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Friday, November 20, 2009
Bank of America, Stimulus Jobs - Week in Review: November 16-20, 2009
By Erik Berte and Julia Limitone
FOXBusiness
Monday
The official TARP watchdog, Neil Barofsky, said there was more officials at the Federal Reserve could have done to reduce the costs of the AIG bailout. The Special Inspector General for the TARP program said the Fed missed opportunities to lessen taxpayer exposure, failing to use its “considerable leverage” when negotiating the insurer's responsibility to pay out contracts.
The Dow added 136 points Monday afternoon, hitting 13-month highs. This came as news spread that the Federal Reserve’s easy money policies will remain in place for some time, despite the plunging value of the U.S. dollar. The average closed at 10407, adding on to the 250-point rally from last week.
Nationwide Average
$2.64 a gallon
Tuesday
Last April, FOX Business reported that Bank of America (BAC) did not have a legal basis to threaten the government with walking away from the Merrill Lynch acquisition. FBN followed up on the story and obtained internal documents from the bank. Now Congress is planning on grilling executives from Bank of America on whether they used that threat to obtain $20 billion in taxpayer money to buy the brokerage.
Car of the Year Dept.: Motor Trend announced its winner for car of the year Tuesday, giving the honor to the Ford (F) Fusion for 2010. The magazine’s editor-in-chief Angus Mackenzie called the car “a truly competitive offering in one of the most competitive industry segments.”
FOXBusiness.com put together a slideshow of all the finalists for car of the year here.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/slideshow/markets/industries/transportation/motor-trend-finalists/
Wednesday
Wednesday began with news that Hershey (HSY) and Ferrero are each considering a rival bid to nab Cadbury (CBY). This comes shortly after Kraft Foods (KFT) launched a $16 billion bid that was rejected.
In other M&A talk, rumors circulated that Colgate-Palmolive (CL) might merge with Reckitt Benckiser Group, a household-product manufacturer in Britain. This sent shares of CL to a record high.
Thursday
A report from the Government Accountability Office showed that stimulus jobs numbers, reported by the Obama Administration, have been inaccurate because of flawed reporting from the money’s recipients. Roughly 10% of the jobs said to have been created thanks to the $787 billion program were created by projects that have not even spent any of this money, according to the GAO. And as much as 10% of the recipients of stimulus money did not report anything to the agency tracking the money.
The Dow lost 94 points Thursday afternoon as tech stocks fell and the U.S. dollar rose. In the average’s steepest point drop of the month, it closed at 10332.
And FBN welcomes new viewers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, as our network is now available on Cablevision (CVC). Cablevision subscribers can now see FOX Business in standard definition on channel 106 and in HD on channel 772.
Friday
Bank analyst Dick Bove said Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC) CEO Ken Lewis might actually stick around as CEO. This despite that fact he is set to leave the company by year-end. There have been no named successors for the spot as of yet and several high-profile candidates have rejected the job publicly.
Chrysler Dealer Troubles Dept.: Chrysler could end up losing over 100 dealerships if these dealers can’t find a way to reach new financing deals with GMAC. Chrysler, however, was optimistic that all or most of the dealerships would be able to find financing by the end of November.
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