Provided by Business Insider, Friday, February 18, 2011:

Good Morning. Here's what you need to know:

•Asian indices were mixed in overnight trading with the Shanghai Composite down 0.92% and the Nikkei up 0.06%. Major European indices are down and U.S. futures are slightly down.

•People's Bank of China increased its reserve-requirement ratio by 0.5%, the second increase this year. Click here to see 17 facts about China that will blow your mind.

•Moodys has downgraded the ratings of German banks' subordinated debt securities valued at $33 billion over concerns that new legislation will reduce government support for the securities and increase the risk of losses among debt holders.

•Ford Motor Co. is teaming up with Russian automobile company Sollers to make and distribute cars in Russia. Both companies will have equal stakes in the joint venture called Ford Sollers and expect to begin operations by the year's end.

•SunPower announced 4Q earnings of $152.25 million. The company's shares were up in after hours trading. Check out a a former BP exec's guide to peak oil.

•Investors have put in bids for $22 billion worth of contingent capital bonds (cococs) issued by Credit Suisse, 11 times the $2 billion that was on offer by the bank. These function as stocks at a stipulated level of financial stress giving banks a credit boost when they're struggling. Barclays is now considering issuing the bonds as well.

•The SEC is investigating mutual funds that it believes overstated the value of risky municipal bonds.

•The White House will announce Intel CEO Paul Otellini to the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness today.

•The finance ministers of G20 nations are meeting in Paris today to delineate global economic imbalances. Japan doesn't expect to reach an agreement while the Germans insist on establishing a full list of indicators.

•Unrest continues in the Middle-East with Bahrain's military taking control of the capital. 5 have now been killed and 230 injured during protests. In Libya security forces opened fire on protestors killing 24. See here for a simple explanation of why the Mideast is doomed to crisis after crisis.

•SILVER is having another huge morning.

•BONUS - Amanda Seyfried and Ryan Phillippe have split up after 3 months of dating.

Provided by Business Insider, Friday, January 28, 2011:

Good morning. Here's what you need to know:

•Asian markets were mostly lower in overnight trading, with the Nikkei down 1.13%. Major European indices are mixed and U.S. futures suggest a mixed open.

•The U.S. GDP report for Q4 2010 is released at 8:30 AM ET. It is expected to grow from 2.6% in Q3 to 3.5% in Q4.

•Protests have begun again today in Egypt. There are unconfirmed reports Mohamed ElBaradei, former IAEA chief, has been arrested. Check out photos of Tuesday's massive protests.

•The regional uprising has spread from Tunisia and Egypt in North Africa, to Lebanon and Yemen. In Lebanon, a new government is already forming more influenced by Hezbollah. In Yemen, protesters continue to call for the president's resignation. Don't miss: The 25 governments that could get crushed by food price inflation.

•Japan's government has promised to put in place fiscal reforms that tackle the country's deficit in response to the S&P downgrade. The country plans a 5% increase in the sales tax. These are the 19 countries most likely to default.

•One of Spain's largest savings banks, La Caixa, intends to move its banking business into an already publicly traded company. At $28.2 billion in book value, the bank would be the eurozone's 10th largest.

•Ford significantly beat on the revenue number, but its earnings per share number was much lower than expected. Revenues came in at $32.5 billion, EPS at $0.30.

•Microsoft beat both on EPS and revenue for Q4 2010, boosted by sales of the Kinect and Xbox. EPS came in at $0.77 versus the $0.68 expected.

•Amazon reported disappointing operating income for Q4 2010 of $622 million, versus $650 million. EPS did beat, however, though the stock was down significantly in after hours trading.

•The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is released at 9:55 AM ET. It is expected to rise slightly to 73.0.

•Australia has (yet another) cyclone on its way. Click here for pictures of the flood of biblical proportions covering the country.

•Bonus: Charlie Sheen suffered a hernia while partying Thursday.

GM is a on a roll: Its new cars are getting high marks from consumers and aficionados, and its mid-November IPO was deemed a resounding success by just about everyone.

Everyone, that is, except the Congressional Oversight Panel, whose latest report criticized the Treasury Department for selling shares at the IPO price of $33 vs. the $44.59 needed to recoup its investment.

"By selling stock for less than this break-even price, Treasury essentially ‘locked in' a loss of billions of dollars and thus greatly reduced the likelihood that taxpayers will ever be repaid in full," the COP report states.

In addition, the COP report chides Treasury for using "questionable due diligence" in its handling of the sale of Chrysler Financial. "Taxpayer returns appear to have been sacrificed in favor of an unnecessarily accelerated exit," the report declares. (The Treasury Department disputes the allegation, Reuters reports.)

