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The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed mandatory reporting of the gases blamed for global warming from approximately 13,000 facilities nationwide.

The regulation would cover companies that either release large amounts of greenhouse gases directly or produce or import fuels and chemicals that when burned emit heat-trapping gases.

Refineries, automobile manufacturers, power plants, coal mines and large manure ponds at farms would all have to report to the government emissions of at least six different gases payday loan lenders.

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General Electric Capital Corp plans to sell a dollar-denominated benchmark bond under the U.S. government’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, IFR reported on Monday.

Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley have been named to manage the deal, which is expected to price during the early part of this week, said IFR Markets, a Thomson Reuters online news and market analysis service paydayloans.

(Reporting by Jane Baird)

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The U.S. Senate put off a final vote on a $410 billion spending package until next week after Republicans demanded time to offer more amendments.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said he was “probably a vote short” of the 60 needed to cut off debate late yesterday and bring the bill to a final vote. “We’re going to have to continue work on this bill,” he said.

Lawmakers will try for passage early next week after considering more Republican amendments, Reid said. In the meantime, lawmakers will approve a new stopgap measure to replace one currently funding the federal government, which expires tonight, he said. The second stopgap measure will be written to expire at midnight on March 10.

Democrats, who control the Senate with 58 votes, must rely on some Republican support to proceed to final passage of the so- called omnibus bill, in part because at least two Democrats said they oppose it. Democratic Senators Evan Bayh of Indiana and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin each said they will vote against it because they believe it spends too much credit scores for free.

A third Democrat, Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, criticized the bill because it would loosen the nation’s trade embargo on Cuba. His spokesman said Menendez is leaning against the measure.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said yesterday his colleagues wanted a “reasonable number of amendments” before allowing a final vote because “this is a huge appropriations bill.”

The House last week approved the measure, which is needed to fund the federal government through September when its current fiscal year ends. The bill would provide an 8 percent budget increase for domestic programs.

It also would fund thousands of pet projects known as earmarks and kill several policies adopted by former President George W. Bush, including rules that bar Cuban-Americans from visiting relatives in Cuba more than once every three years.

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The U.S. economy "deteriorated further" in almost all corners of the country over the last two months as consumer spending slumped and manufacturing declined, the Federal Reserve said in its regional business survey.

Ten of 12 Fed district banks reported "weaker conditions or declines" in their regional economies, and respondents didn’t expect a "significant pickup" until late this year or early next year, the Fed said Wednesday in its Beige Book release, published two weeks before officials meet in Washington to set monetary policy. Housing "remained in the doldrums in most areas," the Fed said.

Lending fell across the United States, and credit availability "remained tight," the Fed said.

"We’re in the throes of the deepest part of the recession now," Kevin Flanagan, a Purchase, N.Y.-based fixed-income strategist for Morgan Stanley’s individual-investor clients, said on Bloomberg TV.
The report reflects information reported through Feb. 23 and summarized by staffers at the San Francisco Fed, which oversees the largest portion of the U.S. economy.

"Consumer spending remained very weak on balance, albeit with slight firming noted by many districts," the Fed report said. About half of the districts said consumer demand was slower or "fell significantly" from a year earlier.

The economy shrank at a 6.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the most since 1982, revised government figures showed last week. Home construction contracted at a 22 percent pace after a 16 percent decline in the prior quarter.

The recession in U.S. manufacturing persisted for a 13th month in February, a private report showed this week. Other reports showed consumer spending rose in January with a spurt of post-holiday discounts, and construction dropped more than twice as much as anticipated instant credit report.

"Reports on manufacturing activity suggested steep declines in activity in some sectors and pronounced declines overall," the Fed said.

Exceptions to the economy’s weakening included food production and pharmaceuticals, the Fed said.

In January, Fed officials downgraded their forecasts for growth this year, seeing a deeper contraction as the credit crunch tightens. Most forecast a contraction of 0.5 percent to 1.3 percent.

The Fed report said home prices kept falling this year "with little or no signs of a deceleration evident." Home builders "remain pessimistic regarding recovery prospects this year," the Fed said. Demand for commercial real estate "weakened significantly," and the retreat in construction is expected to continue through at least year-end, the Fed survey said.

U.S. employers probably eliminated 650,000 jobs from payrolls in February, the most since 1949, while the jobless rate may have increased to 7.9 percent from 7.6 percent, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The Labor Department will report the figures Friday.

The Beige Book says unemployment is up in "all areas, reducing or eliminating upward wage pressures." Weaker demand is spurring discounting of goods other than fuel and food, the Fed said. As such, "upward price pressures continued to ease across a broad spectrum of final goods and services," the Fed said.

The consumer price index was unchanged in January compared with a year before. That was the first month without a year-on-year increase since 1955.

