PRESS DIGEST - New York Times business news - Oct 6

Oct 6 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in the New York Times business pages on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

* Cowed by the financial crisis, American consumers are pulling back on their spending, all but guaranteeing that the economic situation will get worse before it gets better.

* European nations scrambled on Sunday night to prevent a growing credit crisis from bringing down major banks and alarming savers as troubles in financial markets spread around the world, accelerating economic downturns on three continents.

* Countrywide Financial has agreed to the largest program ever to modify home loans, as part of a settlement with officials in 11 states, just days after the federal government adopted a giant financial rescue package without any relief for distressed homeowners.

* Stock markets are swooning, credit markets remain frozen, and some foreign officials are predicting that the United States will lose its status as a financial superpower. And yet the dollar - the most visible symbol of America's financial might - is surging.

* A showdown between two of the nation's largest banks over Wachovia Corp WB.N grew into a widening battle involving two courts and a cast including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and an army of bankers, lawyers and other regulators trying to resolve the fate Sunday of one of the biggest prizes to emerge from the credit crisis.