In May 2010, the government sold Chrysler Financial to Cerberus Capital Management in a deal that valued the company at $4.75 billion; seven months later, Cerberus sold Chrysler Financial to Toronto-Dominion Bank in a deal that valued the firm at $6.3 billion.

"That does kind of catch your attention," the panel's chairman and former Senator Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) tells Henry and me in the accompanying clip. "As far as their communications with us...we do not know [if Treasury] looked to other people other than Cerberus who might have offered money for Chrysler financial. "

As for the GM IPO (and auto bailouts generally), Kaufman concedes the Treasury faces a perplexing challenge in trying to both exit quickly while recouping taxpayers' money "It's more of a critique of setting objectives and what the objectives are," Kaufman says of the COP report. "The Treasury has had three objectives: get jobs back, take a hands off approach and maximize shareholder returns. The last two especially come into conflict."

Similar conflicts were cited regarding the handling of GMAC/Ally Financial. "Although Treasury's ‘hands off' approach may have reassured market participants about the limited scope of government intervention, it may also have forced Treasury to leave unexplored options that would have benefited the public," the COP report states.

Hard to Justify

Generally speaking, Sen. Kaufman says it's "hard to justify" the government's double-standard in its handling of financial sector bailouts vs. those in the auto industry. While bank creditors were bailed out 100 cents on the dollar and managements were left in place, the government effectively fired senior auto executives, forced plant closings and made GM debtholders take a haircut. (Let's hope the Treasury has learned some lessons as it prepares to exit its AIG stake.)

That said, Kaufman agrees the auto bailouts have generally been successful, certainly relative to expectations. In September 2009, the CBO estimated the U.S. taxpayer would lose $40 billion on auto-related TARP loans; today, the estimated loss is $19 billion.

Only in Washington could a $19 billion loss be considered a "success" but the reality is U.S. automakers posted strong sales last year and are starting to hire again. We'll never know what would have happened if GM and Chrysler had been allowed to fail, but what's happening now is almost certainly better than the alternative.

Americans are buying more cars.  U.S. auto sales were up 11% in December vs. a year ago to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 12.6 million vehicles, the highest rate in almost 16 months.  Overall, the industry sold 11.6 million vehicles in 2010, up 11% from 2009.

Not only are car sales up, Americans are buying more U.S. cars.  Ford was the big winner, overtaking Toyota for the 2nd spot in U.S. sales for the first time since 2006.  Ford, lead by F-Series trucks, increased sales almost 20% for the year to about 1.9 million.

The resurrected and reorganized General Motors ended the year on a high note, remaining number 1 in market share in December and increasing sales 7% for the year.  Shares of GM are still trading higher than their IPO price.

Chrysler, the other carmaker forced into bankruptcy, is also continuing its turnaround. Sales of the Jeep maker rose 16.5% in December and 17% for the full year.

Toyota was the biggest loser in the U.S. market for 2010.  Nagged by recall problems, Toyota dropped to number 3 in U.S. market share.  Sales for the Japanese carmaker dropped almost 6% in December and were pretty much flat on year.

The turnaround in car sales could be attributed to a stabilizing economy but 11.6 million annual sales is not all that exciting.  In 2007 U.S. sales were about 16.2 million.  And, even as oil prices have fallen in recent days, the longer trend shows prices are on the rise.  National gasoline prices are now about $3.07 per gallon.  If prices spike again, as they did in 2008, we could be in store for another economic slump that will almost certainly put a crimp in the automakers' recovery. 

November was a solid month for auto sales overall and a banner month for U.S. automakers as Ford sales rose 20%, Chrysler climbed 16.7% and GM sales were up 12.2% vs. a year-ago.

In the wake of GM's IPO, the steady improvement in overall sales and creeping market share gains for Detroit's "big three" provide compelling evidence the government's efforts to rescue auto makers were wildly successful...especially relative to the bailouts of AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"If you start from where the bankruptcies occurred, it's hard to point any fingers and say 'that didn't work out even better than expected,'" says Jeremy Anwyl, CEO of Edmunds.com. "It's been a remarkable turnaround. It's amazing what can happen when you have the full power of the executive branch of the U.S. government at your disposal."

Once you get beyond the philosophical question of whether the auto makers (and banks) should have been allowed to fail, or the unanswerable counterfactual question of "what if there were no bailouts?", the auto bailouts were "surprisingly successful," Anwyl says. "The biggest testament to that: these companies are hiring again, they're profitable, and the vehicles they're introducing are very competitive."

In the accompanying video, Anwyl and I discuss the longer-term prospects for Ford, Chrysler and GM and seek to answer the elusive question: In a global economy, what is an 'American Car', anyway?

