Business for Friday

GM earnings - szczesny
General Motors earnings increased 89 percent during the second quarter. The reason? Its cars and trucks are selling for less of a discount.

new Cadillac - szczesny w/art web photos
Cadillac is planning to launch two new models as part of the next wave ot the company product offensive.
lear earnings - szczesny

FIAT-CHRYSLER TOUGH CHOICE
MILAN — Sergio Marchionne’s corporate jet has served a sort of mile-high headquarters as the CEO crisscrosses oceans and continents to integrate and expand Fiat and Chrysler. But the moment is coming, analysts say, when the high-flying CEO will have to choose a fixed center for the global car business he is building. By Business Writers Colleen Barry and Tom Krisher.
AP Photos MIJR101, 103-104.
Eds: Moved on national lines.


Southfield-based Lear Corp., a leading global supplier of automotive seating and electrical power management systems, reported a 21 percent increase in sales 20 percent gain in operating income from the same period year ago.

Flagstar Bank - szczesny

Jervis webb - szczesny

spotlights

Friday 8.5 Oakland Genesis10 IT firm Troy
Friday 8.5 Macomb Ed Morawski Mt Clemens

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on the web
PERSONAL FINANCE:
OF MUTUAL INTEREST-MONEY FUNDS
BOSTON — Money-market mutual funds have passed their first big test since the financial crisis. The risk of a U.S. debt default sent investors fleeing from the low-risk cash investments, stirring up memories of a money fund’s 2008 collapse. Although a default was avoided, there’s still a risk that money funds are vulnerable to a potential downgrade of U.S. debt because of their investment in Treasurys. We’ll examine that prospect, and review other options for investors seeking safety in cash now, from bank accounts to CDs. By Mark Jewell.
Eds: Available exclusively on AP Exchange/ AP Web Feeds.
FYI-TAX HOLIDAYS
At least 15 states have designated sales-tax holidays in August to help with back-to-school shopping. We’ll provide details on the various holidays and what sorts of purchases they apply to. By Eileen AJ Connelly
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Business
TOP STORIES:
WALL STREET
NEW YORK — The Dow Jones industrial average plunges more than 350 points as fear about the U.S. economy and debt problems in Europe grip the stock market. The Dow has lost more than 1,000 points in less than two weeks, and broader measures of the market have fallen 10 percent since this spring, meeting the definition of a correction. AP photos, graphics, interactive.
WITH:
BANK OF NEW YORK-DEPOSITS
NEW YORK — Bank of New York says some of its institutional customers are stashing so much cash at the bank that it will start charging them a 0.13 percent fee to hold it. By Pallavi Gogoi.
WALL STREET-ECONOMY — The plunge in stock prices is signaling economic anxiety, but it’s also compounding the problem: Lower stock prices are shrinking Americans’ wealth, threatening consumer confidence and likely to make many employers less inclined to hire. For an economy that’s struggling to grow, the likelihood of a recession may be rising.
RETAIL SALES — The back-to-school season got off to a strong start as discounts and sweltering heat in July drove shoppers to air conditioned malls. But retailers worry that momentum won’t continue through the remainder of the second-biggest shopping period of the year.
KRAFT FOODS-SPLIT — Kraft Foods said it plans to split into two publicly traded companies, with one concentrating on its snack business like Oreo cookies and Trident gum while the other focuses on the North American grocery business, which includes Kraft cheese and Maxwell House coffee.AP Photo.

