ROMANS: Welcome back. It's 28 minutes after the hour. Watching your money this morning. U.S. markets now poised for a lower open. European and Asian stocks are down, too. This after a pretty miserable day on Wall Street yesterday. The Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P; 500 all lost more than three percent. The two-day loss for the Dow, yes, the biggest since, oh, 2008. Americans are swiping their cards like it's 2008 again, literally. The amount of credit card debt added in the second quarter is up 66 percent from the same time last year. Credit card research firm, cardhub.com, says it hasn't been this high since 2008 when credit debt was at its peak. But, people are paying their bills on time. That's the difference. Mortgage rates are at a record lows for the third week in a row, and the fed bond twisting stimulus plan is expected to push down long- term interest rates for mortgages maybe even further. Freddie Mac says the average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is 4.09 percent. It has never been this cheap to borrow money to buy a house. So, about jobs and Toys "R" Us is hiring for Christmas season, the holiday season. The company says it will add 40,000 temporary jobs to handle the holiday shopping frenzy. This is usually the case around the holidays, but it's worth noting that last year, Toys "R" Us said it wound up hiring 10 percent of those temp workers to work full- time. A California auction house hoping a pair of Dorothy's ruby red slippers will be a $3 million fit. They're one of four surviving pairs worn by Judy garland in the "Wizard of Oz." The slippers will be auctioned in December as part of a Hollywood memorabilia sale. Still ahead, they're not old enough to have to pay the family bills, but the tough economy is hitting little kids across the U.S. hard. Our stunning CNN in-depth report, next. AMERICAN MORNING is back right after this break.
Credit Card Debt Back Up