News Today - Apr 29

* The swine flu outbreak has set off alarm bells for the $770 billion U.S. travel industry, which one expert warns could become the "ground zero" of the economic impact from this latest health threat. full story

* Wall Street Journal reports that banking giant Citi is asking Treasury if it can pay out bonuses, as some employees threaten to quit.

* At least 17 of 30 large regional banks that have less than $100 billion in assets may need to raise additional government or private capital, according to a report by Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. on Tuesday.

* Bharat Borge, the aviation mechanic who first found pebbles and gravel in the filler neck of Anil Ambani's helicopter, was found dead.

* Chrysler's biggest lenders and the U.S. government reached a breakthrough framework deal to cut the automakers' debt by $6.9 billion, but bankruptcy still loomed as a strong possibility to complete restructuring.

* U.S. consumers are considerably less gloomy about the economy, as a key gauge of consumer confidence remains relatively weak despite a large increase in April, a private research group said Tuesday. The consumer confidence index jumped to a reading of 39.2 in April from 26.9 in March, the Conference Board reported.

* Home prices fell in February for the 31st month in a row, but at a slower pace than in January, according to the Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's. Home prices in 20 major cities fell 2.2% in February after a record 2.8% decline in January, S&P reported.

* A number of leading indicators, project investment that refuses to flag, a pick-up in hiring, freight movement at the major ports and encouraging data from a number of key manufacturing segments indicate that the downturn has bottomed out and that the economy will regain its lost vigour shortly.