The US entered a recession in December 2007, according to the American National Bureau of Economic Research. The NBER says that the US economic expansion lasted 73 months, from November 2001, before contracting.

It used a broad range of economic indicators, such as employment and production, to make this judgement. In a statement, the committee said that the decline in economic activity in 2008 met the standard for a recession.

It said that employment peaked in December 2007 and has been falling ever since. And it said that personal income began falling in the first quarter of 2008, while industrial production peaked in January 2008.

The NBER uses key monthly indicators of economic output, including employment, industrial production, real personal income, and wholesale and retail sales - to determine when economic growth has turned negative, rather than relying solely on two quarterly declines in GDP under the traditional financial model.
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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries – OPEC – has said it is ready to cut production by what it called a good amount at the forthcoming ministerial meeting in Algeria.

OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri made the remarks at the 13th International Oil and Gas Conference of the Institute for International Energy Studies, which kicked off on Sunday.

According to El-Badri, OPEC is ready to cut production by a significant amount when the organization meets later this month in Algeria's Oran on December 17th, though its Cairo meeting on Saturday decided to delay a decision on a new supply reduction.

OPEC announced in Cairo on Saturday that it would maintain the current crude oil output until next month's meeting in Algeria.
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A press report stating that Microsoft has restarted talks to buy Yahoo's search business for 20 billion U.S. dollars is just a rumour, according to Yahoo spokesman Brad Williams. Mr Williams added that the company does not comment on such rumours.

But if the rumour turns out to have a basis in fact, it would put former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, in charge of Yahoo.

Yahoo and Microsoft have had on-off talks over several months about a 47.5 billion dollar takeover, and later a proposal that focused only on Yahoo's search business. Discussions regarding both scenarios collapsed without an agreement.

Yahoo's shares have plummeted since Microsoft withdrew its 33- dollar-a-share acquisition offer earlier this year, eliciting speculation that discussions would eventually resume.