- U.S. stock futures jump as Fed begins deliberations
- Global stocks rebound
- U.S. Stocks Retreat on Concern Economic Slump Is Worsening
- Japan Temporarily Bans Naked Short Selling
- Iceland Central Bank Raises Key Interest Rate to 18%
- Morgan Stanley Supported Money Funds With $23 Billion
- GE tests Fed’s CP facility with $5bn loan
- Fannie, Freddie Mortgage-Bond Spreads Hit Widest Since March
- Capital One, Key Among 19 Banks Getting $35 Billion
- Barclays' Search for Capital Leads to Two Russian Banks
- Loews Will Inject $1.25 Billion Into CNA After Loss
- Banks Waver on Funding Huntsman Deal
- MasterCard, Visa Settle Lawsuit With Discover for $2.75 Billion
- Treasury working on aid for GM, Chrysler merger
- GM, Chrysler request $10 billion in aid: sources
- Nissan Says Credit Crunch Effects to Last Until 2010
- Boeing, Union Leaders Reach Pact That May End Strike
- Hedge Funds Seek Ousters at Dillard's
U.S. stock futures jump as Fed begins deliberations - MarketWatch
U.S. stock futures jumped on Tuesday as the Federal Reserve began the first day of a two-day meeting in which rate cuts are seen as a near certainty.
S&P 500 futures climbed 32.4 points to 867.10 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 44 points to 1,206.00. Dow industrial futures rose 300 points.....
Global stocks rebound - CNNMoney
Global stock indexes rebounded from several days of steep losses Tuesday, with Hong Kong leading the advance.
U.S. futures, which offer an indication of how markets may open when trading begins in New York, were sharply higher.
European shares opened in positive territory and by midday, Britain's FTSE 100 index was up 2.2%. The CAC-40 in Paris was up about 1.8% and Germany's DAX was 6.9% higher....
U.S. Stocks Retreat on Concern Economic Slump Is Worsening - Bloomberg
U.S. stocks tumbled in the last half hour of trading after shifting between gains and losses all day, pulled lower by commodity producers as investors speculated a global recession will damp demand for fuel and metals.
Schlumberger Ltd., the biggest oilfield services contractor, slid 8.9 percent and Occidental Petroleum Corp. lost 7.9 percent as crude fell to the lowest since May 2007. U.S. Steel Corp. tumbled 11 percent after UBS AG advised selling the shares. General Motors Corp. sank 8.4 percent as the largest U.S. carmaker's debt rating was cut by Moody's Investors Service. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index extended its October retreat to 27 percent, its worst monthly decline since 1931.....
Japan Temporarily Bans Naked Short Selling - Wall Street Journal
Japan moved Tuesday to temporarily ban so-called "naked" short selling of stocks, stepping up its efforts to arrest the tumble in domestic share prices.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange has asked member brokers to stop accepting naked short-sell orders, TSE President Atsushi Saito told a news conference.The TSE's move followed comments from Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who said that regulations on naked short selling would be tightened. Mr. Nakagawa didn't say that the practice would be banned, but the TSE's move and local media's interpretation of his comments suggested that the new strictures, to be enforced from today, will be a ban in all but name....
Iceland Central Bank Raises Key Interest Rate to 18% - Bloomberg
Iceland's central bank unexpectedly raised the benchmark interest rate to 18 percent, the highest in at least seven years, after the island reached an aid agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
Policy makers raised the key rate by 6 percentage points, the Reykjavik-based bank said in a statement on its Web site today, taking the rate to the highest since the bank began targeting inflation in 2001. It will publish the reasons for today's move at 11 a.m. local time....
Morgan Stanley Supported Money Funds With $23 Billion - Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley clients withdrew almost one-third of their cash from money-market accounts last month, forcing the firm to buy $23 billion of securities held by the funds to keep them afloat.
Redemptions were $46 billion in September, mostly from funds that invest in corporate debt, Morgan Stanley said in an Oct. 9 regulatory filing. The New York-based company made sure the money-market funds had enough cash to repay investors by acquiring some of their assets with financing from ``various available stabilization facilities.''.....
GE tests Fed’s CP facility with $5bn loan - Reuters
General Electric tested the Federal Reserve’s latest effort to restore confidence and liquidity to the US credit markets, borrowing less than $5bn from the government on Monday through a new short-term loan facility.
The Fed unveiled the commercial-paper facility earlier this month amid mounting concern that even highly rated issuers such as GE and American Express would lose access to short-term loans they in turn need to fund their operations. Dozens of companies had registered with the Fed to access the programme, which made its debut on Monday.....
Fannie, Freddie Mortgage-Bond Spreads Hit Widest Since March - Bloomberg
Yields on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae mortgage bonds soared to the highest in more than seven months relative to government notes, potentially boosting home-loan rates.
The difference between yields on Washington-based Fannie's current-coupon 30-year fixed-rate mortgage securities and 10-year U.S. Treasuries climbed about 21 basis points to 224 basis points as of 3:45 p.m. in New York, up from 162 basis points on Oct. 20, data .....
