Recession, Europe Debt | featured news

Investors fled Wall Street in the worst stock-market selloff since the middle of the financial crisis in early 2009 in what has turned into a full-fledged correction. The Dow and the S&P tumbled more than 4 percent on Thursday and the Nasdaq lost 5 percent on fear the United States is staring at another recession and that Europe's sovereign debt crisis is swallowing two of its largest economies.

Portugal will elect a new government on Sunday which will lead the country through a period of deep austerity and recession after it received a 78-billion-euro ($114 billion) bailout from the European Union and IMF.

U.S. stocks edged higher, bolstered by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments that the economy is unlikely to slide into a second recession, but worries about European finances persisted after Fitch Ratings warned that the U.K. faces budget challenges.