AP
Business Highlights
Wednesday December 31, 6:40 pm ET

Stocks extend advance in year's final session

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street saw a merciful end to a dreadful year Wednesday as stocks closed the last session of 2008 with a sizable advance.

The Dow Jones industrials rose 108 points to 8,776 -- but plunged nearly 34 percent over the course of the year as the U.S. mortgage and credit crisis turned into a global recession. The past year marked the worst for the Dow since 1931.

Investors took some comfort Wednesday from the Labor Department's report of a sharp drop in weekly unemployment claims. But many traders were out of the market, on vacation or having closed their books for the year.

Jobless claims data paint bleak picture for 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of laid-off workers continuing to draw unemployment benefits bolted to 4.5 million in late December, and even more Americans are expected to join the ranks of the jobless in 2009.

While first-time applications for jobless benefits dropped last week, economists mostly attributed that to the Christmas holiday and cautioned that a more accurate picture of new layoff filings won't become clear until the holiday season is passed -- around mid-January.

All in all, though, the picture that emerged Wednesday was largely grim and is not expected to improve any time soon.

GMAC completes debt deal to raise capital

NEW YORK (AP) -- The financing arm of General Motors Corp. completed a complicated debt deal that fell short of the goal it set for the amount of fresh capital needed to help the auto loan company ride out a historic collapse in auto sales.

The results of the debt exchange, announced Wednesday, came a week after the Federal Reserve approved GMAC Financial Services' application for bank holding status, making it eligible for a portion of the $700 billion bank rescue package.

Crude ends extraordinarily volatile year below $45

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Oil prices jumped 14 percent on New Year's Eve, capping a year that saw prices soar to unprecedented heights only to give up four years of gains in just five months.

Energy prices began to collapse in July as the world's biggest economies begain to falter.

Gasoline prices have been more than halved from summer peaks above $4 giving consumers some relief, but at the cost of millions of jobs and industrywide cutbacks. Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose $5.57 to settle at $44.60 a barrel on Nymex with trading volumes low.

Bankruptcy an option for chem giant LyondellBasell

NEW YORK (AP) -- LyondellBasell Industries, the world's third-largest independent chemical company, said Wednesday that it its considering bankruptcy protection as a broadening recession eats away at consumer demand.

The company is controlled by Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik, who serves as chairman. Blavatnik is also one of several wealthy Russian investors involved earlier this year in a fight for control over TNK-BP, a joint venture with the British oil company BP PLC.

Officials: tracking bailout money is difficult

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government officials overseeing a $700 billion bailout have acknowledged difficulties tracking the money and assessing the program's effectiveness.

The information was contained in a document, released Wednesday, of a Dec. 10 meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Board. The panel, headed by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, includes Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission chief Christopher Cox.

Madoff lawyer says client will provide asset list

NEW YORK (AP) -- An attorney for Bernard Madoff said the disgraced Wall Street money manager would give the Securities and Exchange Commission a list of his personal assets by 5 p.m. EST Wednesday to comply with a court order.

The list will provide an account of property that could eventually be tapped to make restitution to victims of what authorities say was a massive Ponzi scheme.

The SEC declined to comment on whether it received the list or would eventually disclose its contents to the public.

Gazprom: Russia to cut gas supplies to Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia's state gas monopoly Gazprom said it will cut off all gas supplies to Ukraine on Thursday morning after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on how much Ukraine will pay in 2009.

The cutoff announced late Wednesday by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller threatened a replay of the January 2006 crisis, when a halt in Russian gas shipments to Ukraine during a similar dispute resulted in a brief reduction of supplies to Europe.

Blackout looms in Time Warner Cable-Viacom fight

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A spat between Time Warner Cable Inc. and Viacom Inc. over how much the cable company pays to carry channels such as MTV and Comedy Central headed down to the wire on New Year's Eve -- with little sign of movement as a blackout looked likely at a minute past the stroke of midnight.

Time Warner, the nation's second-largest cable operator, proposed an increase in what it pays for Viacom's channels, but the offer was rejected as "a pittance," said Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew.

Mortgage rates fall to third straight record low

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to a record low for the third straight week and borrowers took advantage of the drop, sending new applications soaring.

With the Federal Reserve on the verge of pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the devastated U.S. housing market, mortgage rates have plunged to the lowest level since Freddie Mac started tracking the data in April 1971.

By The Associated Press

On Friday, the Dow rose 108.00, or 1.25 percent, to 8,776.39.

Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 12.61, or 1.42 percent, to 903.25. The Nasdaq composite index rose 26.33, or 1.70 percent, to 1,577.03 and ended the year down 40.5 percent. It's down 44.8 percent from its highest level in March 2000. The tech-heavy index peaked in the dotcom bubble.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 16.68, or 3.46 percent, to 499.45.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose $5.57 to settle at $44.60 a barrel.

In London, February Brent crude jumped $5.44 to end the year at $45.59 on the ICE Futures exchange.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose 12.29 cents, to settle at $1.01 a gallon. Heating oil rose 11.77 cents to settle at $1.4057 a gallon, while natural gas for February delivery tumbled 23.7 cents to settle at $5.622 per 1,000 cubic feet.