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HOT INVESTORS DISCUSSIONS |
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Bailout deal breaks down; Bernanke back to Capitol |
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| author: gdz | 25 September 2008 | Views: 309 |
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Urgent efforts to lash together a $700 billion rescue plan for the national economy appeared to be stalling Thursday night, hours after key lawmakers had declared they had reached a deal.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sped to Capitol Hill to try to revive or rework the proposal that President Bush said must be quickly approved by Congress to stave off economic disaster.
Congressional leaders were to meet with the economic chiefs into the night.
After six days of intensive talks on the unprecedented package proposed by the Bush administration, with Wall Street tottering and presidential politics intruding six weeks before the election, there was more confusion than clarity.
The day's earlier apparent breakthrough, announced with fanfare at midday, was followed by a White House summit bringing together President Bush, presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama, and top congressional leaders. But that meeting, aimed at showing unity in resolving a national financial crisis, broke up with conflicts in plain view.
Inside the session, House Republican leader John Boehner expressed misgivings about the emerging plan and McCain would not commit to supporting it, said people from both parties who were briefed on the |
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Daimler in talks to sell remaining Chrysler stake |
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| author: gdz | 24 September 2008 | Views: 234 |
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DETROIT (AP) -- Maybe Daimler wants to cut its losses on Chrysler, or Cerberus Capital Management wants to own the U.S. automaker outright. Whatever the motivation, the companies confirmed Wednesday that talks are under way for Daimler to sell its remaining 19.9 percent stake in Chrysler to the private equity firm.
Neither side would give further details, except Cerberus said it approached Daimler and if the transaction is successful, "all existing industrial relationships between Daimler and Chrysler would continue."
The talks, reported earlier Wednesday in Germany's Manager Magazin, come amid a crisis in the U.S. auto industry with falling sales, billions in losses and a dramatic market shift away from trucks and sport utility vehicles to small, fuel-efficient cars. Chrysler LLC's U.S. sales are down 24 percent through August, the worst performance of any major automaker.
Analysts say it's a good time for Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler to bail out, but it may be a bad time for Cerberus, which already is overexposed to U.S. economic problems, to spend more money on a losing operation.
"I can see why Daimler would want to exit," said Mark Warnsman, an auto analyst with Calyon Securities. "The only reason I could think that Cerberus would want more exposure is they're getting a very attractive price."
Cerberus Capital Management LP bought 80.1 percent of Chrysler from Daimler AG in August 2007 in a $7.4 billion deal. The sale ended a stormy nine-year partnership between Daimler and Auburn Hills, Mich.- |
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House votes to end offshore drilling ban |
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| author: gdz | 24 September 2008 | Views: 262 |
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House, responding to growing public demand for more domestic energy, voted Wednesday to end a quarter-century ban on oil and natural gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, giving Republicans a major victory on energy policy.
An extension of the ban for another year was left off a $630 billion-plus stopgap government spending bill that President Bush had threatened to veto -- possibly shutting down the government -- if the anti-drilling measure were included.
The bill was approved 370-58 and now goes to the Senate, where it is likely to be approved within the next few days, also without the drilling ban.
The decision to avoid a fight with the White House over offshore drilling marks a major shift by Democrats on energy policy and a reflection that the GOP argument for more domestic energy production had found a support among voters this election year, even though coastal states long have worried that offshore drilling might cause spills, soil beaches and threaten their tourist businesses.
Republican presidential nominee John McCain has made expanded offshore drilling a central part of his campaign, arguing that access to an estimated 18 billion barrels of oil in the off-limits Outer Continental Shelf is essential if the country is to become more energy independent.
McCain's Democratic presidential rival, Barack Obama, also has endorsed limited expansion of offshore drilling, but only as part of a broader energy package that boosts use of alternative energy sources and |
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Oil falls below $106 on weak US energy demand |
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| author: gdz | 24 September 2008 | Views: 397 |
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices ended a choppy session slightly lower Wednesday, falling below $106 a barrel as weak U.S. fuel demand and a stronger dollar outweighed concerns over a reduction in global crude output.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell 88 cents to settle at $105.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $109.50. On Tuesday, the contract fell $2.76 to settle at $106.61.
Crude prices have risen about $15 in the past week as investors funnel money back into commodities on worries that a proposed $700 billion bailout of financial firms will undercut the dollar and boost inflation.
But analysts said signs of weak U.S. demand for fuel have taken some of the momentum out of the rally. The economic slowdown has forced American consumers and businesses to cut back on energy use, sending oil prices falling from a record $147.27 a barrel reached July 11.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Sept. 19 was 3.5 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging 9 million barrels a day, the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly inventory report.
"Demand continues to be sluggish at best," said Andrew Lebow, senior vice president and broker at MF Global in New York. "Some people want to own real assets as an inflation hedge but others see crude as a consumable good, and any economic weakness is going to be bearish factor even if this bailout gets approved."
Highlighting Americans' reduced driving habits, filling stations hungry for business continued to ratchet |
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Nike 1Q profit falls on year-ago gain, sales grow |
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| author: gdz | 24 September 2008 | Views: 231 |
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Nike Inc. said Wednesday that its profit fell in the fiscal first quarter from a year earlier, when it benefited from a one-time tax gain. Excluding that item, profit rose in the quarter on sales growth around the globe.
Investors, eager for good news in the market, sent Nike shares up in after-hours trading.
The Beaverton, Ore.-based athletic shoe and apparel company said its net income decreased to $510.5 million, or $1.03 per share, from $569.7 million, or $1.12 per share, a year earlier. But the 2007 quarter included a special item that increased earnings per share by 20 cents. If adjusted for the tax benefit, net income would have grown 10 percent.
