On Wednesday November 17, 2010, 5:54 pm EST
GM says it prices common
shares at $33 each in IPO
DETROIT (AP) -- General
Motors says its common stock will sell for $33 per share when its initial
public offering takes place Thursday.
The IPO brings the U.S.
government closer to getting back part of the $50 billion it gave GM to help it
through bankruptcy protection last year.
The government and other GM
owners will sell 550 million shares starting Thursday. The IPO will be worth up
to $18.2 billion, making it one of the largest in U.S. history.
Foreclosure class actions
pile up against banks
NEW YORK (AP) --
Foreclosure-fraud class action lawsuits are starting to pile up against major
banks across the country, threatening a besieged industry with billions more in
potential losses.
Bank executives are
swarming Capitol Hill this week to defend themselves against multiple
foreclosure-related investigations, including one by all 50 state attorneys
general.
Talks are under way in that
probe in hopes of reaching a settlement, but that wouldn't extinguish the
mounting threat of an avalanche of class actions.
A congressional watchdog
said in a report issued Tuesday that the foreclosure document debacle could
threaten major banks with billions of dollars in losses, further prolong the
housing depression and damage the government's effort to keep people in their
homes.
Fed orders new "stress
tests" for banks
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
nation's largest banks must undergo new stress tests to show they can weather
another recession, and the Federal Reserve said those that pass them can boost
dividends paid to investors.
Banks would need to show
the Fed's bank examiners that they're in good financial health and that they
have adequate capital to absorb potential losses over the next two years.
The Fed oversees Wall
Street's biggest banks, including Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase
& Co. and Wells Fargo.
US launches criminal probes
into bank officials
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
federal government has opened criminal investigations into approximately 50
executives and directors of U.S. banks that have collapsed during the financial
crisis.
Deputy Inspector General
Fred Gibson said Wednesday the inspector general's office at the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. has been probing the role of the executives in bank
failures around the country.
The criminal investigations
are separate from civil lawsuits approved by the FDIC's board against some 80
bank executives, employees and directors. The FDIC is seeking to recoup about
$2 billion in bank losses that the regulator says were the result of negligence
or misconduct by executives or directors.
Next big thing? Big
cholesterol drop with new drug
CHICAGO (AP) -- An
experimental drug boosted good cholesterol so high and dropped bad cholesterol
so low in a study that doctors were stunned and voiced renewed hopes for an
entirely new way of preventing heart attacks and strokes.
The drug, anacetrapib, will
not be on the market anytime soon. It needs more testing to see if its dramatic
effects on cholesterol will translate into fewer heart attacks, strokes and
deaths. Merck announced a 30,000-patient study to answer that question, and it
will take several years.
But the sheer magnitude of
the new medicine's effects so far excited lots of doctors at an American Heart
Association conference in Chicago, where results were presented on Wednesday.
Stocks end mixed after 4
days of losses
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks
ended mixed Wednesday as concerns that Ireland will need outside help to repay
its debts were coupled with a steep drop in housing construction in the U.S.
Global stock markets have
been rattled over the past week out of fear that Ireland will become the latest
European country to need a bailout. Greece was rescued in May after it became
unable to contain runaway spending and lost the confidence of investors.
Ireland is now struggling after a collapse in its housing market forced the
country to take over three large banks.
In the U.S., construction
of new homes fell 11.7 percent in October, the Commerce Department reported.
European officials to lift
lid on Irish banks
BRUSSELS (AP) -- European
officials geared up to travel to Ireland and lift the lid on just how bad the
country's banking woes are, as EU finance ministers struggled Wednesday to come
up with a rescue plan that will keep bond market turmoil from spreading to
Portugal and Spain.
Irish and European Union
officials had vowed the day before to stabilize the banks at the center of the
country's financial crisis to restore confidence in the wider 16-nation
eurozone, but fell short of agreeing on a bailout.
On Wednesday, Britain --
which has made savage austerity cuts to avoid a debt crisis of its own -- also
offered help to protect Ireland's heavily exposed banks.
Ireland insists it does not
want a bailout because it has enough money through the middle of next year and
is wary of the strings attached to a rescue by the International Monetary Fund.
Target predicts happier
holiday shopping season
NEW YORK (AP) -- Target
Corp. is projecting a merry holiday as the discounter counts on a 5 percent
discount for its credit and debit card customers and its storewide remodeling
The upbeat report comes as
Target reported a 22.6 percent increase in third-quarter net income, helped by
improvements in its credit card business and expansion into food.
The cheap chic discounter
said it expects a key revenue measure to rise more sharply than it has in any
period in the last three years as it reaps the benefits of its new 5 percent
discount offer for those buying with its branded credit card or debit cards.
The store remodels feature an expansion of fresh food as well as brighter
lighting in cosmetics and better shoe displays.
Medicare panel backs costly
cancer drug Provenge
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Medicare
advisers on Wednesday supported the effectiveness of the prostate cancer drug
Provenge, an innovative therapy that has prompted questions about the cost of
medical care and the government's role in paying for it.
The vote by a 14-member
panel of outside experts amounts to a recommendation that Medicare pay for
Provenge, which costs $93,000 per patient and extends life an average of four
months.
The Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services will make a final decision on the drug in March, and a
positive ruling would make the drug available to tens of thousands of seniors
diagnosed with prostate cancer. Most analysts expect Medicare to pay for the
drug, giving drugmaker Dendreon Corp. a blockbuster product worth up to $2
billion in sales per year.
FDA warns makers of
alcoholic energy drinks
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food
and Drug Administration issued warning letters Wednesday to four manufacturers
of alcoholic energy drinks often consumed by college students, saying the
caffeine added to their beverages is an "unsafe food additive."
The combination of caffeine
and alcohol in the drinks creates a public health concern and can lead to
"a state of wide-awake drunk," said FDA Commissioner Margaret
Hamburg. Evidence has shown their consumption has led to alcohol poisoning, car
accidents and assaults, she said.
The government could
eventually seize the products if the companies continue to make and market
them. The companies have 15 days to respond to the letters and either explain
how they will take their products off the market or defend their drinks as
safe.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial
average fell 15.62, or 0.1 percent, to 11,007.88. The S&P 500 rose 0.25, or
less than 0.1 percent, to 1,178.59. The technology-focused Nasdaq composite
index rose 6.17, or 0.3 percent, to 2,476.01
Benchmark oil for December
delivery fell $1.90 to $80.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its
lower settlement price in a month. The price has fallen $7.23, more than 8
percent, in the last four trading days as global economic issues took center
stage.
Natural gas rose 21.2
cents, or 5 percent, to $4.030 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In other Nymex trading in
December contracts, heating oil fell 5.91 cents to $2.2519 a gallon and
gasoline slipped 0.22 cent to $2.1579 a gallon.
In London, Brent crude gave
$1.45 to $83.28 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.