Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Roseanne Barr has filed the official paperwork necessary to run for the Green Party nomination for president of the United States.

Barr filed her paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 25. Her filing creates a four-way race for the Green nomination, which is to be decided at the Green Party Nomination Convention in July.

The comedian tweeted Thursday, “I am running for Green Party nominee for POTUS. I am an official candidate. I am4 the Greening of America & the world. Green=peace/justice.”

‘I will run until the convention in July in Baltimore, I fully expect Jill Stein 2b the nominee & I will support her, but till then-I’ll serve,” Barr continued in several tweets that followed her announcement.

Barr’s platform, as detailed in a tweet, is a promise to institute “#Europeanstyle” single payer healthcare within the first 100 days of her term, and to forgive all credit card and mortgage debt “by kicking out the FED-those who all this fake debt is owed.”

In May 2010, in a campaign announcement, Barr outlined a more detailed platform. “First, to make war illegal and legalize hemp and marijuana. Second, change the demographics of government to include more women. Third, outlaw–how do we say this politely–outlaw bull. Yes, that’s it. Outlaw bull.”

On the Green Party website, Barr expressed her support for the Occupy Wall Street Movement and said, “Both the Democratic and Republican parties are bought and paid for by corporate America and cater to the needs of the highest bidder as opposed to the people the claim to represent. I cannot be bought.”

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Wall Street opened lower Friday after a report showed that the U.S. economy expanded less than forecast..

Just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lower by 33 points, the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index was flat and the NASDAQ was up by about 6 points.

Weighing on stocks was a report that showed the U.S. economy expanded at 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter, less than the 3 percent that had been projected.

In Europe the Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.7 percent as investors await word on developments on the region’s sovereign debt crisis. European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said authorities are “very close” to reaching an agreement on private-sector involvement in a Greek debt swap.

Despite those words of optimism, the dismal growth of GDP in the U.S. was keeping investors cautious. The health and growth of the U.S. economy is a very important and leading indicator of economic growth worldwide. As analysts like to say, “when the U.S. sneezes, the world catches a cold.”

In corporate news, Ford fell after reporting numbers that missed estimates. Starbucks shares slipped despite reporting better than expected numbers, and Juniper Networks plunged after the second biggest maker of computer networking equipment forecast sales and profits that missed estimates.

In commodities, oil was unchanged at $$99.60 a barrel, gold rose $4.70 to $1,725 a troy ounce and silver was up a few pennies at $33.63.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Wall Street opened mixed to lower Friday morning following earnings reports from General Eclectic and Google that disappointed.

Just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat, the S&P 500 Index was down 3 points and the NASDAQ fell 9 points.

Weighing on stocks was an earnings report from Dow component General Electric. Shares of GE dropped more than 2 percent after the largest U.S. conglomerate reported roughly flat profit from continuing operations, and revenues that missed estimates.

Meanwhile, Internet giant Google tumbled more than 8 percent, or 52.38, to 586.66, after the search engine reported quarterly profit and revenue that missed Wall Street estimates. Google blamed the shortfall on declining search advertising rates.

Microsoft shares rose 3 percent after decent earnings, and IBM rose $4.87 to $185.45 after giving a strong outlook on a strong earnings report.

Investors are still keeping a close eye on developments in Europe regarding the sovereign debt crisis.

Greece and its private bondholders were “converging toward” a long-awaited debt swap deal, with an initial agreement coming as early as Friday that would prevent a default from Greece.

In commodities, oil was trading off $1.19 to $99.20 a barrel, and gold was down $1.20 to $1,652.90 a troy ounce.

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Atlanta, GA, United States (AHN) – Oh how the tall and mighty have fallen.

Atlanta’s tallest building, Bank of America Plaza, a tower bought at the market peak, has been struggling with rising vacancy rates and a heavy debt load.

A foreclosure date has been set for the storied tower. According to a public notice, the building will go up for auction on Feb. 7.

The foreclosure auction comes three months after owner BentleyForbes Group LLC, a Los Angeles real estate firm, defaulted on its $363 million mortgage.

Since then, the company has been in negotiations to restructure its debt.

According to a statement from BentleyForbes, the company “remains committed to work with its financial partners” to stabilize the capital structure of the 55-story, 1,024-foot tower.

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Berlin, Germany (AHN) – In an auction Monday, Germany sold $4.96 billion of six-month bills that had a average yield of negative 0.0122 percent. The sale marked the first time on record that yields at a German debt auction moved into negative territory.

The sale basically means that investors agreed to pay the German government for the privilege of lending it money, and unlike most other short-term sovereign debt, in which investors expect to be repaid more then they lend, agreed to be paid slightly less.

Investors are willing to do so because they are fearful about the potential for large losses elsewhere. Several European countries have been stymied by years-long debt crises, leaving investors with few safe havens where they can park their money.

In recent months, other relatively safe countries, including the Netherlands and Switzerland, have sold debt with negative yields.

Regardless, demand for the German bonds sold Monday was strong. Investors bid for almost twice as many German bills as were available.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Last year was turbulent, trying and tumultuous for global stocks and commodities, And for many investors and traders, 2011 couldn’t end soon enough.

In the final trading day of 2011, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 69 points, but managed to eck out a 5.5 percent gain for the year.

The closely tracked Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closed virtually flat, ending 2011 down 0.43 percent, while the tech heavy NASDAQ said good-bye to 2011 off 1.80 percent.

