MGA Entertainment Inc is "still assessing" its next move, including whether to lay off staff, after a California judge barred the family-owned toy company from selling its popular Bratz doll, founder and Chief Executive Isaac Larian said on Thursday.

Central banks in Europe slashed their benchmark interest rates by record amounts on Thursday to fight the global economic crisis, while U.S. automakers pleaded for a bailout to avoid collapse.

The number of U.S. workers collecting jobless benefits hit a 26-year high last month, data showed on Thursday, and it may head higher as a deepening economic slump forces a broad spectrum of firms to cut jobs.

Microsoft Corp tapped on Thursday a former senior Yahoo Inc executive, Qi Lu, to head its online services group.

Many retailers posted sharply lower November sales at stores open at least a year, prompting some investors to pour into the sector on hopes the dismal results signaled a bottom for share values.

General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC said on Thursday they would be open to a merger if the U.S. government mandated it as a condition for providing the emergency financing they say is needed to allow them to survive into 2009.

DEARBORN, The year-long U.S. recession has taken a turn for the worse recently, two top Federal Reserve policy-makers said on Thursday, raising expectations for aggressive policy action by the central bank as soon as next week.

Stocks fell on Thursday as a sharp drop in oil prices sent the energy sector tumbling and disappointing profit outlooks from large companies such as Merck raised the specter of a worsening economy.

Boeing Co is expected to announce further delays to its new 787 Dreamliner next week, or shortly after, when it takes into account the damage of a two-month strike by its machinists and a number of production problems nagging at the program.

Yum Brands Inc , the parent of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, forecast on Thursday 2009 earnings per share growth of at least 10 percent and backed its 2008 earnings forecast, sending its shares up 1.4 percent.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday urged more aggressive steps to halt home foreclosures and said government-funded programs could help strapped homeowners.

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has appoints Dr. Qi Lu to run online its services group.

The federal government must plan an exit strategy for several programs it has put in place to help rescue the financial system, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices on Thursday warned fourth-quarter revenue would be much weaker than expected due to widespread weakness, and particularly among consumers.

U.S. health-club operator Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp received on Thursday interim bankruptcy court approval to pay employee wages and access cash, until another hearing is held on Tuesday.

DuPont expects to post a fourth-quarter loss and cut 2,500 jobs -- about 4.2 percent of its workforce -- amid steep drops in construction, car sales and consumer spending, the chemical maker said on Thursday.

Hedge-fund manager Doug Kass, who successfully shorted U.S. equities this year including shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , is now buying U.S. stocks on the belief that they have hit bottom.

(Reuters) - General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC are considering accepting a pre-arranged bankruptcy as the last-resort price of getting a multi-billion dollar government bailout, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with internal discussions.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse said on Thursday it was cutting 11 percent of its workforce, or 5,300 jobs, as it revealed it made a net loss of about 3 billion Swiss francs ($2.5 billion) in October and November.

(Reuters) - Williams-Sonoma Inc on Thursday reported third-quarter non-GAAP earnings of $0.03 per share, excluding items.

Credit Suisse and Nomura Holdings announced big job cuts on Thursday, further evidence the global financial crisis is unrelenting for an industry battered by heavy losses and weak markets.

(Reuters) - Toll Brothers Inc on Thursday reported a Q4 loss of $0.49 a share.

(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc's top executives and Robert Rubin, a director and senior counselor at the firm, are ready to forgo their bonuses this year as the bank reels from the effects of the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported.

Japanese brokerage house Nomura Holdings Inc said it would axe up to 1,000 staff in London in its first big job cuts since it bought parts of failed Lehman Brothers, adding to a wave of lay-offs in the global financial industry.

A federal judge in California on Wednesday ordered MGA Entertainment Inc to stop selling its popular Bratz dolls and banned it from using the Bratz name, finding that "hundreds" of Bratz products infringe on copyrights owned by rival toymaker Mattel Inc .

The Treasury Department is developing a plan to try to reduce mortgage rates on home loans to 4.5 percent on typical mortgages by expanding its purchases of mortgage backed securities, sources familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is weighing whether to ask Congress for the remaining $350 billion of the financial bailout fund, with White House aides approaching President-elect Barack Obama's transition team about the idea, an Obama aide said on Wednesday.

