THE NEWS WRAP: Standard & Poor’s raise odds on US recession slide

Australian firms have been put on alert after a leading ratings agency raised the odds on the US sliding back into recession again next year.

Standard & Poor’s said that the European debt crisis and budget tightening have increased the chances of a double dip recession in the US to 25%, up from 20% in February.

The agency added: “We do not believe the US and European economies will improve substantially in the next year.“

Telstra redundancies set to bite

Business and individual customers could be worse off due to Telstra’s decision to offshore part of its operations, the union representing the telco’s workers has warned.

Telstra said yesterday that 651 jobs will be cut across Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland, with some jobs set to be relocated to the Philippines.

Lax security prompts fraud warning

Australian workers fleeced their employers of $398 million in the past decade, according to a new study.

Forensic accounting firm Warfield & Associates studied 89 fraud cases between 2001 and 2012 and found that lax security was to blame for much of the loss, with some employees simply transferring company money into their accounts.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 68.06 points, or 0.51%, to 13,203.58. The Australian dollar was down to US104.84 cents.