Category: late

GM Will Sell Opel to Magna After All

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 10

After mulling over Opel’s fate at length, General Motors confirmed that it will sell 55% of the German carmaker to Canadian car-parts maker Magna International and Russian bank OAO…

Apple’s Jobs Takes The Stage

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on September 09

Apple chief Steve Jobs made his first public appearance today some three months after returning from a medical leave of absence during which he underwent a liver transplant. “I’m…

Don’t Count on Hiring Picking Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 08

According to Manpower Inc.’s quarterly survey, U.S. employers plan to do less hiring in the fourth quarter than they did in the third. The survey, which covers 28,000 companies…

Oracle Deal Hits European Speed Bump

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on September 03

European Union regulators announced on Thursday that they are launching an antitrust probe into Oracle’s $7.4 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems. EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said that regulators…

Pfizer Pays Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 02

Announcing the details of an agreement it first revealed in January, Pfizer will pay $2.3 billion to settle a U.S. investigation into illegal marketing of medicines, and a subsidiary…

Wall Street Shrugs Off Good News

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 01

Stocks on Wall Street traded sharply lower despite a couple of encouraging economic reports. The Institute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index rose to 52.9 in August, up from 48.9…

Disney Snares Spidey

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 31

Look out, Green Goblin. Spiderman will have some new money behind him now that Walt Disney is buying Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in cash and stock. It’s Disney’s…

The FDIC Is Running Low

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 27

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s piggy bank fell to just $10.4 billion at the end of June, from $13 billion the previous month, as bank failures continued to proliferate…

More Good Cheer on Housing

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 26

For the second straight day, a report on the U.S. housing market suggests that the worst is over. The Commerce Dept. said today that sales of new homes in…

Housing: On the Upswing

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 25

Two gauges of U.S. home prices gave further indication that the market has hit bottom and is on the way up. The S&P Case-Shiller 20-city home-price index declined 15.4%…

Cash for Clunkers: The Hangover

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 24

After the cash-for-clunkers auto-subsidy program ends at midnight tonight, dealers expect a sharp decline in the pace of sales, which rose at a surprising rate while the program was…

Federal ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Program to End Aug. 24

Posted by: Justin Bachman on August 20

Declaring the ‘cash for clunkers’ auto stimulus a success, federal officials said that sales under the program will end at 8 p.m. EDT on Aug. 24. The $3 billion…

UBS To Turn Over Data on 4,000-plus Accounts

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on August 19

UBS will divulge information on 4,450 accounts in order to settle a lawsuit brought forward by U.S. authorities as part of a wider crack-down on tax evasion. The Internal…

U.S. Retail Sales Weaker Than Anticipated

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on August 13

A disappointing retail sales report and a so-so jobless-claims numbers on Aug. 13 suggested that a patch of blight may be appearing on the economy’s much heralded “green shoots.”…

Fed To Slow Treasury Purchases

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on August 12

The Federal Reserve committee that sets interest rates voted unanimously to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at between zero and 0.25%. In a statement, the Federal Open Markets…

Productivity Shoots Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 11

Maybe it’s a no-brainer: As companies lay off thousands of workers and those remaining do all the work, productivity improves. In any case, U.S. productivity shot up in the…

A REIT Takes Drastic Measures

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 10

Maguire Properties, one of Southern California’s biggest real estate investment trusts, said two of its subsidiaries have defaulted on their debt. It added that its board has approved the…

Mixed Messages from Europe

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 06

European Central Bank Chairman Jean-Claude Trichet said that Europe’s economy may recover more rapidly that expected, and signaled that as a result, the ECB is unlikely to provide any…

Jobs, Service Data Drag Down Stocks

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on August 05

U.S. stock indices sagged on Wednesday as investigators digested a pair of negative reports on the economy. A survey from payrolls firm ADP pegged job losses for the month…

Mixed News on U.S. Economy

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 04

U.S. consumer spending ticked up 0.4% in June after a 0.1% gain the previous month, said the Commerce Dept., while the National Association of Realtors reported that its Pending…

Big Moves at BofA

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 03

Bank of America agreed to pay $33 million to settle SEC charges that the bank lied to investors in connection with its deal last year to buy Merrill Lynch….

Jobless Claims Drifting Lower

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 30

The great layoff tsunami in the U.S. appears to be easing, as initial claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended July 25 stayed below the levels of late…

Yahoo-Microsoft Deal May Draw Regulatory Scrutiny

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 29

The Internet search partnership deal that Yahoo and Microsoft unveiled today will likely face intense anti-trust scrutiny. Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo will start using Microsoft’s new…

Healthier Housing, Gloomier Consumers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 28

U.S. housing prices in May posted their first monthly gain in three years, with the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index rising 0.5% from April. The index was down 17.1% from May…

New-Home Sales Surge

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 27

Sales of new homes in the U.S. jumped by 11% in June over the month before, to their highest rate this year. The surprising number gave more weight to…

Ford’s Surprising Quarter

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 23

”Ford delivered a very solid quarter, and our transformation plan remains well on track,” crowed the company’s CFO, Lewis Booth, in announcing that Ford earned a surprising $2.3 billion…

A Smaller Drop for Home Prices

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 22

Yet another sign of incipient recovery in the U.S.: Home prices in May showed the smallest decline in 10 months, said the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Prices dropped 5.6%…

Bernanke’s Exit Strategy

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 21

In testimony before Congress, the Fed chief laid out a strategy by which the Fed will soak up the unprecedented liquidity in the U.S. financial system. He said he’ll…

U.S. Taxpayers Potentially on the Hook for $24 Trillion

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 20

Add it all up and the cost of the U.S. financial rescue may reach $23.7 trillion, according to a report released on July 20. The eye-popping figure is found…

Investmeant Banking Lifts JP Morgan Profits

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 16

JPMorgan Chase today reported that profits rose in the second quarter for the first time since 2007. Earnings at the second-largest U.S. bank climbed to $2.7 billion, up from…

U.S. Stocks Soar on Intel, Bank News

Posted by: Justin Bachman on July 15

Optimism from Intel Corp.’s latest earnings and positive data on credit card delinquencies sent U.S. share prices surging on July 15, with the Dow Jones and Nasdaq indices each…

Goldman Sachs Turns in a Boffo 2Q Profit

Posted by: Justin Bachman on July 14

Goldman Sachs Group demolished quarterly profit expectations with a $3.44 billion net income and sales of $13.8 billion. On a per-share basis, Goldman earned $4.93 a share, surpassing the…

Washington Weighs Rescue for CIT

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 13

The value of CIT Group’s bonds plunged on July 13, as the struggling lender tried to convince customers, investors, and regulators that it can work its way out of…

Citigroup Reshuffles Top Management

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 09

In an unexpected move, Citigroup reshuffled its top management, swapping out its CFO for the second time in four months. According to a July 9 statement put out by…

Investors Seek Haven of Treasuries

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 08

Jittery investors sought refuge in U.S. Treasuries on Wednesday, as evidenced by strong demand at today’s $19 billion auction of 10-year notes. The auction attracted the most demand from…

Boeing Buys Insurance Against More Dreamliner Delays

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 07

Frustrated with repeated delays on its 787 Dreamliner jet, Boeing announced on July 7 that it will spend $580 million to purchase a South Carolina plant run by Vought…

Wall Street Shrugs Off Positive Services Report

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 06

Investors took no comfort from a July 6 report from the Institute for Supply Management showing that U.S. industries shrank at their slowest pace in nine months in June….

U.S. Unemployment Hits 9.5%

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 02

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to a 26-year high of 9.5% last month, according to a Labor Dept. report released on July 2. Employers cut a larger-than-anticipated 467,000 jobs,…

Manufacturing Reports Lift Stocks

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on July 01

Investors took heart from new data that seems to show that manufacturing sectors in the U.S., China and elsewhere have seen the worst of the crisis. The Institute for…

U.S. Housing: Prices Aren’t Falling So Fast

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 30

U.S. home prices showed a “striking improvement in the rate of decline” in April, said economist Robert Shiller of Yale, one of the creators of the S&P Case-Shiller home…

Madoff Gets the Max

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 29

A U.S. judge sentenced Ponzi artist Bernard Madoff to 150 years in prison, effectively ruling that the 71-year-old will spend the rest of his life behind bars. It was…

“Highest Integrity,” Says Bernanke

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 25

Fed Chief Ben Bernanke, in testimony before the House Oversight Committee, energetically defended the Fed’s role in the deal whereby Bank of America took over Merrill Lynch, saying the…

Fed Leaves Rates and Policies Unchanged

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on June 24

Members of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s rate-setting committee voted unanimously to leave benchmark interest rates unchanged, at near zero, saying there is scant evidence of inflation. In a statement…

U.S. Home Sales Tick Up Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 23

The U.S. housing sector continues to improve slowly, with the emphasis on “slowly.” Existing home sales in May rose 2.4% from April’s level, to a 4.77 million annual rate….

Another Gloomy Day on the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 22

Mirroring last Monday’s tumble, Wall Street took a dive as investors again focused on fears that the global economy is in worse shape than they hoped. Some of the…

Fewer Americans Are Collecting Unemployment

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 18

For the first time since January, the number of Americans receiving jobless benefits dropped, another hopeful sign from the labor markets. The figure fell by 148,000, which is the…

Obama’s Financial Reform Plan

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 17

President Obama presented his long-awaited program for financial regulation reform, saying that sweeping changes are needed to protect consumers and prevent a recurrence of a meltdown like last year’s….

A Ray of Light for Homebuilders

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 16

The U.S. economy received another hopeful sign, as the Commerce Dept. reported that housing starts in May jumped 17% from the month before, a far better performance than economists…

Economic Blues Hit the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 15

Investors apparently began to fret that the economy is not recovering fast enough to justify the recent bull market, so they dumped stocks on Wall Street. Falling oil prices—down…

U.S. Retail Sales Turn Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 11

U.S. retail sales rose in May for the first time in three months, ticking up 0.5% after a 0.2% decline in April. A significant part of the increase stemmed…

Fiat Seals Chrysler Deal

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on June 10

Fiat completed its purchase of Chrysler assets on June 10, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a hearing to pension funds objecting to the White House-assisted reorganization…

Ten Big Banks Pay Back Washington

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 09

The U.S. Treasury gave the O.K. for 10 banks to repay $68.3 billion in TARP money. That’s more than double the $25 billion the Treasury had previously estimated would…

A Fierce Headwind for Airlines

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 08

The International Air Transport Assn. expects the global airline industry to lose $9 billion in 2009. While that would be slightly less than the industry lost in 2008, it’s…

A Fierce Headwind for Airlines

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 08

The International Air Transport Assn. expects the global airline industry to lose $9 billion in 2009. While that would be slightly less than the industry lost in 2008, it’s…

Obama Reaches Out to Muslims

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 04

President Barack Obama delivered a historic speech in Cairo, laying out his vision for how the U.S. and the Muslim world can make a “new beginning” and shape closer…

Bernanke Calls For Plan To Rein In Deficit

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on June 03

At a Congressional hearing on June 3, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the Obama administration needed to come up with a deficit-reduction plan. While Bernanke acknowledged that White…

The Great GM Firesale

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on June 02

One day after filing for bankruptcy, General Motors has reportedly reached a preliminary deal to sell its Hummer sports utility brand to a Chinese company. The Detroit automaker announced…

GM Offers Details on Its Plan to Slim Down

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 01

As part of its bankruptcy filing, General Motors announced that it will close 17 plants and parts centers by the end of 2011 and lay off 5,000 more salaried…

GM Offers Bondholders a New Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 28

General Motors provided more details of the reorganization plan that it’s presenting to the federal government, and announced that it had offered its bondholders up to 25% of the…

GM: No Deal with Bondholders

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 27

The carmaker announced that its has failed to persuade 90% of its bondholders to convert their share of $27.2 billion in debt to equity as part of the effort…

Obama Picks Sotomayor

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 26

President Barack Obama nominated U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the seat on the Supreme Court being relinquished by David Souter. If confirmed, Sotomayor would be the first…

California Leads Nation in Job Losses

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on May 22

A total of 44 U.S. states lost jobs in April, according to a U.S. Labor Dept. report released on May 22. Leading the layoff pack was California, where employers…

GM and the UAW Come to Terms

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 21

General Motors and the UAW announced that they have reached a deal that would help the carmaker cut its labor costs and its obligations to pay for retiree health…

U.S. Banks Raising Billions In New Capital

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on May 20

America’s biggest banks are moving quickly to plug holes in their balance sheets exposed by the government’s financial “stress tests”. Testifying before the Senate on May 20, Treasury Secretary…

U.S. Housing Starts Drop Unexpectedly

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 19

Housing still isn’t out of the woods in the U.S. Despite various indications that the sector has touched bottom, housing starts hit a record low in April, falling 12.8%…

Obama Pushes Better Mileage Standards

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 18

The Obama Administration is expected to unveil tomorrow a proposal to toughen fuel-economy standards. According to insiders, the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Dept. will be asked to require…

Chrysler Drives Up Jobless Claims

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 14

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose more than economists expected last week, and one of the culprits appeared to be the Chrysler bankruptcy. Claims rose by 32,000 to 637,000,…

EU Slaps Intel With Record Fine

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on May 13

Justice was severe, if not exactly swift. After an investigation lasting nearly nine years, the European Union’s competition watchdog on May 13 slapped semiconductor giant Intel with the largest…

EU Slaps Intel With Record Fine

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on May 13

Justice was severe, if not exactly swift. After an investigation lasting nearly nine years, the European Union’s competition watchdog on May 13 slapped semiconductor giant Intel with the largest…

Home Prices Keep Crumbling

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 12

U.S. home prices fell by the most ever in a quarter, declining by 14% from the first quarter of last year, as foreclosure sales by banks increased. The median…

Obama Takes on Health Care and Antitrust

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 11

President Barack Obama met with a wide-ranging coalition pledging to cut the cost of health care by $2 trillion over 10 years. Doctors, hospitals, and drugmakers participated in the…

More Red Ink at GM

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 07

Things appear to be getting still worse at General Motors, which reported a $6 billion first-quarter loss. It ascribed the red ink to the global auto slump that produced…

Pace of Job Losses Slowing in U.S.

