• Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank AG, reported a fourth quarter loss of about $6.3 billion (4.8 billion euros), prompting its shares to fall as much as 13% on the news. A year earlier, the bank posted a profit of about $1.3 billion (1 billion euros), Bloomberg reported.

• Nortel Networks Corp., the largest telephone equipment maker in North America, yesterday (Wednesday) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. “Based on this filing, the board of directors must believe that not only is the fourth quarter bad, but that the first quarter is going to be just as bad or worse,” Duncan Stewart, an analyst at DSAM Consulting in Toronto, told Reuters.

• Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (OTC: LEHMQ) said yesterday (Wednesday) that it hopes to pull itself out of bankruptcy protection in the next 18 to 24 months. “Too many people are saying this case is going to take five to six or 10 years. There’s no reason for this thing to be in bankruptcy for that amount of time,” Bryan Marsal, chief executive of Lehman, said at a bankruptcy court hearing, Reuters reported.

• The global financial crisis has halted development on what’s supposed to be the world’s tallest building. Dubai-based building Nakheel PJSC said work will resume in 12 months on the tower that will stand 1 kilometer (3,280 feet) high when completed, Bloomberg reported.

• In a move aimed at buttressing demand for Web-enable TVs – and to support its online service – Internet-search pioneer Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) has forged HDTV partnership deals with Japan’s Sony Corp. (ADR: SNE), the privately held Vizio Inc., of Irvine, Calif., and LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, both of South Korea. The TVs will go on sale this spring, Yahoo announced at the just-completed International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

• Owners of small businesses slashed an average of 0.86 workers in December, the worst monthly drop ever for the survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB). A net 6% of firms plan to cut staff, a total eclipsed only by downturns of 1974-75 and 1980-82.

• Making telephone calls, watching videos and downloading TV shows are the fastest-growing online activities, MediaMark Research & Intelligence reported. According to responses from MRI’s recently released Fall 2008 Survey of the American Consumer, 3.2% of adults said they had downloaded a TV program in the last 30 days. That represents a year-to-year increase of 141.4%. The number of adults who reported they watched online video increased 35.4% during the same period, to a total of 23.3% of the adult population, while 4.0% of respondents reported they had made an online phone call, an increase of 32.0%.

• Momentum is growing for Congress to delay the United States’ switchover to digital TV, currently slated to occur Feb. 17, according to a report in USA Today. John Podesta, co-chairman of the Obama-Biden Transition Team, last week wrote a letter to Congress and asked that the changeover be delayed until a number of problems can be addressed – the key one being the need to obtain more money for the federal digital converter box coupon program, which ran out of money last week. Gene Kimmelman, vice president of the Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, told the newspaper that Podesta’s request makes it “extremely likely” that the changeover will be delayed.

Source: Global Investment News Roundups Thursday, January 15th, 2009

* The Conference Board said yesterday (Tuesday) that its consumer confidence index fell to 38 – the lowest level since the Conference Board began tracking consumer sentiment in 1967. The index registered a revised 61.4 in September, which makes this month’s drop the third-steepest drop on record. A year ago, the index stood at 95.2.

* The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index dropped a record 16.6% from August last year – the largest drop since its inception in 2000, The Associated Press reported. Prices in the 20-city index have plummeted more than 20% since peaking in July 2006, the group reported. The 10-city index tumbled 17.7% — the biggest decline in its 21-year history.

* The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said yesterday (Tuesday) that it would continue to prop up the oil market and may call another meeting before the group’s next scheduled conference in December. “If circumstances dictate we have to have another meeting, we will have a meeting before the Algerian meeting,” OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri told Reuters.

* Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) said yesterday (Tuesday) it will eliminate about 5,000 jobs this year and next, as the U.S. economy continues down its path to recession. The nation’s largest home appliance maker said its earnings fell 7% in the third quarter.

* Despite a market deep in bear territory, Wall Street professionals still expect year-end bonuses. According to a survey by eFinancialCareers, a unit of specialty jobs site operator Dice Holdings Inc. (DHX), 67% of workers expect a bonus for 2008. But some companies, such as Deutsche Bank AG (DB) have already announced top executives would not receive bonuses for the year, Reuters reported.

* Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR: CS) and Deutsche Bank AG (DB) yesterday (Tuesday) both refused to provide financing for the $6.5 billion buyout of Huntsman Corp. (HUN) by a unit of Apollo Global Management LLC. The banks refused to fund the purchase of the chemical company because the combined company could prove insolvent, Bloomberg News reported.

* The 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor said yesterday (Tuesday) that it would stop printing a daily edition next year in order to focus on the Internet – becoming the first nationally distributed newspaper to do so, Bloomberg News reported. And in a related story, national newspaper publisher Gannett Co. Inc. (GCI) said it would cut 10% of the workers at its community newspapers – a move that follows a cut of 3%, or 1,000 jobs, back in August. The cuts should be completed by early December and don’t apply to USA Today, Gannett said. Gannett, which publishes 85 daily newspapers, recently reported that third-quarter revenue declined 9%, and said it would re-evaluate its dividend policy.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Wednesday, October 29, 2008