Headlines
Get 294 issues of The Wall Street Journal for ONLY $.67 per issue
AP - When Jenny and John Crowley learned they were having a baby, they did the responsible thing: they bought life insurance.
 AFP - Citigroup, reeling from the subprime mortgage crisis, said Friday it plans to sell roughly 400 billion dollars in assets in a streamlining reorganization aimed at restoring the US banking giant to profit.
 Reuters - Citigroup Inc said on Friday it plans
to shed $400 billion of assets within three years and boost
revenue by up to 10 percent annually, in a bid to restore
profitability after huge losses tied to flagging mortgage and
credit markets.
 Reuters - Countrywide Financial Corp
shares fell nearly 6 percent on Friday on renewed speculation
that Bank of America Corp will renegotiate or cancel
its agreement to buy the largest U.S. mortgage lender.
 Reuters - Goldman Sachs economists expect a
total of $500 billion in residential mortgage credit losses, a
renewed slowdown in economic activity after the near-term boost
from fiscal stimulus, and no monetary policy tightening in 2008
or 2009, according to a research note from the firm.
 Reuters - American International Group ,
after disappointing with a worse-than-expected loss on
Thursday, did little to buoy investor spirits on Friday,
telling shareholders it does not yet see signs of a rebound in
the market for mortgage assets, which have cost it dearly over
the past two quarters.
AP - A government-backed mortgage bailout is needed, and it must be done right away.
FT.com - Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM), the biggest buyer of US mortgages, this week demonstrated why it is the elephant in the room when it comes to the ranks of financial institutions deemed too big to fail.
 AP - Citigroup Inc.'s new chief executive, Vikram Pandit, plans to stick with a global banking model after months of intense review — but only after shrinking the company by about one-fifth first.
AP - Citigroup Inc. said Friday it is aiming for 9 percent revenue growth as it looks to rebound from recent struggles tied to deterioration in the mortgage and credit markets.
 AFP - The US House of Representatives has approved a bill that lawmakers hope could stem the tide of home foreclosures due to the subprime mortgage crisis, but it faces a presidential veto.
 Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives on
Thursday approved legislation to create a $300 billion
mortgage-insurance fund and provide billions more in homeowner
aid to stabilize a housing market shaken by a wave of
foreclosures and a credit crunch.
AP - American International Group Inc. said Thursday that it swung to a first-quarter loss of $7.81 billion because of losses tied to credit swaps and mortgage-related operations and that it plans to raise a total of $12.5 billion in new cash to shore up its capital base.
 Reuters - American International Group Inc
, the world's largest insurer, posted its largest ever
quarterly loss on Thursday and said it would raise $12.5
billion to fortify its balance sheet.
AP - Sometimes the IRS can't get people to cooperate, even when it tries to give money away.
 AFP - Prime Minister Robert Fico hailed EU approval of Slovakia's euro entry as a historic decision for his country on Wednesday while rejecting criticisms of its efforts to curb inflation.
 Reuters - Pending sales of previously owned
homes fell 1 percent in March, as expected, as turmoil in the
housing and mortgage markets continued, a real estate trade
group report on Wednesday showed.
Reuters - Financial markets believe Fannie Mae,
the biggest provider of funding for U.S. home loans, can
reverse losses by applying fresh capital of $6 billion toward
profitable investments, the company's federal regulator told
CNBC on Wednesday.
BusinessWeek Online - Fannie Mae's worse-than-expected first-quarter loss, reported on May 6, shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the news of continuing declines in home prices across the U.S.
 AFP - Chinese consumer electronics maker SVA Group plans to withdraw from a struggling life insurance joint venture with Japan's Nippon Life Insurance, state media said Wednesday.
|
