Stocks lose more ground...oil closes below $40...Parmalat founder convicted NEW YORK (AP) The market's effort to rebound from yesterday's loss fell short after Standard & Poor's Ratings Service lowered its outlook for GE and its finance arm to negative from stable. The Dow industrials finished with a loss of 219 points. The Nasdaq composite index was down 27 points. And the S&P 500 dropped 19 points at 885.

NEW YORK (AP) The oil market continues to ignore production cuts from OPEC, pushing oil futures prices down another nine percent today. Light, sweet crude for January delivery, fell $3.84 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, to settle at $36.22 a barrel.

Washington (AP) The Federal Reserve, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration today adopted sweeping new rules for the credit-card industry. The regulations are designed to shield consumers from increases in interest rates on existing account balances, among other changes.

They take effect in July 2010.

ROME (AP) News reports in Italy say the founder of Parmalat has been convicted of market rigging and other charges stemming from the 2003 collapse of the dairy giant. The ANSA news agency says a court in Milan handed down the verdict against Calisto Tanzi today and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

WASHINGTON (AP) A Democratic official says President-elect Barack Obama intends to name former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk as the U.S. trade representative. Obama turned to Kirk after his first choice, Democrat Xavier Becerra, said he'd rather continue to represent his California district in Congress.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 12-18-08 1631CST | save this article / add to your favorites list