On Thursday November 18, 2010, 6:06 pm
General Motors shares jump
on Wall Street return
NEW YORK (AP) -- General
Motors stock began trading on Wall Street again Thursday, signaling the rebirth
of an American corporate icon that collapsed into bankruptcy and was rescued
with a $50 billion infusion from taxpayers.
The stock rose sharply in
its first minutes of buying and selling, going for nearly $36 per share --
almost $3 more than the price GM set for the initial public offering. The stock
pulled back slightly by early afternoon and closed at $34.19. It had traded for
less than a dollar when the old company filed for bankruptcy last year.
On the floor of the New
York Stock Exchange, a crowd eight deep jostled around the company's trading
post, adorned with its familiar blue-square logo with an underlined
"GM." CEO Dan Akerson rang the opening bell as raucous cheers went up
and the sound of a Chevrolet Camaro's revving engine echoed through the room.
Airlines: Rolls modified
engine before blowout
BERLIN (AP) -- Rolls-Royce
modified a problematic section on new models of its engine for the world's
largest jetliner months before one caught fire and blew apart over Indonesia, a
Lufthansa spokesman said Thursday.
The chief executive of
Qantas, meanwhile, said Rolls-Royce had made modifications to the Trent 900
engine without telling the airline or Airbus, which makes the A380 superjumbo.
The officials' remarks were
the strongest indication yet that Rolls-Royce had addressed a defect in new
models of the engine while allowing Airbus A380 superjumbos to continue flying
with unmodified older models.
Comcast shakeup brings
creative core back to NBC
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- NBC is
looking to revitalize its prime-time lineup with the appointment of a cable TV
executive who transformed the once-maligned Showtime channel into a worthy
rival to HBO.
Bob Greenblatt, the former
Showtime entertainment president who brought pay TV audiences such untested
shows as "The Tudors," "Weeds," and "Dexter," was
named chairman of NBC Entertainment on Thursday.
Greenblatt's appointment to
NBC suggests that cable TV operator Comcast Corp. won't be content to let the
network stay in fourth place after it wins federal approval to buy a
controlling stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co..
Stocks jump as worries over
Ireland ease; GM pops
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks
bounded higher Thursday thanks to a jump in manufacturing activity and growing
confidence that Ireland will resolve its debt crisis.
Most eyes were glued on
General Motors, an American icon which re-emerged from bankruptcy in the
second-largest initial public offering in history. Its shares, trading under
the ticker GM, rose 3.6 percent to $34.19.
The Dow Jones industrial
average rose 173.35, or 1.6 percent, to close at 11,181.23.
Stocks got a boost from a
surprisingly strong reading on manufacturing from the Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia. The report said factory orders in the mid-Atlantic region
expanded at the fastest rate since December.
Jobless benefits to expire
as Congress debates tax
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jobless
benefits will run out for 2 million people during the holiday season unless
they are renewed by a Congress that's focusing more attention on a quarrel over
preserving tax cuts for people making more than $200,000 a year.
It's looking iffy at best
whether Congress will renew jobless benefits averaging $310 per week nationwide
that are presently claimed by almost 5 million people who have been out of work
for more than six months.
An extension of jobless
benefits enacted this summer expires Dec. 1, and on Thursday, a bill to extend
them for three months failed in the House. Democrats brought the bill to the
floor under fast-track rules that required a two-thirds vote to pass.
Republicans opposed the legislation because they were denied a chance to attach
spending cuts, so the measure fell despite winning a 258-154 majority.
Jobless claims rise but
broader trend offers hope
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
number of people applying for unemployment benefits barely rose last week, offering
some hope that the job market may be improving. But claims need to fall further
to bring down the 9.6 percent unemployment rate.
Initial claims for jobless
aid increased by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 439,000, the Labor Department
said Thursday. Still, claims have fallen below 440,000 in three of the past
four weeks and remain near their lowest level in two years.
And the four-week average
of claims, a less-volatile measure, fell for the fourth time in five weeks to
443,000. That's the lowest level for the average since September 2008. The
average has fallen by almost 20,000, or 4.2 percent, in the past five weeks.
