Archive for July 24th, 2009

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Guaranty Financial Group Inc , the second-largest publicly traded bank in Texas, said it will probably fail after loan losses and writedowns left it “critically” short of capital.The bank, whose investors include Carl Icahn and Robert Rowling, is in talks with at least one investor group for a possible recapitalization,… »

NEW YORK: New York state regulators shut down a small regional bank Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said, marking the 58th bank in the United States to fail in 2009.Waterford Village Bank, of Clarence, N.Y., was shut down, and the FDIC was named the receiver. Evans Bank, N.A., headquartered in Angola, N.Y., took over… »

NEW YORK: As a growing number of jobless Americans default on their mortgages, the Obama administration is considering new ways to help them avoid foreclosure.Among the options being floated are giving the unemployed money, in the form of grants or loans, to cover their mortgage payments or allowing them to remain in their homes as… »

NEW YORK: Americans may be saving more nowadays, but they certainly aren’t getting paid for it.Over the past year, interest rates offered by banks on a wide variety of accounts have steadily declined, only to sink to their lowest levels in years in recent weeks.A survey by Bankrate.com published this week revealed, for example, that… »

NEW YORK (Fortune) — Regional banks can no longer ignore the elephant in the room — their exposure to the commercial real estate bust.Though housing markets remain weak, analysts expect credit problems over the next year to center on commercial real estate — mortgages on office and apartment buildings and shopping malls, as well as… »

NEW YORK: Question 1. How are people able to get their student loans down to 2%? Two of my children have student loans and we’d be very interested to know this. Thank you very much. — Diane, North Dakota We got a LOT of e-mail from folks wondering the same thing. If your children have… »

NEW YORK (Fortune) — The legal setbacks just keep coming for News America Marketing, the 1 billion unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. that does supermarket in-store promotions and produces newspaper circulars. After settling for an undisclosed amount with competitor Floorgraphics in March, the company yesterday was ordered by a Michigan court to pay competitor… »

BRUSSELS (Reuters) — Microsoft has offered to let users choose their own browser and provide more interoperability information to third parties in a bid to resolve two antitrust cases, EU regulators said on Friday.The European Commission charged the U.S. software company on Jan. 15 with seeking to thwart rivals by bundling the company’s Web browser… »

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Strong corporate results have done wonders for market confidence this week, pushing investors to ditch the safe-haven dollar for higher-yielding currencies, but the greenback may be due for a modest rebound in the week ahead.The second quarter has been kinder to U.S. companies than many had expected, with the likes of… »

NEW YORK: I want to believe that this earnings-fueled stock rally of the past few weeks is for real. But when you look more closely at corporate results, you have to scratch your head and wonder — just like the old lady in the famous Wendy’s commercials from the 1980s — where’s the beef?In this… »