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Oil prices are falling on reports that Britain and the United States will release oil from government-controlled emergency reserves.

News organizations reported Thursday that the two countries will try to knock down oil prices by releasing spare supply on the market. High oil prices have helped push gasoline in the U.S. to the highest price ever for this time of year, $3.82 per gallon. Experts predict the national average could reach as high as $4.25 per gallon by late next month.

The U.S. released oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve in August with only limited success. Prices dipped for just a few days.

Benchmark crude gave up $1.28 to $104.25 per barrel in New York while Brent crude dropped by $2.17 to $122.37 per barrel in London.

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The Dow Jones industrial average is at its highest level since 2007 after a day of encouraging signs for the economy: Retail sales were strong, the Federal Reserve was optimistic and most of the nation’s biggest banks got a clean bill of health.

The Dow surged nearly 218 points, its biggest gain of the year. The Nasdaq composite index also reached a milestone, closing above 3,000 for the first time since December 2000.

Stocks started Tuesday higher, and momentum built throughout the day.

The government reported before the market opened that retail sales in February increased the most since September. Shortly after 2 p.m., the Federal Reserve said it expected the unemployment rate to keep falling.

Then, at about 3 p.m., JPMorgan Chase said it was raising its dividend and launching a $15 billion stock buyback program, all with the blessing of the Fed.

The Fed was planning on waiting until Thursday to release the results of its annual “stress tests” on banks, which determine which are healthy enough to raise their dividends. After JPMorgan’s announcement, the Fed released the results early.

The Fed’s action was the latest sign that the U.S. financial system was getting healthier. JPMorgan led the Dow higher, shooting up 7 percent. Other big banks including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo also gained 6 percent.

“That’s what really made the day,” said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial. Banks were easily the best-performing stocks in the market, gaining almost 4 percent as a group.

The Fed’s test results had some negative outcomes, too. While JPMorgan Chase and 14 other financial institutions passed, four, including Citigroup, failed. Citigroup stock was down 4 percent in after-hours trading following the Fed announcement.

The Dow finished at 13,177.68, its highest close since Dec. 31, 2007. The close put the Dow within 1,000 points of its record, 14,164.53, set less than three months earlier. All 30 stocks in the Dow closed higher, the first time that has happened this year.

The Nasdaq composite index rose 56.22 points, or 1.9 percent, to 3,039.88.

On Dec. 11, 2000, the last time the Nasdaq closed above 3,000, it was in the middle of a horrifying slide _ from a peak above 5,000 in March 2000 to just above 1,100 in October 2002.

At the beginning of 2000, the peak of the dot-com frenzy, investors valued stocks in the Nasdaq composite index at an astronomical 175 times their per-share earnings over the previous year.

Google was not yet a public company, and the iPod didn’t exist. Apple pulled in $2.3 billion in quarterly revenue. Many Nasdaq companies were Internet startups with high stock prices but big losses.

And many of them failed, taking the Nasdaq down with them.

Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank, said the key difference between the Nasdaq then and now is that the technology companies that dominate the index only promised profits 12 years ago.

“The Nasdaq hasn’t done much of anything for 12 years, but it’s had a huge rally in earnings,” Ablin said.

Today, the profits are real. Apple reported $46 billion in revenue in its latest quarter. The Nasdaq composite, which includes more than 2,500 companies, trades at about 24 times earnings, according to Birinyi Associates.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed up 24.87 points, or 1.8 percent, at 1,395.96, its highest level since June 5, 2008. The S&P has gained 11 percent since Jan. 1, more than what it posts in an average year. The S&P is a 12 percent rally from its record of 1,565.15.

Brian Gendreau, market strategist at Cetera Financial, said stocks could still go higher. Investors are paying roughly 14 times the past year’s earnings for the S&P 500 index. The long-term average is closer to 15.

“Valuations are still very cheap,” he said.

