San Francsico - Online retailer Amazon. com posted a 48 per cent rise in third-quarter profits Wednesday, but the challenging economic conditions prompted the company to curtail its outlook for the vital fourth-quarter holiday shopping season.

The Seattle-based company said net income rose to 118 million dollars, or 27 cents a share, from 80 million dollars, or 19 cents a share in the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the period rose 31 per cent to 4.26 billion dollars.

Washington - Wall Street indices tumbled again Wednesday as US investors reacted to a series of depressing earnings reports that offered more signs of a sharp economic downturn in the United States and abroad.

The Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 6.1 per cent and hit its lowest level since April 2003. That followed market slides in Asia and Europe, where the blue-chip Stoxx 50 index dropped 5 per cent in late trading as concerns set in about the outlook for the global economy and profits.

Budapest - Hungary's national bank sharply raised interest rates Wednesday in an emergency bid to defend the country's currency, which has slumped as a result of the global financial crisis.

The bank's policy-making council boosted the key rate to 11.5 per cent from 8.5 per cent at an unscheduled meeting in Budapest, a central bank statement said.

The forint has plunged in recent days as concern about the liquidity of Hungarian banks soured investors on the Central European nation's already ailing economy.

Sao Paulo/Buenos Aires - Trading at the Sao Paulo stock exchange was again suspended Wednesday, for the sixth time in three weeks, after the fall in its leading index Bovespa went beyond the 10 per cent mark that activates the circuit breaker.

The half-an-hour suspension was launched at 5:17 pm (1917 GMT), less than 45 minutes before the scheduled closing time. The Bovespa was losing 10.03 per cent at the time.

Brazilian markets were again influenced by the market drops in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Wellington - New Zealand's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by an unprecedented 1 per cent to 6.5 per cent on Thursday, its third cut in 13 weeks after making no reductions for five years.

Governor of the Reserve Bank Alan Bollard cited "ongoing financial market turmoil and a deteriorating outlook for global growth" as main reasons for the record cut, which had been widely predicted.

Wellington - New Zealand's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by an unprecedented 1 per cent to 6.5 per cent on Thursday, its third cut in 13 weeks after making no reductions for five years.

The Reserve Bank had cut its Official Cash Rate (OCR) to 8 per cent on July 24 after keeping it at 8.25 per cent - one of the highest in the developed world - for 12 months and reduced it again to 7.5 per cent on September 11.