Revenue jumped 17 percent to $5.43 billion. Changes in currency exchange rates increased revenue by 7 percentage points during the quarter.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, on average, had expected the company to earn 92 cents per share on sales of $5.19 billion.
Nike's biggest growth continued to be in overseas markets, with revenue jumping 36 percent in the Asia-Pacific region. The company also had significant growth in developing markets such as Russia and Turkey. Revenue grew 8 percent to $1.8 billion for the quarter in the U.S., which is Nike's largest market but also one that has struggled with sluggish sales.
President and CEO Mark Parker said he was pleased with the quarter's results but said "we are not |
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Unrest Has Investors Questioning Risk Fundamentals |
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| author: gdz | 23 September 2008 | Views: 260 |
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Market turmoil leaves investors wondering whether lessons about risk still apply.
A financial crisis being described as the worst since the Great Depression has left investors thinking far beyond the realm of whether it's time to buy or sell.
No matter how close they are to retirement, many are considering getting out of the stock market entirely by shifting to cash or even gold, believing the market is so shaky they're willing to take the potential tax and inflation erosion they'll suffer from a quick pullout.
Others are staying in, even after this year's 14 percent decline to date in the Dow Jones industrial average has eaten away at what they had thought were safe portfolios.
"Right now, it is just a loss on paper. If I pull out now, it becomes an actual loss," says Deborah Allen, a 51-year-old administrative assistant at a Royal Oak, Mich., school district who's trying to protect a nest egg she's relying on to take early retirement next year.
Allen has about $50,000 in a retirement account, known as a 457 plan, that she plans to use in early retirement until she can draw pension benefits at age 55. But despite a conservative investment mix, the account has shrunk this year in a falling market.
"The money that I thought was going to be there isn't there, so I'm going to have to really look closely over how I'm handling my money for at least the next year," she said.
Many others are cutting back on expenses or considering delaying retirement -- the primary aspects of |
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Bush team, Congress negotiate $700B bailout |
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| author: gdz | 20 September 2008 | Views: 401 |
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration asked Congress on Saturday for the power to buy $700 billion in toxic assets clogging the financial system and threatening the economy as negotiations began on the largest bailout since the Great Depression.
The rescue plan would give Washington broad authority to purchase bad mortgage-related assets from U.S. financial institutions for the next two years. It does not specify which institutions qualify or what, if anything, the government would get in return for the unprecedented infusion.
Democrats are pressing to require that the plan help more strapped borrowers stay in their homes and to condition the bailout on new limits on executive compensation.
Congressional aides and administration officials are working through the weekend to fill in the details of the proposal. The White House hoped for a deal with Congress by the time markets opened Monday; top lawmakers say they would push to enact the plan as early as the coming week.
"We're going to work with Congress to get a bill done quickly," President Bush said at the White House. Without discussing specifics, he said, "This is a big package because it was a big problem."
The proposal is a mere three pages long, but it gives sweeping powers to the government to dispense gigantic sums of taxpayer dollars in a program that would be sheltered from court review.
"It's a rather brief bill with a lot of money," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee |
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Buffett biography reveals flaws, recounts triumphs |
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| author: gdz | 20 September 2008 | Views: 458 |
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 OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Warren Buffett's youthful confidence about his business acumen hid a self-doubt about nearly everything else, yet the son of a Nebraska congressman grew into one of the world's greatest investors. The tale of how the brilliant but needy Buffett built a fortune by investing in undervalued companies is recounted in the first authorized biography of the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The Associated Press obtained an audio version of the book Friday, ahead of its Sept. 29 release. The book's author, former insurance analyst Alice Schroeder, writes that when Buffett was a newlywed in his early 20s, he relied on his wife Susan to help cut his hair, stock the pantry and help him deal with other people. "In every area of life except business, Susie was discovering her husband was riddled with self-doubt," Schroeder wrote. "He had never felt love, and she saw, he did not feel lovable." The new book, "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," goes on to explain how Susan Buffett left Warren Buffett in 1977 and moved to San Francisco. But the couple never divorced before her death in 2004, even though he lived with another woman most of those years. Buffett married his longtime companion, Astrid Menks, in a private ceremony on his 76th birthday in 2006. Some of the information in Schroeder's book is new, but much of it will seem familiar to Buffett's legions of |
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Oracle 1Q profit rises 28 percent, beats Street |
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| author: gdz | 18 September 2008 | Views: 347 |
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Oracle Corp. said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit jumped 28 percent, beating Wall Street's expectations, as software sales stayed steady despite turmoil in the U.S. economy.
The business software maker's net income for the three months ended Aug. 31 rose to $1.08 billion, or 21 cents per share, from $840 million, 16 cents per share, a year ago.
Excluding expenses for employee stock options and acquisitions, Oracle posted earnings of 29 cents per share, two cents more than analysts had expected, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.
Revenue increased 18 percent to $5.33 billion.
New software license sales, a measure closely watched by investors, increased 14 percent, within the 10 percent to 20 percent range Oracle had predicted. The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company said changes in foreign exchange rates accounted for 4 percentage points of the increase, less than the 5 percentage points it had originally expected.
Revenue from software license updates and product support increased 23 percent to $2.94 billion.
Looking ahead to the current second quarter, Oracle expects new software license sales will grow by a potentially lesser amount: 2 percent to 12 percent, or 5 percent to 15 percent excluding the effect of currency fluctuations, said Chief Financial Officer Safra Catz. In the same quarter last year, sales of new |
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