Business for Saturday

fuel standards
Detroit’s automakers hailed the fuel standards that will drive mileage standard to 54.5 miles per gallon by the middle of the next decade, setting the stage for sweeping changes in automotive technology.
Only a handful of cars currently on the road such as the electric Chevrolet Volt, the all-electric Leaf and Toyota’s experimental Prius Plug in hybrid, match or exceed the targeted standards announced Friday by President Barack Obama.
Chrysler Group LLC, one of the holdouts against the tougher regulations, said it could live with the new standards.

Citizens Republic - szczesny
After three years of losses stretching over 12 consecutive quarters, Citizen Republic has finally managed to eke out a profit.

Meadowbrook Auction - szczesny
The Meadow Brook Concourse d’Elegance has moved from Rochester Hills to Plymouth but annual auction of valuable cars continues.

Ford UAW - szczesny
Ford opens negotiations with the United Auto Workers. (Late, Late afternoon)

cars sale outlook - szczesny
Car sales in July went up.

from The Associated Press:
TOP STORIES:

ECONOMY-ANOTHER RECESSION? — The economy stalled in the first half of this year and is now at risk of slipping into another recession. The government says economic growth was slow in the second quarter and almost nonexistent in the first. The threat of recession will rise further if Congress can’t reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling. AP photos, graphic.
— ECONOMY-REVISIONS — The 2007-2009 recession, already in the record books as the worst in the 66 years since the end of World War II, was even worse than previously thought. From the start of the recession at the end of 2007 to the end in June of 2009, the U.S. economy shrank 5.1 percent.
DEBT SHOWDOWN-INVESTORS
Ordinary investors are wrestling with tough decisions about what to do with their money — stand pat or get out of the market — as Washington’s gridlock brings government default ever closer. Sean Sproul of Columbus, Ohio, shifted all his money out of stock funds for fear the market is going to crash. Retiree Barb Dietrich of Cedarburg, Wis., is holding firm — for now.
— DEBT SHOWDOWN — Demoralized House Republicans are trying for a third straight day to pass a debt-ceiling bill that has almost no chance of surviving the Senate, even as the clock ticks closer to next week’s deadline for avoiding a potentially calamitous government default.
WALL STREET
The word of the day in financial markets: Anxious. Stocks plunge early after a dismal report on economic growth added to traders’ fears that the U.S. might default on its debt. But major indexes erased about half of their losses by early afternoon after President Barack Obama said there were many paths to a compromise on raising the country’s borrowing limit.
MEDICAL DEVICES-SAFETY REPORT
WASHINGTON — Federal health regulators asked the country’s leading medical experts two years ago to recommend ways to improve its system for approving medical devices, from pacemakers to X-ray scanners. On Friday the experts came back with a surprise answer: scrap it because it fails to protect patients. Even more surprising, the FDA summarily dismissed the idea.
EARNS-MERCK
Merck & Co. plans to cut as many as 13,000 more jobs under a new round of restructuring as the drugmaker prepares for generic competition for its top-selling drug and slower revenue growth from the U.S. and Europe. The new cuts would bring to 30,000 the positions eliminated since Merck’s November 2009 megadeal to buy Schering-Plough Corp. The announcement came as Merck reported a higher second-quarter profit than a year ago. By Linda Johnson.
AP Photo.
MARKETS & ECONOMY:
OIL PRICES — Oil drops near $96 a barrel after the U.S. government said the economy expanded at a meager 1.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter. The data raises questions about demand for oil in the months ahead.
— BANK CLOSURES — After 5 p.m., the FDIC reports on bank closings. By Marcy Gordon.
EARNINGS:
EARNS-CHEVRON
NEW YORK — Chevron says profit jumped 43 percent in the second quarter as higher oil and gasoline prices made up for a decline in oil production. By Chris Kahn.
FRANCE-EARNS-EADS
PARIS — Airbus parent company EADS NV said its first-half earnings fell from a year earlier as the impact of the weakening U.S. dollar offset higher commercial and military jet sales and record orders for its new A320 fuel-saving jet. By Business Writer Greg Keller.
— EARNS-AMGEN — Biotech drugmaker Amgen said its second-quarter earnings slipped 3 percent on increased research spending and sales costs for product launches plus falling revenue from a key drug.
— BRITAIN-EARNS-INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES GROUP — International Airlines Group, which operates British Airways and Spanish airline Iberia, has returned to profit for the first half of the year despite sharply higher fuel costs.
