FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu
Guttenberg said on Saturday he was talking to potential investors in
troubled German carmaker Opel, rejecting a media report saying there
was not yet any serious bidder. "I can only repeat: Talks are being
held with serious and less serious interested parties," Guttenberg told
reporters at an event held by his Christian Social Union (CSU) party in
Erlangen, Bavaria state.
U.S. bank rescue plan could come on Monday: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government will announce as soon as
Monday a long-awaited plan to try to get bad assets off the books of
banks, a cornerstone of its efforts to tackle the credit crisis, The
Wall Street Journal reported. The Obama administration, battling a
deepening recession, is set to adopt a three-pronged approach to
ridding the financial system of so-called toxic assets, the newspaper
and the New York Times said on their websites on Friday.
Buy-out groups vie for Barclays iShares: sources
LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity groups Hellman &
Friedman, Bain Capital and TPG <TPG.UL> have each shown interest
in the iShares unit from British bank Barclays <BARC.L>, sources
familiar with the situation said. Talks with a consortium around
Hellman & Friedman were moving "quickly and smoothly," one of the
sources said. It was not immediately clear who else was in the
consortium.
Bernanke says Fed has exit strategy from credit policy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on
Friday said the Fed's buying of longer-dated U.S. Treasuries would
"taper off" when the economy no longer needed help, allowing the Fed to
cease its emergency support. "The time will come when the economy will
be growing, the housing market will be recovering, that support will no
longer be needed. And we will of course at that point taper off that
support," Bernanke told community bankers in Phoenix, Arizona.
GM bondholders appeal to break impasse in talks
DETROIT (Reuters) - Advisers representing General Motors Corp
<GM.N> bondholders on Friday issued an appeal to the automaker
and U.S. officials to break an impasse in a crucial round of debt
restructuring talks. GM's $13.4 billion in emergency loans from the
U.S. Treasury set a target for the automaker to cut its $27 billion in
bond debt to a third of its value by swapping bonds for stock in a
recapitalized company.
BofA's Lewis calls bonus tax "unfair": memo
Stock investors banking on toxic-asset plan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's attempt to recover further from
12-year lows faces its biggest test yet next week in the Treasury's
long-delayed bank rescue plan. Details of the Treasury Department's
much delayed plan to sop up banks' toxic assets are expected early next
week, ahead of a key G20 meeting in early April.
China clears Johnson & Johnson baby products after probe
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese health authorities said on Saturday that
they had found no evidence of cancer-causing chemicals in baby products
made by U.S. company Johnson & Johnson <JNJ.N>. The State
Food and Drug Administration had investigated 33 products, including
baby shampoo, made by Johnson & Johnson after a U.S. consumer group
charged that they contained carcinogens.
U.S. seizes top credit union clearinghouse
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regulators seized the top clearinghouse for
U.S. credit unions, citing a critical deterioration in the finances of
the provider of services to thousands of retail credit unions. The
National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) took control of U.S.
Central Federal Credit Union, a huge wholesale credit union with about
$34 billion in assets based in Lenexa, Kansas.
Nacchio freed indefinitely; seeks high court review
DENVER (Reuters) - A judge in Denver on Friday set aside her previous order that former Qwest Communications International
<Q.N> Chief Executive Joseph Nacchio report to prison on Monday
after his attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his
2007 insider trading conviction. U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger
said she will decide at a later date when Nacchio must report to begin
serving his six-year sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in
Pennsylvania.