Billionaire Carl Icahn opposes selling part of Yahoo to former AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller or anyone else because it is undervalued, he told CNBC on Wednesday.

Legg Mason's Bill Miller, a celebrated value investor but whose stock picking is far off the mark this year, said on Wednesday the "bottom has been made" in U.S. equities, and forecast opportunities for strong gains once markets rally.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he had advised President-elect Barack Obama's transition team to boost U.S. economic growth by fixing the credit markets so that cities and states can resume borrowing to build infrastructure projects.

Harvard University's endowment has lost 22 percent, or roughly $8 billion, in the last four months, leaving the world's richest university on track to deliver its worst annual returns in 40 years.

Economic activity has weakened across the United States since early October, while price pressures have eased with declines in retail and energy prices, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

An investor lawsuit contends that Citigroup Inc insiders, including senior counselor and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, sold more than $150 million of their own shares at inflated prices while concealing the bank's true financial health.

Financial services company Citigroup Inc said on Wednesday it had teamed its customer loyalty program with global online retailer Amazon.com Inc in what an executive said was the largest-ever rewards program.

The chief executive of American Express Co said on Wednesday that the current financial downturn is strongly affecting the spending of people in high income levels, a departure from prior economic slowdowns.

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said on Wednesday the union would surrender job security protections and delay payments into a retiree healthcare trust to help U.S. automakers clinch government aid to survive a sales downturn.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc has received three bids for its investment management unit, including Neuberger Berman, Shai Waisman, a bankruptcy lawyer for the company, said on Wednesday.

Mortgage applications surged by the largest amount on record last week as a new Federal Reserve program pushed interest rates down to their lowest level in more than 3 years, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

(Reuters) - Wall Street analysts expect a tough fourth quarter for Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley , laden with significant write-downs amid challenging global markets.

Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp, which operates 347 health clubs serving more than 3.1 million customers, filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in 17 months, and put itself up for sale.

Treasury secretary Henry Paulson is debating whether to ask Congress for the next $350 billion in the $700 billion U.S. bailout, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Tuesday.

U.S. crude oil stocks fell unexpectedly last week as imports dropped, while gasoline and distillate supplies also posted surprise falls as refiners cutting output, weekly government data on Wednesday showed.

A measure of the service sector slumped further than expected to a record low in November, according to a report released on Wednesday.

A darkening outlook for the euro zone economy clipped global stocks on Wednesday and helped send the 30-year euro zone government bond yield to an historic low as investors looked for aggressive interest rate cuts in Europe this week.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is considering launching an Internet bank and has not ruled out acquiring consumer banks, people familiar with the situation said.

Private employers cut 250,000 jobs in November, the most in seven years, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

(Reuters) - Former AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller is trying to raise capital for Velocity Interactive Group, an investment firm focused on digital media where he is a partner, and not for buying Yahoo Inc, the New York Post reported.

(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc is considering launching an Internet banking operation, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

(Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co , which is set to merge with Bank of America Corp , plans to cut year-end bonuses in half, Bloomberg News said, citing two people with knowledge of the situation.

China Investment Corp, the sovereign wealth fund that has incurred steep paper losses on its stakes in U.S. financial firms, said on Wednesday it is "not brave enough" to invest in foreign financial firms and lacks confidence in the shifting U.S. financial regulatory situation.

General Motors Corp warned the U.S. government on Tuesday that it needs a $4 billion loan by the end of December or else it faces the risk of immediate failure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday he plans to offer some sort of legislation for ailing U.S. automakers on Monday.

The New York Times Co will cut 530 jobs and take a charge of up to $53 million for closing its City & Suburban unit, which distributes the company's namesake newspaper in the New York City area.

American International Group Inc and the U.S. government have reached an agreement to clear the insurer of its obligations on about $53.5 billion in toxic mortgage debt, the giant insurer said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc is looking to name Gerald Corrigan, a former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as chairman of its newly created bank holding company, Financial Times said.

The auto industry was hammered again on Tuesday as U.S. monthly sales plunged nearly 37 percent to the lowest level since 1982 and the slump spread to Europe and Asia, forcing automakers to slash production.