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on May 06

Finally, some good news on the employment front. A pair of job reports released on May 6 showed that U.S. companies are shedding jobs at a slower rate. Payroll-processing…

U.S. Services: Another Ray of Hope

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 05

The Institute for Supply Management’s index of nonmanufacturing industries rose more than expected in April, to 43.7 to 40.8. Readings below 50 mean the sector, which makes up 90%…

Obama Slams Offshore Tax Havens

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 04

President Obama announced a plan to raise $210 billion in tax revenue over 10 years by cracking down on what it calls “loopholes” that allow corporations and individuals to…

Chrysler Drives Into Chapter 11

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 30

As expected, the troubled carmaker filed for Chapter 11 when it became clear that it could not come to agreement with all its stakeholders. It aims to streamline operations,…

A Sharp Decline in the First Quarter

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 29

The U.S. economy performed more poorly than analysts had figured in the first quarter, with GDP declining at an annual rate of 6.1%. That followed a 6.3% rate of…

Chrysler and Creditors Come to Terms

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 28

Chrysler has reached agreement with banks and private equity firms holding $6.9 billion of the carmaker’s debt, and the accord may allow it to avoid bankruptcy. The banks had…

General Motors’ New Recovery Plan

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 27

Under General Motor’s newly unveiled survival plan, U.S. taxpayers could soon find themselves the proud owners of an auto manufacturer. In return for $11.6 billion in additional federal aid,…

U.S. Housing Sales Fall Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 23

Confirming some recent signs that the U.S. housing market may have hit bottom, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell 3% in March, but…

Morgan Stanley Posts Loss

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on April 22

It was too good to last. A fantastical streak of positive earnings reports from the likes of Wells Fargo, Citibank and Bank of America was broken on April 22…

Geithner Says Credit Still Isn’t Flowing

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 21

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a congressional panel that while there are signs of recovery in the credit markets, borrowing costs remain steep and credit is often still…

Sun Finds a Home

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 20

In the wake of a failed deal with IBM, Sun Microsystems agreed to be acquired by Oracle for $7.4 billion. Sun, which has struggled for years, has been searching…

Encouraging Results from JP Morgan Chase

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 16

JP Morgan Chase reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter, another signal that the stronger players in the financial industry may be on the road to recovery. Chase’s profit…

U.S. Deflation Fears Flare Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 15

As if the recession were not bad enough, the threat of deflation now looms over the U.S. economy. On Apr. 15, the Labor Dept. reported that U.S. consumer prices…

Shoppers Go On Strike Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 14

U.S. retail sales fell 1.1% in March, reported the Commerce Dept. That was far worse than the 0.3% increase that economists had predicted, and provided another indication that recovery…

A $4.7 Billion Deal for NextRx

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 13

Pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts is buying health insurer WellPoint’s in-house drug operation, NextRx, for $4.7 billion. Recent major deals in the pharma and health industry make clear that…

Wells Fargo Wows Wall Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 09

Stock traders found another reason for optimism as Wells Fargo bank reported record profits of 55 cents per share, more than double analysts’ estimates. While the report is preliminary,…

Detroit Taps Aid for Suppliers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 08

Chrysler and General Motors received a combined $3.5 billion to aid their suppliers in a new federal program launched Wednesday. The aid can only flow to their suppliers but…

Wall Street Beats Another Retreat

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 07

Investors in U.S. equities turned gloomy for a second day, sending the market down sharply, with the Dow declining nearly 200 points at 2:10 p.m. One reason: billionaire hedge-fund…

Another Madoff Feeder Outfit Charged

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 06

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed civil charges of fraud against Ezra Merkin and his Gabriel Capital, alleging that Merkin secretly funneled $2.4 billion in client cash to…

A Boon from the FASB

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 02

The Financial Accounting Standards Board handed banks a major victory by voting to change the rules on how mortgage-backed securities are valued. The changes will almost certainly allow banks…

Mixed Messages from the U.S. Economy

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 01

The U.S. economy continues to turn out numbers pointing in different directions—but at least that’s better than unadulterated disaster. On the downside, a report from ADP and Macroeconomic Advisers…

Detroit Revs Up New Incentives

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 31

Ford and General Motors, reacting to the shocker delivered yesterday by the Obama Administration, raced to offer new incentives in a bid to lure customers back into showrooms. Ford…

A Slowdown for Online Ads

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 30

The good news for online adverstising: It’s still growing, despite the economic downturn. The bad news: It’s growing a lot more slowly. Online ad revenues increased 10.8% in 2008,…

GM Thins Its Ranks Some More

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 26

More than 7,500 retirement-eligible hourly workers have agreed to take General Motors’ latest buyout offer, the company reported. The packages are worth up to $45,000, and most of the…

U.S. Treasury Seeks New Powers

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on March 25

The Obama Administration on Mar. 25 issued details on proposed legislation for a “resolution authority” that would give the U.S. Treasury sweeping powers to dismantle or reorganize failing companies…

Huh? Home Prices Rising?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 24

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that U.S. home prices rose 1.7% in January over December, the first monthly increase in a year. It added that prices were down…

Hallelujah! Says Wall Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 23

Stock traders added to the market’s recent rally, apparently celebrating the release of more details about the Obama Administration’s plan for getting toxic assets off the books of troubled…

FedEx Will Deliver More Cost Cuts

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 19

Yet another bellwether U.S. company announced further cost cuts as it struggles to deal with the economic downturn. Federal Express said it will slash expenses by $1 billion in…

AIG’s Liddy Gets Grilled on the Hill

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on March 18

Edward Liddy, the embattled chief of American International Group, endured a tongue lashing from members of the House Financial Services Committee on Mar. 18. Liddy, who in September was…

Could U.S. Demand Be Picking Up?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 17

In the latest signal that economic demand may be escalating a bit, the government reports that home construction jumped by a seasonally adjusted 22% in February from the previous…

A Wall Street Rally Cools Off

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 16

Investors for the fifth day bid up stocks around the world as hopes for an easing of the crisis continued to grow, but the rally in the U.S. cooled…

A Small Dip for Retail Sales

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 12

Yes, retail sales declined in February, but it’s the size of the decline that got everyone’s attention: just 0.1%, less than economists had expected. And excluding autos and auto…

Obama: G-20 Countries Must Act in Unison

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on March 11

We need to get our stimulus plans in sync. That’s the message U.S. Secretary Timothy Geithner will be taking to London for this weekend’s Group of 20 meeting of…

Obama: G-20 Countries Must Act in Unison

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on March 11

We need to get our stimulus plans in sync. That’s the message U.S. Secretary Timothy Geithner will be taking to London for this weekend’s Group of 20 meeting of…

A Sunny Day on the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 10

After a seemingly relentless sell-off, Wall Street traders bid up stocks today in the wake of a leaked internal memo from Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit saying that the bank…

Another Monster Pharma Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 09

In the latest example of drug-industry consolidation, Merck will buy Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion. The deal values Schering at $23.61 a share, a 54% premium over Friday’s stock price….

Another Monster Pharma Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 09

In the latest example of drug-industry consolidation, Merck will buy Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion. The deal values Schering at $23.61 a share, a 54% premium over Friday’s stock price….

Another Monster Pharma Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 09

In the latest example of drug-industry consolidation, Merck will buy Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion. The deal values Schering at $23.61 a share, a 54% premium over Friday’s stock price….

Another Monster Pharma Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 09

In the latest example of drug-industry consolidation, Merck will buy Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion. The deal values Schering at $23.61 a share, a 54% premium over Friday’s stock price….

Another Monster Pharma Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 09

In the latest example of drug-industry consolidation, Merck will buy Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion. The deal values Schering at $23.61 a share, a 54% premium over Friday’s stock price….

A Scary Assessment of GM

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 05

General Motors said that its auditors have cast “substantial doubt” on its ability to keep operating, and that it may be forced into bankruptcy if its restructuring plan fails…

Obama Kicks Off Mortgage Plan

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on March 04

President Barack Obama formally launched a $75 billion-plus program to assist struggling homeowners today. The package of measures, unveiled last month, could help as many as 9 million homeowners,…

Bernanke “Angry” Over AIG

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 03

Dropping his usual studied reserve, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said “nothing makes me more angry” than the ever-growing government bailout of giant insurer AIG, but he added that he…

The Dow Keeps Diving

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 02

More grim economic news from around the globe sent stocks sliding past another milestone, with the Dow falling below 7000 to around 6850 at 2:50 p.m. The index last…

Obama’s Bold Budget

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 26

It’s a set of proposals of astonishing ambition, one of the boldest programs of government activism in decades. President Barack Obama unveiled a $3.6 trillion budget blueprint that includes…

U.S. Housing: Still a Bleak Landscape

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 25

There’s apparently no end to bad housing news. The National Association of Realtors reports that existing-home sales fell 5.3% in January after a surprise uptick in December that briefly…

Brighter Days in 2010?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 24

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke did his best to wax optimistic in testimony before Congress, saying that the recession should end this year and that 2010 “will be a year…

A Landmark Deal in Detroit?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 23

Ford and the UAW announced that they had reached agreement on retireee health benefits, an accord that could well serve as a model for GM and Chrysler. Under the…

UBS: It’s Not Over

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 19

Just a day after the big Swiss bank agreed to pay $780 million to avoid prosecution on charges that it helped thousands of wealthy U.S. clients evade taxes, the…

Obama Unveils Mortgage Rescue Plan

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on February 18

President Barack Obama on Feb. 18 announced a plan to stabilize the faltering housing market by allowing up to 9 million families to refinance or restructure at-risk mortgages through…

Another “Massive” Financial Fraud?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 17

The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission stepped in to halt what they described as an $8 billion fraud “orchestrated” by financier R. Allen Stanford. The SEC charged the Texas…

U.S. Shoppers Loosen Up a Bit

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 12

What happened? U.S. consumers actually increased their spending by 1% in January after months of declines, surprising many economists. The rise came mostly from rising gasoline prices and higher…

U.S. Legislators Agree on $789 Billion Stimulus

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on February 11

U.S. legislators on Wednesday appeared to have struck a deal on an economic stimulus package. At $789 billion, the plan is smaller than the $838 billion bill approved by…

U.S. Legislators Agree on $789 Billion Stimulus

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on February 11

U.S. legislators on Wednesday appeared to have struck a deal on an economic stimulus package. At $789 billion, the plan is smaller than the $838 billion bill approved by…

Geithner’s Plan Lays an Egg on the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 10

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner described the Obama Administration’s new bank bailout plan in a speech, but the vagueness of the plan seemed to dismay Wall Street. As expected, Geithner…

GM May Take Back Delphi Plants

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 09

General Motors may buy back some units of Delphi, the auto parts maker that it spun off a decade ago and that is now in bankruptcy proceedings. The move…

A Cruel Month for Retailers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 05

Retailers continue to be clobbered by the recession as consumers chop their spending. Sales tracker Thomson Reuters said a group of 35 retailers saw same-store sales fall by 1.8%…

New Reports Detail Job Destruction

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on February 04

Whichever way you slice the numbers, January was a rotten month for American workers. U.S. employers announced 241,749 layoffs for the month—up 45% from December and the highest January…

An Abysmal Month for Carmakers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 03

Carmakers reported January sales indicating that the industry hasn’t yet begun to recover from last year’s crash. General Motors sales cratered by 49% from the same month last year….

