NEW YORK - August 24, 2011 - The parent company of Payless and Stride Rite shoe stores, Collective Brands, Inc., said Wednesday that it plans to close 475 stores and has engaged a firm to help it explore its options.

The company posted a second-quarter loss of $35 million Wednesday, including $83.6 million in one-time charges that mainly reflect the declining value of its stores and of Stride Rite's trade name.

NEW YORK - August 24, 2011 - Gold futures prices in New York tumbled more than $100 an ounce on Wednesday, the worst one-day loss in three years, as investors engaged in profit-taking ahead of a critical speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday.

NEW YORK - August 24, 2011 - Major ratings agency Moody's Investors Service downgraded Japan's sovereign debt rating by one notch Wednesday, putting fresh pressure on the country's political leaders to repair its finances.

Moody's said it was cutting Japan's government bond rating to Aa3 from Aa2, citing the "large budget deficits and the build-up in Japanese government debt since the 2009 global (Depr)ession".

LONDON, England - August 24, 2011 - UBS’s decision to cut 5% of its workforce brings to more than 40,000 the number of jobs cut by European banks in the past month and to 67,000 this year, as the region’s worsening sovereign debt crisis crimps trading revenue.

WASHINGTON - August 23, 2011 - The number of Amerikans who bought new homes fell for the third straight month in July, putting sales on track to finish this year as the worst on records dating back half a century.

Sales of new homes fell nearly 1% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 298,000, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That's less than half the 700,000 that economists say represent a healthy market.

NEW YORK - August 22, 2011 - Genna Saucedo supervises cashiers at a Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera, Kalifornia, but her earnings aren’t enough to feed herself and her 12-year-old son.

Saucedo, who earns $9.70 an hour for about 26 hours a week and lives with her mother, is one of the many Amerikans who survives because of government handouts in what has rapidly become a food stamp nation.

NEW YORK - August 19, 2011 - Stores are trying everything they can think of to disguise the fact that you're going to pay more for clothes this fall.

Some are using less fabric and calling it the new look. Others are adding cheap stitching and trumpeting it as a redesign. Chances are you're not going to think it's worth paying several dollars more for the shirt just to have those special buttons.