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(CNN) — Ford Motor Company saw an increase in July domestic sales — the first monthly sales gain for a major automaker since the financial crisis began, a Ford official told CNN Radio on Sunday.Ford will release its official U.S. sales figures on Monday.While details were not immediately available, Ken Czubay, the automaker’s U.S. sales and marketing chief, said retail and vehicle sales increased over July of last year. The government’s new Cash for Clunkers program — which encourages consumers to trade in older, less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that get better fuel economy — may have given Ford the boost it needed.0:00
/1:00How to kill a car engine”We’ve been looking at our forecasting model and we thought that as a result of President Obama’s stimulus actions, and basically the consumer getting his feet on the ground a little bit more, that in the fall of this year we’d start to see an increase in business,” Czubay said.”In June it was starting to firm up for Ford Motor Company (F, Fortune 500) a little better than our competitors but in July, in the beginning of the month, it firmed up and then continued to firm up,” Czubay said. “And then, of course, what is known as the Cash for Clunkers program started a week ago last Friday and frankly there was a very good response on the part of the American consumer.”Dealers have told Ford executives part of the reason for the automaker’s success is that the company did not take federal stimulus money. Czubay, meanwhile, contended that Ford is simply offering better products.”They get excellent fuel economy, often times best in class … Frankly the quality is vastly improved,” he said.While Ford will be in the spotlight Monday with the release of its July sales figures, other automakers and dealerships are also enjoying benefits from the Cash for Clunkers program, according to John McEleney, president of the National Automobile Dealers Association.”We’re seeing customers that have never bought a new car before, probably for economic reasons, that now are finding it very affordable to buy a new car with a warranty, so that’s kind of exciting,” he told CNN Radio”Whether it’s GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota (TM), Honda (HMC), or Mazda — dealers in all segments of the country, almost without exception, are reporting significant sales. I think dealers sold almost as many cars in the last week of the month, in many cases, as they probably sold in the first three weeks of July,” McEleney said.–CNN Radio’s Barbara Hall contributed to this report.

Source:CNN

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) — Verizon Wireless is dialing back on its exclusivity agreements with handset makers after pressure from U.S. lawmakers and smaller carriers.The biggest U.S. mobile service said on Friday it will limit exclusivity periods with cellphone makers to six months and then allow the country’s smallest wireless service providers to sell the devices.The move comes after reports that the U.S. Department of Justice was taking a preliminary look into whether U.S. operators had violated antitrust laws by obtaining exclusive deals to sell specific phones.Exclusivity deals are common among the biggest U.S. carriers but have recently faced strong opposition from small, rural carriers, which say they lack the clout to make deals to carry the most popular advanced phones.The iPhone has drawn such deals into the spotlight because AT&T Inc. (T, Fortune 500), the second biggest U.S. wireless service, has had exclusive U.S. rights with Apple Inc. (AAPL, Fortune 500) since 2007.In an apparent effort to preempt any regulatory changes, Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications (VZ, Fortune 500) handoff Group (VOD), sent a letter to major lawmakers on July 17 offering to limit exclusivity.Verizon said the offer would apply to carriers with 500,000 or fewer subscribers. However, Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said it applies to all “small” operators with more subscribers without giving a definition. Cellular South, a vocal activist against phone exclusivity deals would be able to avail of the offer even though it has roughly 800,000 customers, he said.However, the offer will not extend to larger companies such as U.S. Cellular Corp., which has about 6 million customers and has been a vocal opponent of the practice, Nelson said. U.S. Cellular did not immediately comment.0:00
/1:58Money saving cell phones”Effective immediately for small wireless carriers … any new exclusivity arrangement we enter with handset makers will last no longer than six months — for all manufacturers and all devices,” Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell Mc Adam said in the letter.He said 24 small wireless carriers had asked Verizon to eliminate its long-term exclusive handset agreements with LPG and Sam sung in February. The company was now expanding that idea to all handsets.The letter was sent to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, and committee members John Kerry of Massachusetts and Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas. The letter was also sent to Representatives Rick Boucher, Henry Wax man, Joe Barton and Cliff Stearns.A spokeswoman for the Justice Department was not immediately available for comment. The DJ’s preliminary examination is believed to be focused on deals like AT&T’s with Apple and Sprint’s (S, Fortune 500) with Palm’s Pre cellphone. Another is Verizon’s deal with LPG for its Voyager phone.AT&T spokesman Mark Siege declined to comment on how it might respond to Verizon’s move, but defended exclusive deals.”Without question exclusive handset deals have given America’s wireless customers big benefits, including more choices, lower prices, and a level of innovation that is the best in the world,” he said in an emailed statement.Sprint was not immediately available for comment nor was a spokesperson for the U.S. telecom regulator, the Federal Communications Commission.Boucher, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, who met with Mc Adam on Friday, praised Verizon’s actions.”Verizon has taken an important and forward-looking step. I think it does ensure that smaller carriers get rapid access to the latest devices,” Boucher told Reuters.Smaller telecommunications firms and consumer advocacy groups have also complained that bigger companies use their size to squeeze out smaller rivals by refusing roaming deals, or block applications like the Sky Web-based phone service.