Big Layoffs at Macy’s

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 02

Citing “current economic conditions and expectations for lower sales in 2009,” Macy’s announced that it will cut 7,000 jobs, about 4% of its global workforce, in an effort to…

Ford Keeps Burning Through Cash

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 29

Last year was the worst in Ford’s 105-year history. The automaker lost $14.6 billion in 2008, eclipsing the $12.6 billion loss in 2006. Ending the rotten year, Ford posted…

Fed Ready To Buy Treasuries

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on January 28

Noting that the U.S. economy continues to deteriorate, the Federal Reserve voted today to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged within a range of 0 and 0.25%. Economists are…

A Record Fall for Home Prices

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 27

Housing in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas hasn’t been so cheap since 2004, according to the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Home prices fell at a record 18.2% over…

Layoffs by the Thousand

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 26

U.S. companies continue to lay off workers in huge numbers. Heavy-equipment behemoth Caterpillar said that its fourth-quarter fell 32% from a year earlier and that this year promises to…

Microsoft Cutting Jobs as Income Slides

Posted by: Justin Bachman on January 22

Beset by weak PC sales, Microsoft unveiled its first-ever corporate job cuts and warned that sales and profits will both be squeezed in 2009 because of the economic downturn….

Obama Administration Readying New Rescue Plan

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on January 21

At his confirmation hearing on Jan. 21, Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner told legislators that the Obama administration will present a “comprehensive plan” to address the economy’s ills within weeks….

Obama Administration Readying New Rescue Plan

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on January 21

At his confirmation hearing on Jan. 21, Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner told legislators that the Obama administration will present a “comprehensive plan” to address the economy’s ills within weeks….

Obama Administration Readying New Rescue Plan

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on January 21

At his confirmation hearing on Jan. 21, Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner told legislators that the Obama administration will present a “comprehensive plan” to address the economy’s ills within weeks….

Obama Vows To Restore America’s Leadership Role

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on January 20

Barack Obama, was sworn in as President of the United States, amid renewed signs of weakness in the financial sector. In his inauguration speech, Obama conjured a picture of…

A Rate Cut in Europe

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 15

The European Central Bank cut its benchmark rate by half a percentage point, to 2%, as the crisis in the global banking sector appeared to be heating up again….

Wall Street Spooked by Lousy Retail Sales Figures

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on January 14

The U.S. Commerce Dept. released data today showing retail sales fell 2.7% in December —more than double the 1.2% drop economists had been anticipating. The December figure marked the…

Yahoo! Picks Bartz

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 13

The beleaguered Web portal will soon announce that Carol Bartz has accepted the CEO post, two months after Jerry Yang stepped down, according to people familiar with the situation….

Bernie Can Stay at Home

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 12

A New York judge ruled today that Bernard Madoff may remain free on bail. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis said that Madoff can remain living in his luxury apartment,…

December Was Ugly for Retailers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 08

A flurry of retailers cut their earnings forecasts after U.S. same-store sales dropped by 1% in December from the previous year. That’s the third monthly decline in a row,…

German Tycoon Commits Suicide

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 06

Distraught over losses that may force the breakup and sale of his business empire, billionaire Adolf Merkle committed suicide on Monday, his family said. Merkle’s body was found near…

A Health Report from Steve Jobs

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 05

Investors have been fretting for months about Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ health, so today he admitted that there was reason for concern and tried to lay those concerns to…

Dell’s New Management Lineup

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 31

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…

Consumer Confidence Hits Record Low

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 30

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

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…

Slowdown in the Midwest

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 29

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…

Consumer Spending Keeps Shrinking

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 24

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…

Housing: Where’s the Bottom?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 23

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…

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

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 22

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…

FedEx’s Tighter Ship

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 18

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…

Markets Shrug Off OPEC Cut

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 17

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….

An Xmas Gift from the Fed

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 16

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…

Supreme Court Green-Lights Tobacco Suit

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 15

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…

A Long, Nasty Downturn

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 11

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 Could Stall Out in Senate

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 10

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

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…

Housing: A Bit of Good News

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 09

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…

The Auto Bailout Takes Shape

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 08

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…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 05

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…

Another Downer for Retailers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 04

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…

Job Losses in November Top Expectations

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on December 03

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…

What Ford Will Seek

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 02

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…

The Dow Turns Tail

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 01

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…

A New Job for Volcker

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 26

Emphasizing the urgency of economic recovery, President-elect Barack Obama named ex-Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker to head a special White House panel in charge of making proposals to revive…

Fed Pledges Billions More To Ease Credit

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on November 25

The Federal Reserve is committing an additional $800 billion towards efforts to unlock credit for homebuyers and consumers. In a statement released on Nov. 25, the central bank outlined…

Obama’s Economic Team

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 24

Making his first formal Cabinet announcement, Barack Obama named the key players on his economic team, saying they will begin work “today” to deal with a crisis of “historic…

U.S. Stocks Battered For Second Session

Posted by: Justin Bachman on November 20

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index sank to its lowest level in more than 11 years on Nov. 20 as traders reacted to a new batch of gloomy economic…

U.S. Consumer Prices, and Stocks, Plummet

Posted by: Justin Bachman on November 19

Consumer prices plunged in October by the largest amount in more than 60 years, offering further evidence that weak consumer spending is forcing deep discounting across the U.S. economy….

U.S. Markets Spooked by Scary Housing Numbers

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on November 18

U.S. stocks slid on Nov. 18, with the major indices touching lows not seen since 2003. Investors were spooked by new data showing no end to the housing slump….

Citigroup to Slash 50,000 Jobs

Posted by: Cristina Lindblad on November 17

Citigroup today announced plans to cut 50,000 jobs, mostly through asset sales. Citi, the fourth-largest U.S. bank by market value, has posted losses totaling $20 billion in the past…

Wild Day for U.S. Stocks

Posted by: Justin Bachman on November 13

U.S. stock prices staged a dramatic, 868-point rally on Nov. 13, snapping three down sessions, after investors rushed into the market to collect shares at bargain-basement prices. The Dow…

Paulson Shifts Bailout Funds to Consumer Loans

Posted by: Mark Scott on November 12

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has scrapped plans to use remaining bailout funds to buy troubled mortgage-backed securities from banks. Paulson announced today that the government would instead use…

A Life Preserver for Homeowners

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 11

The U.S. government and the mortage industry announced a sweeping plan to help struggling homeowners. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earlier this…

GM’s Stock Sinks Even Further

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 10

The carmaker’s shares slid as much as 31% after an analyst for Deutsche Bank predicted they might soon be worthless. “Even if GM succeeds in averting a bankruptcy, we…

More Bad Weather on the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 06

Barack Obama’s election doesn’t seem to have given the Street any lasting reason to cheer, despite the 300-plus point rally in the Dow on Nov. 4. For the second…

No Victory Rally for U.S. Stocks

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 05

Tuesday’s election-day rally turned into a sell-off on Wednesday, as U.S. stocks gave up all of the previous day’s gains. With the election over, investors’ thoughts quickly turned to…

Oil Prices Spurt Higher

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 04

Oil prices took a big jump today, with crude for December delivery rising more than $6 a barrel to nearly $71 as bullish sentiment prevailed on global markets. Oil…

Car Sales Get Even Worse

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 03

Everyone knows it’s a bad year for the auto industry, but the numbers for October are nevertheless startling. Sales at three big carmakers fell into a ditch: General Motors…

The U.S. Economy Is Shrinking

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 30

U.S. gross domestic product shrank in the third quarter at a 0.3% annual rate, the Commerce Dept. reported. That’s a smaller dip than economists had predicted but still further…

The Fed Cuts Its Benchmark to 1%

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 29

It came as no surprise, and Wall Street had already celebrated in advance, but the Fed cut its benchmark rate from 1.5% to 1% in a bid to alleviate…

Consumer Confidence Caves In

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 28

The Conference Board’s measure of U.S. consumer confidence plunged to an all-time low in October. The overall confidence rating fell as astonishing 23.4 points, from 61.4 to 38, the…

U.S. Stocks Stage a Modest Rally

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 27

U.S. stocks had another bumpy day on Monday. American markets slumped on the morning of Oct. 27 , as investors took their cue from selloffs in Asia and Europe….

Bush Fixes Date for Global Summit

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 22

World leaders, mark your calendars. The Bush Administration announced today that it had set Nov. 15 as the date for a summit meeting on the global financial crisis. The…

Kerkorian Bailing Out of Ford

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 21

”It was an investment that made no sense,” says one analyst, and now even the investor, Kirk Kerkorian, seems to agree. The gambling mogul’s Tracinda holding company sold 7.3…

Bernanke Stumps for More Stimulus

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 20

In testimony before the House Budget Committee, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke came out strongly in favor of a second round of fiscal stimulus to get the economy going again….

Factories Are Slowing Down

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 16

Wall Street traders probably didn’t need any more bad news to persuade them that the country is headed for a sharp recession, but they got some anyway, and that…

Washington Takes a Stake in the Banks

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 14

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced a deal on the next stage of the massive package to rescue the financial sector and get the frozen credit markets working again….

Is the Worst Over?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 13

Wild volatility turned positive around the globe as investors took heart at the concerted moves in the U.S., Europe, and Asia to ease the financial crisis. After stocks rallied…

Central Banks Cut Rates Worldwide

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on October 08

In an unprecedented coordinated global action, central banks from the Americas to Europe cut their key lending rates early Oct. 8 in a bid to kickstart economic growth and…

Carnage on the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 06

The bailout plan passed Friday sure doesn’t seem to have reassured investors. As the financial crisis worsened in Europe (see items below), stocks got hammered around the world. Japanese…

Fear Still Stalks the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 02

Despite the Senate’s passing the bailout bill, U.S. stocks sank again today. At 3:45 p.m., the Dow was down well over 300 points, and the S&P 500 had dropped…

Revised Bailout Bill Heads for Senate Vote

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 01

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote tonight on a revamped $700 billion financial-rescue plan. The House of Representatives will likely take up the legislation on Friday. The current…

Revised Bailout Bill Heads for Senate Vote

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 01

The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote tonight on a revamped $700 billion financial-rescue plan. The House of Representatives will likely take up the legislation on Friday. The current…

Rebound on Wall Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 30

At least as of early afternoon, stock markets seemed to be taking Monday’s shocker in stride. After the House of Representatives rejected the proposed bailout bill, Wall Street took…

No Thanks, Says the House

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 29

The House of Representatives tossed a bombshell into the global financial system this afternoon by voting down the bailout package negotiated by congressional and Administration leaders over the weekend….

It Looks Like a Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 25

Congressional leaders announced that they had ”reached accord in principle on the framework for a financial bailout. “We came to some agreements on a lot of the important issues,”…

McCain Calls for Pause in Politicking

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 24

Republican nominee John McCain wants to call a time out on the presidential race. The Arizona Senator on Sept. 24 asked for the presidential debate scheduled for Friday night…

Paulson and Bernanke Make Their Pitch

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 23

In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made an impassioned pitch for rapid passage of the Bush Administration’s proposed $700…

The Markets Retreat Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 22

Equity investors, who seemed cheered on Friday by the prospect of a federal bailout of the financial system, turned nervous again today and dumped stocks. At 3 p.m. the…

Markets Surge on Talk of Federal Bank Plan

Posted by: Justin Bachman on September 18

U.S. Stocks Soar on Talk of Federal Debt Plan Stocks surged in the final hour of U.S. trading on Thursday amid reports that Washington officials are mulling new efforts…

U.S. Stocks Swoon on Lending Freeze

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 17

Bye-bye credit crunch, hello credit freeze. Banks have practically stopped lending to each other in the wake of the government’s $85 billion bailout of AIG. Those that are willing…

The Fed Holds the Line

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 16

Despite hopes in some quarters that the Federal Reserve would cut rates in light of the financial crisis, the central bank kept its benchmark rate at 2%. The Fed’s…

Next in the Gunsights: AIG

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 15

Teetering insurance giant American International Group labored to shore up its capital in the wake of the Lehman Brothers failure, and got some help from New York State: The…

Sex, Drugs, and Drilling

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 11

The wide-ranging scandal involving sex, drugs, and corruption at a unit of the Interior Dept. could affect the political debate over offshore drilling. The scandal broke yesterday when federal…

Lehman Details Plan to Shed Assets

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 10

With its back to the wall, Lehman Brothers on Wednesday, Sept. 10 moved to report its third-quarter results a week ahead of schedule, and detailed a plan to dispose…

Lehman Smacked Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 09

The troubled investment bank saw its stock sink by as much as 43% this morning after news reports indicated that it was continuing to have trouble raising capital. As…

UAL Stock Crashes on False Report

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 08

One red cent. That’s what shares in United Airlines parent UAL were worth briefly this morning, after rumors spread that it was filing for bankruptcy. Shares tumbled from their…

Services Look Stronger, But Where Are the Jobs?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 04

The services industry, which accounts for 90% of the U.S. economy, grew in August, but not impressively. The Institute for Supply Management’s index of nonmanufacturing industries rose to 50.6….

