Archive for February, 2009

According to the US Commerce Department’s report released on Friday, the recession ridden economy of the country plunged at a stunning 6.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of the previous financial year, 2008. This fourth-quarter decline was not only the sharpest since the first quarter of 1982 but also far worse than the 5.4... »

According to the Citigroup Inc., the U.S. government will exchange up to USD 25 billion in emergency bailout money which would give it as much as a 36 percent stake in the struggling bank. This deal announcement was made on Friday and is being touted as the third rescue plan for Citigroup in less than... »

US President Barack Obama unveiled a USD 3.6 trillion budget for the financial year 2010 on Thursday, aiming to pull the US out of its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Obama also projected a USD 1.75 trillion budget deficit for the current year, amounting to 12.3% of annual output and... »

According to the chief financial officer of Yahoo!, Blake Jorgensen, the internet giant seems to be open to the idea of either completely selling its web search business or entering into a partnership deal with another company. This statement from the top Yahoo! executive came on Wednesday during the Goldman Sachs technology conference held... »

UK stocks rose for the second consecutive day on Thursday on news that the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc would insure 325 billion pounds of assets into a state backed program and transfer toxic assets into a separate division. The surge in UK stock markets was mainly driven by banking stocks, the chief among... »

Housing prices across the US suffered a record fall of 18.2% in the last three months of 2008, says an industry report released on Tuesday. According to the S&P Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, housing values across the country contracted by 18.2% over the final three months last year as against the same period in... »

Target Corp reported a drop of nearly 41% in profits as buyers reduced their expenditure on fashion items and many of them defaulted on payments for Target credit cards. The results mark the sixth successive drop in quarterly profits for the major US retailer. According to the company quarterly sales declined 1.6% to $19 billion... »

The world’s leading mobile phone maker, Nokia on Tuesday has announced its launch of the new restructuring procedures and also with it, the plans to cut yet another 1,000 jobs worldwide through voluntary departures. The restructuring procedures and lay off come as a measure to cope up with the back bending recession in the... »

Citigroup Inc is in the middle of negotiations with federal officials under which the government stake in the bank may be increased to 40%, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Citigroup is one of the largest banks in the US. It received around $45 billion in federal aid after the Wall Street... »

US stocks fell sharply on Thursday sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a six-year low. The decline was primarily triggered by financial shares which sank to the lowest level since 1995 on concern over increasing credit card defaults. Stocks of Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc slid 14% each thus driving the Dow... »