May 1 (Reuters) – The following were the top stories in The
Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these
stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* Spain has joined seven other euro-zone economies in
recession, providing further evidence that austerity policies
are failing to regenerate confidence in the region’s economies.
* Consumers found it easier to get credit cards and auto
loans in the first quarter of 2012, but standards for home and
business loans remained tight.
* After a series of meetings early this week, Treasury
officials will decide whether to start issuing floating-rate
debt for the first time ever.
* Australia’s central bank Tuesday slashed interest rates by
0.5 percentage point, reacting to mounting evidence the economy
has slowed to a crawl in 2012 due in part to a soaring
Australian dollar.
* Microsoft is investing at least $605 million in
Barnes & Noble’s Nook digital-book business, as the
software giant pushes deeper into the e-books business and props
up a rival to the iPad and Amazon’s Kindle.
* Japan’s domestic sales of new cars, trucks and buses
surged 92 percent from a year earlier in April, rising for the
eighth straight month as government incentives sparked demand
* Tumblr Inc’s president John Maloney resigned over the
weekend, just as the fast-growing but profitless blogging
platform prepares to sell ads for the first time and tries to
justify its sky-high valuation.
* Concerns are growing about departures at mortgage-finance
giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a
situation that some executives argue is making it difficult to
manage the companies and their $5 trillion mortgage business.
* The homeownership rate fell in the first quarter to the
lowest level in 15 years as more Americans lost homes to
foreclosure and shifted to renting amid the weak economic
recovery.
