Archive for the ‘Financial News’ Category

Can you see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Top U.S. officials on Saturday offered reassurances that the worst of the economic downturn is likely over, helped by unprecedented efforts to keep credit flowing, though the recovery will be slow.

Two Federal Reserve policy-makers, Vice Chairman Donald Kohn and New York Fed chief William Dudley, both pointed to signs that measures taken by the U.S. central bank are indeed working to help revive the economy.

I’m waiting a bit to make sure it’s not a train headed my way.

Circuit City Stores Inc. hopes to sell its brand, trademarks and e-commerce business to Systemax Inc., the same company that purchased electronics retailer CompUSA’s intellectual property when it closed in 2008.

Richmond-based Circuit City, also a shuttered electronics retailer, has entered a so-called stalking horse agreement with Systemax for $6.5 million, according to bankruptcy court filings. A stalking horse bid is an initial offer for a bankrupt company’s assets from an interested buyer chosen by the company.

Considering their poor customer service, I’m not sure the Circuit City brand is something I would willingly associate myself with.

Take a look at this people... An American automobile manufacturer working to make things right without it’s hand out to the government.

Shares of Ford Motor Co. soared 16 percent Monday after the company said it completed tender offers that will reduce its debt by 38 percent and shave millions of dollars off its interest costs.

The automaker retired about $9.9 billion in securities in exchange for cash and shares under terms of the debt buybacks.

Combined, the moves are expected to reduce the Ford’s interest expenses by more than $500 million this year, as it tries to weather the worst auto sales downturn in 27 years.

Jack Dreyfus, the so-called “Lion on Wall Street,” died March 27 at New York Hospital, the asset management firm that he founded said on Friday.

He was 95. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Dreyfus was considered an American investment innovator whose career spanned from mutual fund management to medical research and the writing of two autobiographies.

“This remarkable individual was a legend in the creation and marketing of mutual funds and a humanitarian with a heart of gold,” The Dreyfus Corporation said in a statement.

Rest In Peace, Jack.

If you live out west, there’s good news.

Sales of previously occupied homes in the Western United States climbed in February, as low mortgage rates and cheap foreclosed properties drew in many first-time buyers and investors, according to two reports released Monday.

If you’re in the Midwest, not so much.

Home sales in the Midwest fell again in February as doubts about the economy and tighter credit requirements stymied potential buyers, according to two reports released Monday.

Existing home sales in the 12-state region slid 18 percent from February last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The median price in the Midwest declined 8 percent to $131,000 — the second-smallest drop of any region.

I’ve heard a lot of backpedaling stories and whiny reasons why companies took the government’s offer for bailout money, but this one takes the cake.

Wells Fargo & Co. Chairman Richard Kovacevich criticized the U.S. for retroactively adding curbs to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which he said forced the bank to cut its dividend, and called the administration’s plan for stress-testing banks “asinine.”

When the U.S. Treasury persuaded the nation’s nine biggest banks to accept capital investments in October, it signaled the whole industry was weak, Kovacevich, 65, said in a March 13 speech at Stanford University in California. Even though Wells Fargo didn’t want the money, it must comply with the same rules that the government placed on banks that did need it, he said.

“Is this America — when you do what your government asks you to do and then retroactively you also have additional conditions?” Kovacevich said. “If we were not forced to take the TARP money, we would have been able to raise private capital at that time” and not needed to cut the dividend to preserve cash, he said.

Wells Fargo was forced to take the money? I don’t think so. They took the TARP money with hands held out willingly. No one was twisting their arm forcing them to take the money.

If they didn’t need it, they shouldn’t have taken it. Maybe they could give it back now then? As a taxpayer I would appreciate it if they returned the money to my children’s pockets. They’re going to need it to pay for all the other moochers out there.

Stocks should do good again today, as long as Bernanke and Greenspan keep their mouths shut.

U.S. stocks posted their best day in four months on Tuesday after Citigroup said it was profitable in the first two months of 2009.

Major indexes jumped off 12-year lows in heavy trading after a key lawmaker said he expected the reinstatement of a rule that makes it harder to bet that a stock will fall.

McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant company, said global sales rose 1.4 percent in February as diners sought cheaper food.

Sales at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months climbed 2.8 percent, while European orders fell 0.2 percent, Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s said today in a statement. Sales in Asia, the Middle East and Africa gained 0.7 percent.

When times get tough, people head to the golden arches.

Bank of America’s request for $20bn of government money to prop up its acquisition of Merrill Lynch was a “tactical mistake” that made the bank appear as weak as Citigroup, Ken Lewis, BofA’s chief executive told the Financial Times on Monday.

Mr Lewis vowed to stay on as chief executive of the North Carolina-based bank until it paid back the $45bn of government money it received under the US Treasury’s bank recapitalisation programme, possibly within two to three years. This is the first time he has signalled his plans to leave the company.

If Ken Lewis thinks taking $20 billion of government money was a mistake, we, the American people, will be more than happy to take our money back.

The U.S. government will commit another $30 billion to prop up American International Group Inc as the embattled insurer prepares to report the biggest loss in history and struggles to sell assets.

AIG’s board on Sunday approved a new rescue package that also includes more lenient terms on an existing government investment in its preferred shares and a lower interest rate on a government credit line, two sources familiar with the matter said.

How much more do we need to invest before someone just admits that AIG is a money suck?