Obama endorses $787b bill

US President Barack Obama signed into law yesterday his hard-fought stimulus plan, hoping the measure will put a floor under the collapsing US economy.

The president put his signature on the bill in a highly unusual ceremony away from the partisan tensions still gripping Washington. He traveled to Denver near the end of his first month in office.

World stock markets slumped yesterday as investors lost confidence in governments' ability to turn around the flagging global economy with expensive rescue plans.