GMAC Axes 5,000 Jobs

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 03

GMAC Financial Services announced on Sep. 3 that it will lay off 60% of workers at its Residential Capital unit. One of the country’s largest subprime lenders, ResCap logged…

Oil’s Slippery Slope

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 02

After Hurricane Gustav delivered only a glancing blow to New Orleans and did little damage to oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico, crude futures plunged by about $7…

A Stronger Second Quarter

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 28

The U.S. economy may have been faring better than many think. Revised figures from the Commerce Dept. show that gross domestic product grew at a 3.3% annual rate in…

Surprising Resilience in U.S. Manufacturing

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 27

The U.S. factory sector appears to have weathered the summer months in better shape than economists had expected, based on a report on orders for durable manufactured goods for…

Consumer Confidence Inches Up Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 26

”A little bit of the gloom is lifting,” said one economist in reaction to the Conference Board’s report of a second straight monthly rise in U.S. consumer confidence. The…

Freddie Shows Some Muscle

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 25

While the rest of the market sank sharply, with the Dow down about 200 points at 2:45 p.m., Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae showed signs of life. Investors were…

Oil Jumps on U.S.-Russia Tensions

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 21

The price of a barrel of crude rose by more than $6 in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The jump—the biggest daily increase since early June—was spurred by…

Fannie, Freddie Shares Continue Steep Decline

Posted by: Justin Bachman on August 20

The shares of U.S. housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined to their lowest levels in nearly two decades on Aug. 20 as investors began to confront…

New Inflation Data Stoke ‘Stagflation’ Fears

Posted by: Justin Bachman on August 19

Surging energy costs sent wholesale inflation raging at the highest level in more than a quarter century last month, further evidence that a sluggish economy is also facing steep…

Inflation: The Heat Is Rising

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 14

U.S. consumer prices climbed 0.8% in July, twice as much as expected, the Labor Dept. said. That puts prices up 5.6% from a year ago, the highest annual inflation…

Genentech Spurns Roche Offer

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 13

Genentech’s board has rejected Roche’s $44 billion offer for the 44% of the company it does not already own. The American biotech, often touted as the world’s most successful…

The Trade Deficit Shrinks

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 12

U.S. exports jumped sharply, for their biggest gain in four and a half years, as the nation’s trade deficit unexpectedly shrank. The deficit narrowed by 4.1%, to $56.77 billion,…

Cuomo Takes Aim at More Banks

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 11

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo called for more big banks, notably JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wachovia, to begin negotiations to resolve the investigation into their…

A Spike in Jobless Claims

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 07

The number of new claims for unemployment benefits hit a six-year high in the week ending Aug. 2, said the Labor Dept. They rose 7,000, to 455,000 after seasonal…

Oil Down Sharply from July’s Peak

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 06

The price of crude oil tumbled to $117.11 a barrel in futures trading today, on expectations that a global economic slowdown will curb demand for the commodity. Part of…

Oil Down Sharply from July’s Peak

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 06

The price of crude oil tumbled to $117.11 a barrel in futures trading today, on expectations that a global economic slowdown will curb demand for the commodity. Part of…

The Fed Leaves Rates Alone

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 05

As expected, Ben Bernanke’s Fed left its benchmark rate unchanged at 2%. And despite a steep inflation number released the day before, the Fed’s statement emphasized concerns about economic…

Inflation Is Really Cooking

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 04

Consumer prices jumped in June at the fastest pace in nearly three years, the Commerce Dept. reported. Prices rose 0.8%, the biggest increase since September, 2005. Core inflation, which…

Exxon Sets Another Record

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 31

Some sectors of the economy are hurting badly, but not the oil majors. Case in point: Exxon Mobil, which posted a profit of $11.68 billion, the richest quarter ever…

Fed Keeps The Tap Open

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 30

With the credit crunch showing few signs of easing, the Federal Reserve today said it is extending through January its emergency lending program for investment banks. The facility was…

Consumers Feel A Bit Brighter

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 29

Afrter a six-month slide, consumer confidencee rebounded in July, rising to 51.9 from an upwardly revised 51.0 in June. Analysts noted that the recent drop in oil prices (see…

The Ballooning Federal Deficit

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 28

The next President will have an unwelcome present waiting for him: a $490 billion federal budget deficit, the highest ever, for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1….

Ford Hits a Tree

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 24

The carmaker reported the worst quarter in its history, with a loss of $8.7 billion, as the economic slowdown and American’s shift away from large vehicles continue to clobber…

U.S. Housing Bill Nears Passage

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 23

Shares in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose sharply after lawmakers in Congress struck a deal on housing legislation. The House of Representatives will vote today on a plan…

U.S. Housing Bill Nears Passage

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 23

Shares in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose sharply after lawmakers in Congress struck a deal on housing legislation. The House of Representatives will vote today on a plan…

U.S. Housing Bill Nears Passage

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 23

Shares in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose sharply after lawmakers in Congress struck a deal on housing legislation. The House of Representatives will vote today on a plan…

Wachovia’s Roller-Coaster Ride

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 22

The bank’s stock plunged, then rose again after the company first reported a bigger-than-expected loss and then said it wouldn’t sell new shares. For the second quarter, Wachovia lost…

Peace at Yahoo?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 21

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn ended his crusade to toss out the Yahoo! board by agreeing to take a seat on the board along with two others from his slate….

JPMorgan Helps Buoy the Market

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 17

The first of the big three banks to report results on Thursday and Friday, JPMorgan Chase, said second-quarter income sank 53% and set aside an additional $1.3 billion to…

U.S. Inflation Jumps in June

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 16

U.S. consumer prices soared 1.1% in June , fuelled by spiraling food and fuel costs. The June figure was double the previous month’s rate and the biggest jump in…

U.S. Inflation Jumps in June

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 16

U.S. consumer prices soared 1.1% in June , fuelled by spiraling food and fuel costs. The June figure was double the previous month’s rate and the biggest jump in…

GM Wields the Knife Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 15

The world’s biggest carmaker (at least until Toyota grabs the lead) announced its latest plan to cut costs and boost cash on hand, this one in reaction to U.S….

New Mortgage Regs From the Fed

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 14

The Federal Reserve tightened mortgage rules in an effort to prevent future repeats of the subprime meltdown. Under authority it won 14 years ago, the Fed will require lenders…

Dow Chemical in Mega Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 10

Dow Chemical is spending $15.3 billion to buy Rohm & Haas, a Pennsylvania-based maker of coatings and electronic materials. To help Dow do the deal, Berkshire Hathaway will kick…

Dow Chemical in Mega Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 10

Dow Chemical is spending $15.3 billion to buy Rohm & Haas, a Pennsylvania-based maker of coatings and electronic materials. To help Dow do the deal, Berkshire Hathaway will kick…

Dow Chemical announces mega-deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 10

Dow Chemical is spending $15.3 billion to buy Rohm & Haas, a Pennsylvania-based maker of coatings and electronic materials. To help Dow do the deal, Berkshire Hathaway will kick…

Air Force Will Rebid Tanker Contract

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 09

The U.S. Air Force will reopen the tender for 179 aerial refueling tankers. The decision, to be announced at a Pentagon press conference later today, comes after a government…

Microsoft Still Interested in Yahoo

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 07

The pressure for Yahoo to knuckle under and do a deal with Microsoft just keeps rising. In a statement released this morning, Microsoft said it would be willing to…

Jobs Take Another Dive

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 03

More evidence that the U.S. is in a recession arrived in the form of the Labor Dept.’s payroll report for June, which showed a decline of 62,000 jobs, the…

A Bad Day for General Motors

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 02

The carmaker’s stock, already under heavy pressure, took a severe hit when a Merrill Lynch analyst said “bankruptcy is not impossible.” Analyst John Murphy, predicting that the “dramatic drop-off”…

The Dow Enters Bear Country

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 01

It’s officially a bear market. The Dow Jones industrial average, down about 90 points at 2 p.m., had dropped more than 20% since its high last October, meeting the…

Iran Spooks the Oil Traders

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 30

Oil futures touched a new record of $143.67 on the New York Merc, then slipped back to the $141 range, as worries about tensions involving Iran continued to roil…

Downgrades Whack Wall Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 26

The Dow took a dive early in the day, hitting a new low for 2008. At about 11:40 a.m., the index was down 230 points to 11582, below the…

Fed Holds Steady on Rates

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 25

The members of the U.S. Open Markets Committee voted to keep the benchmark rate unchanged at 2%, putting a stop to the most aggressive round of rate-cutting since the…

Fed Holds Steady on Rates

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 25

The members of the U.S. Open Markets Committee voted to keep the benchmark rate unchanged at 2%, putting a stop to the most aggressive round of rate-cutting since the…

Fed Holds Steady on Rates

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 25

The members of the U.S. Open Markets Committee voted to keep the benchmark rate unchanged at 2%, putting a stop to the most aggressive round of rate-cutting since the…

The Consumer Blues Get Worse

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 24

U.S. shoppers are gloomier than they’ve been in 16 years. The Conference Board’s confidence index fell sharply in June to 50.4, from 57.2 in May. That’s the lowest since…

There’s Gold in Them Trash Heaps

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 23

Garbage: It’s big business. In a deal that will create a trash hauler second in size only to Waste Management, Republic Services agreed to buy Allied Waste Industries for…

Two Ex-Bear Stearns Managers Charged

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 19

Two former managers of Bear Stearns hedge funds, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, were arrested at their homes and charged with mail fraud and conspiracy, and Cioffi was charged…

Scrap offshore drilling ban, says Bush

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 18

Capitalizing on American anxieties over $4-a-gallon gas, President George Bush urged Congress today to lift a federal ban on offshore oil drilling and open the Artic National Wildlife Refuge…

Producer Prices Jump, Housing Starts Slump

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 17

In the latest startling jump in an inflation measure, the U.S. Producer Price Index leaped 1.4% in May. Economists had expected the index, which tracks wholesale prices, would rise…

Lehman Confirms the Bad News

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 16

“Totally unacceptable.” That’s how Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld described the firm’s $2.8 billion second-quarter loss. Fuld attributed the loss, which Lehman forecast last week, to poor investment choices,…

Executive Shuffle at Lehman

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 12

Lehman Brothers demoted and reassigned two of its top executives, COO Joseph Gregory and CFO Erin Callan. The announcement came in the wake of Lehman’s $2.8 billion second-quarter loss…

Oil surges on falling U.S. inventories

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 11

The price of crude oil shot up by more than $6 a barrel in New York trading following the release of a report that showed U.S. inventories falling for…

Oil Rises, Then Falls Back

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 10

Oil futures, which have been bouncing around violently over the past few sessions, jumped to nearly $138 a barrel before settling back into the $131 range for a drop…

Lehman’s Big Loss

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 09

It’s much worse than most people thought at Lehman Brothers. The investment bank revealed it lost $2.8 billion in the second quarter, four times more than the most gloomy…

Retailers Show Some Strength

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 05

The rebate checks appear to be doing their work. Shrugging off rising gas prices and sinking home values, consumers did their bit for the economy in May, with retailers…

United Airlines Grounds Discount Carrier

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 04

United Airlines announced that it is shutting down its discount carrier, Ted, grounding 70 planes and axing as many as 1,100 jobs. The cutbacks amount to a 15% reduction…

United Airlines Grounds Discount Carrier

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 04

United Airlines announced that it is shutting down its discount carrier, Ted, grounding 70 planes and axing as many as 1,100 jobs. The cutbacks amount to a 15% reduction…

Bernanke Defends the Dollar

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 03

No more rate cuts for now. That’s the clear message from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, in his first speech dissecting economic conditions in two months. Bernanke spoke via satellite…

Bank Ousters Rattle Markets

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 02

Two more big-bank executives are taking the fall for their mortgage losses. Wachovia Chief Executive Ken Thompson was pushed out as head of the nation’s fourth-largest bank, and Washington…

First Quarter Growth Figures Upgraded

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 29

The U.S. economy grew faster than previously estimated in the first quarter. The Commerce Department today revised upward the first quarter number, to 0.9%, from 0.6%. The main engine…

First Quarter Growth Figures Upgraded

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 29

The U.S. economy grew faster than previously estimated in the first quarter. The Commerce Department today revised upward the first quarter number, to 0.9%, from 0.6%. The main engine…

Exxon’s Shareholders Nix Rockefeller Proposals

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 28

Siding with management, a majority of shareholders in Exxon Mobil rejected a resolution that would have split the CEO and Chairman roles, and would have made the energy giant…

Housing: A Mixed Bag

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 27

The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indexes showed that values in the first quarter continued to fall rapidly. Across the country, prices fell 14% from the first quarter in 2007 and…

Ford: Forget About Profits Next Year

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 22

The carmaker announced that it won’t meet CEO Alan Mulally’s goal of returning to profitability in 2009. Citing “the rapidly changing business environment in the U.S.,” including steep price…

Oil Shoots Even Higher

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 21

Fears that a combination of geopolitics and geology will impose constraints on future oil production lifted long-term oil futures past $141 a barrel in intra-day trading on the New…

Producer Prices Spook the Market

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 20

Core wholesale prices took an unexpected jump in April, but the exact meaning of the numbers seemed murky. Overall, the Commerce Dept. said, the producer price index rose 0.2%,…

$12.8 Billion for a Toll Road

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 19

State officials announced that Citigroup and Abertis Infraestructuras of Spain had won the bidding to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike toll road. Their bid, $12.8 billion, would give them the…

Factories Take a Vacation

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 15

“Housing is in deep recession, and manufacturing is in a shallow one.” So said one economist in the wake of a report from the Federal Reserve that manufacturing contracted…

Inflation Reprieve in April

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 14

Inflation took a breather in April. The headline U.S. consumer price index rose 0.2% last month, while the so-called core rate, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.1%….

