Mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley PLC said Friday it is revising its plans to raise new capital after U.S. private equity fund Texas Pacific Group pulled out of its agreement to invest. Fort Worth, Texas-based TPG withdrew after Moody's rating service downgraded Bradford & Bingley's long-term debt ratings from A3 to Baa1. TPG's agreement to invest $356 million in B&B included an escape clause in the event of downgrading.

via chron.com

If you love Adidas' clothing and footwear then I have some good news for you. Adidas is eying to open about 2,300 new stores in China by 2010, lifting its total number to 6,300. The company's decision came as a result of strong demand from China even in times when we might expect to see some downturns. Frederic Seiller, a vice president in charge of retail operations for Greater China, stated that the the global economic slowdown had no impact on Adidas's sales in China.

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General Motors Corp. is considering a new Chevrolet mini car for the United States as it reworks its product lineup to cope with a dramatic shift from trucks to cars linked to high gas prices, a spokesman said Thursday.
GM spokesman Dee Allen said bringing the Chevrolet Beat, which is about the size of a Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris mini car, to the U.S. is among the options the company is studying.

via businessweek.com

Faced with soaring gas prices, a sputtering economy and a rapid U.S. market shift away from trucks, the U.S. auto industry's weakest player, Chrysler, may have to file for bankruptcy or sell its storied Jeep and Dodge Ram brands as early as next year, JPMorgan said Thursday.
But rivals GM and Ford are likely to get through the rough patch and turn a profit in 2010.

via businessweek.com

The former head of Refco Inc., blamed for the collapse of one of the world's largest commodities brokerages, was sentenced to 16 years in prison Thursday by a judge who decried the "staggeringly arrogant" greed of white collar criminals. Phillip Bennett, 59, a British citizen living in Gladstone, N.J., had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and other charges for the eight-year fraud.

via businessweek.com

he European Central Bank raised interest rates to a seven-year high to fight inflation even as economic growth cools. The ECB's Governing Council, meeting in Frankfurt, increased the benchmark lending rate by a quarter point to 4.25 percent yesterday.

via turkishdailynews.com.tr

Shares of General Motors Corp. plunged Wednesday to close below $10 for the first time in more than half a century, on worries about the company's cash needs and speculation about a possible bankruptcy protection filing down the road. GM shares fell $1.77, or 15.1 percent, to close at $9.98. Their session low of $9.96 marked their lowest point since Sept.

via chron.com

When consumers astonished the U.S. auto industry two months ago by quickly shunning trucks and going for gas mileage, the biggest beneficiary ended up being Honda Motor Co. The No. 2 Japanese automaker, with the most fuel-efficient model lineup in the industry, never put both feet into the U.S. truck market, instead focusing on slow-but-steady growth with popular cars like the Civic and Accord.

via chron.com

With a slowing economy and corporate layoffs being announced daily, look for online education companies to benefit. Many unemployed are and will be looking for a profession, and many employed people are always looking to make career changes. Online education companies are therefore enjoying higher enrollment rates. Shares in Apollo Group (NASDAQ: APOL) are surging over 20% on a strong earnings report.

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Dish Network Corp.'s shares dropped Wednesday after the satellite television company reported that AT&T Inc. is ending an agreement to market its programming services, although analysts disagree on whether the partnership is truly over. Dish shares fell $2.20, or 7.6 percent, to $26.91. The stock has traded between $25.72 and $42.78 during the past 52 weeks.

via businessweek.com

Orders to U.S. factories turned in the slowest performance in three months in May as a surge in demand for commercial aircraft was not enough to offset weakness in autos, heavy machinery and steel. Factory orders rose by 0.6 percent in May, less than half the gains turned in during April and March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. It was the poorest showing since factory orders had fallen by 0.4 percent in February.

via businessweek.com

JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank won a bigger share of merger advisory business in the past year while Citigroup held its ground as demand for deal financing gave banks an edge over most securities firms. JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by market value, climbed three spots to second place among global merger advisers, after tightened credit markets snuffed out a boom in leveraged buyouts, according to Bloomberg data.

via turkishdailynews.com.tr

I hemmed and hawed when I saw Jennifer Openshaw's piece on MarketWatch a few weeks ago; her opinion was that Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) would recover much of its lost value in these past several months of sluggish sales, rising milk costs and slipping coolness, no matter what the naysayers, say. Her argument: that Starbucks was great because of its atmosphere and general quality standards in coffee.

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This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered. Like most big companies located in small towns, Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) has a delightfully quirky origin. John Tyson, owner of a battered truck and 500 chickens, opportunist, and debtor in the Depression-era 1930s struck an idea that probably seemed like folly to his neighbors: he'd deliver chickens to Chicago and Kansas City, where they'd get more money.

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On Thursday, Omaha-based ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) reported profit growth in the fourth quarter due in part to contributions from its commodity trading unit, which the company just sold. Also, homebuilder Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) said its fiscal second-quarter loss narrowed, despite writedowns and a hefty drop in revenues.

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Japanese automakers reported generally solid growth in global production and exports in May, as robust demand in Asia and emerging markets cushioned the effects of a softening U.S. market. The country's top automaker Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday overall global production rose 3.6 percent from the previous year to 805,948 vehicles on strong output in Asia. Toyota's overseas production gained 4.3 percent to 400,749 vehicles, while production in Japan expanded 2.9 percent to 405,199 units.

via chron.com

The Federal Open Market Committee issued its decision on interest rates Wednesday. It kept rates unchanged as expected but increased the hawkishness of the accompanying statement. It maintained its credentials on combating inflation but was careful not to cause any trauma to the financial markets that would require reversing this position. If this were to occur, the Fed would lose credibility.

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It's a macroeconomic headwind that could produce a jetliner order headwind. International Lease Finance Corp. said it may order 300 jetliners from Boeing and Airbus to meet lease demand from airlines that can no longer afford to buy their own planes, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. International Lease said it may purchase 150 single-aisle aircraft from each aerospace company. The orders would be worth about $22 billion at current plane prices, exclusive of discounts.

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Over at Goldman Sachs the firm's research opinion on Citigroup (NYSE: C) took a sharp turn for the worse. According to Reuters, the brokerage said Citi "may incur second-quarter write-downs of $9 billion and raise additional capital." If a new infusion of money into Citi looks anything like the one Barclays (NYSE: BCS) just completed, an capital raise of $10 billion could dilute current shareholder by another 10%. That could drop the US bank's stock below its 52-week low and might take shares under $15.

via bloggingstocks.com

Three presidential nominees to seats on the Securities and Exchange Commission won approval Wednesday from the Senate Banking Committee, sending their nominations to the full Senate and likely formal confirmation. Troy Paredes, named by President Bush to fill an upcoming Republican slot on the five-member SEC, and Luis Aguilar and Elisse Walter, nominated for seats designated for Democrats that have been vacant for several months, were approved unanimously by the Banking Committee.

via businessweek.com

The Internal Revenue Service, citing the drain of high gas prices on households, said Monday that it was raising the automobile mileage rate that businesses and others could claim. The tax agency said the optional standard rate to calculate deductible operating costs for business vehicles will rise to 58.5 cents a mile, from 50.5 cents, for the final six months of 2008. That rate also applies to businesses and others entitled to depreciation allowances that operate autos for charitable, medical or moving purposes.

via nytimes.com