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CA-BUSINESS Summary

10/10/08

Canada to buy up to C$25 billion in insured mortgages

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on Friday said that the Canadian government planned to buy up to C$25 billion in insured mortgages in a bid to help cushion the blow from the global financial crisis. The finance minister said the first operation, which is planned for October 16, would amount up to C$5 billion.

GE profit drops in line with cut forecast

BOSTON (Reuters) - General Electric Co's third-quarter profit slide matched its recently lowered forecast, as the global credit crunch continued to hammer its hefty finance arm. The company said on Friday that net profit fell 22 percent, weighed down by a 33 percent drop at GE Capital. Those declines outstripped growth at its infrastructure arms, which were buoyed by solid demand for electricity-generating turbines and jet engines.

Stock futures signal more losses amid global rout

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures fell on Friday, indicating that Wall Street would extend the global equity rout spurred by fears that tighter credit may send the global economy into recession as the appetite for risk ebbs. Investors unloaded stocks around the world, sending stock markets in Asia and Europe into a tailspin, a day after Wall Street sank for a seventh straight session.

Freefalling stocks pile pressure on G7 policymakers

LONDON (Reuters) - The world's economic powers faced huge pressure on Friday to devise drastic remedies to revive the banking system and end panic selling in financial markets. Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations meet in Washington against a backdrop of plunging shares after bank bailouts, liquidity injections and coordinated interest rate cuts failed to get funds flowing again.

September employment unexpectedly soars

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian employment unexpectedly soared by 107,000 jobs in September, according to Statistics Canada data on Friday that will give the ruling Conservatives powerful ammunition before next Tuesday's federal election. Most of the increase was in part-time employment but even the rise of 10,000 in full-time jobs exceeded the increase in total employment foreseen in a Reuters survey of analysts. It was the largest monthly gain at least since Statscan started collecting similar data in 1976.

Fearful investors dump stocks, bonds for cash

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe and Asia saw panic selling of stocks on Friday, knocking the benchmark world equity index to a 5-year trough, while oil fell to a one-year low as fears grew policymakers are not making enough efforts to contain the financial crisis. Government bonds in Japan and the euro zone -- usually safer assets which outperform in times of risk aversion -- fell as investors dashed to cash in any assets they have to gain access to capital.

Oil near $83 after fall to 12-month low

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil was near $83 a barrel after a fall to its lowest in 12 months on Friday, depressed by expectations global demand growth will shrink if the credit crisis pushes the world economy into recession. Economic weakness spurred the International Energy Agency (IEA) to cut its forecasts for world oil demand growth for 2008 to its lowest rate since 1993. [nLA72183]

U.S. weighs backing bank debt, deposits: reports

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The U.S. government is weighing guaranteeing billions of dollars in bank debt and temporarily insuring al U.S. bank deposits, in a bid to unfreeze bank lending and staunch massive losses in equity markets, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The New York Times reported that U.S. and British officials were converging on a similar blueprint to stem financial chaos involving injections of government money into banks in return for ownership stakes and guarantees of repayment for various types of loans.

Buffett pips Gates to top new Forbes list: report

(Reuters) - Warren Buffett has overtaken Bill Gates to become the richest American in the Forbes 400 list, Bloomberg said, citing a recalculated list to be published later this month. The magazine, in its October 27 issue, recalculates the effect of September's financial news on the wealthiest Americans, those who make up its Forbes 400 list, the agency said.

CEO says listeria in Toronto meat plant no surprise

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - Maple Leaf Foods Inc Chief Executive Michael McCain said on Thursday it was not surprising to find listeria bacteria lingering in a Maple Leaf meat plant in Toronto whose products have been linked to at least 20 deaths in a food-poisoning outbreak. "Listeria exists in 100 percent of all (meat) plants, and it is impossible to eliminate it," McCain told reporters, noting the company sanitizes its plants for six to eight hours a day to reduce the risk of the bacteria contaminating food at levels high enough to cause illness or death.

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