Consumers Aren’t Giving Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 13

Shoppers are showing surprising resilience. The Commerce Dept. reported that retail sales in April fell 0.2% from March, but the whole decline can be laid at the wheels of…

China Clobbered by a Quake

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 12

A devastating earthquake killed at least 9,000 in China, and the death toll could go much higher. The quake, measured at 7.8 on the Richter scale, hit Sichuan province,…

Retail Rebound

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 08

Retailers did better in April after a nasty March. Shoppers spent more on gas and other necessities but cut back on apparel and other discretionary items. Wal-Mart and Costco…

Sprint Calls on Friends for New WiMax Venture

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 07

In a seismic shift that may alter the U.S. wireless landscape, a coalition of tech giants today announced that they will join forces with Sprint Nextel (S) and Clearwire…

A Flood of Red Ink at Fannie Mae

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 06

The giant mortgage lender reported results for the first quarter that were strikingly worse than expected, raising fears that Fannie and its close relation, Freddie Mac, might need a…

Services Stir, Oil Prices Jump

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 05

In another sign that the economy may have some life left in it, the Institute for Supply Management’s services index rose unexpectedly in April, from 49.6 to 52. Any…

Exxon’s $10.9 Billion Disappointment

Posted by: Harry Maurer on May 01

$10.9 billion in profits in one quarter seems like a lot of money, but for the biggest publicly traded oil company in the world it was regarded as a…

GDP: Don’t be fooled by the headline number

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 30

The U.S. economy expanded at a 0.6% annual rate in the first quarter of 2008 , the Commerce Dept. reported today. But though it looks as if the U.S….

GDP: Don’t be fooled by the headline number

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 30

The U.S. economy expanded at a 0.6% annual rate in the first quarter of 2008 , the Commerce Dept. reported today. But though it looks as if the U.S….

GDP: Don’t be fooled by the headline number

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 30

The U.S. economy expanded at a 0.6% annual rate in the first quarter of 2008 , the Commerce Dept. reported today. But though it looks as if the U.S….

GDP: Don’t be fooled by the headline number

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 30

The U.S. economy expanded at a 0.6% annual rate in the first quarter of 2008 , the Commerce Dept. reported today. But though it looks as if the U.S….

U.S. GDP: Don’t be fooled by the headline number

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 30

The U.S. economy expanded at a0.6% annual rate in the first quarter of 2008, the Commerce Dept. reported today. But though it looks as if the U.S. may be…

U.S. GDP: Don’t be fooled by the headline number

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 30

The U.S. economy expanded at a0.6% annual rate in the first quarter of 2008, the Commerce Dept. reported today. But though it looks as if the U.S. may be…

Why Consumers Have the Blues

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 29

As home values sink at the fastest pace in two decades, consumers are getting more gloomy. The Case-Shiller home-price index, which gathers data from 10 metropolitan areas, shows that…

Kerkorian Targets Ford

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 28

He has already made serious runs at Chrysler and General Motors, so maybe Kirk Kerkorian figured: Why not make it a nice round Big Three? The billionaire activist investor…

Peltz Gobbles Up Wendy’s

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 24

It took him two years, but Nelson Peltz is finally getting the meal he’s been hankering for. Peltz’s Triarc agreed to buy Wendy’s for $2.4 billion and will combine…

A Big Insurance Deal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 23

The deal market isn’t entirely moribund. Liberty Mutual announced that it’s buying insurer Safeco for $6.2 billion in cash, a move that could set off other consolidation moves in…

Airlines Facing Stiff Headwinds

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 22

Carriers reporting first-quarter results today illustrated why a merger wave may be in the offing. Both United and JetBlue saw their earnings slammed by the slowing economy and jet…

BofA Gets Battered

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 21

In an earnings season marked by ugly numbers from banks, these are even uglier than expected. Bank of America reported that its first-quarter profit fell for the third straight…

Samsung’s Boss Faces Charges

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 17

After a long investigation, Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee was indicted on charges of evading taxes on billions of dollars. Prosecutors allege he hid the money in accounts under the…

Prices Rise, Housing Starts Crumble

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 16

There’s no clear message from economic numbers released today. Inflation remained a tad on the high side, with the consumer price index rising 0.3% and the core rate, minus…

Wholesale Prices Are Acting Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 15

The U.S. economy may be in a recession, but inflation is looking pretty frisky. The Labor Dept. says that wholesale prices in March rose 1.1%, the second-largest increase in…

A Monster Oil Field off Brazil

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 14

Brazil seemed on its way to becoming a major oil power, and shares in Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, jumped sharply after the head of the nation’s oil agency said…

American Airlines Flight Cancellations Top 2,500

Posted by: Justin Bachman on April 10

American Airlines was forced to cancel more than 900 additional flights as it races to complete repairs on its fleet of 300 MD-80 jets amid tighter scrutiny by federal…

A New Chairman for Motorola

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 09

The cell-phone maker continued its makeover by naming David Dorman as chairman, to take over from Ed Zander, who was replaced as CEO in January after he failed to…

A Lifeline for WaMu

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 08

Troubled bank Washington Mutual, which had been expected to raise $5 billion in a capital infusion, will get even more: $7 billion from a group led by David Bonderman’s…

Icahn and Motorola Bury the Hatchet

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 07

The mobile-phone maker and the activist investor agreed to put an end to a year of bitter conflict. Motorola will put two Icahn nominees on its board and will…

Motorola and Icahn Bury the Hatchet

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 07

The mobile-phone maker and the activist investor agreed to put an end to a year of bitter conflict. Motorola will put two Icahn nominees on its board and will…

Jobless Claims Rise Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 03

Initial jobless claims sent another worrisome signal, rising by a seasonally adjusted 38,000, to 407,000, in the week ended Mar. 29. That was the highest level in more than…

Bernanke Speaks

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 02

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke waxed gloomy in congressional testimony. “It now appears likely that real gross domestic product will not grow much, if at all, over the first half…

A Good Day on the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on April 01

Banks lose billions, Wall Street cheers. Does that make sense? After UBS and Deutsche Bank announced big mortgage-linked write-offs (see items below), investors promptly started buying stocks, especially financials….

Citi’s New Shape

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 31

The troubled banking colossus announced a restructuring that will break its global businesses into four units. One key change: separating the credit-card business from the consumer banking segment. Citi…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 28

Shoppers are easing up Consumers took a bit of a breather in February, as the their spending rose at the slowest pace in more than a year. Outlays rose…

Growth Hits a Wall

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 27

It won’t come as much of a surprise to those suspecting the economy is already in recession, but growth was nearly flat in the fourth quarter of last year….

Motorola to Spin Off Troubled Handset Business

Posted by: Justin Bachman on March 26

Bowing to investor pressure, Motorola will split itself into two companies next year in a bid to jettison its financially-beleaguered mobile handset business. Motorola pioneered the wireless market’s slimmed-down…

Consumer Confidence Whacks the Dollar

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 25

The greenback fell sharply in intraday trading on the heels of a report that showed U.S. consumer confidence falling sharply. The dollar lost the most ground against the yen,…

Three Cheers from Wall Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 24

Wall Street cheered after JPMorgan Chase boosted its bid for teetering Bear Stearns from $2 a share to $10 after Bear shareholders raised a stink. Having taken a wild…

Commodities Mark a Stark Reversal

Posted by: Justin Bachman on March 20

The rapid run-up in commodity prices may be facing an equally quick descent in the face of slower demand driven by economic weaknesses spreading from the global credit crunch….

Wall Street Shoos Away the Bulls

Posted by: Justin Bachman on March 19

The selling mood returned to Wall Street just a day after the Dow Jones Industrials Average soared more than 400 points. Despite better-than-expected profit news from Morgan Stanley (MS)…

The Fed Again Lowers; Wall St. Soars

Posted by: Justin Bachman on March 18

The Federal Reserve showed a measure of restraint on Mar. 18 that most Wall Street observers had not expected. The Fed’s governing board reduced interest rates by 75 basis…

Wall Street’s Wild, Nervous Day

Posted by: Justin Bachman on March 17

Wall Street had steeled itself for a very ugly day after JP Morgan bought Bear Stearns for just $2 a share and the Federal Reserve further cut interest rates….

Carlyle Capital May Give Up the Ghost

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 13

The publicly traded Amsterdam-listed affiliate of private-equity giant Carlyle Group saw its shares become almost valueless after it failed to reach a refinancing agreement with creditors. The fund, which…

New York governor calls it quits

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 12

Eliot Spitzer resigned Wednesday over his involvement with a prostitution ring, becoming the first New York governor in nearly a century to step down under a cloud of scandal….

The Fed’s New Lifeline

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 11

The Federal Reserve made a major move to pump more liquidity into the system in hopes of easing the credit crunch and perhaps warding off recession. The central bank…

Spitzer in Hot Water

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 10

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, once the scourge of questionable corporate dealings when he was Attorney General, has been linked to a prostitution ring. Spitzer told his aides on…

Foreclosures Set a Record

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 06

Foreclosures in the U.S. have never been higher, says the Mortgage Bankers Assn. New foreclosures in the fourth quarter leaped to 0.83% of all home loans, up from 0.54%…

Weak vital signs on the economy

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 05

There was a barrage of bad news on the economic front today. A private report showed that American companies in February shed more jobs than they added for the…

Weak vital signs on the economy

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 05

There was a barrage of bad news on the economic front today. A private report showed that American companies in February shed more jobs than they added for the…

Weak vital signs on the economy

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 05

There was a barrage of bad news on the economic front today. A private report showed that American companies in February shed more jobs than they added for the…

Weak vital signs on the economy

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 05

There was a barrage of bad news on the economic front today. A private report showed that American companies in February shed more jobs than they added for the…

Bernanke’s Plea to the Banks

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 04

In a speech to bankers in Florida, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke urged them to go easier on borrowers. Lenders, he said, should forgive portions of mortgages to homeowners at…

Oil Hits a Record

Posted by: Harry Maurer on March 03

Crude oil futures, which closed above $100 a barrel just recently, have now moved on to set an inflation-adjusted record. Oil hit $103.95 in trading on the New York…

Sprint-Nextel’s Enormous Loss

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 28

The No. 3 U.S. wireless company wrote off the entire value of Nextel Communications and took a $29.5 billion loss for the fourth quarter. That’s the fifth-largest loss of…

Bernanke Ready With More Rate Cuts

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 27

America’s central banker says he’s prepared to keep lowering interest rates, even in the face of rising inflation. In testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Fed Chairman Ben…

Prices Up, Confidence Down

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 26

The seasonally adjusted producer price index for finished goods jumped a sharp 1% in January, after dropping in December by a revised 0.3%. The core PPI, minus volatile food…

Home Sales Keep Sliding

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 25

There’s still no end in sight to the housing slump. The National Association of Realtors reports that existing-home sales in January fell to the lowest level in nine years….

Dresdner Bails Out Its SIV

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 21

Dresdner Bank, a unit of Allianz, became the last of the world’s major financial institutions to move to rescue its structured investment vehicle, the $18.8 billion K2. The fund,…

Inflation may limit room for rate cuts

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 20

Housing prices are tanking and the economy may be on the verge of recession, but that’s not putting a damper on inflation. Consumer prices rose by 0.4% in January,…

A Shocker from Credit Suisse

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 19

Shares of Switzerland’s No. 2 bank got hammered after it reported that the credit crunch and pricing mistakes on bonds will cut its first-quarter profit by $1 billion. The…

More Rate Cuts Ahead?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 14

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in prepared testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, suggested that further rate cuts may well be in the cards. “At present, my baseline outlook…

Retail sales data cheers the markets

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 13

At last, an economic data report that surprises on the upside. Retail sales in January rose 0.3%, after falling 0.4% in December, the Commerce Department reported today. Sales of…

Take My Buyout, Please!

