Stocks fall as Street looks for rate cut by Delia Cruceru

Home sales are making problems again on Wall Street as stocks finished lower on Wednesday and the Federal Reserve's regional banks are offering little more assurance that an interest rate cut is likely. Although the Dow Jones Industrials average rose in three of the last four sessions, Wednesday they dropped more than 140 points. According to the National Association of Realtors a decline of pending sales of existing homes reached the lowest level in July in nearly six years. "Our members are telling us some sales contracts aren't closing because mortgage commitments have been falling through at the last moment," said Lawrence Yun, the group's senior economist. In the Federal Reserve "beige book" report that describes the economic conditions in regions around the country, it is said that the overall economy hasn't been widely harmed. According to the report though housing weakness has deepened, the recent turmoil in the financial markets has had only limited effect on the broad economy. After Mattel announced a third recall of its toys the stocks rose with 1 cent $21.98. Apple fell $7.40, or 5.1 percent and Costco Wholesale Corp., the warehouse retailer, after reporting for August weaker sales their stocks fell $2.61, or 4.2 percent, to $59. Over the world, Britain's FTSE 100 index closed down 1.66 percent, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 1.60 percent, Germany's DAX index declined 1.73 percent, and France's CAC-40 tumbled 2.14 percent.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070905/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street;_ylt=AvyFeNx3qXEBGAnd8aj9dies0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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