The dollar rose against the euro and hit an 11-month high against the Japanese yen after the Federal Reserve assessment. The euro fell to $1.3073 late Tuesday from $1.3150 late Monday. The dollar soared to 83.08 yen from 82.26 late Monday.

The retail sales report showed a gain of 1.1 percent last month. Some of it reflected higher gas prices, but Americans also spent more on cars, clothes and appliances. Department stores had their biggest gains in more than a year. The government also revised its estimates higher for December and January.

Retail stores reported a 6.7 percent increase in sales in February compared with the same month a year ago.

A reading of confidence among small business owners also rose in February for the sixth month in a row. The National Federation of Independent Business optimism index reached its highest level in a year, helped by an increase in expected sales.

The rally gained strength in the afternoon when the Federal Reserve said it saw signs of an improving economy and expected the unemployment rate to keep falling. The Fed also said strains in the global financial markets have eased.

The combination of strong retail sales and the Fed announcement dampened hopes that the Fed would buy more bonds to stimulate the economy, and traders dumped U.S. Treasury debt. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed as high as 2.12 percent, its highest since October.

Among companies making big moves:

_ Great Wolf Resorts jumped 27 percent to $5.13. Apollo Global Management said it has agreed to buy the indoor water park operator for $5 a share.

_ Urban Outfitters dropped 5.3 percent, the worst drop in the S&P 500 index. The retailer reported earnings that fell below what analysts were expecting after it had to mark down prices on women’s clothing at its Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters stores.

_ Carmike Cinemas soared 17 percent. The Georgia-based movie theater chain reported earnings and sales that far outpaced what Wall Street analysts had expected.

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Federal safety regulators are investigating complaints of throttles sticking in some Ford Tauruses.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on its website that 14 people have complained about the cars from the 2005 and 2006 model years, about 360,000 in all. No crashes or injuries have been reported, but the agency says a driver ran a red light and entered an intersection before the car could be stopped.

The agency says the cruise control cable may become detached and hold the throttle open guaranteed cash advance. Drivers have reported that it was hard to stop the car with the brakes, and several said they had to shut off the engine or shift into neutral to stop.

Ford says it is cooperating in the probe. The cars have not been recalled.

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Private investors agreed to swap about 85 percent of their Greek government bonds for new securities in the biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history, according to a banker briefed on the results.

Preliminary indications showed that as much as 155 billion euros ($205 billion) of the 177 billion euros of Greek-law bonds were offered, said the banker, who declined to be identified. Twelve billion euros of debt not under Greek law was also tendered, as was 7 billion euros of bonds from state-owned companies guaranteed by the government, the banker said.

With Greece again the focus of the euro-area debt crisis now in its third year, the goal of the exchange is to reduce the 206 billion euros of privately held Greek debt by 53.5 percent. Together with a 130 billion-euro second Greek aid package, the writedown is a key element in European leaders

Calm returned to the stock market Wednesday. Stocks rose smoothly a day after their biggest loss this year as reassuring reports on productivity and hiring overshadowed jitters about the Greek debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78 points, or 0.6 percent, to 12,837 as of 11:20 a.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 9, or 0.7 percent, to 1,352. The Nasdaq composite index rose 23, or 0.8 percent, to 2,933.

The Dow dove 203 points on Tuesday, the first hiccup in this year’s strong rally. Many market-watchers believe that stocks had risen too quickly and were due for a setback. Before Tuesday, the Dow had been up more than 6 percent for the year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 had been up 8.5 percent.

The sell-off was brought on by fears about the latest deadline in Greece’s debt crisis. Hedge funds and banks that own Greek government debt have until Thursday night to exchange their bonds for new bonds that are less valuable. If too few are willing, Greece might default, which could rattle the global financial system.

Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds Inc., said Tuesday’s decline was no surprise after such a strong rally.

“You wouldn’t expect to get it all back in one day,” Webman said of Wednesday’s modest gains. He said the February employment report, due out Friday, will signal whether hiring is brisk enough to offset the economic drag of high gas prices.