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 12

General Motors extended and sweetened its buyout offer to hourly employees while reporting an eye-popping loss for 2007. It’s offering all 74,000 blue-collar workers a buyout: $62,500 plus retiree…

Take My Buyout, Please!

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 12

General Motors extended and sweetened its buyout offer to hourly employees while reporting an eye-popping loss for 2007. It’s offering all 74,000 blue-collar workers a buyout: $62,500 plus retiree…

Four Charged with Spying for China

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 11

In two cases that apparently have no connection, a Defense Dept. analyst and a former Boeing engineer were arrested and charged with selling military secrets to China. Two Chinese…

Four Charged with Spying for China

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 11

In two cases that apparently have no connection, a Defense Dept. analyst and a former Boeing engineer were arrested and charged with selling military secrets to China. Two Chinese…

Four Charged with Spying for China

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 11

In two cases that apparently have no connection, a Defense Dept. analyst and a former Boeing engineer were arrested and charged with selling military secrets to China. Two Chinese…

Cisco Sees Trouble Ahead

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 07

Cisco CEO John Chambers delivered a downbeat assessment in a conference call with analysts on Feb. 6. He said the equipment giant’s revenues would grow by 10% in the…

U.S. productivity data gives stocks a lift

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 06

Worker productivity in the U.S. grew an annualized 1.8% in the fourth quarter, the Labor Department reported today. The figure, which was higher than analysts had anticipated, may put…

U.S. productivity data gives stocks a lift

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 06

Worker productivity in the U.S. grew an annualized 1.8% in the fourth quarter, the Labor Department reported today. The figure, which was higher than analysts had anticipated, may put…

Services Drag Down the Markets

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 05

Prospects for the U.S. economy were dealt another blow when the Institute for Supply Management reported that its service-sector index dropped sharply to 44.9 in January from 53.2. Economists…

Bush’s Deficit-Heavy Budget

Posted by: Harry Maurer on February 04

President George W. Bush presented to Congress a $3.1 trillion budget for fiscal 2009 that projects near-record deficits, $410 billion in 2008 and $407 billion in 2009. The large…

New Jobless Claims Soar

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 31

It’s not easy being the Fed, as new economic reports illustrate. On the one hand, signs of weakness would seem to argue for more loosening of the monetary reins….

U.S. growth slows to a crawl

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 30

The U.S. economy barely grew in the fourth quarter. The Commerce Department reported annualized growth of just 0.6%, significantly below what most economists had predicted. Home construction fell the…

U.S. growth slows to a crawl

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 30

The U.S. economy barely grew in the fourth quarter. The Commerce Department reported annualized growth of just 0.6%, significantly below what most economists had predicted. Home construction fell the…

Durables Show Some Muscle

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 29

Maybe the U.S. economy is healthier that it looks? Durable goods orders put up a surprisingly good showing in December, rising by 5.2%, says the Commerce Dept.. And such…

Executive Shuffle at Sears

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 28

Sears Holdings Chairman Eddie Lampert announced that CEO Aylwin Lewis would step down this week. W. Bruce Johnson will replace him as interim chief while Lampert looks for a…

Agreement on a Stimulus Plan

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 24

The White House and leaders in the House of Representatives announced agreement on an economic stimulus plan. The package would cost $150 billion and would feature payouts of between…

Motorola’s Evaporating Profits

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 23

Motorola reported a steep drop in fourth-quarter net income, to $100 million, from $623 million a year earlier. The stock fell 20% in intraday trading. Sales of the company’s…

Bernanke’s Big Move

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 22

Not long after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate by 75 basis points in a rare between-meetings emergency move, observers were already predicting that the central bank’s round…

Merrill’s Monster Write-Down

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 17

It’s even worse than expected: Merrill Lynch became the latest Wall Street investment bank to unveil more massive losses from the subprime debacle. The firm’s fourth-quarter results feature a…

Merrill’s Monster Write-Down

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 17

It’s even worse than expected: Merrill Lynch became the latest Wall Street investment bank to unveil more massive losses from the subprime debacle. The firm’s fourth-quarter results feature a…

JPMorgan’s Not-So-Bad Numbers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 16

As earnings season swings into gear, many eyes are on the financials, and JPMorgan Chase gave the Street some small reason to cheer. True, the bank reported a $1.3…

JPMorgan’s Not-So-Bad Numbers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 16

As earnings season swings into gear, many eyes are locked on the financials, and JPMorgan Chase gave the Street some small reason to cheer. True, the bank reported a…

A Curb on Investor Lawsuits

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 15

The Supreme Court ruled against investors in a closely watched case involving corporate fraud. In a 5-3 decision, the justices said that secondary actors such as vendors, accountants, and…

A Curb on Investor Lawsuits

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 15

The Supreme Court ruled against investors in a closely watched case involving corporate fraud. In a 5-3 decision, the justices said that secondary actors such as vendors, accountants, and…

Big Blue’s Big Quarter

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 14

IBM gave a positive burst of energy to a beleaguered Wall Street by reporting fourth-quarter earnings that were much stronger than analysts had predicted. Big Blue’s black ink rose…

Retail Sales: Not Much Holiday Feeling

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 10

If you’re worried about a recession, here’s something more to chew on: The biggest retailers in the U.S. say their sales in December were anything but sparkling. Big chains…

Retail Sales: Not Much Holiday Feeling

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 10

If you’re worried about a recession, here’s something more to chew on: The biggest retailers in the U.S. say their sales in December were anything but sparkling. Big chains…

Countrywide Under Pressure

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 09

The top mortgage lender in the U.S. continued to get hammered on Wall Street after a day in which its stock lost 28% of its market value on rumors…

Gold Looks Golden

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 08

The precious metal climbed to a new record in intraday trading on the New York Merc, hitting $883.10, surpassing the high of $875 set back in 1980. True, today’s…

Paulson Is In No Hurry

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 07

In a speech in New York, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the Bush Administration isn’t going to push through an economic stimulus plan anytime soon to offset the effects…

Oil Crosses $100 Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 03

Oil futures once again broke $100 per barrel, a level briefly touched yesterday, as OPEC officials said they were powerless to lower prices, U.S. inventories dropped more than expected,…

Oil Briefly Hits $100

Posted by: Harry Maurer on January 02

Finally, the inevitable arrived: Oil futures topped $100 per barrel for the first time, though they didn’t close that high. The first trade over $100 came at 12.10 p.m….

Pakistan’s Bhutto Killed

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 27

Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber in Rawalpindi, further destabilizing the troubled nation and throwing January elections into doubt. The attack was widely attributed…

Pakistan’s Bhutto Killed

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 27

Pakistani opposition leaderBenazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber in Rawalpindi, further destabilizing the troubled nation and throwing January elections into doubt. The attack was widely attributed to…

Home Prices Keep Falling

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 26

It may be the holiday season, but there’s no taking a holiday from grim housing news. The S&P Case-Shiller home price index showed the biggest decline in six years…

Red Ink at Bear Stearns

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 20

The Wall Street firm suffered its first loss in its eight-decade history, $854 million, in the fourth quarter. That’s about $6.90 a share, whereas analysts had expected a loss…

Morgan’s Chinese Partner

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 19

First Citigroup. Then UBS. Now, Morgan Stanley becomes the third major financial institution in about a week to accept a large cash infusion from a sovereign fund. Morgan is…

Golden Goldman

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 18

It was widely known that Goldman Sachs had escaped the worst of the subprime meltdown, but just how handily it escaped came as a surprise. The firm’s profit after…

A Friendlier Balance of Trade

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 17

Despite energy prices soaring, the U.S. current account deficit shrank in the third quarter to $178.5 billion, or 5.1% of gross domestic product, the Commerce Dept. reported. The current…

A Friendlier Balance of Trade

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 17

Despite energy prices soaring, the U.S. current account deficit shrank in the third quarter to $178.5 billion, or 5.1% of gross domestic product, the Commerce Dept. reported. The current…

A Friendlier Balance of Trade

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 17

Despite energy prices soaring, the U.S. current account deficit shrank in the third quarter to $178.5 billion, or 5.1% of gross domestic product, the Commerce Dept. reported. The current…

Inflation Rears Its Head

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 13

U.S. producer prices took an unexpected and unwelcome leap in November, jumping 3.2%, the biggest monthly increase since August, 1973. The main culprit, of course, was energy prices, up…

The Fed’s New Credit Window

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 12

Just a day after cutting the federal funds rate by a quarter-point, a move that disappointed investors hoping for a deeper cut, the Federal Reserve unveiled a new way…

The Fed’s New Credit Window

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 12

Just a day after cutting the federal funds rate by a quarter-point, a move that disappointed investors hoping for a deeper cut, the Federal Reserve unveiled a new way…

The Fed Cuts Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 11

The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter-point, to 4.25%, and while the move was widely expected, Wall Street’s immediate reaction was disappointment. The Fed…

Tasty Results from McDonald’s

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 10

Mickey D’s turnaround looks ever more delicious. The world’s biggest restaurant chain reported that same-store sales jumped 8.2% in November, well above expectations. It was the latest in a…

Tasty Results from McDonald’s

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 10

Mickey D’s turnaround looks ever more delicious. The world’s biggest restaurant chain reported that same-store sales jumped 8.2% in November, well above expectations. It was the latest in a…

Kent Is It at Coke

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 06

Coca-Cola announced that CEO E. Neville Isdell will step down on July 1, though he will remain chairman. He’ll be succeeded by an insider, Muhtar Kent, now president and…

Jobs Show Some Strength

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 05

An unofficial report on U.S. job growth, compiled by payroll services firm ADP, came in much stronger than expected, showing that the economy added 189,000 jobs in November, up…

Nokia’s Big Internet Push

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 04

Look out, Apple, here comes Nokia. The world’s No. 1 handset giant announced plans to extend its reach further into the realm of the Internet, including the creation of…

Nokia’s Big Internet Push

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 04

Look out, Apple, here comes Nokia. The world’s No. 1 handset giant announced plans to extend its reach further into the realm of the Internet, including the creation of…

Crude Takes a Dive

Posted by: Harry Maurer on December 03

Oil prices hit a five-week low, as U.S. crude fell into the $87 range in intraday trading. That’s down from a high of $99 not much more than a…

Jobless Numbers Send a Signal

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 29

More evidence that the economy is cooling: Initial unemployment claims jumped more than expected in the week ending Nov. 24, hitting the highest level in nine months. The Labor…

A Fed Honcho Fires Up the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 28

In remarks that warmed the hearts of Wall Street traders, Federal Reserve Vice-Chairman Donald Kohn gave an unusually clear signal that the U.S. central bank may cut rates at…

Falling Home Prices, Gloomy Consumers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 27

The U.S. housing slump continues to deepen, and it’s giving consumers the willies, say two reports released today. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index shows that single-family…

Falling Home Prices, Gloomy Consumers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 27

The U.S. housing slump continues to deepen, and it’s giving consumers the willies, say two reports released today. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index shows that single-family…

Citi May Get Slimmer

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 26

Citigroup employees had better brace themselves, reports CNBC: Another big round of layoffs is coming. Citing sources within the company, CNBC says that the sources describe the upcoming second…

The Biggest Mideast IPO Ever

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 21

The much-anticipated IPO for DP Ports raised $4.96 billion, with shares selling for $1.30, at the top of the range the company had set. The offering values the world’s…

More Gloomy News On Housing

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 20

At first glance, the report looked encouraging: Housing starts rose 3% in October after three months of sliding, the Commerce Dept. said. The main area of strength was starts…

The Termites Eating Lowe’s

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 19

The home improvement biz looks mighty wobbly these days. Lowe’s reported a 10% dip in third-quarter earnings and issued a gloomier outlook for the rest of the year. That…

Well-Behaved Inflation

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 15

Sky-high oil and a sinking dollar don’t seem to be driving up prices—at least not yet. The Labor Dept. reports that consumer prices rose 0.3% in October, and the…

Thain Heads for Merrill

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 14

In a shocker, NYSE Euronext chief John Thain will take the top job at Merrill Lynch, succeeding ousted CEO Stanley O’Neal. Virtually everyone on Wall Street had been expecting…

Thain Heads for Merrill

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 14

In a shocker, NYSE Euronext chief John Thain will take the top job at Merrill Lynch, succeeding ousted CEO Stanley O’Neal. Virtually everyone on Wall Street had been expecting…

Another Big Bank’s Big Writedown

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 13

Bank of America, in an SEC filing based on a presentation by CFO Joe Prince, says it’ll take a $3 billion writedown in the fourth quarter on investments linked…

Another Big Bank’s Big Writedown

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 13

Bank of America, in an SEC filing based on a presentation by CFO Joe Prince, says it’ll take a $3 billion writedown in the fourth quarter on investments linked…

A Body Blow to E*Trade

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 12

That was one powerful analyst’s report. Shortly after Citigroup analyst Prashant Bhatia downgraded E*Trade stock to a sell, shares fell by more than 50% in intraday trading. The report…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 09

A slimmer trade gap The U.S. economy may have all sorts of troubles, but for now, at least, the export sector is looking strong. The nation’s trade deficit shrank…

The Dow Tumbles, Then Recovers

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 08

Wall Street found itself struggling again after yesterday’s 361-point drop in the Dow. The market dropped sharply in early afternoon, with the Dow down 185 points, or about 1.4%….

