Bonds

The midterm slugfest for control of the U.S. Senate could have far-reaching effects on the economy.

Britain is repaying some of the 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) it still owes investors who helped finance World War I.

Puerto Rico government officials are looking to a 68 percent increase in an oil tax to help sell up to $2.9 billion in bonds and strengthen one of the island's largest public corporations amid bankruptcy concerns.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction with six-month bills rising to their highest level in more than three months.

Federal regulators are proceeding with new rules that ease guidelines for banks selling mortgage securities and could mean fewer borrowers will need to make hefty down payments.

New U.S. rules aimed at getting banks to take on more of the risk when they package and sell mortgage securities are being relaxed with an eye to spurring broader home lending.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday's auction with rates on six-month bills reaching their highest level since July.

Foreign buyers of U.S. Treasury securities boosted their holdings in August to a record high.

Average U.S. mortgage rates tumbled this week, with the 30-year loan hitting its lowest level since June 2013 as Treasury bond yields marked new lows.

Investors flooded into the U.S. Treasury market in a way not seen since the depths of the financial crisis, causing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to fall below 2 percent for the first time in more than a year.

Asian stock markets were mostly higher Wednesday as a slump in energy prices promised benefits for the region's major economies.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Tuesday's auction with rates on six-month bills unchanged while rates on three-month bills fell to the lowest level since late 2011.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were unchanged in Monday's auction.

Global stock markets were lower on Thursday amid worries about the strength of U.S. and European recoveries and the first American case of Ebola.

Relations between Argentina and the United States have sunk so low the South American nation's president is blaming the Obama administration for her country's debt crisis and suggesting Washington might even want to have her killed.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction with rates on three-month bills rising to the highest level in three weeks, while rates on six-month bills were unchanged.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Monday's auction, with rates on three-month bills dropping to their lowest point since late 2011.

Ireland's economy is growing at a rapid pace last experienced at the tail-end of the Celtic Tiger boom, government statisticians reported Thursday as economists declared that the country's debt crisis was dead and buried.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Tuesday's auction with rates on three-month bills falling to the lowest level since late April while rates on six-month bills were unchanged.

The Congressional Budget Office says the U.S. economy will grow by just 1.5 percent this year — hurt by a poor first-quarter performance.