Harold Maass of The Week The Best of Today's Business

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Regional banks hit by national woes

The federal takeover of lender IndyMac, plus a weekend analyst report titled "Who Is Next?," hit the shares of several regional banks yesterday, leading to unusual clarifications and assertions of good financial health. Banks including National City, Washington Mutual, and First Horizon issued statements to quell speculation, and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. analyst Richard Bove said his report actually indicated that those and other banks he listed "are in better condition than is generally perceived." (The Wall Street Journal) Early today, however, Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney downgraded Wachovia to underperform, saying it faced the "greatest reckoning" of the major banks. (Fortune in CNNMoney.com)

GM cuts white-collar jobs

General Motors said it will cut white-collar jobs, sell assets, and suspend its cash dividend as the automaker tries to reassure investors about its solvency. It is GM's second restructuring announcement in six weeks. (Bloomberg) The workers affected will include engineers assigned to design GM's next round of SUVs and full-size pickups, which consumers have been shunning amid high gas prices. GM's stock price, down 63 percent this year, rose about 5 percent in extended trading. (Reuters) GM has to show it can handle the situation, and "that means a reduction of fixed costs," said economist Sean McAlinden at the Center for Automotive Research. "That's the financial people, engineering people." (Detroit Free Press)

Genentech profit rises on cancer drug

Genentech Inc., the largest U.S. cancer-drug maker and No. 2 biotechnology firm, after Amgen, reported a 4.7 percent rise in quarterly profit, to $782 million, on 15 percent growth in sales of the cancer drug Avastin. (Reuters in The New York Times) Avastin, approved in 2004 for colon tumors, was green-lighted for breast cancer in the middle of the previous quarter. Genentech's earnings just missed analysts estimates, but its shares rose after it raised its 2008 forecast. "The bottom line came in a little weak but no one cares because the most important thing, despite missing estimates by a few cents, is that they raised guidance for the year," said Eric Schmidt at Cowen & Co. (Bloomberg)

Creativity in a time of discomfort

As airlines look for ways to cut expenses, they've become tighter with hotel vouchers for stranded passengers, and that means sleepovers in airports are becoming increasingly common. Business travel advisers suggest carrying the phone numbers for national hotel chains on all trips, just in case, and certainly sleeping on the floor is uncomfortable. But it has inspired at least one well-known novel, "Dear American Airlines," and an entrepreneurial venture in portable lodging. Frank Giotto said he came up with the idea for his Mini Motel, a one-person tent for layovers, while stranded at a German airport. "People sleeping in chairs don't seem to bother them," Giotto said of airports. (The New York Times)

BEST COLUMNS OF THE DAY

IndyMac's unnecessary bank run

Panicked depositors withdrew $1.3 billion from IndyMac in 11 days, says Brett Arends in The Wall Street Journal, "buy why?" The FDIC insures up to $100,000 of your deposit or CD, and it makes no sense to keep more than $100,000 in a savings account or CD. "But if you must, here are three alternatives." You could deposit $100,000 in one bank, then walk across the street and repeat at the next. You could let Promontory Interfinancial do that for you, through its CDARS program. Or you could "keep hundreds of thousands of dollars, uninsured, in a single rickety mortgage bank," then panic when it teeters on the edge of insolvency. If everyone did option A or B, IndyMac "might not have collapsed."

A good time for intrepid investors

"Buy low, sell high," says Irwin Kellner in MarketWatch, how hard is that to remember? Yes, the market is full of "doom and gloom," and it's hard to blame people for looking to get out to "preserve whatever money they have made," but really, now is a good time for some "judicious buying." That's how you make money. If that makes you panic, though, just hold on to what you have. The 20 percent drop in stock indexes since October is "roughly twice as much as the decline in corporate profits reported so far," which means the markets are betting this is going to be a dismal earnings season. But "if earnings are not as bad as expected, the market could bounce higher -- and with it your stock."

GOOD DAY FOR: Auctioning in America, after eBay won a copyright lawsuit brought by luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co. that freed it from legal responsibility for counterfeit goods sold on the online auction site. The ruling puts the burden on copyright holders to notify Internet companies about trademarked materials on their sites. A ruling in France last week said it was eBay's responsibility to filter out such material. (The New York Times)

BAD DAY FOR: Drinking and riding, as InBev is mulling the sale of Anheuser-Busch's theme park and beer can businesses to pay off some of the $45 billion in debt it incurred from buying the U.S. beer giant. InBev could get $2.9 billion for the theme parks, including Sea World and Busch Gardens, and $1.7 billion for the can and bottle recycling and manufacturing unit, according to analysts. (Bloomberg)

NOTED: Lehman Brothers executives are seriously considering a plan to take the investment bank private, according to unidentified sources. Lehman shares, down 79 percent this year, have been battered by insolvency rumors. Lehman employees already own about 30 percent of outstanding stock. (New York Post) Analysts said European banks, like HSBC or Deutsche Bank, were the most likely bidders if Lehman put itself for sale. (MarketWatch)

This column was written by Peter Weber and edited by Harold Maass of TheWeekDaily.com.