News Buzz: Wall Street Woes, Bankruptcy for Lehman, Houston Reeling From Ike

Stocks Stumble Amid New Wall Street Landscape
Stocks tumbled and Treasury bond prices soared Monday as investors reacted to a stunning reshaping of the landscape of Wall Street that took out two storied names: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 330 points. Stocks posted big losses in markets across much of the globe as investors absorbed bankruptcy plans at Lehman and Merrill Lynch's forced sale to Bank of America for $50 billion in stock. And perhaps most ominously, American International Group Inc. is asking the Federal Reserve for emergency funding. The world's largest insurance company plans to announce a major restructuring Monday.

Lehman Brothers Files for Chapter 11 Protection
Lehman Brothers, a 158-year-old investment bank choked by the credit crisis and falling real estate values, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors Monday and said it was trying to sell off key business units. The filing was made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. The case had not yet been assigned to a judge.

Houston Battered, Thousands in Shelters After Ike
With glass from shattered skyscrapers littering the streets, the nation's fourth largest city didn't open for business as usual Monday, and thousands of people faced long stays in crowded shelters because their homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Ike. The death toll from Ike rose to 30 in eight states, many of them far to the north of the Gulf Coast as the storm slogged across the nation's midsection, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction. Glass-strewn Houston was placed under a weeklong curfew, and millions of people in the storm's path remained in the dark.

Zimbabwe Deal Sees Mugabe Cede Some Power
President Robert Mugabe relaxed his iron hold on Zimbabwe for the first time in nearly three decades of one-man rule on Monday, forced by escalating economic chaos into sharing power with his bitter political rivals. Thousands of supporters of the rival parties threw stones at each other outside the convention center, and several hundred broke through the gates into the sprawling grounds of the convention center where the signing ceremony took place. Police fired warning shots and set dogs on the crowd, which calmed after the initial clashes and cheered as their leaders left.

Source: Associated Press