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Apple Inc. introduced a refreshed line of Macintosh desktop computers Tuesday that the company touted as more affordable, even though price tags for all but one model top $1,000.

The rollout included a price cut on the low end of the iMac line of desktops with built-in monitors. A version with a 20-inch screen starts at $1,199, $300 less than the previous generation. The 24-inch model starts at $1,499.

Apple unveiled a long-rumored update to the Mac Mini, a petite computer sold without a monitor, keyboard or mouse. The company’s cheapest computer, at $599, was updated with a faster graphics processor and the ability to run more than one monitor at a time. In a news release, Apple also promoted the Mini’s energy efficiency and said it draws less than 13 watts of power when idle, or about one-tenth the power of a typical machine.

The company also overhauled its professional-grade workhorse, the Mac Pro, with a quad-core processor from Intel Corp car loan rates., while cutting its price by $300 to $2,499. An eight-core version starts at $3,299.

Apple has long focused on selling higher-end computers to consumers willing to pay extra. To date, Apple has made few concessions to the economic crisis that’s crimping spending, and strong sales overseas during the holiday quarter helped offset a slower season in the U.S.

So far, Apple has stayed away from the one fast-growing PC category, netbooks, or cheap, low-powered notebooks that have been a hit with recession-bitten consumers. Those machines start well below $300.

In a research note Tuesday, UBS analyst Maynard Um wrote that "investors may have been hoping for greater price cuts at the low end."

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Stocks tumbled Monday, with the Dow and S&P 500 falling to 12-year lows after insurance company American International Group’s huge quarterly loss added to worries about the financial sector and the economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost almost 300 points, or 4.2% to end at 6763.29, its lowest point since April 25, 1997.

The S&P 500 (SPX) index lost 34 points, or 4.7%, ending at 700.82, its lowest close since Oct. 28, 1996.

The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 55 points, or 4% to end at 1322.85. The tech-fueled Nasdaq has held up better than the other major averages this year and remains above its close of 1316.12 from Nov. 20, 2008.

The stock losses Monday were in response to AIG, but also a continuation of the worries about the financial sector and the economy, said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Financial Services.

"There are reverberations from AIG and also the continued uncertainty around the financial sector as a whole, which is the chorus that never ends," he said.

"That’s paired with the second chorus that never ends - the weakness of the global economy," he said. "It’s reflected in the weakness in the industrial, material and energy stocks today."

Investors also remain wary about the various government initiatives to try to stem the recession, announced over the last few weeks, said Mark Travis, president and CEO at Intrepid Capital Funds. They include the newest bank bailout plan, the $787 billion economic stimulus plan and the $75 billion mortgage modification plan.

"The administration is hemming and hawing and still not being clear about exactly what they are going to do and how it’s going to work," he said.

Travis said that some of the policies are "well meaning but aren’t going to provide the elixir that they hope."

With all the uncertainty, investors are on a "capital strike."

Tuesday brings an economic report on the housing industry and a number of Congressional hearings. February sales from the nation’s automakers are also due throughout the session.

The National Association of Realtors releases its pending home sales index for January in the morning. The index is expected to have fallen 3% after rising 6.3% in the previous month.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is due to testify before the Senate Budget Committee on economic and budget challenges, starting at 10 a.m. ET.

Also at 10:00 a.m., Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, testifies before the House Budget Committee about the fiscal 2010 budget.

AIG: AIG reported a $62 billion fourth-quarter loss, the largest in U.S. corporate history, on turmoil in the credit markets and massive restructuring costs. For the full year, AIG lost $99 billion after reporting a profit of $9.3 billion in 2007.

To keep the company from collapsing and infecting the broader financial market, the government is revising its bailout for the third time and committing another $30 billion in exchange for cumulative preferred stock auto loans for bad credit. The rescue plan now totals $162.5 billion. (Full story)

Stocks tumbled Friday after the government said it will control as much as 36% of Citigroup’s common stock. Also in play: a report showing the economy shrank at its sharpest pace in 26 years in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Buffett: Adding to the weakness was billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s annual chairman’s letter, in which he talked about the tough 2008 his Berkshire Hathaway company experienced. The influential investor admitted that he "did some dumb things in investments" during the year.

Stock movers: AIG dragged on other financial stocks, including Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500). The KBW Bank (BKX) sector index lost 6.4%.

General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) slumped another 11% after saying Friday it is cutting its dividend by 68% to 10 cents per share from 31 cents.

All 30 Dow stocks fell, led by the banks, GE, GM (GM, Fortune 500), Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) and DuPont

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners by nearly 16 to one on volume of 1.98 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers by over 7 to one on volume of 2.36 billion shares.

Economy: The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index rose modestly to 35.8 in February from 35.6 in January, after 12 months of declines. Economists expected a drop to 34, according to a Briefing.com survey. Despite the advance, the sector remains in a period of contraction, with any reading under 50 indicating weakness.