“There’s a foot race between gas bills and paychecks,” he said. “If we continue to print new paychecks at the rate we’ve been adding them, that mitigates a lot of the damage of higher gasoline prices.”

Two encouraging signs about the labor market emerged before the market opened. The government said U.S. workers were more efficient late last year, though productivity grew more slowly than in the summer. Productivity measures output per hour worked. As productivity grows more slowly, employers might hire more workers to keep up with demand.

A closely-watched private estimate of hiring also exceeded economists’ expectations. Payroll processor ADP said employers added 216,000 jobs last month. The result lifted hopes about the big February jobs report, due to be released Friday.

Investors who fear that Tuesday’s decline signals the end of the four-month rally might be glad to know that the rally has survived six other 200-point drops in the Dow.

On Nov. 21, the Dow fell 248 points after a congressional committee failed to reach a deal to reduce federal spending. Two days later, it fell 236 points because of worries about the European debt crisis.

Despite those falls, the Dow is still up almost 20 percent since Oct. 3, 2011 and 4.7 percent this year. The S&P 500 index, a broader measure of the market, is up 7.2 percent for the year. Just last week, the Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008.

Even before Tuesday, there was a sense among many market watchers that stock buyers may have gotten ahead of themselves. Skeptics argued that stock prices reflected a recovering U.S. economy but downplayed the risk of a European recession and a default in Greece.

Among stocks making big moves:

_ Internet radio company Pandora Media Inc. dove 24 percent after its projected results for the first quarter badly missed analysts’ estimates.

_ Netflix rose 1.5 percent after CEO Reed Hastings recently suggested that the video streaming and DVD-by-mail company form partnerships with cable TV companies to expand its customer base. The company has about 22 million online streaming subscribers in the U.S.

_ American Eagle Outfitters rose 4.9 percent. The teen clothing retailer said it expects profit margins and sales to improve this year. Revenue at stores open at least a year rose 10 percent in the fourth quarter.

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Two signs of trouble elsewhere in the world pushed U.S. stocks lower: slowing economic growth in China and a possible hitch in a deal to get Greece its bailout money.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed the day down 14.76 points to 12,962.81, or down 0.1 percent. The Dow closed above 13,000 last week for the first time since May 2008.

Monday was the 45th consecutive trading day without a loss of 100 points or more for the Dow. The last streak longer than that was 93 trading days from July 17 to Nov. 24, 2006.

Much of the pessimism in the market stemmed from China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, lowering China’s target rate for economic growth to 7.5 percent from 8 percent, where it has stood for years. That’s a negative sign because growth in China has been a key factor shoring up the global economy since the financial crisis of 2008.

The news sent steel company stocks sharply lower. Half of the world’s steel is consumed in China. AK Steel Holding Corp. lost 6 percent, while US Steel fell 4.7 percent.

The lower projection for Chinese growth also hurt stocks of U.S. materials companies that depend on China for profits. Caterpillar, which makes heavy equipment, fell 2.1 percent. Alcoa, the aluminum maker, fell 3.6 percent.

The Dow fell as much as 93 points in the morning before recouping some of that loss in the afternoon. Some market strategists said it was an overreaction to read too much into China’s projection.

“China is still a driver of global growth, even at its slightly reduced pace,” said Richard Cripps, chief market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus. “The growth rate is still far better than the U.S. and Europe.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 dropped 5.30 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,364.33.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 25.71 points, or 0.9 percent, to 2,950.48. The technology-heavy Nasdaq index fell slightly more than the other indexes as its star stocks Apple fell 2.2 percent and Google fell close to 1.1 percent.

Also weighing on the market were worries that not enough private investors will participate in a bond swap in Greece and accept bonds of lower face value and lower returns.

Trying to reassure world markets, a group representing a dozen banks, insurers and investment funds that hold Greek government bonds said they will participate in the swap by the Thursday night deadline.

Greece needs private investors to sign on before it gets a second international bailout worth $172 billion. Without the bailout, it could default on its debt later this month, an event many fear could shock the world financial system.