Oil Touches Another Record, Stocks Sink

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 07

In what is becoming virtually a daily event, crude oil futures hit a record in intraday trading, touching $98.62 a barrel after closing at $97.60 the day before. But…

Another Bang-Up IPO in China

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 06

Just a day after PetroChina became the biggest company in the world by market cap after listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, e-commerce portal Alibaba set another record, for…

Splitsville for Diller

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 05

He spent more than a decade piecing the conglomerate together, but now Barry Diller is splitting IAC/Interactive into five publicly traded outfits. Part of the reason: the media company’s…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 02

Jobs show some muscle Another nail in the coffin of a rate cut in December? The Labor Dept. reports that nonfarm payrolls jumped by 166,000 in October after a…

Nardelli Wields the Axe

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 01

Chrysler announced more job cuts, nearly doubling the number of workers the company has announced it will lay off. Chrysler, now owned by Cerberus Capital Management, says it will…

Nardelli Wields the Axe

Posted by: Harry Maurer on November 01

Chrysler announced more job cuts, nearly doubling the number of workers the company has announced it will lay off. Chrysler, now owned by Cerberus Capital Management, says it will…

The Fed Cuts Rates Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 31

Wall Street presumably breathed a sign of relief after the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-1 to cut its benchmark rate by a quarter-point, to 4.5%. The Fed also…

The Fed Cuts Rates Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 31

Wall Street presumably breathed a sign of relief after the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-1 to cut its benchmark rate by a quarter-point, to 4.5%. The Fed also…

The Fed Cuts Rates Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 31

Wall Street presumably breathed a sign of relief after the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-1 to cut its benchmark rate by a quarter-point, to 4.5%. The Fed also…

Merrill Moves On

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 30

As expected, Merrill Lynch’s board announced that Chairman and CEO Stanley O’Neal is leaving immediately. The board appointed director Alberto Cribiore interim chairman and said he’ll lead the search…

Pricier Oil, Cheaper Dollars

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 29

As if there weren’t enough reasons for oil prices to keep rising, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, said it shut down production of 600,000 barrels a day because…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 26

Changing of the Guard at Time Warner? Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons is set to step down as early as next week, to be succeeded by No. 2 Jeff…

Changing of the Guard at Time Warner?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 26

Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons is set to step down as early as next week, to be succeeded by No. 2 Jeff Bewkes, reports the London Times. The paper…

Motorola on the Mend?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 25

A 94% plunge in profits may seem like nothing to boast about, but for Motorola CEO Ed Zander, any profit at all is welcome indeed. The wireless tech company…

Merrill’s Bombshell

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 24

It was only 19 days ago that Merrill Lynch warned of a $5 billion write-down. That seemed bad enough. So imagine investors’ horror when the firm reported that it’s…

Merrill’s Bombshell

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 24

It was only 19 days ago that Merrill Lynch warned of a $5 billion write-down. That seemed bad enough. So imagine investors’ horror when the firm reported that it’s…

Merrill’s Bombshell

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 24

It was only 19 days ago that Merrill Lynch warned of a $5 billion write-down. That seemed bad enough. So imagine investors’ horror when the firm reported that it’s…

A Helping Hand from Countrywide

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 23

The top U.S. mortgage lender is offering to change the terms on some $16 billion in subprime loans in a bid to ease the squeeze on borrowers facing interest-rate…

Microsoft Knuckles Under to the EU

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 22

The software goliath agreed to comply with a 2004 antitrust order from the European Commission. The order was upheld by the European Court of First Instance last month, and…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 19

He presided over the target of Britain’s first bank run in 140 years, and now Matt Ridley is leaving. He had offered to give up the helm of the…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 19

Northern Rock’s Boss Steps Down He presided over the target of Britain’s first bank run in 140 years, and now Matt Ridley is leaving. He had offered to give…

Pfizer’s Profits Headache

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 18

The world’s No. 1 drugmaker reported a 77% profit plunge for the third quarter, largely because of the costs of dumping its disappointing inhaled insulin treatment, Exubera. Pfizer is…

Crude Prices Keep Climbing

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 17

Following the Turkish Parliament’s approval of military operations on the Iraq border, crude oil futures hit a new record of $88.90 a barrel in New York. Prices have been…

Bernanke and Paulson Size Things Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 16

In a one-two punch, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson both spoke forthrightly about the U.S. economy’s woes. Paulson, in a speech at Georgetown University, said…

Bernanke and Pauson Size Things Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 16

In a one-two punch, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson both spoke forthrightly about the U.S. economy’s woes. Paulson, in a speech at Georgetown University, said…

Another Downer from Citi

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 15

Citigroup announced grim third-quarter results, as it had predicted in early October. The company then wrote off $5.9 billion, mostly stemming from the subprime crisis but also from misguided…

Another Downer from Citi

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 15

Citigroup announced grim third-quarter results, as it had predicted in early October. The company then wrote off $5.9 billion, mostly stemming from the subprime crisis but also from misguided…

Another Downer from Citi

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 15

Citigroup announced grim third-quarter results, as it had predicted in early October. The company then wrote off $5.9 billion, mostly stemming from the subprime crisis but also from misguided…

Another Downer from Citi

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 15

Citigroup announced grim third-quarter results, as it had predicted in early October. The company wrote off $5.9 billion, mostly stemming from the subprime crisis but also from misguided trading…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 12

The economy still appears to be generating some juice. While chain-store retail sales were disappointing in September, as reported yesterday, individual retailers rang up better-than-expected gains of 0.6%, up…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 12

The economy still appears to be generating some juice. While chain-store retail sales were disappointing in September, as reported yesterday, individual retailers rang up better-than-expected gains of 0.6%, up…

Shoppers Took It Easy in September

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 11

Even at this early date, anxiety is starting to rise about US holiday sales. Retailers reported that same store sales rose just 1% for the month, a feeble showing…

The UAW Walks Out Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 10

They talked all night, and they’ll keep talking, but Chrysler and the United Auto Workers weren’t able to come to terms by the 11 a.m. strike deadline, so workers…

A Frothy Merger

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 09

Giant brewers SABMiller and Molson Coors are teaming up to take on the big kahuna, Anheuser-Busch. The two will merge their U.S. and Puerto Rican operations into a unit…

Vonage and Sprint Shake Hands

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 08

Maybe Vonage has a chance after all. The Internet phone company, whose stock has cratered since its IPO in May, 2006, settled a patent infringement dispute with Sprint by…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 05

Jobs Bounce Back Maybe it was just a statistical anomaly? When the Labor Dept. reported last month that US nonfarm payrolls in August had declined by 4,000, talk of…

Holding Steady on Rates in Europe

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 04

Both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England voted to leave their key rates unchanged: The ECB’s at 4% and England’s at 5.75. The two banks have…

More Troubles for Airbus

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 03

Ever since shares of Airbus parent EADS nosedived back in June, 2006, when production snafus on the A380 megajet were revealed, French financial regulators have been concerned about share…

More Troubles for Airbus

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 03

Ever since shares of Airbus parent EADS nosedived back in June, 2006, when production snafus on the A380 megajet were revealed, French financial regulators have been concerned about share…

Leaders Meet in North Korea, Deal Reached in Beijing

Posted by: Chi-Chu Tschang on October 03

Negotiators in Beijing have reached an agreement that sets a timetable for North Korea to disclose and dismantle all of its nuclear programs in exchange for 950,000 metric tons…

The Canadians Are Coming!

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 02

In the first major sign of the loonie’s new muscle, Toronto-Dominion agreed to buy New Jersey-based Commerce Bancorp for $8.5 billion, its biggest foreign deal ever. With the Canadian…

The Canadians Are Coming!

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 02

In the first major sign of the loonie’s new muscle, Tononto-Dominion agreed to buy New Jersey-based Commerce Bancorp for $8.5 billion, its biggest foreign deal ever. With the Canadian…

Subprime Whacks Two Big Banks

Posted by: Harry Maurer on October 01

The No. 1 banks in the US and Europe, Citigroup and UBS, joined the list of institutions reporting that the subprime crisis heavily damaged their third-quarter results. UBS took…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 28

Some Upbeat Economic News Consumer confidence may have dropped like a stone in August, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped Americans from shopping. The Commerce Dept . says…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 28

Some Upbeat Economic News Consumer confidence may have dropped like a stone in August, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped Americans from shopping. The Commerce Dept . says…

Revving Up a Search Engine

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 27

This time around, Microsoft’s ambitions are a bit more modest. The company unveiled its latest search technology, called Live Search, claiming it will produce results more relevant to Web…

Heavy Goods Take a Dive

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 26

You know that next Fed rate cut you’re betting on? Well, you may want to put more money on it. The Commerce Dept. reports that durable goods orders sagged severely…

Heavy Goods Take a Dive

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 26

You know that next Fed rate cut you’re betting on? Well, you may want to put more money on it. The Commerce Dept. reports that durable goods orders sagged severely…

Too Depressed to Shop?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 25

It’s been almost two years since US consumers were this blue. The Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence tumbled in September even more than experts had predicted, to 99.8…

Take That, GM!

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 24

For the first time in 37 years, GM’s workers walked out. The UAW, which had set a strike deadline of 11 a.m., surprised most observers by sticking to it…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 21

Made in China: How Bad? The brouhaha over Chinese products rages on, though the news for the country’s beleaguered manufacturers isn’t all bad. Mattel, which has recalled some 20…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 21

Made in China: How Bad? The brouhaha over Chinese products rages on, though the news for the country’s beleaguered manufacturers isn’t all bad. Mattel, which has recalled some 20…

Up and Down on the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 20

Wall Street has been eagerly awaiting the earnings reports of its major investment banks to see how badly they’re being hit by the subprime disaster and the credit crunch….

Up and Down on the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 20

Wall Street has been eagerly awaiting the earnings reports of its major investment banks to see how badly they’re being hit by the subprime disaster and the credit crunch….

Treasury Traders Take Cover

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 19

As if to confirm the wisdom of the Fed’s rate cut yesterday, the consumer price index was well-behaved in August, with prices actually falling by 0.1% and core inflation—that…

Treasury Traders Take Cover

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 19

As if to confirm the wisdom of the Fed’s rate cut yesterday, the consumer price index was well-behaved in August, with prices actually falling by 0.1% and core inflation—that…

The Fed Goes for Broke

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 18

Most observers were expecting a quarter-point cut. But the Federal Open Market Committee apparently decided to send a stronger signal, voting unanimously to slash the federal funds rate by…

Red-Faced in Redmond

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 17

Many call it the most important antitrust case in European history, and Microsoft just suffered a grievous defeat. Ruling on an appeal by the software giant, the European Court…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 14

Shoppers Slow Down In another sign that the housing slump and resulting credit crunch are having a ripple effect on the US economy, retail sales growth softened in August,…

Joblessness: Things Could Be Worse

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 13

Ugly news on US job growth—that is, job shrinkage—whacked the stock market last Friday, as the specter of recession suddenly loomed closer. Today comes news on unemployment applications that…

Political Tremors in Tokyo

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 12

With his popular support cratering, and in the wake of a humiliating electoral defeat, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would step down as soon as his Liberal…

O.K., We’ll Pump More Oil

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 11

OPEC decided to open the spigots a bit in a bid to ease the pressure on crude prices. At a meeting in Vienna, cartel members decided to let 500,000…

Smoke Signals from the Fed

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 10

Three Federal Reserve honchos gave speeches as part of a barrage scheduled before the Sept. 18 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. Janet Yellen, head of the San…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 07

Jobs Go Poof! Talk about a shocker. The August jobs report from the US Labor Dept. said that nonfarm jobs actually fell by 4,000, the first such decline in…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 07

Jobs Go Poof! Talk about a shocker. The August jobs report from the US Labor Dept. said that nonfarm jobs actually fell by 4,000, the first such decline in…

Nardelli Raids Toyota Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 06

New Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli grabbed a right-hand man, naming Jim Press president and vice-chairman of the carmaker. Press had been president and COO of Toyota North America. He’ll…

Growth Will Take a Hit, says the OECD

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 05

The Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development cut its forecasts for GDP growth in Europe and the U.S., saying the credit crunch may force even gloomier prognostications. The report…

Ford Still Sliding, GM Up

Posted by: Harry Maurer on September 04

It’s not working—at least so far. Ford’s turnaround plan showed little impact on August sales, which dropped 14% from the same month last year. On the other hand, GM,…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 31

Tough Love from Bernanke In what may have been the most important speech of his tenure thus far, the Fed chief proved cagey as usual. He said the Fed…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 31

Tough Love from Bernanke In what may have been the most important speech of his tenure thus far, the Fed chief proved cagey as usual. He said the Fed…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 31

Tough Love from Bernanke In what may have been the most important speech of his tenure thus far, the Fed chief proved cagey as usual. He said the Fed…

Shakeup in Beijing

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 30

On the eve of a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress, China’s leaders announced a major Cabinet shuffle. Finance Minister Jin Renqing and the boss of the secret police, Xu Yongyue,…

For Sale: Philip Morris International

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 29

Altria Group, maker of Marlboro, finally bit the bullet and decided to spin off Philip Morris International, a move many shareholders have been demanding. It’ll reveal the timing and…

Housing: Where’s the Bottom?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 28

US home prices sank by 3.2% in the second quarter compared with the same period last year. That’s the biggest quarterly drop since S&P/Case-Schiller created its index in 1987….