MARKETS & ECONOMY:
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits dipped last week, a sign the job market may be improving slowly. The Labor Department says that applications for unemployment benefits edged down 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 400,000. That’s the lowest level in four months. By Christopher S. Rugaber.
— MORTGAGE RATES — The average rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage has fallen to its lowest level in decades.
— OIL PRICES — Oil dropped to a six-month low as investors continue to worry about sliding energy demand and a sluggish U.S. economy.
EARNINGS:
EARNS-CVS — CVS Caremark says its profit slipped 1 percent in the second quarter as its pharmacy benefits management business weathered lower prices on contract renewals. By Marley Seaman.
EARNS-SOUTHWEST — Southwest Airlines set records for full planes, and higher fares boosted revenue as the summer vacation season kicked into full gear. But high fuel prices hurt its profit, and the CEO said the airline is reconsidering its growth plans. By David Koenig.
— NETHERLANDS-EARNS-UNILEVER — Consumer products giant Unilever NV reported a 10 percent rise in first half earnings, as the company successfully passed on higher raw materials costs to customers.
— AUSTRALIA-EARNS-RIO TINTO — Mining giant Rio Tinto said its six-month profit jumped 30 percent to a record $7.6 billion, driven by strong Asian demand for iron ore and other minerals.
— EARNS-ALPHA NATURAL RESOURCES — Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources Inc. says it lost $56.4 million in the second quarter, reversing a profit from last year, as the company booked a $254 million charge related to its acquisition of rival Massey Energy Co.
— EARNS-CIGNA — Cigna Corp. said its second-quarter net income jumped 39 percent compared to last year’s quarter, when a hit from a discontinued business weighed on the managed care company’s performance. The Philadelphia health insurer hiked its earnings forecast for 2011.
— EARNS-FIRST SOLAR — First Solar Inc. reports quarterly financial results after the market close.
INDUSTRY:
TAINTED GROUND TURKEY — The first signs of the outbreak appeared in May. But it wasn’t until July that investigators were able to definitively link ground turkey to one death and 77 illnesses. And it wasn’t until this week that the public was notified and the turkey recalled. Health officials defend the lag time, saying a thorough investigation led to the nation’s third largest meat recall. By Mary Clare Jalonick.
— PIPELINE ACCIDENTS-CONGRESS — Republican and Democratic lawmakers say momentum is building to rewrite federal safety rules for the nation’s aging network of energy pipelines.
TECHNOLOGY & MEDIA:
HACKING CONFERENCE-INSULIN PUMPS
LAS VEGAS — Even the human bloodstream isn’t safe from computer hackers. A security researcher has identified several flaws that could allow an attacker to remotely control diabetics’ insulin pumps and alter the readouts of their blood sugar monitor. As a result, diabetics could get too much or too little insulin, a hormone they need for proper metabolism. By Jordan Robertson.
EARNS-LINKEDIN
LinkedIn Corp. reports quarterly financial results after the market close. By Michael Liedtke.
T-MOBILE USA-SUBSCRIBERS
NEW YORK — T-Mobile USA continued to lose wireless customers in the second quarter, but did a better job of keeping them than in the first three months of the year, when subscribers fled in record numbers. By Technology Writer Peter Svensson.
WITH:
— GERMANY-EARNS-DEUTSCHE TELEKOM — Deutsche Telekom AG said net profit fell 27 percent in the second quarter as it took one-time charges for early retirements in Germany and faced lagging revenue and excessive customer turnover in the U.S. mobile business it is selling to AT&T.
— EARNS-DIRECTV — Satellite TV provider DirecTV Group Inc. said its net income in the second quarter increased 29 percent as its subscriber base grew, especially in Latin America. But the company added far fewer subscribers in the U.S. than it has in previous quarters.
— JAPAN-SONY — Sony’s next-generation portable game machine, the PlayStation Vita, won’t be available in the U.S. or Europe in time for Christmas, a crucial sales period for game console makers.
INTERNATIONAL:
EUROPE-INTEREST RATES — European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet isn’t saying whether the bank is propping up Spanish and Italian bonds to quell debt market turmoil, but insisted that the bond-buying program has not been shelved.
— EUROPE-FINANCIAL CRISIS — The 17-country eurozone needs to make further changes to its bailout fund — including boosting its size — to ensure it can stop the debt crisis from drawing in big economies like Italy and Spain, a top European Union official said.
— BRITAIN-INTEREST RATES — The Bank of England left its key rate on hold at the record low of 0.5 percent as concerns over Britain’s sluggish economic recovery outweighed inflation concerns.
JAPAN-CURRENCY INTERVENTION
TOKYO — Japan intervened in the foreign currency market and its central bank engineered a monetary boost, landing a one-two punch to knock the yen from levels that threaten the country’s post-disaster recovery. By Tomoko A. Hosaka.
— FRANCE-IMF CHIEF — A French court ordered an investigation into new IMF chief Christine Lagarde’s role in a much-criticized $400 million arbitration deal in favor of a controversial tycoon.
— GERMANY-ECONOMY — German industrial orders rose 1.8 percent in June, posting an unexpected third straight month of solid growth.
— NETHERLANDS-EARNS-ING — Financial firm ING Groep NV reported a 24 percent rise in second quarter profit because of a strong recovery at the insurance operations it intends to sell or spin off.