国际英语新闻：Wall Street dives after Bernanke's testimony

NEW YORK, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street dived on Wednesday after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke told a congressional committee that the U.S. economy is "unusually uncertain."

In the semiannual report to Congress, the Fed is still expecting the economy to expand this year, but lowered its forecast for growth.

Bernanke said the economy is fragile, but he did not forecast that it would fall back into recession.

U.S. labor market has shown modest improvement in the first half of 2010, but the pace of hiring to date has not been sufficient to bring about a significant reduction in the unemployment rate, the Fed said, emphasizing that the rise in payrolls is still sluggish, leaving jobless rate unacceptably high.

Shares of Apple rose 0.93 percent as the company easily surpassed Wall Street anticipation by reporting a best-ever quarter.

In the April-to-June period, Apple's sales soared to a record 15.7 billion dollars, 61 percent higher from the same period last year. Meanwhile, its net income rose to 3.25 billion dollars, up 78 percent year on year.