General Electric Co. reported its first decline in quarterly profit since 2003, missing analysts’ estimates with a 12 percent drop in earnings.GE fell as much as 12 percent, the most since 1987. General Electric was forced to cut the value of some securities in the last two weeks of March as capital markets seized up, [...]

March 24 – U.S. stocks went up after JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its bid for Bear Stearns Cos., and sales of existing homes unexpectedly rose. JPMorgan quadrupled its offer for Bear to $10 a share. Bear Stearns climbed $6.75, or 113 percent, to $12.71. JPMorgan will exchange stock worth about $10 for each Bear [...]

Bear Stearns, the big five of investment bank in US, will receive emergency fund from The Fed through JP MOrgan. This is the first time the Fed gave loan to a non-bank. Bear Strearns is one of the subprime mortgage victim. According to AFP, Bear Stearns President and CEO admitted that they are having liquidity [...]

Ambac Financial Group Inc. tumbled 19 percent in New York Stock Exchange March 5, 2008 trading after the bond insurer’s plan to raise $1.5 billion failed to allay concern that it may lose its AAA credit rating. Ambac shares dropped and credit-default swaps rose, indicating worsening perceptions of credit quality. The loss of Ambac’s top [...]

Merrill Lynch & Co. will eliminate 650 jobs, record a $60 million charge and they also will stop making new home loans through First Franklin Financial, their subprime lender. Franklin Financial was bought by former Chief Executive Officer Stan O’Neal in 2006 after agreeing to pay $1.3 billion for First Franklin in September 2006. First [...]

International Business Machines Corp., the world’s biggest computer-services company, will buy back $15 billion of stock. IBM rose to a four-month high in New York trading and U.S. stocks rallied, erasing earlier declines. The repurchase, which adds to about $400 million remaining under a previous plan, may lift earnings by 5 cents a share this [...]

MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc., the two largest bond insurers, rally after Moody’s Investors Service said the companies are “better positioned” than rivals FGIC Corp. and Bermuda-based business insurer XL Capital Ltd. Moody’s cut the credit ratings on FGIC’s bond insurance units six levels to A3 from Aaa. MBIA rallied 98 cents, or [...]

News Corp. (NWS) are reportedly in discussions about combining MySpace and other News Corp. online properties with Yahoo. This move can help to keep Microsoft stay away. Their action might cause Miscrosoft to raise its offer. The media conglomerate would swap its ownership of MySpace for a stake of 20% or more in Yahoo. News [...]

(GM) reported a $38.7 billion loss for 2007, the largest annual loss ever for an automotive company. The company also announced another round of buyout offers to U.S. hourly workers in hopes of replacing some of them with lower-paid help. During a conference call with analysts and media, Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson [...]

American International Group Inc., the world’s largest insurer by assets, fell the most in 20 years in New York trading after its auditor found faulty accounting may have understated losses on some holdings. Auditors had found some discrepancies in the way the firm’s derivatives portfolio had been valued. The credit-default swaps issued by AIG, which [...]