In The News
Yahoo, Inc. (YHOO) wants you to visit their website more and they're willing to spend $100 million to entice you. The Sunnyvale, California based company outlined its brand new advertising campaign today dubbed "It's You!" The company seems to be pretty confident about the new ad campaign, so much so that CEO Carol Bartz even took a jab at American Online.
General Motors delivered some more good news related to the auto industry. The automaker has decided to add back shifts at three US plants to meet an uptick in demand . The extra shifts will result in 2,400 jobs being restored.
The housing rebound may be approaching a pit stop according to the latest batch of data. Home prices rose 0.3 percent from June to July, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said this morning, a promising uptick but one that failed to meet expectations. In other housing news, the 2008 census report showed that Americans actually found housing unaffordable last year, even though home prices across the U.S. have taken a major fall.
Bank of America (BAC) just can't get out of the hot seat no matter how hard they try. The Securities and Exchange Commission has now pledged to "vigorously" pursue civil charges against BofA since a judge threw out a proposed $33 million settlement between the two. In addition to that, a House committee has targeted the company since it failed to turn over documents relating to the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. The committee may be a little mad over the response that Ken Lewis and Co. sent them.
Wells Fargo & Co. 's (WFC) chairman has handed in his resignation letter. Dick Kovacevich will step down as chairman at the end of 2009 and be replaced by CEO John Stumpf.
A few companies delivered earnings today, which turned out to be mostly mixed. First up, CarMax (KMX) blew by analysts' expectations and posted an increase in net income during the second-quarter. Cruise operator Carnival Corp. (CCL) said increased summer bookings from last-minute getaway seekers combined with declining fuel prices helped them post a better-than-expected third quarter. ConAgra (CAG) said that its first-quarter profit dropped 63 percent compared with a year earlier, but the company raised its outlook.
Other Juicy Tidbits
Hank Paulson has admitted that he kept in touch with 'market participants' on Wall Street when he was Treasury secretary. Did he use his government position to keep his friends rich ?
Tired of the government bailing out banks? Get ready for this: officials may soon ask banks to bail out the government.
Will Banks Fund FDIC ?
Seven decades ago, efforts to balance the federal budget thrust a recovering economy into a giant tailspin. Are policymakers headed in the wrong direction again?
The Dow is approaching the five-digit level for the first time since October. Is that evidence of an economic recovery or a sign the rally's running out of steam?
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