NEW YORK - WALL Street gave back some of its gains on Tuesday after negative outlooks from Texas Instruments Inc. and FedEx Corp. reminded investors that companies will be feeling the impact of the recession for some time.

FedEx cut its forecast for fiscal 2009 earnings and capital spending late Monday as the slumping economy cut into package deliveries. And chip maker Texas Instruments warned of a significant, broad-based deterioration in business and forecast fourth-quarter earnings and revenue substantially below earlier expectations.

WASHINGTON - A PRESIDENT-APPOINTED 'car czar' to oversee the restructuring of struggling USautomakers could be named as soon as this week if Congress approves an industry bailout, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview aired on Tuesday.

Mrs Pelosi told NBC's 'Today Show' that she favored former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, recently appointed by President-elect Barack Obama as his top adviser on steering the economy out of recession, to oversee restructuring of the industry.

FRANKFURT - VOLKSWAGEN said on Tuesday it had asked for loan guarantees for its financial services unit within the framework of government aid for the banking sector, the first German automaker to ask for such help.

'We have filed two requests,' one for the financial services division itself and another for the Volkswagen bank that is a sub-unit of the division, a VW spokesman told AFP.