Gonzalez Packs It In

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 27

After months of trench warfare, Washington-style, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez announced he’s steopping down on Sept. 17. He has been under fire for various alleged misdeeds, including his role…

Gonzalez Packs It In

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 27

After months of trench warfare, Washington-style, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez announced he’s steopping down on Sept. 17. He has been under fire for various alleged misdeeds, including his role…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 24

Subprime Comes to China Shares of Bank of China got hammered by international traders, falling as much as 8.3% on the Hong Kong exchange before closing down 5.4%. The…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 24

Subprime Comes to China Shares of Bank of China got hammered by international traders, falling as much as 8.3% on the Hong Kong exchange before closing down 5.4%. The…

The BOJ Stands Pat

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 23

The Bank of Japan decided to leave its benchmark rate unchanged. That may not sound like a big deal, but it represents an about-face by the bank, which had…

Lining Up at the Window

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 22

Four big banks—Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Wachovia—announced that they’ve availed themselves of the Fed’s discount window, each borrowing $500 million. The moves seemed to be…

Lining Up at the Window

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 22

Four big banks—Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Wachovia—announced that they’ve availed themselves of the Fed’s discount window, each borrowing $500 million. The moves seemed to be…

The Markets Grope For Direction

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 21

Wall Street was treading water again as investors tried to peer through the fog of the recent market crisis. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York did its best…

The Markets Grope For Direction

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 21

Wall Street was treading water again as investors tried to peer through the fog of the recent market crisis. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York did its best…

Anxiety on the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 20

After a big rally in Asia and smaller ones on European markets, US investors proved more cautious as they tried to digest analysis of the Fed’s discount-rate cut on…

Wall Street’s Wacky Ride

Posted by: Justin Bachman on August 16

A wild day on Wall Street saw the Dow Jones industrials plunge 340 points at one point, and then recover all but 15 of that loss by the close….

Mattel’s Dangerous Toy Story

Posted by: Justin Bachman on August 14

In its second major toy recall in a month, Mattel is warning consumers about perils associated with an additional 9.3 million toys that were imported from China. Most of…

Wall Street Simmers Down

Posted by: Justin Bachman on August 13

Wall Street settled down from its recent orgy of selling, with the major indexes finishing virtually flat on Monday following earlier advances in Europe. For a third straight day,…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 10

Pouring Money on Troubled Markets Once again, central banks in Europe and the US pumped billions into the financial system —to the tune of $84 billion in Europe, with…

Top Stories of the Week

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 10

Pouring Money on Troubled Markets Once again, central banks in Europe and the US pumped billions into the financial system —to the tune of $84 billion in Europe, with…

Tremors on Both Sides of the Pond

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 09

The European Central Bank rushed to pump liquidity into the financial system to head off a full-scale credit crunch. Money-market rates spiked after a unit of French bank BNP…

Tremors Across the Pond

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 09

The European Central Bank rushed to pump liquidity into the financial system to head off a full-scale credit crunch. Money-market rates spiked after a unit of French bank BNP…

For Whom Housing Tolls

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 08

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers, something of a bellwether in the US housing market, issued yet another gloomy report, noting that in its fiscal third quarter, ended June 30, its…

The Fed: Still Hawkish

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 07

No one figured the Federal Reserve would make a move, and indeed, the US central bank left its key rate unchanged at 5.25% after the Federal Open Market Committee…

Another Casualty of the Subprime Mess

Posted by: Harry Maurer on August 06

A few days after laying off most of its workers, American Home Mortgage Investment, the 10th-largest maker of such loans in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because…

Stocks Tentatively Edge Higher

Posted by: Michael Arndt on August 02

Stocks advanced Thursday in afternoon trading after Wall Street received some solid readings on corporate earnings and the job market, but remained nervous that a tighter credit market could…

Stocks See-Saw in Nervous Market

Posted by: Michael Arndt on August 01

Stocks fluctuated on Wednesday as concerns about problems in the credit markets continued to roil Wall Street. The major indexes turned higher in the early afternoon, in part on…

Murdoch On Verge Of Winning Dow Jones

Posted by: Michael Arndt on July 31

News Corp. is poised to win control of Dow Jones & Co., including its flagship publication The Wall Street Journal, after a key Bancroft trust changed its mind and…

Dow Jones Stock Drops On Murdoch Concerns

Posted by: Peter Elstrom on July 30

A spokesman for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. said the company is “highly unlikely” to proceed with its $5 billion offer for Dow Jones if the Bancroft family doesn’t give…

Stocks Take A Hard Fall

Posted by: Michael Arndt on July 26

Wall Street suffered its second-biggest plunge of the year Thursday, extending its weeks-long streak of volatility after disappointing home sales figures added to investors’ increasing uneasiness about the mortgage…

Home Sales Slow To 2003 Pace

Posted by: Michael Arndt on July 25

Sales of existing homes fell for a fourth straight month in June, slumping by 3.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.75 million units, the slowest sales pace…

Barclays Taps Asian Allies In Bank Bid

Posted by: Michael Arndt on July 23

Barclays PLC, tapping new arenas of global finance in a bid to land a counterpunch against a European consortium seeking to buy ABN Amro Holding NV, will use cash…

Bush Moves To Improve Import Safety

Posted by: Peter Elstrom on July 19

President George W. Bush moved to calm concerns over the safety of imports, particularly from China, by creating a panel of cabinet officials to examine the issue. The panel…

A Wet Blanket from Bernanke

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 18

The Fed chairman, in testimony before Congress, said the troubled housing sector would continue to hammer the U.S. economy and expressed outrage at the “outright fraud” that contributed to…

The Bulls Keep Running

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 17

The Dow Jones industrial average bounced above and below a new milestone, 14,000, during intraday trading. Extending the recent rally, traders seemed to be encouraged by a moderate inflation…

The Bulls Keep Running

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 17

The Dow Jones industrial average bounced above and below a new milestone, 14,000, during intraday trading. Extending the recent rally, traders seemed to be encouraged by a moderate inflation…

Verizon? No Way, Says Vodafone

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 16

The British telecom giant forcefully denies a report in the Financial Times that it’s considering a $160 billion bid for Verizon. The New York company’s shares leapt 15% on…

Traders Shed the Subprime Blues

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 12

It didn’t take Wall Street long to forget Tuesday’s subprime jitters. Spurred by snazzy numbers from big retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, and J.C. Penney, the Dow pushed into…

The Middle Kingdom’s Far From Middling Growth

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 11

The Chinese economy is expanding even faster than you thought—in fact, faster than the Chinese themselves thought. Just a day after the country’s trade surplus hit yet another record,…

Hammered by Housing Woes

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 10

Those termites gnawing away at the US housing market don’t show any sign of letting up. Both Sears and Home Depot put out some ugly numbers, attributing them in…

New Territory for the Search King

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 09

Going by price tag, it’s a small acquisition. But Google’s $625 million purchase of e-mail security outfit Postini puts the search leader in a whole new line of endeavor:…

New Territory for the Search King

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 09

Going by price tag, it’s a small acquisition. ButGoogle’s $625 million purchase of e-mail security outfit Postini puts the search leader in a whole new line of endeavor: offering…

How Do You Say “Blackberry” in Chinese?

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 05

Research in Motion hit a new intraday high after CEO James Balsillie said last week that it has finally won permission to offer Blackberry e-mail phones in China. Service…

Detroit: Dropping Farther Back

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 03

As the move to fuel-efficient vehicles continues, American carmakers keep sputtering. June US sales for GM tumbled 21%, Ford fell 8.1%—its eighth drop in a row—while DaimlerChrysler slipped 1.8%….

The iPhone: It’s Not All Smooth Calling

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 02

Apple found itself fielding the first serious gripes about its much-hyped smart phone, as a fraction of users—some reports said 2%—suffered long delays in activating their service. AT&T, the…

The iPhone: It’s Not All Smooth Calling

Posted by: Harry Maurer on July 02

Apple found itself fielding the first serious gripes about its much-hyped smart phone, as a fraction of users—some reports said 2%—suffered long delays in activating their service. AT&T, the…

Immigration Reform: DOA

Posted by: Peter Elstrom on June 28

The U. S. Senate failed to generate enough votes to push forward immigration reform, effectively ending the chances that comprehensive legislation will be passed before the 2008 presidential election….

Durable Goods Drop, Bond Traders Cheer

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 27

For a change, the bond market got a bit of cheery news, when US durable goods orders came in surprisingly weak in May, falling 2.8% when analysts had expected…

Durable Goods Sink, Bond Traders Cheer

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 27

For a change, the bond market got a bit of cheery news, when US durable goods orders came in surprisingly weak in May, falling 2.8% when analysts had expected…

More Gloom and Doom for Housing

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 26

Capping a banner week for discouraging US housing news, the Commerce Dept. said that sales of new homes dropped in May by 1.6%, to an annual pace of 915,000,…

Housing: Been Down So Long…

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 25

In the latest gloomy look at the housing market, the National Association of Realtors said that sales of existing homes in May tumbled to their lowest level in four…

And Once Again There Was One

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 21

General Electric and Pearson announced that after thinking it over, they’re not going to bid for Dow Jones. That leaves Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. as the only serious contender…

Morgan Stanley’s Big Score

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 20

More evidence that life has been sweet on the Street: The investment bank blew past estimates by posting a 40% leap in second-quarter net. Revenue jumped 32%. The big…

Semel Out, Yahoo! Shares Drop

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 19

The Internet portal saw its shares decline in the wake of Monday’s news that CEO Terry Semel would step down, to be replaced by co-founder Jerry Wang. The company…

The Supreme Court Backs the Street

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 18

TheJustices issued another flurry of rulings affecting business. In one case they came down on the side of Wall Street banks in reversing a federal appeals court that had…

Beijing Objects to U.S. Trade Bill

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 14

A Chinese Foreign Ministry official told the U.S. Congress that it should reject a bill unveiled by powerful Senators that could result in tariffs on Chinese exports unless Beijing…

U.S. Retail Sales Surge in May

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 13

What, them worry? Consumers apparently forgot about the shaky housing market and rising gasoline prices in May as they hit the malls. Retail sales jumped 1.4%, twice as much…

The Browser Wars Heat Up Again

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 12

Apple stepped up the struggle against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox by releasing a version of its Safari Web browser for Windows-based personal computers. “What we’ve got here…

Philip Morris Loses in Supreme Court

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 11

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a number of rulings affecting business. In the most important, Watson v. Philip Morris, the court decided unanimously that the cigarette maker could not…

The G8 Agrees to Disagree

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 07

.The U.S. and Russia won’t have to set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions after an agreement by the Group of Eight . The European Union, Japan, and Canada…

More Bad News on Housing

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 06

It’s going to get even worse for U.S. home sales, predicts the National Association of Realtors. The trade association said sales and prices this year will sag more than…

Cold Water From Bernanke

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 05

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke helped send U.S. stocks and the dollar lower by saying in a speech that the troubled housing sector will continue to undermine economic growth…

Flextronics and Solectron May Tie the Knot

Posted by: Harry Maurer on June 04

Contract manufacturing giants Flextronics and Solectron will team up, with Singapore’s Flextronics buying Silicon Valley’s Solectron for $3.6 billion. The merger should give them more heft to battle industry…

Murdoch Flushes Out His Prey

Posted by: Stuart Jackson on June 01

The Wall Street Journal may soon have a new owner. The Bancroft family, controlling shareholders of WSJ publisher Dow Jones, put the company on the block after apparently concluding…