NEW YORK - January 13, 2011 - The number of U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure filing will climb about 20% in 2011, reaching a peak for the housing crisis, as unemployment remains high and banks resume seizures after a slowdown, according to RealtyTrac, Inc..

“We will peak in foreclosures and probably bottom out in pricing, and that’s what we need to do in order to begin (a) recovery,” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “But it’s probably not going to feel good in the process.”

NEW YORK - January 13, 2011 - The pace of foreclosures has slowed since revelations that thousands of foreclosure documents may have been improperly prepared, but for all 2010, almost 2.9 million U.S. properties received foreclosure filings, a record high, and up 2% from 2009.

WASHINGTON - January 13, 2011 - A spike in oil and food costs pushed wholesale prices up last month by the biggest amount in nearly a year, a trend that could threaten the still-fragile global economy.

The Producer Price Index, which measures price changes before they reach consumers, rose 1.1% in December, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was up from a 0.8% rise in November and was the largest increase since January 2010.

WASHINGTON - January 13, 2011 - More people applied for unemployment benefits last week after retailers shed temporary holiday employees.

NEW YORK - January 11, 2011 - U.S. home prices fell for the 53rd consecutive month in November, taking the decline past that of the Great Depression for the first time in the prolonged housing slump, according to Zillow.

Home prices have fallen 26% since their peak in 2006, exceeding the 25.9% drop registered in the five years between 1928 and 1933, according to the housing data company in a report issued on Monday. Prices fell 0.8% over the month.

LONDON, England - January 11, 2011 - Robin Griffiths, a technical strategist at Cazenove Capital, recently told CNBC, "I think not owning gold is a form of insanity. It may even show unhealthy masochistic tendencies, which might need medical attention."

NEW YORK - January 10, 2011 - Employers in the U.S. added fewer jobs than forecast in December, confirming Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s view that it will take years for the labor market to heal.