married filers who have more than one job at the same time; and filers who get pension payments or have a job and receive Social Security benefits.

Also late yesterday, the U.S. Postal Service reported a $3.8 billion loss in the 2009 fiscal year and said it plans to propose to Congress in 2010 that it drop Saturday delivery.

The agency already reduced expenses by $6 billion during the year ended Sept. 30.

Those measures included eliminating 40,000 jobs. However the cash-strapped agency still employs over 712,000 people. The Postal Service also reduced overtime hours and lowered transportation-related costs.

Additionally, the USPS lowered the payments it made for retiree health benefits by $4 billion in fiscal 2009.

Keep reading

Improved results may allow GM to start repaying government loans sooner.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

General Motors says that improved results will allow it to start repaying government loans sooner than expected, although the company continued to lose money in its first quarter since emerging from bankruptcy.

GM says it anticipates paying $1 billion to the Treasury Dept. in December, along with $192 million to the Canadian and Ontario governments.

GM received $6.7 billion in loans from the Treasury as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, along with help from Canada and Ontario. But that’s only a fraction of the $50 billion in bailout money GM has received from U.S. taxpayers since the end of 2008. Keep reading

McDonald's says it plans to open 1,000 new restaurants next year

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

President Obama, facing a nationwide unemployment rate north of 10%, said today he's organizing a White House jobs summit next month.

The president said people are “desperately searching for work” and that the government has “an obligation to consider every additional responsible step we can” to get people back to work.

He said the summit in December will bring together CEOs, small business owners, economists, financial experts and representatives from labor and non-profits groups to talk about how to get job creation back on track.

President Obama’s comments followed some encouraging signs out this morning on both the labor and housing fronts.

Keep reading

Most cities in the U.S saw gains in the median price of single-family homes sold during the three months that ended Sept. 30

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

The prolonged period of pain in the housing market seems to be easing, at least temporarily anyway.

Most cities in the U.S saw gains in the median price of single-family homes sold during the three months that ended Sept. 30, according to the National Association of Realtors' quarterly report on home prices. This is the second consecutive quarter of gains.

The national median home price was $177,900 in the third quarter, up $7,000 from the previous quarter. And while that was still down more than 11% from the third quarter of 2008, the pace of decline is slowing. In the second quarter of 2009, home prices fell more than 15% from the same period last year. Keep reading

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

The nation's unemployment rate rose above 10% for the first time since 1983 in October, a much worse jump than expected as employers continued to trim jobs from payrolls.

The reading is a sign of the continued weakness in the labor market - even though the economy grew in the third quarter following the longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

The Labor Dept. said this morning that unemployment rate spiked to 10.2% last month, up from 9.8% in September. That’s the highest rate since April 1983.

There was also a net loss of 190,000 jobs in October. And while that’s worse than what economists were expecting and is still a big number – it is an improvement from the 741,000 jobs we lost in January.

The largest losses last month were in the construction, manufacturing and retail sectors.

Keep reading

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Unemployed Americans are set to get up to 20 additional weeks of jobless benefits, while new homebuyers are poised to see the $8,000 tax credit extended into mid-next year.

The House approved the measures by a 403-12 vote this afternoon, one day after the Senate passed the legislation. The bill now moves to the White House for President Obama's signature.

The legislation would extend jobless benefits in all states by 14 weeks. Those that live in states with unemployment higher than 8.5% would receive an additional six weeks. The proposal would be funded by extending a longstanding federal unemployment tax on employers through June 30, 2011.

Keep reading

Federal Reserve policymakers voted again to keep the central bank's key interest rate near zero, just one week after the government reported that the economy grew in the third quarter.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Federal Reserve policymakers voted once again today to keep the central bank’s key interest rate near zero. Ben Bernanke and Co. added in a statement that although the economy continues to improve, the Fed intends to stay the course – at least for a while.

The central bank’s decision came just one week after the government reported that the economy grew in the third quarter, the first gain in more than a year

While it was widely assumed that the Fed would leave rates in a range of 0% to 0.25%, economists and investors were eager to see how it described the economy in its statement.

And the Fed repeated language from earlier statements that economic conditions are “likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.”

The federal funds rate is a benchmark used to set the rates paid on a wide range of business and consumer loans, such as home equity lines and credit cards. It has been near zero since December 2008.

Also in focus, the nation's employment picture continued to deteriorate last month, although the rate of decline continued to slow, according to two reports out today.

Payroll-processing firm ADP said private-sector employers cut 203,000 jobs in October. It was the seventh month in a row that the number of job cuts fell from the month before.

In a separate report, the pace of announced job cuts slowed, but the number of cuts announced in 2009 will soon exceed last year's total.

Job cut announcements by employers fell to 55,679 in October, 16% fewer than in September, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It was the third consecutive monthly decline.

We’ll get the government’s official snapshot of the labor market on Friday with the October employment report. Consensus estimates are for a loss of 175,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticking up to 9.9%.

Meanwhile, the number of Americans filing personal bankruptcies surged 9% in October, and we are now on target for the highest annual total in four years, according to a report issued today.

The American Bankruptcy Institute, an industry research firm that relies on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center, said 135,914 consumers filed for bankruptcy last month. Almost a third of the bankruptcies were filed under Chapter 13, in which consumers are put on a repayment plan of up to five years.

The group is also forecasting total bankruptcies will exceed 1.4 million in 2009, which would be the highest since 2005. It would also be an increase of at least 30% from last year.

Follow the money… on Twitter: @AndrewTorganCNN

General Motors, Ford Motor and Nissan reported that their sales were up from a year ago.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

It’s a busy day on the deal front, and it starts with Warren Buffet’s big bet on the future of the United States.

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is buying railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe for $44 billion, in what he characterizes as an "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States."

Berkshire, which already has major stake in the company, will acquire the remaining 77.4% of the company in a cash-and-stock offer worth $100 per share. Keep reading