Business news for Thu, 29 Nov 2007 & with words credit+low. 4 news.

AP - The economy barreled ahead in the summer, growing at a 4.9 percent pace. The performance was the strongest in four years but isn't expected to last through the current quarter amid the housing slump and credit crunch. New-home sales edged up in October but sales activity still hovered near an 11-year low.

The economy barreled ahead in the summer, growing at a 4.9 percent pace. The performance was the strongest in four years, but isn't expected to last through the current quarter amid the continuing housing slump and credit crunch. New-home sales edged up in October but sales activity still hovered near an 11-year low.

Is the subprime mortgage crisis infecting America's credit-card market? WHEN there is blood in the water, it is only natural that dorsal fins swirl around excitedly. Now that America's housing market is ailing, predators have their sights on the country's credit-card market. Analysts at Goldman Sachs reckon that credit-card losses could reach $99 billion if contagion spreads from subprime mortgages to other forms of consumer credit. Signs of strain are clearly visible. There are rises in both the charge-off and delinquency rates, which measure the share of balances that are uncollectable or more than 30 days late respectively. HSBC announced last month that it had taken a $1.4 billion charge in its American consumer-finance business, partly because of weakness among card borrowers. It is too early to panic, though. Charge-offs and delinquencies are still low. According to Moody's, a rating agency, the third-quarter delinquency rate of 3.89% was almost a full percentage point below the historical average. The deterioration in rates can be partly explained by technical factors. A change in America's personal-bankruptcy laws in 2005 led to an abrupt fall in bankruptcy filings, which in turn account for a big chunk of credit-card losses; the number of filings (and thus charge-off rates) would be rising again, whether or not overall conditions for borrowers were getting worse. ...

WASHINGTON The economy barreled ahead in the summer, growing at a 4.9 percent pace. The performance was the strongest in four years but isn't expected to last through the current quarter amid the housing slump and credit crunch. New-home sales edged up in October but sales activity still hovered near an 11-year low. The Commerce Department's new reading of the gross domestic product from July through September, released Thursday, was even better than the government's initial estimate of a brisk 3.9 percent growth rate for period. Stronger U.S. exports to overseas buyers and more inventory