Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.banks From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: banks Thu, Apr 30 1992 Date: Thu, 30 Apr 92 05:41:14 EDT Message-ID: 04-30 0000 DECISIONLINE: Banking & Economy USA TODAY Update April 30, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network EARNINGS NEWS SENDS DOW HIGHER: Good earnings news from Ford helped push stocks higher Wednesday. The market also reacted well to details of the Fed's quarterly refunding next month. The Dow Jones industrial average surged 25.26 points to 3333.18. Broader indexes also rose. Advancing issues swamped decliners 1,090 to 602 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume was 207 million shares. FORD REPORTS PROFIT: Ford Motor said Wednesday it had a profit profitable quarter for the first time since the third quarter of 1990. Ford earned $338 million on worldwide operations in the first quarter - a $1.2 billion improvement over last year's first-quarter loss of $884 million. A good sign for the nation's No. 2 automaker was that it's U.S. operations earned $179 million last quarter. PERSONAL INCOMES UP: Personal incomes, including wages, salaries and investment profits, rose 0.6% last month from February, to a $5 trillion annual rate, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. But consumer spending rose only 0.3%. Workers chose to save rather than spend in March. Savings rose to an annualized $233 billion from $197 billion in February. CONSUMER SPENDING SLOWS: A slowdown in consumer spending, which rose just 0.3% in March after a 0.8% gain in February and a 1.1% gain in January, was blamed on colder-than-usual March weather and the Easter holiday falling in April rather than March this year. "I'm not worried. April will look quite bright," says Michael Penzer, senior economist at BankAmerica in San Francisco. TREASURY DETAILS AUCTION: The Treasury Department said Wednesday it will sell $36 billion in notes and bonds at its quarterly refunding auction next week. The Treasury will raise $8.5 billion in cash and use the remaining $27.5 billion to pay maturing government securities. Tuesday, $15 billion in three-year notes will be sold; Wednesday, $11 billion in 10-year notes; and Thursday, $10 billion in 30-year bonds. LESS MONEY GOES INTO FUNDS: The flow of money into stock mutual funds slowed in March, but still remained strong. Stock funds attracted $6.7 billion last month, the Investment Company Institute said Wednesday. March's inflow, the lowest since November, wasn't far below February's record $7.5 billion. Bond funds attracted $7.2 billion. All funds took in $13.9 billion, vs. $15.7 billion in March. CD YIELDS MIXED: Yields on bank certificates of deposit were mixed in the week ending Wednesday, according to Bank Rate Monitor. Average yield: Six-month, 3.84% vs. 3.85%; 1-year, 4.12% vs. 4.12%; 2 1:2-year, 5.04% vs. 5.02%; 5-year, 6.22% vs. 6.19%. GONZALES PUSHES FUNDING: Housing Banking Committee Chairman Henry Gonzales, D-Texas, who said Wednesday, "The cleanup has to be done," is pushing additional funding for the Resolution Trust Corp. back to the floor of the House. Despite causing $70 million to be added to the cost of the savings-and-loan bailout, Congress has refused to provide additional funding to close failed thrifts. RTC STOPS CLOSING THRIFTS: The Resolution Trust Corp. has stopped closing sick thrifts because of lack of money. The RTC closes sick S&Ls and pays off their depositors with taxpayers' money, but Congress has cut off funding. The RTC says every day of delay drives up the bailout's cost $2.5 million because sick thrifts pile up losses as long as they're open. Expected total cost of the bailout: $200 billion. JUMP IN PRICES UNEXPLAINED: Oil futures traders were looking for reasons for Wednesday's jump in crude prices to their highest levels of the year. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in June settled at $20.77 per barrel, up 36 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the highest close since oil for next month delivery finished at $20.76 a barrel on Dec. 4. DOW JONES OPENS ON UPSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Thursday at 3333.18, after closing up 25.26 Wednesday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 226.58, up 1.46. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 385.78, up 2.74. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 569.94, up 9.61. DOLLAR OPENS UP: The dollar opens mixed on foreign markets Thursday. It opens at 0.5647 British pounds, up from 0.5635; 5.5910 French francs, up from 5.5790; 133.50 Japanese yen, up from 133.10; and 1.6553 German marks, up from 1.6544. (As of 3 p.m. Wednesday. Source: First American Bank of New York.) 24-HOUR TELEPHONE INFORMATION: USA TODAY Money Hot Line. 95 cents a minute. 1-900-555-5555. Banking & Economy Editor: Jason P. Smith. (919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM