Investing

May 19 2009 -- New York -- Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and MSCI Inc. (NYSE: MXB) announced today that Morgan Stanley's previously announced secondary offering of all of its remaining 27,708,653 shares of MSCI Inc. class A common stock, par value $0.01 per share, priced at $21.50 per share. MSCI Inc. will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the class A common stock.

"We are pleased to complete the separation of MSCI from Morgan Stanley, which we began in 2007," said John J. Mack, Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley. "As we said then, we believe this transaction will unlock value for Morgan Stanley's shareholders as well as release capital to redeploy into our core activities including institutional securities, asset management and global wealth management."    » read more »

Company’s plans to pay down debt and enhance cash flow progressing ahead of schedule

Midland, MI - May 20, 2009 -- The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) announced today that it has signed two separate sale agreements totaling in excess of $900 million as part of its de-leveraging plan designed to pay down debt, preserve financial flexibility, streamline its portfolio and improve cash flow. Sales of non-strategic assets announced so far this year now total in excess of $2.6 billion, well ahead of the Company's original divestment plan.    » read more »

CHICAGO, May 21 -- CME Group today announced the launch of clearing services for two new electricity swap futures contracts, scheduled to launch on June 7 for trade date June 8. Clearing services will be available through CME ClearPort®, a set of flexible clearing services open to over the counter (OTC) market participants to substantially mitigate counterparty risk and provide capital efficiencies across asset classes. These contracts are listed for trading by NYMEX through CME ClearPort, and are subject to NYMEX rules and regulations.

The swap futures contracts and their commodity codes will be: PJM PECO Zone 5 MW peak calendar money day-ahead LMP (4N) and PMJ PECO Zone 5 MW off-peak calendar month day-ahead LMP (4P).    » read more »

Crapo-Johnson bill defers taxes on mutual fund investments

May 20, 2009 -- Washington, DC. – People investing for retirement through the use of mutual funds should not pay capital gains taxes until those shares are sold, according to Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota).

To keep retirement savings earning more money for a longer period of time, Crapo and Johnson have introduced the GROWTH (Generating Retirement Ownership Through Long-Term Holding) Act.    » read more »

Signs of Exuberance Appear in Rush to Emerging Markets

NEW YORK and LONDON, May 20 -- Bullishness in global markets has reached new heights with seven out of 10 investors who predict the world economy will improve in the next twelve months, according to the Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for May.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., May 19, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that a federal court has approved the distribution of more than $843 million to harmed investors in the American International Group, Inc. from a Fair Fund that the SEC established after the company’s settlement of an SEC enforcement action for accounting fraud.

The AIG Fair Fund’s court-appointed distribution agent estimates that checks will be mailed to more than 257,000 affected AIG investors within the next few months.    » read more »

ATLANTA, May 19 -- The Home Depot, a home improvement retailer, today reported first quarter of fiscal 2009 net earnings of $514 million, or $0.30 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $356 million, or $0.21 per diluted share, in the same period in fiscal 2008.    » read more »

New York, May 19, 2009 - The Board of Directors of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) today declared a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share on the outstanding shares of the corporation's common stock. The dividend is payable on July 31, 2009, to stockholders of record at the close of business on July 6, 2009.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., May 18, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged employment search provider Monster Worldwide, Inc. for its multi-year scheme to secretly backdate stock options granted to thousands of Monster officers, directors and employees.

Monster agreed to pay a $2.5 million penalty to settle the SEC's charges that the company defrauded investors by granting backdated, undisclosed "in-the-money" stock options while failing to record required non-cash charges for option-related compensation expenses.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., May 15, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the start of a $267 million Fair Fund distribution to mutual funds and mutual fund shareholders who were harmed by late trading and market timing that occurred through Bear Stearns, which was charged by the SEC in a 2006 enforcement action.

Today's disbursement of more than $216 million will go to approximately 761,000 shareholders who were harmed by the wrongdoing, and to the asset bases of more than 1,000 affected mutual funds. The Bear Stearns Fair Fund will ultimately return more than $267 million to harmed mutual funds and shareholders before the end of this year.    » read more »

Scheme Also Put Municipal Employee Paychecks at Risk

Washington, D.C., May 14, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two New Jersey men with orchestrating a fraudulent scheme that sold unregistered securities and commingled investor funds with their payroll service used by New Jersey municipalities and small businesses.

The SEC alleges that Paul G. Bultmeyer and Arthur J. Piacentini carried out the fraud through their firms Sherbourne Capital Management, Ltd. and Sherbourne Financial, Ltd. by offering and selling so-called "Prime Certificates of Participation" they advertised in print publications as well as on Craigslist and other Internet sites.    » read more »

Washington, D.C., May 14, 2009 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed rule amendments to substantially increase protections for investors who entrust their money to investment advisers.    » read more »

WILMINGTON, Del., May 14, 2009 – A total of 98 people attended Ford Motor Company's [NYSE: F] 54th Annual Meeting of Shareholders today at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware.

Preliminary voting results indicate that a total of 1,945,535,622 shares of common stock and 70,852,076 shares of Class B stock were represented at the annual meeting in person or by proxy. These shares represent 90.03% percent of the votes that could be cast.

Each director received at least 3,266,703,051 votes, or 93.3 percent of the votes cast at the meeting. (Proposal 1 in the proxy statement).

Votes on other Proposals:

Proposal 2. Relating to the ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as Ford's independent registered public accounting firm for 2009.    » read more »

2009-05-14 -- DETROIT - General Motors (NYSE: GM) today filed a prospectus supplement with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to its exchange offers for $27 billion of its unsecured public notes and the related consent solicitations that were commenced on April 27, 2009.

The prospectus supplement, which amends the information in GM's Registration Statement on Form S-4 dated April 27, 2009 and GM's Tender Offer Statement on Schedule TO filed on that date, includes:

* GM's unaudited historical and unaudited pro forma financial data for the first quarter of 2009 and GM's pro forma financial data for the year ended December 31, 2008;    » read more »

DEARBORN, Mich., May 11, 2009 – Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) announced today a registered public offering of 300 million shares of its common stock at a par value of $0.01 per share. Ford said it also expects to grant to the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 45 million shares of common stock.

Net proceeds to Ford from the offering are expected to be used for general corporate purposes, including to fund with cash, instead of stock, a portion of the payments the company is required to make to the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) retiree health care trust with the United Auto Workers.    » read more »