AP
Business
Highlights
Tuesday
February 10, 6:58 pm ET
Geithner
pledges forceful attack on banking crisis
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
said Tuesday the new administration will wage an aggressive battle against the
worst financial crisis in seven decades through programs designed to increase
consumer lending and remove toxic assets from banks' balance sheets.
But analysts said they were disappointed by the lack of details
in the plans, and investors appeared wary. Stocks plunged, reflecting Wall
Street's concerns that the government's latest plans aren't enough to revive
the banking industry.
The new efforts are part of the government's major overhaul of
the widely criticized $700 billion financial rescue program.
$3 trillion! -- Senate, Fed, Treasury attack crisis
WASHINGTON (AP) -- On a single day filled
with staggering sums, the Obama administration, Federal Reserve and Senate
attacked the deepening economic crisis Monday with actions that could throw as
much as $3 trillion more in government and private funds into the fight against
frozen credit markets and rising joblessness.
The president spoke shortly after Senate passage of an $838
billion emergency economic stimulus bill cleared the way for talks with the
House on a final compromise. Separately, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner outlined plans for spending much of the $350
billion in financial bailout money recently cleared by Congress, and the
Federal Reserve announced it would commit up to $1 trillion to make loans more
widely available to consumers.
Taken together, the events marked at least a political watershed
if not an economic turning point -- the day the three-week old administration
and its congressional allies assumed full control of the struggle against the
worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Stocks tumble after gov't unveils
financial plan
The major stock indexes fell more than 4 percent Tuesday,
including the Dow Jones industrial average, which tumbled 382 points. Financial
stocks led the market lower, a sign of how concerned Wall Street is about the
government's ability to restore the health of the banking industry. Demand for
safe havens like Treasurys and gold rose.
Traders and investors complained about what they saw as a lack of
specifics from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on
how the government will direct more than $1 trillion in public and private
support to the financial system.
Bernanke vows more transparency in battling crisis
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told
Congress Tuesday that a flurry of radical programs aimed at busting through
debilitating credit clogs are showing promise and pledged to keep Americans
better informed about efforts to battle the worst financial crisis since the
1930s.
While acknowledging that measuring the impact of the Fed's
programs is complicated because many factors affect market conditions, Bernanke
said the central bank was encouraged by feedback from Wall Street and others.
Specifically, a Fed program to buy mounds of "commercial
paper" has helped to relieve strains for many companies that rely on this
crucial short-term financing to bankroll everyday expenses like payrolls and
supplies, Bernanke said.
House hearing to focus on peanut executives
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A congressional committee issued a subpoena
Tuesday for the top executive of a small company that allegedly shipped the
tainted peanut products responsible for a national salmonella outbreak.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to compel Peanut
Corp. of America President Stewart Parnell to appear at a hearing Wednesday, as
a wide-ranging investigation focuses on who was responsible for an outbreak
that has sickened at least 600 people and may have contributed to eight deaths.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of
the committee's investigations panel, says he wants know how Peanut Corp.
managed to sell allegedly tainted goods month after month without triggering
action by state and federal health authorities.
The family-owned company, now under FBI investigation, makes only
about 1 percent of
GM cuts 10,000 salaried jobs, trims employees' pay
NEW YORK (AP) -- General Motors Corp. is planning to slash
another 10,000 salaried jobs this year, saying the cuts are unavoidable with a
government restructuring deadline looming and industrywide
sales in one of the worst downturns in history.
The Detroit-based automaker said Tuesday it will reduce its total
number of white-collar workers by 14 percent to 63,000. About 3,400, or 12
percent, of GM's 29,500 salaried
Most of the company's remaining salaried employees will have
their wages cut.
Live Nation, Ticketmaster begin defending merger
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Concert promoter Live Nation Inc. and
ticketing giant Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. confirmed their merger plans Tuesday
and got right to work addressing antitrust concerns that have taken center
stage.
Ticketmaster Chairman Barry Diller, to be chairman of the new
company -- which would be called Live Nation Entertainment -- sought to dispel
the notion that the deal would lead to higher ticket prices.
Under the deal announced Tuesday, Ticketmaster shareholders would
receive 1.384 shares of Live Nation stock for each share of Ticketmaster they
hold. Ticketmaster shareholders would own 50.01 percent of the new company, while
Live Nation shareholders would have 49.99 percent. Live Nation Chief Executive
Michael Rapino would be the new company's CEO.
Hundreds of TV stations to end analog on Feb. 17
NEW YORK (AP) -- More than a quarter of major U.S. TV stations
intend to shut down their analog broadcasts on Feb. 17, sticking to the
original date despite the wish of the Obama administration that they delay
until June.
Congress last week gave TV stations until June 12 to shut down
analog broadcasts, hoping to give viewers more time to prepare. Money has run
out for the federal fund that subsidizes converter boxes, and there's a wait
list for the coupons.
The delay sent TV stations scrambling to figure out when to shut
down analog Most had planned for years to do it on Feb. 17, and many had
scheduled engineering work.
Obama plan holds off on foreclosure rescue details
WASHINGTON (AP) -- To those on the front
lines of the housing crisis, the Obama administration's pledge to spend $50
billion to combat foreclosures was a welcome change in the government's
approach. But the actual plan won't be unveiled for at least a week and might
not be enough to prevent the housing market's troubles from mushrooming
further.
Housing counselors say the government's response to a huge surge in
defaults and foreclosures over the past two years has been a failure. They
blame former President George W. Bush's administration for sticking with
voluntary programs led by the mortgage industry and not committing public
dollars to foreclosure prevention.
They are hoping President Barack Obama will have more success,
especially as foreclosures continue to grow. A Credit Suisse report published
late last year forecast up to 10 million foreclosures by 2012, depending on the
severity of the recession.
By The Associated Press
The Dow industrials fell 381.99, or 4.62 percent, to 7,888.88. It
was the biggest drop for the Dow since Dec. 1, when the blue chips fell 680
points, or 7.7 percent.
It was also the lowest close since Nov. 20, when the blue chips
finished at 7,552, a five-and-a-half year low. The Dow is still up 4.46 percent
from that level, which many market observers hope will mark the bottom of the
market's pullback since its record high levels of October 2007.
Broader stock indicators also tumbled. The
Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 42.73, or 4.91 percent, to 827.16.
It was the biggest drop for the index since the Obama inauguration on Jan. 20.
The Nasdaq
fell 66.83, or 4.20 percent, to 1,524.73.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery tumbled $2.01 to settle at
$37.55 a barrel on the
In other Nymex trading, gasoline
futures fell less than a penny to settle at $1.2439 a gallon. Heating oil fell
5 cents to settle at $1.3014 a gallon and natural gas for March delivery fell
26.4 cents to settle at $4.543 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In