President Barack Obama is weighing a levy on financial institutions to help recover shortfalls in a $700 billion bank bailout fund and to help balance a budget that is looking increasingly grim amid an ongoing economic crisis.

Alcoa Inc posted a narrower quarterly loss on Monday, but the results fell short of expectations and the aluminum producer’s stock fell more than 5 percent.

Hopes that global manufacturing activity is heating up lifted industrial stocks Monday ahead of an earnings report from Alcoa Inc.

U.S. industrial shares lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 on Monday to new 15-month highs after China bolstered expectations the world economy would strengthen, but Nasdaq fell on profit-taking in tech stocks.

General Motors may reopen some shuttered factories because it can’t produce four of its vehicles fast enough to meet demand, and Chrysler is set to hire more engineers and product development workers.

Shares of consumer products companies fell as investors worried about how their businesses might be hurt by Venezuela’s devaluation of its currency.

Shares of Washington Federal Inc. fell after the regional bank holding company acquired a Washington state bank that federal regulators shut down.

The White House and New York’s top prosecutor attacked excessive Wall Street bonuses, as the nation’s biggest banks prepare to hand out awards critics say were made possible by taxpayer bailouts.

Global exchange operator Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. said Monday it will make a $700 million debt offering and enter new credit agreements to repay existing debt obligations.

Shares of consumer products companies fell Monday as investors worried about how their businesses might be hurt by Venezuela’s devaluation of its currency.