AP
Business Highlights
Friday September 26, 9:11 pm ET
Frank sees bailout agreement by Sunday
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The Bush administration and Congress anxiously revived negotiations
Friday on a $700 billion financial bailout, one day after the largest bank
collapse in U.S. history provided a brutal reminder of the risks of failure.
Massachusetts
Rep. Barney Frank, a key Democrat in eight days of up-and-down talks designed
to stave off an economic crisis, saw agreement on a bill by Sunday.
Frank
and Pelosi spoke a few hours after President Bush prodded lawmakers to act.
Stocks
mixed on bailout clash; tech slides
NEW
YORK (AP) -- Financial markets remained on edge Friday after the Bush
administration's proposal for a $700 billion banking bailout ran into
opposition from Republican lawmakers.
Stocks
ended mixed, with big financial companies lifting the Dow Jones industrials
more than 120 points, but worries about smaller banks and parts of the
technology sector taking much of the market lower.
Demand
for safe-haven buying in government debt remained high as investors uneasily
watched events in Washington.
Economy's
spring rebound was bit less energetic
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The Commerce Department reported Friday that gross domestic product, or
GDP, increased at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the April-June period. That
wasn't as strong as the 3.3 percent growth estimate made a month ago.
But
it did mark a pickup after two terrible quarters. The economy barely grew in
the first quarter -- advancing at a feeble 0.9 percent pace. In the final
quarter of last year, the economy actually shrank.
Nonetheless,
the lower reading for second-quarter GDP surprised economists who had been
expecting the government to stick with the 3.3 percent growth estimate.
Fortis
names new CEO after shares plunge
AMSTERDAM,
Netherlands (AP) -- Fortis NV named a new chief executive officer on Friday,
after the banking and insurance company's shares fell 21 percent over worries
about its solvency.
Filip
Dierckx, 52, was appointed to replace Herman Verwilst, who was named interim
CEO in July after the abrupt departure of Jean-Paul Votron.
Dierckx
previously led Fortis' banking arm. Verwilst is to remain on the management
board, Fortis said.
Official:
Cuomo expands short selling probe
ALBANY,
N.Y. (AP) -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is broadening his
investigation of short selling on Wall Street, according to a senior official
in his office.
Cuomo
is turning to the massive credit-default swap market, which he believes may
have been manipulated in order to give the impression that certain companies
were in trouble.
The
official said Friday that Cuomo has subpoenaed information from providers of
market data in what could be a huge probe into one of the factors contributing
to volatility in the stock and credit markets.
KB
Home 3Q loss widens as housing slump drags on
LOS
ANGELES (AP) -- KB Home, one of the nation's largest home builders, said Friday
its third-quarter loss quadrupled from the year-ago period, missing Wall
Street's expectations as revenue plunged by 56 percent amid falling sales and
home prices.
Chief
Executive Jeffrey Mezger said weak demand for new homes -- half of the
company's homebuyers backed out of their contracts in the quarter -- and
falling home values don't appear likely to improve significantly in the near
term. He also blamed rising foreclosures and tight lending standards for the
company's poor results.
The
Los Angeles-based company reported a net loss of $144.7 million, or $1.87 a
share, for the three months ended Aug. 31. Those results paled compared to the
loss of $35.6 million, or 46 cents a share, in the same period last year, when
KB Home recorded a generous gain from the sale of its French operations.
But
without those gains, the year-ago losses totaled a whopping $478.6 million, or
$6.19 a share.
Oil
prices down a buck as bailout talks continue
NEW
YORK (AP) -- Oil prices fell just over $1 a barrel Friday as a U.S. financial
bailout plan remained stuck in legislative limbo, raising investor worries that
the economic crisis could deepen and further erode domestic energy demand.
Crude's
fall erased some of the previous day's gains, though prices have largely been
in a holding pattern as oil traders await resolution on the stalled the $700
billion rescue package.
Baby
cereal latest problem in China milk scandal
BEIJING
(AP) -- The list of products caught in China's tainted milk scandal grew Friday
to include baby cereal in Hong Kong and snack foods in Japan, while Taiwan
reported three children and a mother with kidney stones in the island's first
cases possibly linked to the crisis.
The
Japanese government also said it had suspended imports of milk and milk
products from China, where some 54,000 children have developed kidney stones or
other illnesses after drinking baby formula contaminated with the industrial
chemical melamine. Four deaths have been blamed on the tainted milk.
The
latest problematic foods were Heinz baby cereal and Silang House steamed potato
wasabi crackers. The Hong Kong government said in a statement Friday it found
traces of melamine in the products, which were both made in mainland China.
HSBC
cuts 1,100 jobs worldwide
HONG
KONG (AP) -- HSBC Holdings PLC, Europe's largest bank by market value, is
cutting 1,100 jobs worldwide in the wake of the financial turmoil, a spokesman
said Friday.
The
London-based lender is laying off 4 percent of its global banking and market
division, with half of them taking place in the bank's operation in Britain.
HSBC
has a 335,000-strong work force globally, and so the job cuts will only hit 0.3
percent of its total employees.
By
The Associated Press
The
Dow rose 121.07, or 1.10 percent, to 11,143.13.
Broader
indicators were mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 3.83, or 0.32
percent, to 1,213.01, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell
3.23, or 0.15 percent, to 2,183.34.
Light,
sweet crude for November delivery fell $1.13 to settle at $106.89 on the New
York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier dipping as low as $104.25. Crude rose
$2.29 to settle at $108.02 on Wednesday.
In
other Nymex trading, gasoline futures fell 3.22 cents to settle at $2.6651 a
gallon, while heating oil futures fell 3.09 cents to settle at $3.0174 a gallon.
Natural gas futures fell 30.3 cents to settle at $7.628 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The October contract expired at the end of the day, adding to the volatility.
In
London, November Brent crude fell $1.06 to settle at $103.54 a barrel on the
ICE Futures exchange.
WaMu CEO
could get $13.65 million for 18 days work
U.S. aid for
carmakers favors familiar ideas
National City
treasurer says bank sound
DirecTV to
market AT&T satellite service
Hole in Adobe
software allows free movie downloads
JPMorgan
"suits" stir up WaMu Center in Seattle
RIM willing
to pay for growth with lower profits
WaMu
intervention may weigh on financial debt sales
* FTSE 100 falls 2.1 pct on U.S. bailout uncertainty,
WaMu Full
Article
* Stock market recovery hinges on fate of bailout
package Full
Article
*Fears mount over fate of U.S. bailout plan as talks
stall Full
Article
HONG KONG, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares dropped 1.3
percent on Friday to finish lower for the fourth straight week, as the U.S.
bank bailout plan hit a wall, while Ping An was battered by rumours about
trouble at Fortis in which it holds a 5 percent stake. Full
Article