Business briefs 8/16/07

Stocks fall again as investors still jittery

NEW YORK -- Wall Street tumbled again Wednesday after the Federal Reserve added more cash to the banking system but failed to quash investors' jitters about problems in lending. The market jerked the Dow Jones industrial average above and below the 13,000 mark throughout the day as investors wrestled with reports about potential trouble at Countrywide Financial Corp. and KKR Financial Holdings LLC. By late in the day, investors saw little reason to buy beyond the fact that stocks are at bargain prices right now, and the Dow closed down nearly 170 points. The Standard & Poor's 500 index also dropped sharply and is now down for the year.

Cheaper gasoline keeps rise in prices down

WASHINGTON -- A big drop in the cost of gasoline in July contributed to the smallest rise in consumer prices in eight months while industrial output posted a solid gain. Consumer prices, which had been surging earlier in the year, edged up a tiny 0.1 percent last month, the smallest advance since prices were flat last November, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve said that industrial output rose by 0.3 percent in July, following a 0.6 percent increase in June.

-- From wire reports