Source:CNN

NEW YORK: America should attack global warming by … painting rooftops and road surfaces white.Seriously. No kidding.Among those promoting the idea is Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a big-thinking physicist who has a bully pulpit and influence over billions in research and stimulus funds.Chu spoke about the idea at a London conference last month while Congress was busy hashing out a complex, 1,400-page bill to cut greenhouse gases.Whitening the world’s roofs and roads would have the same effect on global warming as removing all the world’s cars for 11 years, he said.”So I’d like to appeal to all people — we should convert to white limousines,” he said.Chu was joking about the limousines, of course. But his proposal for addressing climate change is genuine.It sounds kooky, but environmentalists say the idea is legit.They say recent research shows it’s even more beneficial than previously thought. Moreover the Energy Department, flush with 38 billion in stimulus money, is in a position to make it happen.Chu’s comments were based on recent research from Arthur Rosenfeld, a former colleague of Chu’s at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The 11 million cars number is meant to be illustrative — no one really expects all roofs and all roads will be painted white.But for new projects and some retrofits, it does make sense.A white roof has three benefits:It keeps buildings cooler, reducing the amount of energy required for air conditioning.It reduces the so-call “heat island” effect, the heating up of entire urban areas which then causes other buildings in the vicinity to heat up, whether they are in direct contact with the sun or not.A white roof or road will actually reflect the sun’s rays back into space, keeping the atmosphere cooler.”This is a great idea,” said Lane Burt, an energy policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We always knew it was good, and now we’re just just starting to realize it’s even better than we previously thought.”The Associated General Contractors of America, while saying costs for white roofs vary greatly, recommends them as one energy-efficient upgrade. The Energy Department said a white roof can knock 10% to 20% off a building’s electric bill. To that end, it is encouraging anyone replacing or building a roof to take advantage of 2 billion in tax credits available under the stimulus plan.A spokesman said the department is looking to use more of its stimulus money to promote “cool roofs,” which don’t have to be white and could include silver reflective paint or even rooftop gardens.As for white roads, the spokesman said the department isn’t actively promoting them, but said an effort may be made to educate communities on the benefits of using cement-colored asphalt.The Energy Department’s recent push into innovative conservation measures and renewable energy research is largely credited to its current head. Chu, with a Nobel Prize to his name, is former head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a strong advocate of renewable energy and conservation.This is a marked contrast from previous energy secretaries, who often came from business or political backgrounds and had little experience in the energy industry itself, let alone the scientific community that many now hope will help the country move away from fossil fuels. President Reagan’s first energy secretary tried hard to abolish his own department. 0:00
/3:44Kennedy on Obama, climate bill”We now have a secretary who wants to go pedal-to-the-metal on efficiency,” said Burt. “That’s a significant difference.”The department is pursuing several other projects, both by doing primarily research itself and awarding grants to companies working in the space. They include computerized control systems to make buildings even more efficient; longer-lasting and cheaper batteries for electric cars; thinner and cheaper solar panels; biofuels that are not made from food crops, and technology to capture and bury carbon dioxide from coal plants.

