Reuters - Retailer Steve & Barry’s LLC is
readying plans to close more than 100 of its stores, and is
contemplating a full liquidation should it not find emergency
financing, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website on
Monday.
Reuters - Most major Asian stockmarkets dipped
on Tuesday as oil and food prices showed no signs of defusing
stagflation fears, particularly with soybean prices at a record
and oil above $140 a barrel.
AP - Confidence at major Japanese manufacturers fell for the third straight quarter as soaring oil prices and fears of a U.S. economic slowdown weighed on the economy, a central bank survey said Tuesday.
Reuters - Morgan Stanley recommended investors
buy Lehman Brothers shares, setting a price target of
$31, after the beleaguered investment banking firm’s stock fell
nearly 11 percent on Monday, owing to rumors that it would be
bought out well below its current price.
Reuters - Florida sued mortgage lender Countrywide
Financial Corp on Monday for predatory lending
practices, alleging the company at the center of the U.S.
mortgage crisis made subprime loans to people who could not
repay them.
Reuters - Chrysler LLC will shut its St Louis
minivan plant, cutting production of its top-selling vehicle
and 2,400 factory jobs in a sign of the automaker’s troubles
with a market reeling from record gas prices.
Investor’s Business Daily - Treasury Sec’y Henry Paulson will reveal more details about his accelerated plans for the Fed to assume a larger regulatory role in maintaining financial-system stability in a London speech Wed. “I will be expanding on the role of the Fed as a macro stability regulator to look across the entire financial system, but will be emphasizing how this just has to be paired with market discipline,” he told reporters.
Reuters - Ford Motor Co has had
exploratory talks with French automaker Renault SA to
sell Volvo, but the talks ended quickly due to price
differences, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.
Reuters - Florida sued mortgage lender Countrywide
Financial Corp for predatory lending practices on
Monday, alleging the company at the center of the U.S. mortgage
crisis made subprime loans to people who could not repay them.
Reuters - The Dow and S&P 500 were little
changed on Monday on the final trading day of the second
quarter as record oil boosted energy shares, offsetting weak
financial stocks amid nagging concerns of further credit
losses.
Reuters - Chrysler LLC plans to cut production by
closing a U.S. minivan plant and extending summer shutdowns at
some of its other factories as the automaker battles slow
vehicle sales amid record high gas prices.
Reuters - The U.S. economy continues to bump
along at a slow level of growth but has probably not fallen
into recession, a series of regional purchasing managers’
reports suggested on Monday.
Reuters - Shares of General Motors Corp
tumbled to a 54-year low while smaller rival Ford Motor Co
shares fell as much as 10 percent on Monday on concerns
record oil prices would further hit U.S. demand for vehicles.
AP - The familiar logo of the world’s largest retailer is getting a makeover.
AP - Wall Street ended a depressing week with another big loss on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrials falling more than 100 points amid ever-escalating worries about high oil prices and fallout from the credit crisis. The major indexes are all down more than 3 percent for the week.