Justice plans new antitrust effort
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration warned corporate
Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney said the Justice
Department is abandoning legal guidelines established by George W. Bush's
administration in September 2008. Critics complained that the earlier
instructions made it difficult to pursue antitrust cases against big firms.
The move could have serious implications for two corporate
giants, Intel Corp. and Google. Intel is already enmeshed in an antitrust case
with European Union regulators, and Monday's change is seen as shifting the
Bank stock offerings weigh on financial shares
The offerings put pressure on financial shares, but underscore
the improving conditions in the capital markets and the increasing demand for
bank stocks, which have skyrocketed in the wake of the market's massive
two-month rally.
Four banks that have received a clean bill of health from the
government -- Bank of New York Mellon Corp., U.S. Bancorp, Capital One
Financial Corp. and BB&T Corp. -- said proceeds from their common stock
offerings would go toward repayment of federal bailout funds received last
fall, pending government approval.
Financials pull stocks lower after fanning rally
Bank shares dragged the market lower as traders worried that
stocks, and particularly the hard-hit financials, had risen too quickly since
the stock market's rally began two months ago.
Some of last week's relief over the reassuring marks most banks
earned during government "stress tests" evaporated Monday as
investors looked ahead.
Four of the banks that Washington determined were sound enough to
survive a worsening in the economy said Monday they planned to issue shares to
help repay loans the government doled out last fall to lubricate the nation's
stalled financial system.
GM CEO says tasks are large to avoid bankruptcy
General Motors Corp. CEO Fritz Henderson is still holding out
hope that the company can restructure without court protection, but he says the
tasks to complete before a June 1 government-imposed deadline are large.
The automaker,
Industry makes effort on health care costs
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama praised the health care
industry's promise to cut $2 trillion in costs over 10 years, but lawmakers
questioned how much it really helps in coming up with a solution for the
millions of uninsured.
It's "a watershed event in the long and elusive quest for
health care reform," Obama said Monday at the White House with
representatives of the insurance industry, doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical
companies and a top labor union at his side.
It was a noteworthy sight as leaders of the industry who have
killed past attempts at overhauling health care stood behind the president with
a proposal to curb their costs.
The proposal, however, was short on specifics.
US red ink rising even higher, to $1.8T
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government will
have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year, exploding
the record federal deficit past $1.8 trillion under new White House estimates.
Budget office figures released Monday would add $89 billion to
the 2009 red ink -- increasing it to more than four times last year's all-time
high as the government hands out billions more than expected for people who
have lost jobs and takes in less tax revenue from people and companies making
less money.
The unprecedented deficit figures flow from the deep recession,
the Wall Street bailout and the cost of President Barack Obama's economic
stimulus bill -- as well as a seemingly embedded structural imbalance between
what the government spends and what it takes in.
Energy futures ease; pump prices trek higher still
Benchmark crude for June delivery fell 13 cents to settle at
$58.50 a barrel. On Friday, the contract rose $1.92 to
settle at $58.63 a barrel, the highest level this year, and about 80 percent
above the $32.40 per barrel reached on Dec. 19.
Retail gas prices, which have risen more that
15 cents a gallon in the last week, continued to move upward overnight.
FDA investigating
Officials at
An FDA spokeswoman said the agency is working with the hospital
and Baxter Healthcare Corp., provider of the drug, to determine what happened.
Ford offering 300M shares in public offering
NEW YORK (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. said Monday it is launching a
public offering of 300 million shares of common stock, which it will use in
part to help fund its retiree health care trust.
Ford, the only U.S. automaker that has not accepted government
aid, said it will use the proceeds of the offering to pay for "general
corporate purposes," including funding its Voluntary Employee Beneficiary
Association, or VEBA, with cash instead of stock.
Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford owes $6.3 billion to its VEBA by the
end of this year.
China's consumer prices fall, lending spree eases
The central bank, meanwhile, reported Monday that new bank
lending in April was less than a third that of the month before, as lenders
slowed the flow of credit aimed at stimulating flagging growth.
The consumer price index, which is heavily weighted toward food,
fell for the third month in a row after declining 1.2 percent in March and 1.6
percent in February, the National Statistics Bureau reported.
Food prices fell 1.3 percent, with prices for meat falling 13.5
percent, the bureau said in a statement on its Web site.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrials fell 155.88, or 1.8 percent, to
8,418.77. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 19.99, or 2.2 percent, to
909.24, while the Nasdaq
composite index fell 7.76, or 0.5 percent, to 1,731.24.
Benchmark crude for June delivery fell 13 cents to settle at
$58.50 a barrel. On Friday, the contract rose $1.92 to
settle at $58.63 a barrel, the highest level this year, and about 80 percent
above the $32.40 per barrel reached on Dec. 19.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for
June delivery fell 2.53 cents to settle at $1.6802 a gallon and heating oil
dropped 1.75 cents to settle at $1.5009 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery
slid less than a penny to settle at $4.302 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In