To buy or to wait: the hunger of global banks for fresh capital just as share prices worldwide are plunging is giving China a crash course in market timing.

A Chinese company eyeing a giant U.S. acquisition, an opportunistic capital boost, or among the worst timed equity offers in years?

The U.S. housing market crash has exposed the mortgage industry's suspect lending standards, and investors now fear credit cards, car loans, and student debt could be the next sectors to unravel.

Western banks tempted to convert big paper profits on investments in Chinese lenders into cash to shore up subprime-battered balance sheets would do so at the expense of hard-earned access to the fast-growing country.

In a relatively short space of time, Sharon Jackson lost her mother, her sister, and her job and came within a whisker of losing her home of 20 years as well.

Mizuho Financial Group's $1.2 billion investment in Merrill Lynch marks a turning point for Japan's once-reeling banks which, after shedding bad debt and rebuilding their businesses, are once again looking for opportunities abroad.

A house in this wealthy Chicago suburb is far beyond the reach of most Americans.

About 370,000 strapped U.S. borrowers averted foreclosure last year as a large number of homeowners responded to a government-backed effort by the mortgage industry to stem surging delinquencies.

(Corrects paragraph 15 to show UniCredit, not Intesa bought Ukrotsbank)

Home Depot Inc is making a fresh push to win regulatory approval to buy EnerBank USA, as the clock winds down this month on a bank industry-backed moratorium to keep retailers out of their business.