GM posts huge loss, will offer buyouts: 100% of 74,000 workers ...

The operating of the factory sector edged down to 79.7%, down from a peak of 81.4% in July 2007. The decline in the operating rate is indicative of the absence of inflationary pressures.

Import Prices Present a Problem

The total import price index rose 1.7% in January, reflecting a 5.5% increase in prices of petroleum and petroleum related products and a 0.6% increase in price of non-petroleum imports. Excluding fuel, the import price index advanced 0.6% in January. The import price index excluding fuel was up 3.3% on a year-to-year basis in January. A pass through of these higher prices is one of the concerns the FOMC. The deteriorating trend of the dollar is largely the culprit behind this upward trend of import prices excluding fuel. The trade weighted value of the dollar and the year-to-year change in the import price index excluding fuel show a strong negative correlation (see chart 4). read more

Kotak To Raise $1 Billion Infrastructure Fund

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) today announced that the Board of Directors has elected John C. Sites Jr. to the Board. Sites will serve on the Board's Housing and Community Finance and Risk Policy and Capital Committees. Sites becomes the ninth new director elected to the company's Board since 2004.

Sites, 55, is a consultant to Wexford Capital, LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut that manages a series of affiliated hedge funds and private equity funds. He is also a General Partner of Rock Creek Partners II, Ltd., a private equity fund of Rock Creek Capital Advisors, an investment and advisory firm. Sites' previous employment also includes Daystar Special Situations Fund, LP, as a General Partner from 1996 to 2006. read more