— EARNS-AEP — American Electric Power Co. Inc. says its second-quarter earnings more than doubled as states in its service territory experienced warmer-than-usual weather.
INDUSTRY:
OBAMA-FUEL ECONOMY
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and top auto executives are set to unveil details of a compromise to slash the amount of gasoline cars and trucks will need down the road. The deal will double fuel economy standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 and further restrict the tailpipe emissions blamed for global warming. By Dina Cappiello.
— AUSTRALIA-WESTFIELD — Westfield Group announced it plans to manage a new shopping precinct at the site of New York’s World Trade Center, as the world’s largest listed shopping mall operator strikes a deal to return almost 10 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
TECHNOLOGY AND MEDIA:
NEWS CORP-WALL STREET
For long-suffering shareholders of News Corp., there may be a silver lining in the phone-hacking scandal: A chastened Rupert Murdoch. To politicians and pundits, the power of his media holdings elicits a mix of awe and fear. But on Wall Street, the response is mostly fear —fear that Murdoch is going to orchestrate another dubious deal that weighs on the company’s stock. Indeed, Murdoch’s critics say he has focused too much attention on expanding his empire, with little regard for Wall Street’s chief measure of success: a rising stock price. By Bernard Condon and David K. Randall.
With:
— BRITAIN-PHONE HACKING — British lawmakers demand James Murdoch clarify why testimony he gave to a parliamentary committee probing the phone hacking scandal conflicted with a statement from two former executives.
YAHOO-ALIBABA
NEW YORK — Yahoo, Japan’s Softbank and the Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group have agreed on a compensation plan involving the Web payment service Alipay.
JAPAN-NINTENDO
TOKYO — Shares of Nintendo Co. took a beating, losing more than a fifth of their value at one point, after the Japanese video game giant announced a worldwide price cut for its new 3DS in an effort to salvage poor sales.
— SKOREA-EARNS-SAMSUNG — Samsung’s net profit slid 18 percent in the second quarter as weakness in semiconductors and liquid crystal displays offset the electronics giant’s growing strength in smartphones.
— EARNS-BSKYB — British Sky Broadcasting PLC reported that operating profit rose 23 percent. The satellite broadcaster, which is 39 percent owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., will buy back shares and raised its dividend by 20 percent.
INTERNATIONAL:
SPAIN-FINANCIAL CRISIS
MADRID — Moody’s warned that it may downgrade Spain’s credit rating given the country’s weak economic growth prospects and ongoing funding pressures, in a further sign that last week’s bailout of Greece has not ended contagion fears. By Business Writers Pan Pylas and Alan Clendenning.
— EU-ECONOMY — Inflation in the 17 countries that use the euro unexpectedly fell in July, raising speculation that the European Central Bank may not need to raise interest rates as quickly as markets have been predicting.
— JAPAN-ECONOMY — Japan’s industrial production rose for the third straight month in June as the world’s No. 3 economy stages a recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
— FRANCE-BRAZIL-PLANE CRASH — French investigators describe a string of unexplained pilot errors and unreliable equipment in a report on the 2009 crash of an Air France plane in the Atlantic.
INTERNATIONAL EARNINGS:
— FRANCE-EARNS-TOTAL — French oil company Total SA said the weakening U.S. dollar hit its second-quarter profit but that successful exploration in Bolivia and Angola would help to underpin future growth.
— ITALY-EARNS-ENI — Eni SpA, Italy’s largest natural gas and oil company, reported that second quarter profit slid 31 percent due to production shutdowns in Libya, which has descended into civil war.
— JAPAN-EARNS-MAZDA — Mazda reported its third straight quarter of red ink after vehicle production was hurt by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
— BRITAIN-EARNS-ANGLO-AMERICAN — Mining company Anglo American PLC says its net profit nearly doubled in the first half thanks to higher demand and higher prices for its metals and raw materials.
— TAIWAN-EARNS-HTC — Taiwan’s top smartphone maker HTC says its second quarter earnings doubled, with shipments reaching 12 million handsets amid growing demand.
— BRITAIN-EARNS-PEARSON — Publisher Pearson PLC raised its full-year guidance as its expanding international education division led a gain in first-half operating profit.
— JAPAN-EARNS-ANA — ANA Group, Japan’s largest airline, reported an 8.4 billion yen ($108 million) quarterly loss as travel declined after the earthquake in northeastern Japan.