Consumer Confidence Climbs; Home Prices Record Plunge; Troubled Banks on the Rise; Oil Falls 7%; Slim’s Bank Buys Citi Stock; D.R. Horton Shares Vault

Buy gold, silver and oil as fast as you can, you morons, or die a horrible death by inflation like the people of Zimbabwe!

The base metals were all well into positive territory on Tuesday. Copper bottomed just north of $1.75 in the pre-dawn hours, then went near-vertical before leveling off in the late morning to cruise to a finish at $1.9393/lb., up more than 11 cents. Nickel pushed upward for most of the day, regaining the $5 mark and holding to close at its intraday high of $5.40/lb., up 40 cents.

Consumer Confidence at All-Time Low; Home Prices Continue Collapse; OPEC Still Not Satisfied; Whirlpool Circles the Drain; Optimistic Wall Street; Banks Balk on Buyout; Stop the Presses?

CenturyTel Inc. (CTL) will acquire rival Embarq Corp. (EQ) in an $11.6 billion deal that could kick-start a flurry of mergers among rural-regional telephone carriers. The deal should be good for the two companies, said Jeff Kagan, an independent analyst who is well known for his coverage of the telecom sector.

It takes more than a globally competitive economy to have a sound banking system. For the third straight year, the United States finds itself at the top of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as part of its annual Global Competitiveness Report.

Swiss banking giant UBS AG (ADR: UBS) succumbed to government intervention yesterday (Thursday) and the country’s other banking powerhouse, Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR: CS) announced it would raise fresh capital from private shareholders after rebuffing central bank assistance.

Even the Swiss are joining in the bank bailout game. The two biggest banks, UBS (NYSE:UBS) and Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS), have taken dramatic steps to offload toxic debt and raise working capital. But Bob Bauman says investors shouldn’t worry about the country’s banking system. It is still the place to safeguard your assets from the financial meltdown.

AIG (AIG), the largest U.S. insurance company by assets, may have to sell more than half its businesses to repay the $85 billion federal loan package it received last week. But it could actually reap as much as $115 billion by selling all its business units, analysts at Credit Suisse (ADR: CS) said yesterday.

Citing balanced threats from weak economic growth and inflation, the U.S. Federal Reserve yesterday (Tuesday) voted to hold the benchmark Federal Funds rate at 2.0%, reports Money Morning’s Jennifer Yousfi. This was despite a financial market that has been rocked in recent days by the continued fallout of the credit crisis.