Another report showed that construction spending fell 3.3% in January after falling 2.4% in December. Economists thought it would fall 1.5%.

Another government report showed personal income rose 0.4% in January after falling 0.2% in December. Economists thought it would fall 0.2%. Personal Spending rose 0.6% in January after falling 1% in December. Economists thought it would rise 0.4%.

Bonds: Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.87% from Friday’s 3.01%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Other markets: In global trading, Asian and European markets ended lower.

In currency trading, the dollar gained versus the euro and fell against the yen.

U.S. light crude oil for April delivery fell $4.61 to settle at $40.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for April delivery fell $2.50 to settle at $940 an ounce.

Talkback: Are you living on your unemployment check? How are you making ends meet? What bills are you paying - and which ones are sliding? E-mail your story to realstories@cnnmoney.com and you could be part of an upcoming article. 

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Manufacturing in the U.S. probably contracted in February at a quicker rate than the month before as factories reduced production to match their collapsing sales, economists said before reports today.

The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 34 last month from 35.6 in January, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Readings less than 50 signal contraction. Other reports may show construction spending fell for a fourth straight month and consumer spending rose in January for the first time in seven months.

Factories are cutting jobs and scaling back on output and investment as the housing and credit crises squeeze domestic demand for everything from cars to appliances. President Barack Obama last month announced a stimulus package to jolt the economy out of what may be the worst recession in the postwar era and introduced a budget, with a record deficit of $1.75 trillion, designed to chart a path to long-term growth.

“Slumping global trade and weak domestic spending are depressing producer confidence and forcing companies to retrench,” said Lena Komileva, chief economist at Tullett Prebon Ltd. in London. “Depressed economic conditions and turbulent financial markets are putting pressure on corporate profits and forcing businesses to cut costs.”

The Tempe, Arizona-based ISM’s report is due at 10 a.m. New York time. A measure of prices paid may increase to 34 from 29 in the prior month, the survey said.

Consumer Spending

A Commerce Department report at 8:30 a.m. may indicate consumer spending rose 0.4 percent in January after declining for six consecutive months, according to economists surveyed. Still, that report may show incomes fell for a fourth month as the labor market deteriorated, signaling continued retrenchment.

The recession that began in December 2007 will probably persist at least through the first half of this year, according to economists surveyed, which would make it the longest downturn since 1933. The economy shrank at a 6.2 percent pace in the fourth quarter of last year, the biggest contraction since 1982, and business investment fell at a 21 percent rate cash advance payday loans.

Consumer spending, which dropped at a 4.3 percent rate in that three-month period, may slip through the first six months of this year, according to economists surveyed in February. Purchases have not contracted for four consecutive quarters since records began in 1947.

In Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24, he said the staggering economy has left “confidence shaken” and the credit freeze that’s paralyzed the banking system will need to be fixed or “our recovery will be choked off before it even begins.”

Cars, Appliances

Obama signed his $787 billion stimulus into law on Feb. 17 and his administration has unveiled measures to boost housing and banks. Also, the Federal Reserve has flooded markets with cash.

Among manufacturers, carmakers are struggling. Detroit-based General Motors Corp. last week reported the second-biggest quarterly loss in its 100-year history, as Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner asked the Treasury for $16.6 billion more in loans to survive through 2009.

Whirlpool Corp., the world’s biggest appliance maker, said Feb. 9 that profit will probably fall for a second straight year as the recession and a plunge in home construction stifle demand. Appliance sales in the U.S. will decline 10 percent this year, Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Fettig said on a conference call.

Companies that rely on exports are also hurting. Honeywell International Inc., the world’s largest maker of airplane-cockpit controls, last week said 2009 sales will be lower than previously expected because of slowing demand in China and India and “weakness” in commercial aerospace. Morris Township, New Jersey- based Honeywell has cut jobs and frozen hiring because of the global slowdown.

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When it comes to economic fears, the loss of a job weighs most heavily on the minds of Americans, according to a newly released survey by financial services firm Edward Jones.

Ethnicity also played a role, with 55 percent of African-Americans more concerned about job security than Caucasians (37 percent) and Hispanics (31 percent) instant personal loans guaranteed.

Hispanics are more concerned than other ethnicities about the cost of health care (26 percent), but less concerned with retirement savings (9 percent).

Higher earners are more concerned about stock market performance (36 percent) and saving for retirement (21 percent), while lower earners worry more about the cost of health care (30 percent).

High school graduates are more stressed about job security (43 percent) and the cost of health care (27 percent) compared with college graduates (35 percent and 15 percent, respectively).

Opinion Research Corp. conducted the survey of 1,000 respondents on behalf of Edward Jones.

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