FT.com - A weaker US dollar and worsening housing market hit Wolseley (NYSE:WOS), which on Monday said its North American trading profits were down 40 per cent in the five months to the end of December.

AP - A soaring number of U.S. homeowners struggled to make mortgage payments in the third quarter, with properties in some stage of foreclosure more than doubling from the same time last year, a mortgage data company said Thursday.