DETROIT - General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co will continue to face heavy cash drains in 2008 and are expected to burn cash through 2009 unless industry sales rebound, Fitch Ratings has said on Wednesday.
SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp gauged Facebook’s interest in a possible acquisition after the software giant’s failed takeover attempt of Yahoo Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
NEW YORK - United States stocks extended losses on Wednesday, sending the Nasdaq down more than 1 percent, as investors concerned that the fallout from record crude oil prices would crimp consumer spending and worsen the economy’s outlook.
Surprising to the upside, seasonally adjusted consumer
debt rose $15.3 billion in March, according to data released
Wednesday from the United States Federal Reserve, which also showed that total
consumer credit rose to 2.558 trillion.
WASHINGTON - Contracts to purchase previously owned United States homes fell in March and businesses, faced with a slump in demand, slashed worker hours in the first quarter to increase productivity and safeguard profits, data on Wednesday showed.
NEW YORK - Sprint Nextel Corp and top United States cable companies are investing in Clearwire Corp to introduce advanced wireless services and get a head start on AT&T and Verizon, but analysts has said the seven-way partnership may be too complex to succeed.
GIBSON CITY, Illinois - The first batch of taxpayers has already started to receive their federal tax rebates as part of the economic stimulus package, but very few consumers interviewed by Reuters in the past week has said they plan to spend them on anything other than necessities.