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Stocks are sliding: The Dow is down about 100 points after the first two hours of trading. Tech stocks are taking a particular hit.
GM loses $6 billion: Perhaps more important than the quarterly loss was word of the automaker depleting $10.2 billion from its cash reserves for the three-month period. That's $113 million a day - and it leaves $11.6 billion as of March 31. Sounds like a lot, but for a company the size and complexity of GM it really isn't. From the NYT:
G.M. has borrowed $15.4 billion from the federal government since December to stay afloat, and the company says it needs $11.6 billion more. But the chances that it will end up in bankruptcy court at the end of this month are growing, particularly after Chrysler's Chapter 11 filing last week.
Pick-up in retail sales: Easter was in April this year so that helped - as did improving consumer confidence. Wal-Mart led the way with a 5 percent jump in April same-store sales. On the other hand, Macy's missed analysts' estimates with a 9.1 percent drop. (AP)
Stress test results: On the matter of having to raise capital, here's how it breaks out:
No additional capital needed
-J.P. Morgan
-Goldman Sachs
-MetLife
-American Express
-Bank of New York Mellon
-Capital One
More capital needed
-Bank of America
-Wells Fargo
-GMAC
-Citigroup
-Morgan Stanley
-Regions Financial
-State Street
Drop in CA jobless claims: State officials attributed the decline to fewer layoffs in the construction and service industries. A total of 73,577 initial claims were filed for the week, down about 10,000 from the week before. (OC Register)
Valley on the mend: CSUN economist William Roberts says the SFV economy is pulling out of the recession and may start to recover sooner than in other areas. That's because a pickup in home sales will supposedly drive consumer spending. (Daily News)
No Nielsen numbers: Primetime ratings have been delayed for three straight days this week. Nielsen blamed it on a computer bug, which prevented the Sunday night ratings from being properly reported. That led to delays with Monday's and Tuesday's ratings. From Variety:
The delays come at an inopportune time for the nets, which are slicing and dicing every bit of data in order to make some tough decisions on which bubble shows to bring back next fall and which ones to let fade away. It's likely particularly frustrating for creatives at shows like ABC sitcom "Better Off Ted," which aired its season finale Tuesday night -- yet a day later, the network and those behind the show had no idea how the episode performed.
Poker players sue casinos: The case centers on those jackpot promotions in which players can win thousands of dollars for losing (sometimes called "bad-beat jackpots"). The players allege that five area card clubs would not allow them to compete for the jackpots unless they played at tables that collected $1-per-pot fees, even though ads said no purchase was required. (LAT)
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.