Commodities fared much better. Oil gained 8.15 percent in 2011, and gold was the sole double digit finisher bidding the year adieu with a stellar 10.23 percent gain.

The top three performers in the Dow were McDonalds, IBM and Pfizer. Laggards included Bank of American, Alcoa and Hewlett-Packard.

Leading gainers in the S&P were Cabot Oil & Gas, El Paso and Intuitive Surgical. Drags on the index were First Solar, Monster Worldwide, and Alpha Natural Resources.

Intuitive Surgical led the NASDAQ-100, followed by Alexion Pharmaceutics and Hansen Natural. The biggest loser in the index was Blackberry maker Research in Motion with First Solar and Netflix close behind.

Natural gas finished out the year at 2.989 per mil BTUs, its lowest level since 2009.

Gold, which closed 2011 up 10.23 percent, took a beating in December, falling as much as 10.5 percent in the final month of the year. The yellow metal peaked in August with a 33 percent rise.

While high unemployment, a nationwide ailing housing market and government gridlocks all weighed heavily on U.S. stocks, the European sovereign debt crisis was the biggest factor in equities gains and losses during 2011.

Markets were closed Jan. 2 in observance of New Year’s. Exchanges will start 2012 on Jan. 3 with normal trading hours, but volume and volatility is expected to be anything but normal.

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Rome, Italy (AHN) – Italy’s borrowing rate came down slightly at its latest bond auction, but still remained high with investors worried over the eurozone debt crisis.

Interest rates on 10-year bonds dropped by only 0.5 percentage points from the yield prices on debt auctioned in November. However, economists said that the important thing was that there were still buyers willing to invest in Italy’s government bonds.

The Italian government auctioned off $8.96 billion worth of medium and long-term debt on Thursday with interest rates of 6.98 percent on 10-year bonds.

There was better news for the costs of short and medium-term borrowing with interest on new three-year debt falling to 5.62 percent from 7.89 percent paid last month. It auctioned $11.8 billion of short-term debt on Wednesday.

It will have to auction more bonds to raise enough money within the next few months to repay $208 billion in debt between February and April.

It does not help that the euro has lost value. After the auction, the euro fell in value in currency pair trading to its lowest level against the dollar in 15 month at $1.287 before rising to end at $1.29 on Thursday.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks opened higher Friday after a mixed November durable goods orders report that showed a 3.8 percent increase, the most in four months.

In light trading, just after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up about 2 points and the NASDAQ was up 5 points.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that bookings for equipment meant to last three years rose 3.8 percent in November after no change in October. However, demand for business equipment, excluding military hardware and aircraft, dropped 1.2 percent in November, the biggest decline since January.

The decrease in demand for capital goods signals manufacturers are still slow to boost investment in light of the political gridlock in the U.S. and the ongoing European sovereign debt crisis.

The reports shows that people and businesses are still cautious and hesitant to expand.

Trading is expected to be light ahead of the Christmas holiday. The low volume could potentially stir volatility.

In overseas trading, volume was low as several European markets closed early. The Tokyo exchange was closed for the Emperor’s Birthday holiday.

In commodities, oil was up about 50 cents, trading just under $100 a barrel, while gold was down $1 at $1,609.80 a troy ounce.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The U.S. Treasury Department sold $13 billion in 30-year bonds Wednesday at a record low yield of 2.925 percent.

Despite the debt security having the lowest yield on record, investors in the U.S. and around the world still have a hearty appetite for the long bond.

Bidders offered to buy 3.05 times the amount of debt sold, compared to an average of 2.81 times at the last four comparable auctions.

Indirect bidders, those that include global central banks, bought 32.5 percent of the sale, compared to 36.1 percent on average.

Direct bidders–domestic money managers–purchased another 21.2 percent, versus an average of 19.5 percent.

Following the oversubscribed and highly successful auction, the broader bond market continued the rally.

Yields on 10-year notes, which move in the opposite direction to prices, fell 5 basis points to 1.92 percent.

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Paris, France (AHN) – Moody’s announced Friday it was downgrading the credit rating of all three of France’s top banks because of the difficulty they have borrowing money.

Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas went down one notch from a Aa2 rating to Aa3, which is the fourth-highest investment grade rating. Societe Generale fell from Aa3 to A1, the fifth-highest rating. The best rating a bank can get is AAA.

BNP is the largest bank, Societe Generale is second and Credit Agricole is third.

The credit rating agency also gave each of the three a negative outlook and warned that it might downgrade them again.

Moody’s said that not only had liquidity and funding conditions deteriorated at each of the banks, but that it was likely the situation would become worse because of further funding pressures from the European debt crisis, which has deteriorated.

The ratings cuts for these three banks follow Moody’s previous downgrades in September of Credit Agricole and Societe Generale.

Part of the problem with liquidity comes from the fact that many money market funds in the United States have refused to lend to European banks since the summer. That has made it difficult for eurozone banks to maintain borrowing in U.S. dollars.

The European Central Bank on Thursday announced new measures to make sure that eurozone banks do not run out of cash.

During the past few months, both BNP and Societe Generale announced asset sales aimed at reducing their reliance on short-term wholesale funding.

However, Moody’s cautioned that if too many European banks try to sell assets at the same time it would depress their value and result in selling them at a loss.

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