Source:CNN

NEW YORK: America should attack global warming by … painting rooftops and road surfaces white.Seriously. No kidding.Among those promoting the idea is Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a big-thinking physicist who has a bully pulpit and influence over billions in research and stimulus funds.Chu spoke about the idea at a London conference last month while Congress was busy hashing out a complex, 1,400-page bill to cut greenhouse gases.Whitening the world’s roofs and roads would have the same effect on global warming as removing all the world’s cars for 11 years, he said.”So I’d like to appeal to all people — we should convert to white limousines,” he said.Chu was joking about the limousines, of course. But his proposal for addressing climate change is genuine.It sounds kooky, but environmentalists say the idea is legit.They say recent research shows it’s even more beneficial than previously thought. Moreover the Energy Department, flush with 38 billion in stimulus money, is in a position to make it happen.Chu’s comments were based on recent research from Arthur Rosenfeld, a former colleague of Chu’s at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The 11 million cars number is meant to be illustrative — no one really expects all roofs and all roads will be painted white.But for new projects and some retrofits, it does make sense.A white roof has three benefits:It keeps buildings cooler, reducing the amount of energy required for air conditioning.It reduces the so-call “heat island” effect, the heating up of entire urban areas which then causes other buildings in the vicinity to heat up, whether they are in direct contact with the sun or not.A white roof or road will actually reflect the sun’s rays back into space, keeping the atmosphere cooler.”This is a great idea,” said Lane Burt, an energy policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We always knew it was good, and now we’re just just starting to realize it’s even better than we previously thought.”The Associated General Contractors of America, while saying costs for white roofs vary greatly, recommends them as one energy-efficient upgrade. The Energy Department said a white roof can knock 10% to 20% off a building’s electric bill. To that end, it is encouraging anyone replacing or building a roof to take advantage of 2 billion in tax credits available under the stimulus plan.A spokesman said the department is looking to use more of its stimulus money to promote “cool roofs,” which don’t have to be white and could include silver reflective paint or even rooftop gardens.As for white roads, the spokesman said the department isn’t actively promoting them, but said an effort may be made to educate communities on the benefits of using cement-colored asphalt.The Energy Department’s recent push into innovative conservation measures and renewable energy research is largely credited to its current head. Chu, with a Nobel Prize to his name, is former head of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a strong advocate of renewable energy and conservation.This is a marked contrast from previous energy secretaries, who often came from business or political backgrounds and had little experience in the energy industry itself, let alone the scientific community that many now hope will help the country move away from fossil fuels. President Reagan’s first energy secretary tried hard to abolish his own department. 0:00
/3:44Kennedy on Obama, climate bill”We now have a secretary who wants to go pedal-to-the-metal on efficiency,” said Burt. “That’s a significant difference.”The department is pursuing several other projects, both by doing primarily research itself and awarding grants to companies working in the space. They include computerized control systems to make buildings even more efficient; longer-lasting and cheaper batteries for electric cars; thinner and cheaper solar panels; biofuels that are not made from food crops, and technology to capture and bury carbon dioxide from coal plants.

Source:CNN

PARIS (Reuters) — Major central banks with interest rates close to zero must keep them there for a substantial period of time and the European Central Bank, must act soon to lower rates further, the OECD said on Wednesday.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in its latest economic outlook that the U.S. Federal Reserve should not raise interest rates before 2011.The Bank of Japan should probably keep rates at 0.1% beyond the end of 2010, the report said.”The bleak growth outlook argues for using additional room, where it still exists, for interest rates cuts and warrants keeping exceptionally low policy rates for a substantial period of time,” the OECD said.”It is also important for central banks to communicate this explicitly so as to affect interest rates at longer maturities.” The OECD said the ECB, which has cut its principal rate to 1.0 percent, should exhaust “remaining scope for cutting the rate on the main refinancing operations sooner rather than later.”0:00
/3:45Eyeing the Fed’s every moveThe Bank of England and the Bank of Canada should also keep the rate as close to zero as possible up to the end of 2010, it said.The OECD said that concerns of potential inflationary impacts of central bank intervention was overblown. Nevertheless, unconventional measures introduced by central banks in response to the crisis would eventually need to be withdrawn.”They need to be gradually scaled back as conditions in financial markets normalize, arguably even before central banks start raising policy rates,” it said.Governments would also need to send a message to financial markets that a trend of soaring debt and deficits would eventually be reversed.”New tremors in the financial area cannot be excluded…and adverse bond market reactions to the sharp increase in government indebtedness also represent a downside risk,” the report said.The recent rise in bond market yields was not a problem but any further rise would raise concerns, the OECD said.”What we are worried about would be further rises in the bond yields which could risk the recovery,” OECD chief economist Jorgen Elmeskov told Reuters.”I think it is certainly a time to start thinking about exits and to make announcements, even conditional ones as regards exit from fiscal stimulus.”Elmeskov said currencies were no longer a point of concern on the economic horizon.”Exchange rates have been the dogs that didn’t bark during this crisis,” he said.”We had a world financial crisis and there were limited effects on exchange rates, except for the appreciation of the Japanese yen.”He said the weaker dollar was not a cause for concern.”It’s not something to be worried about,” he said.Asked whether he thought there was a chance of a weaker dollar, he said: “The projection that we have is one where the US is emerging from the recession a little earlier than the euro area, which does not really support that argument.”The report was based on an assumption of oil at 65.”If we run a model it tells us that the level of the oil price 50 to 55 would be reasonable at the moment,” he said.”On that basis we’re not too unhappy with a price of around 65 a barrel.”Oil slid back below 69 a barrel on Wednesday morning.