The stock market’s losses were limited by some positive news from the U.S. economy. Service companies expanded in February at the fastest pace in a year, helped by a rise in orders and job growth.

The Institute for Supply Management said Monday that its index of non-manufacturing activity rose to 57.3, up from 56.8 in January and the third straight increase. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

In recent months, markets have been lifted by signs of improvement in the U.S. economy. U.S. stock indexes have been trading at their highest levels since before the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank in 2008.

Among other stocks making big moves:

_ Alpha Natural Resources, a coal producer, fell 6 percent after the price of natural gas fell close to 5 percent due to weak demand for gas in a mild winter.

_ Archipelago Learning stock soared 22.7 percent after the online education company agreed to be bought by Plato Learning for $291 million in cash, helping boost the number of customers.

_ US Airways Group fell 8.4 percent after the airline said passenger revenue growth slowed in February, indicating it is having a tough time raising fares and fees to offset climbing oil prices.

_ American International Group rose close to 2 percent. AIG will raise $6 billion by selling part of its stake in an Asian insurance company and pay down some of its debt to the U.S. government from a bailout during the financial crisis. AIG owed $50 billion at the end of 2011.

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Like millions of Americans, Joanne and John Buchanan are facing foreclosure. But at a value of more than $2 million, the home they stand to lose isn’t your average delinquency.

For the Buchanans, it’s the dream house they built from the ground up in a resort community near Breckenridge, Colo., in 2003. It took them almost two years and about $2.2 million to build — and soon they will have to move out.

Foreclosure Fiasco

‘How we’re losing our multi-million dollar home’ Foreclosures made up one in four home sales Uncle Sam wants you to rent out its foreclosed homes Why the mortgage settlement is a fair deal Million-dollar foreclosures rise as rich walk away

For years, homeowners at the high end of the housing market were able to postpone the foreclosure process, but now multi-million dollar homes are becoming more commonplace in America’s foreclosure pipeline. In fact, America’s wealthiest families are now losing their homes to foreclosure at a faster rate than the rest of the country, according to RealtyTrac.

Out of all foreclosure activity, the share of foreclosures on multi-million dollar properties — or homes valued at more than $2 million — has jumped by 273% since 2007.

For the Buchanans, losing the six-bedroom estate they helped design was unimaginable at one time, but now it seems unavoidable.

The couple moved to Colorado from California where John had worked as the director of business development at a high-tech Silicon Valley firm. They came seeking a less stressful life. John took a buyout package and the couple opened two wine and tapas restaurants, using their new dream home as collateral.

See inside the Buchanan’s $2 million dream home

Things went well, for a while. "In 2008, we were hit up here with the slowdown as much as anybody," John said. But "we were on the wrong end of the market," he said. High-end restaurants like theirs were quickly without customers.

John was forced to shutter the restaurants in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.

Meanwhile other expenses were also piling up, including the couple’s mortgage payment, which was more than $7,000 a month. They had gone to their lender, CitiMortgage, to ask them to modify the mortgage on their home, which was then valued at $3 million. But the bank refused.

Eventually, the Buchanans just stopped paying their mortgage. John said he hoped it would get the bank’s attention. It has been almost 30 months since they last made a payment, meaning the couple is more than $210,000 behind on their mortgage no teletrek payday advance.

Sean Kevelighan, a spokesman for Citi, said the bank could not comment on specific cases. "Our first priority is to keep families in their homes," he said.

Since 2007, Citi has helped more than 1 million homeowners avoid potential foreclosure, he noted. "Unfortunately, that is not always possible, and some cases proceed to foreclosure," said Kevelighan.

As part of the bankruptcy filing, the Buchanans have agreed to sell their home and hand over the remaining assets to the restaurant lender after Citi recoups the $1.7 million that it is still owed on the mortgage, according to John.

"We had a lot of our savings tied up in the house and we’ll end up losing all of that," he said.