For more clips from this interview, see:

Gas Tax Debate: Will Paying More at the Pump Keep Us from Going Broke

Car Sales Up, Incentives Down: Something's Gotta Give, Edmunds.com CEO Says

Aaron Task is the host of Tech Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @atask or email him at altask@yahoo.com

With the stock market surging Wednesday, it was easy to put a positive spin on the car sales numbers, which look like another strong month following October's big gains.

"To me, that's a little misleading," says Jeremy Anwyl, CEO of Edmunds.com, who notes November 2009 car sales were depressed after the ‘Cash for Clunkers' program ended in August that year.

In other words, the year-over-year gain in November benefited from "easy comps." What's "really important," Anwyl says, is that November annualized sales kept pace with October's tally, when sales enjoyed a big jump from the 11.5 million pace of the summer.

All in all, the November sales were "relatively good news" for the auto industry, he says.

The big question now is December sales. Historically a very strong month, sales could be hampered this year because overall industry incentives are down, Anwyl notes.

And while that's good for auto maker's profit margins - "car companies are reporting strong profits at very low sales levels," Anwyl observes -- it's not so good for consumers looking for bargains.

The irony is that U.S. car consumers remain very cost conscious, he notes: searching for deals, trading down and often opting for used vs. new cars.

So something's got to give: Either incentives are going to go up or sales are going to flatten out - unless we're all underestimating the strength of the U.S. consumer and our collective willingness to pay "retail" again.

___

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Provided by Business Insider, November 19, 2010:

Good morning. Here's what you need to know:

Asian markets were mixed in overnight trading, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.81%. Major European indices are all lower, and U.S. futures suggest a negative open.

China announced an increase in reserve requirements this morning of 50 bps, the latest in a string of tightening measures. The measures are aimed at confronting the country's growing inflation problem.

Federal Reserve Chaiman Ben Bernanke criticized China and other states that manipulate their currencies this morning in a speech in Frankfurt. He also defended the Fed's quantitative easing program as a measure intent on protecting the global recovery.

ECB President Trichet suggested the bank will not wait to raise interest rates, saying long-term low rates can do economic damage. Trichet's comments come as fringe eurozone members continue to cope with crisis like conditions in sovereign debt markets.

IMF officials are now in Dublin discussing the proposed details of a support package for Ireland. The negotiations center around the costs of propping up the country's banking sector and Ireland's low corporate tax rate, which Germany and France want to see raised.

Volkswagen is targeting Toyota with a series of new investments worth $71 billion. The investments will be made over a 5-year time period, and are for new production facilities, research, and development.

PIMCO is putting together a new, $1 billion fund aimed at buying distressed assets from banks. The fund will target banks selling assets trying to meet new regulatory requirements.

Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney is aiming to set up her own ratings agency to rival Moody's and S&P. She doesn't plan any radical changes to the industry's revenue model, however, and companies will still pay for ratings.

Dell surprised in Q3, with revenue surging 19%. Corporate sales drove the surge, while the company may have cut down on retail sales in order to keep margins high.

The Stuxnet worm suspected of causing problems at Iran's first nuclear reactor might have been designed to target nuclear centrifuges. The worm has been found on computers in Iran, India, and other countries.

Bonus: Angelina Jolie cast husband Brad Pitt as an extra in her new film on the Bosnian war.

On Tuesday, GM's Volt won Motors Trend's Car of the Year award. On Wednesday, GM underwriters set a $33 price for the automakers' IPO after upping the number of shares it offered by 30% to around 478 million, making it the largest offering in U.S. history.

The IPO - which President Obama calls a "major milestone" -- looks primed for a solid first-day "pop" Thursday morning. Adding in a concurrent sale of preferred stock, and GM has raised over $23 billion with today's offering.

The public relaunch of GM caps a remarkable turnaround for the iconic American automaker and "is in large measure a testimony to a core competency that came to the fore after the American industry displayed its core incompetency: restructuring," Dan Gross writes.

Bill Holstein, author of Why GM Matters, says the turnaround is also a testament to Wagoner, the former CEO who was forced out by the Obama administration in March 2009.

Wagoner - and fellow former GM execs like Fritz Henderson and Bob Lutz - deserve tremendous credit for GM's revival, Holstein says, noting the former executives extracted huge concessions from the UAW while designing and producing some of today's hottest cars, including the Volt, Chevy Cruze, Cadillac CTS and 2011 Camaro.

Wagoner had GM on the path to recovery but was victimized twice, Holstein says: first by the 2008 credit crisis and resulting 'great' recession, then by the Obama administration's desire to find a scapegoat for GM's woes. "Absolutely he was wrongly scapegoated," he says.

The biggest issue facing shareholders of the new GM, Holstein says, is whether current management, led by former telecom executive Dan Akerson, has the ‘right stuff' to run the industrial conglomerate. The author and consultant has severe doubts, as you'll see in the accompanying video.

