Business blog

AP - Median home prices fell in two-thirds of the cities surveyed during the first three months of this year while sales declined in 46 states compared to a year ago, according to the latest report highlighting the depth of the nation's housing woes.

AP - Turmoil in financial markets has eased somewhat, but the situation is still "far from normal," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday.

AFP - Fraudsters netted hundreds of millions of dollars through mortgage scams last year, and the trend was likely to continue as the US housing market slumps even further, the FBI said Tuesday.

AP - Wall Street turned in a mixed performance Tuesday after a fresh report on retail sales and a new oil price record told investors the same old story: The economy is hurting and costs are rising, but things could be worse.

AP - Treasury prices fell Tuesday as signs of modestly better-than-expected consumer spending and rising inflation made safe government securities less attractive to investors.

Reuters - U.S. retail sales excluding cars were surprisingly strong in April, showing consumers still willing to add spending punch to the economy despite soaring food and energy prices, a government report showed on Tuesday.

AP - WASHINGTON — Consumers cut back on car-buying in April but boosted spending in a number of other areas, giving evidence of the economy's staying power in spite of soaring gasoline prices.

Reuters - Confidence of American consumers continued to plummet as a result of weakening economic conditions and escalating gasoline prices, according to a weekly survey published on Tuesday.

Reuters - Blue-chip stocks declined on Tuesday as oil rose to another record and underscored concerns about inflation, while the Federal Reserve chairman said financial markets are still troubled.

NewsFactor - Apple is selling more Macintosh computers than ever before -- and that's having unexpected benefits for Microsoft. Sales of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac are triple the volume for the previous 2004 version of the productivity software and are the highest in the product's history, Microsoft announced Tuesday.