If the house doesn’t sell soon, CitiMortgage will proceed with a foreclosure, which will further destroy the Buchanan’s already damaged credit. But selling is looking less and less like an option: The market for high-end properties in the resort community has largely dried up. The Buchanan’s house was first listed for $3.3 million in 2008. Now it’s listed for $2.3 million, and there have been very few interested buyers, according to Joan Moats, the listing agent on the property.

"Transactions dropped, sales volume is lower and prices are down 25% to 30% since 2008," Moats said. Houses over the $1 million mark, like the Buchanans’ property, are particularly hard to move, she said. "We’ve reduced it by over a $1 million now — we’re trying to get it sold but I’m racing against the bankruptcy and the foreclosure."

"There’s no traffic, there’s no market at this level. If we find a buyer they will have difficulty getting a loan," John added. "The foreclosure will happen soon."

8 multi-million dollar foreclosures

And things just may get worse before they get better. More than 36,000 homes valued at $1 million or more were foreclosed on — or at least served with a notice of default — last year. That number is likely to rise in 2012, according to Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.

"The longer the tough economy persists, the more of these high-end homeowners will eventually succumb to foreclosure," Blomquist said.

After the Buchanans lose their home, they plan to move into a small rental property they can afford. "We probably won’t be able to buy anything for a long, long time," John said.  

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Mitt Romney’s new tax plan would mean lower taxes for most Americans. But some would benefit more than others.

According to a new analysis from the Tax Policy Center, wealthy Americans would see their taxes fall precipitously under Mitt Romney’s new plan — which scraps the Alternative Minimum Tax and cuts marginal tax rates by 20%.

Assuming the Bush tax cuts are extended, the Romney plan would give the top 1% of earners an average tax cut of $150,000, a 7.8% reduction in their average federal tax rate, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Americans in the middle 20% of income-earners would get an average tax cut of $810, a 1.4% tax rate reduction.

Those making $1 million or more would receive an average tax cut of $250,000, an 8.1% tax rate reduction, while the average American would get $2,800, a 3.5% rate drop.

The plan would also add to the deficit — $480 billion in calendar year 2015 alone, according to the study.

For its part, the Romney campaign disputes any claim that his plan would add to the deficit. The cuts "will be fully paid for through a combination of economic growth, base broadening and spending restraint," campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul told CNNMoney on Wednesday.

But the campaign has not spelled out which tax cuts it wants to kill, making it difficult to score.

Taxing the rich is not enough

"Romney seems to be trying to walk a fine line between responsible fiscal policy and pandering to his base," Howard Gleckman, a resident fellow at the Urban Institute, wrote in a blog post savings account payday advance. "But by not identifying how he’d pay for his generous tax cuts, his tightrope is getting pretty wobbly."

The campaign has also said the tax cuts will spur growth that will, in turn, create additional revenue for the federal government. The TPC analysis does not take that growth into account.

The updated plan reiterates other proposals that were first laid out in September, including provisions that would eliminate taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for taxpayers who make less than $200,000.

It also calls for the elimination of the estate tax, and a reduction in the tax rate paid by corporations from 35% to 25%.

The candidate’s initial economic plan — released in September — was billed by the Romney campaign as "the most detailed plan for economic growth and job creation of any presidential candidate."

But it would only "maintain current tax rates on personal income" as president before moving to a "fairer, flatter, simpler tax structure" in the future.

That plan fell flat with some influential conservatives, including the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which labeled the proposals "surprisingly timid and tactical."

The Tax Foundation, a think tank that generally advocates for lower tax rates, said that Romney’s initial plan for the individual code "really takes no step toward fundamental reform." 

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Apple Inc. stoked fears of a market correction Wednesday as its surging stock price drove the Nasdaq to heights not seen since the end of the dot-com era more than a decade ago.

The tech-heavy composite index fell back after breaching 3,000 but remains on track to post its best February in 14 years. The Nasdaq briefly passed the 3,000 milestone a day after the Dow Jones industrial average closed north of 13,000 for the first time since the start of the recession in 2008.

Apple, the Nasdaq