Former car czar settles
with SEC, fights AG
NEW YORK (AP) -- Former
Obama car czar Steven Rattner has agreed to pay $6.2 million to settle federal
charges over his role in a pay-to-play scandal, but said he won't be
"bullied" by New York's attorney general into accepting a harsher
penalty in a parallel state case.
The Securities and Exchange
Commission announced Thursday that Rattner had accepted the fine and a two year
ban from the securities industry to resolve allegations that he paid illegal
kickbacks to help his private equity firm land a lucrative investment from a
state pension fund.
Similar settlement talks
with state officials collapsed, however, and on Thursday New York Attorney
General Andrew Cuomo filed two lawsuits seeking a much tougher punishment: at
least $26 million and a lifetime ban from the securities business.
Irish head toward bailout;
Portugal next in line?
DUBLIN (AP) -- Ireland
edged toward taking a bailout loan from the European Union to bolster its
debt-crippled banks -- but the prospect offered little reassurance that other
corners of Europe could cope with their own crushing levels of government debt.
After Greece and likely
Ireland, analysts say Portugal may be the next country in the 16-nation
eurozone to need assistance. They suggest the crisis is now being driven less
by irrational fears than by a growing realization that debts are too big for
vulnerable nations to refinance, never mind pay back.
Experts from the European
Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund descended
Thursday on Dublin to explore the scope and terms of a bailout. European
officials agreed to send them at a summit Tuesday after weeks of Irish denials
that they required any emergency aid. The talks were expected to run into next
week.
Dell 3Q net income more
than doubles
SEATTLE (AP) -- Personal
computer maker Dell Inc. said Thursday that its net income for the latest
quarter more than doubled as companies spent more to replace aging technology.
Dell's earnings topped Wall
Street's expectations, and investors sent shares up nearly 6 percent after the
results were announced.
Businesses of all sizes, plus
government agencies and other public-sector customers, spent more with Dell in
the quarter. Large enterprise revenue jumped 27 percent to $4.3 billion from a
year ago, and small and medium business increased 24 percent to $3.7 billion.
While networking gear maker Cisco Systems Inc. recently reported unexpectedly
slow growth in new orders from government customers, Dell said public-sector
revenue rose 20 percent to $4.4 billion, with government business steady.
Revenue from consumers,
Dell's smallest customer segment in the quarter, increase 4 percent to $3
billion.
Sears 3Q loss widens;
appliances, clothing weaken
NEW YORK (AP) -- Sears
Holdings Corp.'s third-quarter loss nearly doubled, dragged down by weak
revenue at its long-suffering Sears chain, hurt by poor sales of appliances and
clothing.
Business at its Kmart
discount stores held up better, but they still saw a key revenue measure edge
downward. The chain is expected to face even more pressure in the holiday
quarter amid stiffer competition from rivals like Target and Wal-Mart. The
miserable results renewed discussion on Wall Street on why the two chains
combined in 2005 in the first place.
Shares of Sears, based in
Hoffman Estates, Ill., fell $2.50, or 3.8 percent, to $63.70 Thursday.
Sears Holdings, led by
billionaire Edward Lampert, posted a loss of $218 million, or $1.98 per share.
That compares with a loss of $127 million, or $1.09 per share, in the same
period last year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected $1.08 per
share.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial
average rose 173.35, or 1.6 percent, to close at 11,181.23. The Standard and
Poor's 500 index rose 18.10, or 1.5 percent, to 1,196.69. The
technology-focused Nasdaq composite index rose 38.39, or 1.6 percent, to close
at 2,514.40.
Natural gas fell more than
3 percent before erasing most of the decline late in the session. The price of
the December futures contract, which rose more than 5 percent Wednesday,
settled at $4.007, down 2.3 cents.
Benchmark oil for December delivery
rose $1.41 to $81.85 a barrel on the Nymex. Since the contract expires Friday,
many investors shifted to the January contract, which rose $1.38 to $82.42 a
barrel.
In other Nymex trading in
December contracts, heating oil rose 1.77 cents to $2.2951 a gallon and
gasoline added 7.04 cents to $2.2283 a gallon.
In London, Brent crude
gained $1.77 to $85.05 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.