Business News - AP

BANGKOK - Asian stock markets retreated Tuesday as China's warning to banks to control their lavish lending underlined the risks to an economic recovery driven by easy credit. European shares were lower.

SINGAPORE - Oil slipped to near $77 a barrel Tuesday in Asia amid mixed signs about the global economy and crude demand.

WASHINGTON - More than 2.1 million drop-side cribs by Stork Craft Manufacturing are being recalled, the biggest crib recall in U.S history, following reports of four infant suffocations.

WASHINGTON - Big banks are roaring back. At crisis' edge last year, they are repaying billions of dollars dumped into their vaults to rescue them. Dividend checks are accumulating at the Treasury. Taxpayers won't recoup the full sum of the government's unprecedented infusion to the financial sector, but the returns are ahead of schedule.

SAN FRANCISCO - Hewlett-Packard Co.'s cost-cutting and push into new markets is helping soften the blow from weakness in the company's mainstay businesses.

WASHINGTON - Republicans love to get their hands on the Democrats' health care legislation. They show it to the cameras at every opportunity, even piling one version on top of another to make a big pile look even bigger.

NEW YORK - The stock market ended a three-day losing streak Monday, closing broadly higher as a weaker dollar and upbeat home sales numbers encouraged investors to take on more risk.

WASHINGTON - A lot more Americans are feeling stressed out by debt this holiday season, raising the glum likelihood they'll behave like Scrooge rather than Santa.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Monday the nation's economy is in good shape for the long term thanks to "core strengths" such as its universities, its innovation and a dynamic workforce.

MILWAUKEE - Tyson Foods Inc. said it made strides in the meat business this year and predicts more improvements next year, but analysts worry the company's all-important chicken business is lagging others in the industry.

Economists expect the joblessness that has weighed down the nation's economic recovery will start to slowly abate in 2010, but they predict consumers will continue to keep a tight rein on spending, according to a new survey.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The federal government said Monday that it has found a "strong association" between problematic imported Chinese drywall and corrosion of pipes and wires, a conclusion that supports complaints by thousands of homeowners over the last year.

Retail gasoline prices headed downward in most places to begin one of the country's busiest travel weeks, with more than 33 million people expected to hit the road for the Thanksgiving holiday.

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - Price-conscious grocery shoppers are being choosy about what they buy to cook at home, even from the value-oriented Campbell Soup Co.

WASHINGTON - Failure is not an option on health care, a leading Democratic senator said Monday, even as Republicans turned up the heat on moderates who hold the fate of the legislation in their hands.

NEW YORK - Consumers got more serious about paying down their credit card debt this summer, a time when deliquencies usually go up.

LONDON - Shares in British chocolate maker Cadbury PLC hit their highest level in at least five years Monday on reports that another rival, Switzerland's Nestle SA, may make a takeover bid.

NEW YORK - Television retailer QVC has made aggressive plans to keep shoppers watching — instead of mall-hopping — on Black Friday, an event it has traditionally ignored.

BRUSSELS - General Motors Co. on Monday asked European governments to help pay most of the euro3.3 billion ($4.9 billion) it needs to restructure its struggling European operations.