Source:CNN

WASHINGTON: President Obama offered a passionate defense of the Federal Reserve on Tuesday, explaining his proposal to put the central bank in charge of monitoring broad risks facing the financial system.Obama, speaking at a midday press conference, defended the performance of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke after the financial crisis. Bernanke has done a “fine job” and “performed well,” the president said. In addition, Obama answered criticism, some of it resonating from members of his own party in the Senate, that giving the Fed authority to monitor systemic risk would endow it with too much power.”If you look at what we’ve proposed, we are not so much expanding the Fed’s power as we are focusing what the Fed needs to do, to prevent the kinds of crises that are happening,” Obama said. Obama last week presented an 88-page list of proposals to revamp parts of the system that regulate financial firms and products. On Tuesday, Obama said that one of the reform proposals actually removes one Fed power: enforcing consumer protection. He wants to create a new agency to enforce consumer protection of financial products like mortgages and credit cards.However, under Obama’s plan, the Fed would be charged with making sure giant banks and insurance companies have enough capital to back up the big financial bets they’re making.Republicans and some key Democrats, such as Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., are still perturbed that the Fed didn’t do enough to monitor risk among the banks it already had under its watch.0:00
/5:01The Fed’s heavier handObama on Tuesday acknowledged the criticism. He said even the Fed would be the “first to acknowledge in dealing with systemic risk and anticipating systemic risk, they didn’t do everything that needed to be done.”But Obama said he believed the Fed did better than most other regulators before the crisis started.”I would say that all financial regulators didn’t do everything that needed to be done to prevent the crisis that happened,” he said. “That’s why we put forward the boldest set of reforms in financial regulations in 75 years — because there were too many gaps.”But the president went further in explaining why he wants Bernanke to be the one in charge of systemic risk. He said he believes the Fed has “the most technical expertise and the best track record in terms of doing that.”

Source:CNN

NEW YORK: Shares of Matrixx Initiatives Inc. plunged more than 55% Tuesday after the government said some Zicam products can permanently damage users’ sense of smell.In a press release, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised consumers to stop use of three over-the-counter Zicam Cold Remedy products: nasal gel, nasal swabs and the discontinued “Kids Size” swabs.The FDA warned the three products could cause anosmia, the loss of sense of smell, which “may be long-lasting or permanent.”After the release, shares of Zicam manufacturer Matrixx Initiatives Inc. (MTXX) plummeted 55.5% to 8.56 .”We are concerned that consumers may unknowingly use a product that could cause serious harm, and therefore we are advising them not to use these products for any reason.” said Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a prepared statement.

Source:CNN

OECD says global recession easing
The pace of decline of the world’s major economies is slowing, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).The composite leading indicators (CLI) index for the 30 countries in the OECD rose 0.5 point in April, but was still 8.3 points lower than April 2008. “It is still too early to assess whether it is a temporary or a more durable turning point,” the OECD said. The CLI index for the UK rose by 0.7 point, and the US was up by 0.2 point. In the eurozone, the CLI index increased by 0.8 point, but was down 6.3 points from the same month last year. ‘Reduced pace’The global economy is poised for its worst year since World War II as the major economies have fallen into severe recession. The organisation said countries not included in the OECD were still declining at a fast pace, with the exception of China and India. Both those countries showed similar signs of easing to the US and Europe. The data points to a “reduced pace of deterioration in most of the OECD economies with stronger signals of a possible trough in Canada, France, Italy and the United Kingdom”, the OECD said. World stock markets have recovered from their lows in March on hopes for a global recovery, based mainly on survey data of consumer and business confidence.
Source:BBC