"Previous management really understood the auto industry," Holstein says. "People now running the company understand IPOs and how to place large blocks of shares with institutions... but do they really understand what it takes to manage a car company over the long-term? My answer is: They don't have the slightest idea."

But former "Car Czar" Steven Rattner couldn't disagree more, expressing tremendous confidence in Akerson and team in his new book Overhaul, and again this morning on CNBC.

As for Wagoner, Rattner calls him a "honest, honorable, decent and likable guy," but notes GM went bankrupt on the former CEO's watch (period, end of story). The idea that Wagoner "saved" GM, as promulgated by Malcom Gladwell in The New Yorker is "ludicrous," Rattner says.

Although Holstein says they got "lucky", it's hard to argue with Rattner's point that Ford faced the exact same challenges as GM - the same UAW contracts, foreign competition and weak dollar - and managed to navigate the credit crisis without needing a bailout; meanwhile, GM took $50 billion of taxpayer funds as it was being forced into pre-packaged bankruptcy.

What do you think: Was Wagoner unfairly scapegoated, or did he deserve to be fired ‘with cause'?

Aaron Task is the host of Tech Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @atask or email him at altask@yahoo.com

For more coverage on GM see:

Car Czar Steven Rattner Bullish on GM: "I Think We Can Declare Victory"

General Motors Is Back! Good News for Taxpayers and Investors

Provided by Business Insider, November 18, 2010:  

 Good morning. Here's what you need to know:

•Asian markets rebounded overnight, with the Nikkei up 2.06%. Major European indices are all positive in early morning trading, and U.S. futures suggest a positive open.

•Ireland's central bank governor says the country is expecting a bailout in the "tens of billions" of euros range. IMF and EU officials are now in Dublin hammering out the details of the potential bailout of the country and its banking sector.

•Initial jobless claims for the week of November 13 are released at 8:30 AM ET. Claims are expected to rise to 445,000.

•The Philadelphia Fed survey for November is released at 10 AM ET. Expectations see a rise from last month's 1 to 5 this month.

•The Chinese government is preparing a series of new rules aimed at halting the steep rise in commodity prices in the country. They include increasing the supply of food in the economy, providing support for poor families, and auctioning off reserve sugar.

•Commodities trading house Glencore's profits rose 42% through September 2010, to $2.54 billion. The company is now considering a $10 billion IPO in London.

•SAB Miller saw its profits spike in the first half of its fiscal year, April to September. Earnings rose 19% to $1.47 billion in this time period.

•The General Motors IPO has been successful, with the company raising $20.1 billion. The U.S. government still owns 33% of the company.

•Sears has seen it fiscal Q3 profits fall as a result of declining same store sales in its department stores. The company reported a loss of $218 million, worse than expectations.

•The State of California has been forced to alter the structure of its recent bond sale as the municipal bond market has come under stress. The state has cut the amount of long-term tax free bonds it is bringing to market, as well as other changes.

•Bonus: Eva Longoria has confirmed her divorce from Tony Parker, but not rumors it was driven by an affair Parker was having.

General Motors is going public Thursday, and investors are excited. Thanks to strong investor demand, the company expanded its initial public offering of common shares by 31 percent. The company also raised its initial share price to $33.

After coming out of its government-mandated bankruptcy, GM has posted 3 straight quarters of profitability and is hoping to shed its "Government Motors" moniker with the IPO.

Former "Car Czar" Steven Rattner couldn't be more pleased. "I think we can declare victory," he recently told Tech Ticker.

But two important questions remain:

Will we taxpayers get our money back?

The answer is, probably not, though that's likely a function of the government wanting to sell shares sooner rather than later. Even after the IPO, the Treasury Department will still own about a 26% stake in the company.

Which leads to the second question: Was the bailout really worth it?

Less than two years ago the nation was gripped with fear about a possible GM bankruptcy. Now some Americans are asking why should we care so much about GM in the first place?

"There's a huge supplier network. GM just sits at the top of that. There are tens of thousands of jobs in design, in marketing, overall management. This is the kind of company we need in this country to support what's left of our middle class,” says Bill Holstein, author of Why GM Matters.

This is not your father's Cadillac maker. General Motors is no longer the world's largest automaker, and its U.S. market share has declined dramatically since Detroit's glory days. The company has discontinued all but four brands in the U.S., dropped 900 dealerships and has vaporized more than $80 billion in debt.

But experts believe this leaner and more efficient version of GM is primed for long-term success, and GM's market share has ticked up in recent months. "General Motors is making cars that Americans want ... . It's taken a lot of years, a lot of trauma, a lot of pain, but they're there, they are competitive internationally today," says Holstein.

Excitement over the IPO suggests investors agree, but the future of this American icon ultimately rests with the car buying public, and not just in America.