Links: 2008-10-30 [del.icio.us]

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• CBS posts $12.5 billion loss with writedown – Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) – CBS Corp reported a massive quarterly loss on Thursday, as a rapidly deteriorating advertising market tarnished the TV and radio broadcaster’s results and the economic crisis prompted it to take a $14 billion non-cash charge.
• Global stocks rise on optimism as oil slides – Reuters HONG KONG (Reuters) – Most Asian shares fell on Friday as concerns over the global economy and caution ahead of a Bank of Japan rate decision halted a powerful three-day rally, sending safer havens such as regional bonds and the yen higher.
• Europe’s banks show more financial frailty FRANKFURT/OSLO (Reuters) – Two of Europe’s big banks used newly relaxed EU accounting rules to boost their profits on Thursday while others took state cash and a top executive said he saw no light at the end of the financial crisis tunnel.
• Exxon breaks record for profit, yet again – CNN Money NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Exxon Mobil Corp. set a quarterly profit record for a U.S. company Thursday, surging past analyst estimates
• American Express to cut 10% of work force, or 7,000 jobs – MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) – American Express on Thursday became the latest iconic American firm to announce major layoffs triggered by the worst economic crisis in seven decades, unveiling plans to slash 7,000 employees.
• Money Rates Fall on Fed Cut, Emerging-Market Dollar Swap Lines – Bloomberg The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for three- month loans in dollars slid 23 basis points to 3.19 percent today, its 14th consecutive drop, according to the British Bankers’ Association. The overnight dollar rate tumbled 41 basis points to 0.73 percent, the lowest level since at least January 2001.
• India’s Assam Hit by 12 Bombings; 50 Die; 300 Hurt – Bloomberg Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — More than 50 people were killed and about 300 injured in 12 bombings across the eastern Indian state of Assam, the scene of clashes between ethnic groups.
• U.S. Economy Shrank in the Third Quarter as Spending Dropped – Bloomberg Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter by the most since the 2001 recession as the record two- decade expansion in consumer spending came to an end. Gross domestic product contracted at a less-than-forecast 0.3 percent annual pace from July to September, according to a Commerce Department report today in Washington.
• Global stocks, euro rally on emerging market gains – Reuters LONDON (Reuters) – World stocks and the euro rallied on Thursday, driven by bargain-hunting and sweeping gains in emerging markets after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and opened swap lines to four developing economies.
• PNC to save billions from tax ruling: report – Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) – PNC Financial Services Group Inc. could save billions of dollars in federal taxes from its purchase last week of National City Corp. , the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing tax experts.
• Japan unveils new stimulus plan – BBC News Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso unveils his second economic stimulus package in as many months.
• Layoffs Sweep From Wall St. Across New York
  Area – Deal Book A broad array of businesses across the New York region have begun eliminating jobs by the thousands as the pain of the financial crisis spreads well beyond Wall Street, The New York Times’s Patrick McGeehan reported.
• Regulators Approve Delta-Northwest Merger – Deal Book Delta Air Lines completed its $2.8 billion acquisition of Northwest Airlines on Wednesday, turning two of America’s airlines into the world’s biggest carrier. Delta and Northwest closed the deal just hours after the Justice Department said it had no antitrust objections.
• Hungarian Stocks Ride News of I.M.F. Aid – Deal Book Hungarian stocks and the currency soared Wednesday after the country secured more than $25 billion in backing from global institutions led by the International Monetary Fund, The New York Times’s David Jolly reported.
• Trump Needs A Bailout… – Immobilienblase At least in Chicago. This is one prominent example that the problems in the commercial real estate market are growing rapidly on a daily basis.
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Benoit Mandelbrot on the Credit Crisis – Online NewsHour | PBS Video interview on Online News Hour at PBS.
• Paul Kedrosky: Liquidity Then and Now – Paul Kedrosky Nice Bloomberg chart of how market liquidity has trended over recent years, with things currently remaining highly restrictive in historical terms.