National and World News from NPR

Facebook's much-publicized first sale of stock to the public started with a bang late this morning as the price per share jumped. But though the volume of shares sold was a record for an initial public offering, the stock's price gave up its gains as the day continued.

By the end of trading in the U.S., Facebook had settled right at the $38 initial offering price that had been set before shares went on sale.

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Greece keeps cutting its budget to help pay debts and avoid default but then its economy keeps contracting, making the problem worse. The new French President Francois Hollande wants to find a way to stimulate Europe's economy.

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This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

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And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Americans now have a little more information on which to base their debate about Trayvon Martin. The teenager's killing in Florida - where he was shot by a man named George Zimmerman - prompted an intense and politically charged national discussion about violence, about gun laws and about race.

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Let's get a sneak preview, now, of a coming attraction.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BELOVED OTTER-COLORED HORSE")

INSKEEP: Mongolia is the land of Genghis Khan and nomadic herders.

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INSKEEP: And it's also now riding a mining boom.

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INSKEEP: All next week, NPR's Frank Langfitt takes us to Mongolia where the rush to extract mineral resources is transforming a nomadic culture.

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NPR's business news starts with layoffs at HP.

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INSKEEP: Technology giant Hewlett-Packard is poised to eliminate as many as 30,000 jobs worldwide. These cuts, though, will reportedly spare China - the company's largest source of growth, as well as its research and development divisions.

NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports.

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The head of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, has gotten an invitation to testify in front of the Senate Banking Committee about his bank's recent trading loss of at least $2 billion.

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Dimon is very much the public face of his firm. In a Wall Street culture where banks are defined as much by the executives who run them is by the assets they hold. So, what kind of culture led to the multibillion dollar losses at JPMorgan Chase?

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And today's last word in business is: free flight - to somewhere less exotic than Nepal.

Mitt Romney is disavowing a plan by some wealthy Republicans to attack President Obama for ties to his controversial former pastor. Even the people behind that proposal said they are abandoning it after their idea was plastered on the front page of The New York Times.

The proposal centered on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was a mentor to Obama before the two parted ways during the last presidential campaign.

Republicans unaffiliated with Romney were considering spending $10 million on a racially tinged advertising campaign tying Wright to the president.