Archives: December 2008

Dell's New Management Lineup

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 31, Categories: late

The No. 2 global computer maker reshuffled the executive suite as it looks for ways to spark sales in the face of the worldwide downturn. Michael Cannon, head of...

Worst Year on Record for World's Stock Markets

Posted by: Andy Reinhardt on December 31, Categories: early

As a tumultuous 2008 draws to a close, the world's stock exchanges have notched their worst year in history. Despite a small rally Dec. 30, the Dow Jones Industrial...

Consumer Confidence Hits Record Low

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 30, Categories: late

U.S. consumer confidence plunged to an all-time low in December. The Conference Board today reported that its consumer confidence index gave a reading of 38 for December, down from...

Consumer Confidence Hits Record Low

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 30, Categories: late

U.S. consumer confidence plunged to an all-time low in December. The Conference Board today reported that its consumer confidence index gave a reading of 38 for December, down from...

GMAC Gets $6 Billion Bailout

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on December 30, Categories: early

The U.S. Treasury will inject $6 billion into General Motor's former auto financing subsidiary. The deal is the first of new aid for auto-finance companies, which lend money to...

Slowdown in the Midwest

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 29, Categories: late

The Rust Belt is living up to its name these days. Factory output in the Midwest fell to its lowest level in 12 years, says the Chicago Fed. Its...

Ten Years On, the Euro Is a Success

Posted by: Andy Reinhardt on December 29, Categories: early

A decade after it came into existence--first as a virtual currency, then three years later in bills and coins--the European euro has largely banished its doubters and is helping...

Consumer Spending Keeps Shrinking

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 24, Categories: late

U.S. consumer spending fell in November. That’s no surprise, of course. What is a bit surprising is that it fell by slightly less than economists had expected, and actually...

Japanese Stocks Tank on Toyota Losses

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on December 24, Categories: early

Japan's stocks fell to their lowest level since June 2005, one day after trading resumed from a one-day holiday Tuesday. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed down 2.4% at...

Housing: Where's the Bottom?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 23, Categories: late

Is it possible that the housing collapse is still getting worse? Sales of single-family homes in the U.S. collapsed in November by the most in two decades. Purchases of...

Recession Deepens Housing Crisis

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on December 23, Categories: early

As the recession throws more people out of work, the rate of re-default on modified mortgages is rising and may worsen as the economy deteriorates. Critics say most loan...

Hey, We'd Like Some of That Money, Too

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 22, Categories: late

Property developers want a bailout of their own. In a letter recently sent to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, commercial developers ask to be included in the $200 billion loan...

The Consumer Electronics Inventory Glut

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on December 22, Categories: early

Automakers aren't the only ones halting production as inventories pile up. The consumer electronics industry is also coming to grips with rising stockpiles of unsold goods that are likely...

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 19, Categories: weekend

At Last, An Auto Bailout President George W. Bush announced a $17.4 billion financing package for Detroit carmakers that was notable for putting off the really tough decisions until...

Global Equity & Oil Markets Fall

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 19, Categories: early

Global stock markets fell on Dec. 19 as weak oil prices and concerns about the U.S. economy worried investors in the last full trading week of 2008. The MSCI...

FedEx's Tighter Ship

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 18, Categories: late

With the demand for shipping dropping along with just about everything else in the economy, Federal Express is cutting salaries and freezing hiring. The company’s domestic express volume dropped...

Auto Bailout Close, Carmakers Extend Plant Shutdowns

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 18, Categories: early

U.S. policy-makers are far along in discussions with General Motors and Chrysler over reorganization plans that could provide the battled automakers with more than $14 billion in emergency loans...

Markets Shrug Off OPEC Cut

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 17, Categories: late

OPEC oil ministers meeting in Algeria agreed on Dec. 17 to reduce output by 2.2 million barrels a day effective Jan. 1--the biggest cut the cartel has ever attempted....

OPEC To Announce Major Oil Cuts

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 17, Categories: early

OPEC oil ministers will meet on Dec. 17 for discussions that could remove a record 2 million barrels per day from global oil markets. The 12 members of the...

An Xmas Gift from the Fed

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 16, Categories: late

The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to slash its target rate from 1% to a range of 0% to .25%, the lowest it has ever been since the...

U.S. Fed Expected To Cut Rates

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 16, Categories: early

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to lower interest rates by at least a half-percentage point to 0.5% on Dec. 16, as well as outline emergency tools that policy-makers...

Supreme Court Green-Lights Tobacco Suit

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 15, Categories: late

The Supreme Court, by a 5-4 ruling, dealt a blow to tobacco companies by allowing a lawsuit involving “light” cigarettes to proceed. A group of plaintiffs from Maine sued...