Capital One, Key Among 19 Banks Getting $35 Billion - Bloomberg
At least 19 regional U.S. banks, including SunTrust Banks Inc. and Capital One Financial Corp., accepted $35 billion in government cash as the Treasury rolled out the second half of its $250 billion package to shore up lenders and thaw frozen credit markets.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is doling out cash to recapitalize struggling lenders and jump-start takeovers in an industry suffering from the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. SunTrust, Capital One, KeyCorp and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. are among regional lenders that have agreed to take cash so far by selling preferred shares to the U.S.....
Barclays' Search for Capital Leads to Two Russian Banks - Wall Street Journal
Barclays PLC is seeking investments from two state-backed Russian banks in an effort to boost its capital.
The British bank has spoken to OAO VTB and OAO Sberbank about potential capital injections, but it wasn't clear Monday if Barclays' efforts had been successful.
Barclays said it would raise £6.5 billion ($10.34 billion) from private sources to meet government capital benchmarks.....
Loews Will Inject $1.25 Billion Into CNA After Loss - Bloomberg
Loews Corp., the company run by New York's Tisch family, will inject $1.25 billion into CNA Financial Corp. after the insurance unit posted a third-quarter loss on investment declines and hurricane claims. CNA fell the most in at least 28 years after halting its dividend on common stock.
Loews will buy preferred shares of CNA after the insurer posted a $331 million loss, the New York-based holding company said in a statement. CNA will pay a 10 percent dividend on the preferred shares to Loews, which owns 90 percent of the insurer.....
Banks Waver on Funding Huntsman Deal - Wall Street Journal
Huntsman Corp. said it has been informed by Hexion Specialty Chemicals Inc. that their proposed merger wouldn't close as planned Tuesday because the banks that were to fund the deal no longer plan to do so.
The announcement comes a week after an opinion by American Appraisal gave the deal, which had seen months of questioning by investors and funding parters, what was thought to be a much-needed affirmation that the combined company would be a solvent entity.
But two of the financiers of the deal, Credit Suisse Group and Deutsche Bank AG, told Hexion late Monday night they don't believe the opinion meets the condition of the deal.....
MasterCard, Visa Settle Lawsuit With Discover for $2.75 Billion - Bloomberg
MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. will pay $2.75 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by Discover Financial Services.
As previously disclosed, the settlement allocation between Visa and MasterCard is based primarily on their payment card volumes.Visa will pay $1.89 billion, which includes $1.74 billion from the escrow created under its retrospective responsibility plan, $80 million from Visa to obtain releases from MasterCard, and an additional $65 million which will be refunded by Morgan Stanley, Discover's former parent company, under a separate agreement related to the settlement. The settlement is subject to approval by Visa's former U.S. member financial institutions.....
Treasury working on aid for GM, Chrysler merger - Reuters
The U.S. government is considering direct financial assistance to facilitate a possible merger between General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC, a private sector source familiar with Treasury discussions told Reuters on Monday.
The Treasury Department is weighing aid of at least $5 billion, which could include capital injections and government purchases of bad auto loans, according to the source, a financial policy executive who spoke anonymously because the discussions are private.....
GM, Chrysler request $10 billion in aid: sources - Reuters
General Motors Corp and Cerberus Capital Management have asked the U.S. government for roughly $10 billion in an unprecedented rescue package to support a merger between GM and Chrysler LLC, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks said on Monday.
The government funding would include roughly $3 billion in exchange for preferred stock in the merged automaker, according to one of the sources, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.The U.S. Treasury Department is considering a request for direct aid to facilitate the merger and a decision could come this week, sources familiar with the still-developing government response said earlier on Monday.....
Nissan Says Credit Crunch Effects to Last Until 2010 - Bloomberg
Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third- largest carmaker, expects the impact of the credit crunch to last until 2010, as tighter lending drives down vehicle sales in the U.S.
The annual sales rate in the U.S. will be around 12.5 million vehicles through March, Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said, speaking at a conference in Tokyo today.....
Boeing, Union Leaders Reach Pact That May End Strike - Bloomberg
Boeing Co. and machinists-union leaders agreed on ``tentative'' terms for a contract that if approved by members would end the third-longest strike in the union's 73-year history and reopen the planemaker's shuttered factories.
The agreement for a four-year contract, rather than the usual three years, would provide job security for machinists ``and limit the amount of work outside vendors can perform in the workplace,'' the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said in an e-mailed statement today.....
Hedge Funds Seek Ousters at Dillard's - Wall Street Journal
Two hedge funds stepped up pressure on struggling department-store chain Dillard's Inc., calling for the ouster of Chief Executive William Dillard II and other members of his family.
In a letter to three of the company's outside directors, hedge funds Barington Capital Group and Clinton Capital blamed management for the company's poor performance and accused it of self-dealing, nepotism and negligence. Mr. Dillard and several other family members are "overpaid and underqualified for the positions they hold," the hedge-fund managers wrote in the letter, which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission....
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