On Tuesday October 19, 2010, 6:09 pm EDT
Banks unlikely to quell
foreclosure-document mess
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Big
lenders are trying to move past the foreclosure-document mess, saying they're
now confident their paperwork is accurate.
Yet they face so much
organized resistance that they can't just snap up their briefcases, declare the
crisis over and move on.
Attorneys general in every
state, lawyers for evicted homeowners, state judges and lawmakers are gearing
up for a fight that could end up in courts around the country.
The document crisis, in
other words, appears far from over.
Bank of America posts $7.7B
loss on special charge
NEW YORK (AP) -- Bank of
America Corp. said Tuesday it lost $7.65 billion during the third quarter due
to a charge related to credit and debit card reform legislation passed over the
summer.
The bank also announced a
change in its consumer banking strategy to focus on providing customers with
incentives to do more business with the bank instead of generating revenue
through penalty fees such as overdraft charges. The bank is already starting to
implement some changes, and has cut overdraft fees on small amounts that
customers charge to their debit cards.
The new legislation that
caused Bank of America to take the $10.4 billion charge limits fees banks can
collect when merchants accept debit cards. BofA said that change would reduce
future revenues in its card business.
Dow drops below 11,000 as
dollar rebounds
NEW YORK (AP) -- A stronger
dollar and a surprise interest rate hike in China that may slow that country's
economy helped push stocks sharply lower Tuesday.
The Dow Jones industrial
average fell below 11,000 for the first time in a little more than a week,
reversing a streak that had pushed the index up nearly 7 percent for the year.
It was the largest single-day drop in the market since early August.
Bank of America Corp.'s 4.4
percent drop was the largest fall in the Dow and came amid reports that a group
of investors including BlackRock Inc. and Pacific Investment Management Co. are
reportedly attempting to force the bank to repurchase mortgages put out by
Countrywide Financial Corp., which Bank of America bought in 2008. BlackRock
and Pimco declined to comment.
China raises key rate for
1st time since crisis
BEIJING (AP) -- China
raised its key interest rate Tuesday for the first time since the global
crisis. The move is intended to control inflation and rapid growth even as
other Asian economies move to keep their recoveries on track.
The rate hike, China's
first since 2007, reflected Beijing's focus on guiding growth to a more
sustainable level rather than revving up the economy. China's economy grew 10.3
percent in the second quarter.
The People's Bank of China,
the central bank, might have felt forced to act after bank lending surged in
September despite government orders to control credit, said economist Mark
Williams of Capital Economics in London.
Home starts rises slightly,
building permits fall
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Home
construction rose slightly last month on the strength of single-family homes,
but the market was still too weak to propel growth in the battered industry.
Construction of new homes
and apartments rose 0.3 percent in September from a month earlier to a
seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000, the Commerce Department said
Tuesday. It was the strongest report on home construction since April.
Housing starts are up 28
percent from their bottom in April 2009. Still, they are down 73 percent from
their peak in January 2006 and 40 percent below the 1 million annual rate that
analysts say is consistent with healthy housing markets.
Goldman Sachs earns $1.74B,
easily tops forecasts
NEW YORK (AP) -- Goldman
Sachs Group Inc.'s earnings easily beat analysts' forecasts again, but the bank
saw a big slowdown in trading, its most profitable business.
Net income after paying
preferred dividends fell 43 percent from the year-ago period as revenue in the
bank's bond, currency and commodities trading division fell to its lowest level
since the depths of the financial crisis in late 2008.
Goldman's results are
closely watched because they considered the strongest bank on Wall Street and
regularly exceed forecasts. The decline in Goldman's earnings could signal a
change in the mix of how investment banks make money now that financial markets
have steadied themselves following the credit crisis and recession.
Yahoo 3Q profit doubles,
revenue still lackluster
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo
Inc. shuffled through another quarter of sluggish growth, a performance that
may further test the patience of the Internet company's already restless
shareholders.
The third-quarter results
announced Tuesday also seem likely to intensify the pressure on CEO Carol Bartz
to end a four-year financial funk amid speculation that the company could
become a takeover target because of its slumping stock price.
Yahoo made some progress on
the earnings front, thanks largely to cost-cutting moves since Yahoo hired
Bartz to orchestrate a turnaround 21 months ago.
J&J US sales of OTC
products fall 40 pct in 3Q
U.S. sales of Johnson &
Johnson's nonprescription medicines plunged 40 percent in the third quarter as
an embarrassing string of product recalls hurt sales and consumer trust. That,
combined with the lingering global recession and some initial price cuts from
the health care overhaul, contributed to anemic earnings for the health care
giant.
The maker of baby shampoo,
contraceptives and biologic drugs on Tuesday reported a 2 percent increase in
profit for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, but that was due to a $196 million
jump in other income from divestitures and a lower tax bill.
Third-quarter net income
edged up to $3.42 billion, or $1.23 per share, beating analysts' expectations
of $1.15 per share. A year earlier, net income was $3.35 billion, or $1.20 per
share.
Coca-Cola 3Q net income
rises 8.4 percent
NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. sales
for Coca-Cola Co. extended their rebound in the third-quarter, coupling with
strong performance abroad to push the world's largest soft drink maker's net
income up 8.4 percent.
The second consecutive
quarter of improvements in its North American drinks business is encouraging
news for Coca-Cola after four years of declines. The company also raised the
value of shares it expects to buy back this year to $2 billion from $1.5
billion.
The company, based in
Atlanta, said Tuesday it earned $2.06 billion or 88 cents per share in the
three months ending Oct. 1, up from $1.9 billion or 81 cents per share last
year. Excluding one-time items related to restructuring, the company earned 92
cents per share.
New York Times Co. reports
3Q loss
NEW YORK (AP) -- The New
York Times Co. reported a small loss for the third quarter on Tuesday, hurt by
one-time expenses and another drop in print advertising revenue.
The publisher of The New
York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald-Tribune and 15 other
daily newspapers has been trying to offset declines in its traditional
newspaper business with revenue from its Web operations. But a jump in online
ad dollars was not enough to offset declines in print.
The Times Co. said it
expects print advertising in the last three months of the year to improve
"modestly" from the third quarter but did not offer specifics.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial
average fell 165.07, or 1.5 percent, to 10,978.62. Standard & Poor's 500
index fell 18.81, or 1.6 percent, to 1,165.90, while the Nasdaq composite index
fell 43.71, or 1.8 percent, to 2,436.95.
Benchmark oil for November
delivery closed down $3.59, or 4.3 percent, to settle at $79.49 a barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the first time oil settled below $80 a
barrel since September.
Gasoline futures fell even
more sharply than oil, nearly 5 percent to settle at $2.0483 cents a gallon.
The futures had tracked oil higher, and also rose because strikes at oil
refineries in France had made investors nervous about supply disruptions.
Heating oil fell nearly 9
cents to settle at $2.1893 a gallon. In London, Brent crude fell $3.27 to settle
at $81.10 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Natural gas, however, rose
2.4 percent, to $3.513 per thousand cubic feet. Natural gas is insulated from
global supply and demand trends because so much is produced domestically.