More Banks Hit By Madoff's Alleged Fraud

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 15, Categories: early

More banks announced further potential exposure to Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud on Dec. 15. Spain's Banco Santander may lose $3.1 billion through a Geneva-based hedge fund it...

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 12, Categories: weekend

Hedge Fund Investors Could Lose $50 Billion in Scam This one may prove bigger than Enron. Longtime Wall Street securities trader former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff was arrested Thursday...

U.S. Auto Bailout Collapses over Wages

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on December 12, Categories: early

Last-ditch efforts to forge an agreement to rescue the U.S. automakers fell apart late Thursday, Dec. 11, when union officials refused fast and deep cuts in worker pay. The...

A Long, Nasty Downturn

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 11, Categories: late

Economists who participated in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey expect the current downturn to be the longest since the Great Depression. The 54 economists predicted a contraction...

Auto Bailout Passes in House, Stalls in Senate

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on December 11, Categories: early

The House of Representatives has finally reached agreement on a bailout package consisting of loans for up to $14 billion to save the country’s beleaguered auto industry. However the...

Auto Bailout Could Stall Out in Senate

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 10, Categories: late

The $15 billion bailout plan for the U.S. auto industry is likely headed for a House vote today, but it will be an uphill road getting it through the...

Auto Bailout Could Stall Out in Senate

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 10, Categories: late

The $15 billion bailout plan for the U.S. auto industry is likely headed for a House vote today, but it will be an uphill road getting it through the...

Illinois Governor Charged with Corruption

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on December 10, Categories: early

Federal authorities arrested Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich Tuesday, charging the Democratic politician and his senior aide for corruption. The wide-ranging allegations of malfeasance include a charge that the...

Housing: A Bit of Good News

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 09, Categories: late

October was a better month for housing than most observers expected. True, the number of homes under contract to be sold fell by 1% from the previous year and...

Tough Terms for Detroit Bailout

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on December 09, Categories: early

Congress delivered a bill on Monday, Dec. 8, to the White House that is designed to bail out the ailing U.S. auto industry with $15 billion in loans. Despite...

The Auto Bailout Takes Shape

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 08, Categories: late

The prospect of a bailout for Detroit’s Big Three appears to be gaining strength. The White House today said that negotiations with congressional Democrats were going well, that agreement...

Tribune Co. Mulling Bankruptcy

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on December 08, Categories: early

The Tribune Co., the media conglomerate bought by real estate mogul Sam Zell in a leveraged deal last December, has hired advisers to assist with a potential bankruptcy filing....

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 05, Categories: late

Those Incredible Vanishing Jobs It’s worse than almost anyone expected. U.S. businesses shed 533,000 jobs in November, pushing the unemployment rate from 6.5% to 6.7%. The latest numbers from...

U.S. Automakers Appeal For Help, Again

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 05, Categories: early

The chiefs of America's Big Three automakers, Ford's Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, General Motors' CEO Rick Wagoner, and Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli, pledged to focus on higher fuel...

Another Downer for Retailers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 04, Categories: late

U.S. retailers in November suffered the worst monthly sales decline in four decades, though some analysts had expected even worse. J.C. Penney, Norstrom, and Gap all had declines of...

Autos: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Posted by: Andy Reinhardt on December 04, Categories: early

As U.S. automakers heat up their push for a financial bailout from Washington, news continues to pour out of the troubled industry from around the world. In the U.S.,...

Job Losses in November Top Expectations

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 03, Categories: late

Private-sector companies announced plans to cut 181,671 jobs in November, a 148% increase over the same month last year, according to private placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Financial...

Automakers Hit Washington as Sales Crater

Posted by: Andy Reinhardt on December 03, Categories: early

Detroit's Big Three automakers presented turnaround plans to Congress on Dec. 2 that indicate both General Motors and Chrysler could collapse by the end of the year if they...

What Ford Will Seek

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 02, Categories: late

In a preview of the plan it will present when Detroit’s honchos appear before Congress on Dec. 4 and 5, Ford said it’s seeking a bridge loan of up...

Global Markets Follow the U.S. Down

Posted by: Andy Reinhardt on December 02, Categories: early

The day after a 680-point, or 7.7%, plunge for the Dow Jones average in the U.S., stocks in Asia and Europe picked up the mantle and slid on growing...

The Dow Turns Tail

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 01, Categories: late

After a five-day upswing, Wall Street took a sharp dive today, with the Dow down more than 500 points at 3:30 p.m. Traders apparently turned their focus back on...

An Illusory Bump from 'Black Friday'

Posted by: Andy Reinhardt on December 01, Categories: early

U.S. consumers swarmed department stores and shopping malls on Friday, Nov. 28--the day after the Thanksgiving holiday and the traditional kickoff of the Christmas shopping season. Strong foot traffic...