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) — Biogen Idec Inc. officials told shareholders Wednesday they did not yet know if Carl Icahn — who has called for the biotechnology company to be split in two — had won seats on the board.But Alexander Denner, a representative of the activist billionaire investor, told reporters after the company’s shareholder meeting that Icahn Partners’ proxy solicitors believed it had secured enough votes to claim two of four seats it had sought on the 13-member board.Icahn, who owns a 5.6% stake in the company, wants the board to consider breaking it into two parts, one focused on neurology and the other targeting cancer treatments. This is the second year in a row he has waged a proxy battle against the Cambridge, Mass.-based company, one of the oldest and largest biotechs.Biogen Chairman Bruce Ross — who had recessed the meeting for three hours saying that some shareholders had not yet had the chance to vote — called it back to order at 2 p.m. Eastern time for less than five minutes.”Later in June we will receive the final report of the inspector of elections,” Ross told shareholders remaining at the meeting. The group appeared smaller than the audience of 100 who sat through the meeting’s two-hour opening session.Icahn himself did not appear at the meeting.Denner declined to say what margin Icahn Associates believed its nominees had won by.Biogen spokeswoman Naomi Aoki said the company was still tallying the final vote count and intended to release the total “as soon as possible,” but not necessarily Wednesday.Biogen shares were up 1.15, or 2.2%, at 53.47 in late afternoon on the Nasdaq, off an earlier high at 54.50.’They ran out the door’After making a brief statement, Ross and the rest of Biogen’s board and top executives filed quickly out of the room, leaving Denner and Richard Mulligan — the other Icahn-backed director that Denner said had enough votes to be elected — standing in the theater Biogen had rented for the meeting in Cambridge.”I actually would have liked to talk to them, but they ran out the door,” Denner said.He said he did not want Icahn’s ability to work with Biogen to be hurt.”We really hope to work with them as a group and do the best for shareholders,” Denner said. “I know a number of board members personally on the Biogen board and they’re good people … their specific actions here don’t reflect the general board.”Last year, Icahn had sought to sell the company, and his slate of directors was voted down by a ratio of 75 to 25.”Whether they end up with a couple seats or not, I’m not sure they’re going to have material impact on the way this company is run,” said Eric Schmidt, analyst for Cowen and Co.During the morning portion of the meeting, Denner said that the Icahn group believed it could help Biogen grow.”Our objective really is to bring this to be the next Genentech, if you will, to bring it to the next level in terms of market cap, in terms of its reach within the biotech industry, in terms of the respect it gets in the biotech industry,” Denner said. “It should be a larger company and I think it can be over time.”Genentech last year was acquired by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG in a 46.8 billion deal.Icahn last year engineered the 6.5 billion sale of biotechnology company ImClone Systems to Eli Lilly & Co (LLY, Fortune 500).”The results of the company speak for itself, its ability to generate earnings and cash flow, its ability to do so with a real consistency,” Director Brian Posner said, as part of Biogen’s response to Denner.While some shareholders called on the company to listen to Icahn, others cautioned against taking his advice, recalling how the famed corporate raider in the late 1980s played a role in downsizing now-defunct airline TWA.”I saw what he did to TWA,” said Ray Rogers, a shareholder and labor activist. “If he would do the same thing to this company, you wouldn’t want him involved in this company.”

Source:CNN

NEW YORK: General Motors Corp. said Tuesday that it has signed a deal to sell its Hummer truck unit, just one day after filing for bankruptcy.But GM (GM, Fortune 500) would not identify the buyer nor name a price, saying only that the deal would close by the end of September.0:00
/02:48GM CEO: We will get through this”I’m confident that Hummer will thrive globally under its new ownership,” said Troy Clarke, president of GM North America, in a press release. “And for GM, this sale continues to accelerate the reinvention of GM into a leaner, more focused, and more cost-competitive automaker.”As part of the deal, some GM plants will continue to build the Hummer brand for the new owner, at least for a while. The company said its Shreveport, La. plant will keep building Hummers for the new owner until at least 2010.The Hummer and other large vehicles have been a drag on the U.S. auto industry since fuel prices spiked in 2008 and the recession deepened. However, the Hummer is still popular in some of international markets.GM filed for bankruptcy Monday, just hours after Chrysler’s bankruptcy process cleared a hurdle when a federal judge approved its asset sale.The GM bankruptcy was hailed by President Obama, who wants a complete overhaul of the U.S. auto industry, even though the Chapter 11 filing is expected to result in the loss of 20,000 jobs and the closure of a dozen facilities.Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) was financial adviser in GM’s Hummer deal.

Source:CNN