Investment News: Money Morning

Report: Toyota Plunking $1 Billion on Brazil Plant; India Housing Boom Ending; GDP Revised Up; Home Sales Rise, Values Fall; Anheuser Busch to Reject InBev Bid; Bank of America Sheds Jobs; Gold Shares Glow; Oshkosh Plunges on Lowered Outlook

• Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR: TM) plans to drop more than $1 billion on a new factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Valor Economico reported without citing a source. The new factory would be a bid to capture a share of the economic growth and rising incomes in South America.

• A pair of mortgage executives in India said the country’s five-year property boom is coming to an end as the number of available homes increases along with interest rates. "Due to the state of the equity markets, many investors who would have bought a second or a third house are abstaining from doing so," Keki Mistry, vice chairman of Housing Development Finance Corp., India’s largest provider of home loans, told Bloomberg News. "Genuine home buyers who are looking to buy a house for self occupation will continue to buy."

• The economy turned in a better, though still unimpressive, performance in the first quarter of 2008, edging up a full 1%, the Associated Press reported. The Commerce Department had originally estimated a growth rate of 0.9% for the January-to-March quarter.

• Existing home sales picked up in May, but home values continued their decline, according to a report from the Associated Press. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums rose by 2% to 4.99 million units last month. However, the median price of an existing home sold in May dropped to $208,600, down 6.3% from a year go.

• Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. (BUD) is expected to reject InBev NV’s unsolicited $46.3 billion offer, saying it undervalues the company, and announce its own restructuring plan, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company will then outline its own restructuring, which includes the sale of nonessential assets such its theme parks in an effort to boost its stock price.

• Bank of America Corp. (BAC) announced it would cut approximately 7,500 jobs after its merger with Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC), Reuters reported. The second largest U.S. bank will let go of 3% of the combined workforce after its acquisition of the largest U.S. mortgage lender.

• Kinross Gold Corp. (KGC) stock gained almost 12% yesterday (Thursday) on the back of a gold increase, which saw a 4% gain to $915 an ounce. The gold miner’s shares gained $2.35 to close at $22.34. Canada-based Eldorado Gold Corp. (EGO) saw a similar gain, with shares climbing over 10% with a 77-cent increase to close at $8.02.

• Oshkosh Corp. (OSK) shares plunged over 33% yesterday (Thursday) after the aerial work platforms manufacturer forecast a loss of as much as $1.32 per share in the third quarter, Bloomberg News reported. Shares plunged $11.22 to close at $22.29.

June 27th, 2008

Peter Schiff: Why this Money Should Replace the U.S. Dollar

There’s a new universal currency, backed by solid gold. You can use it to make online purchases anywhere in the world. Converting some money to the new currency takes just 5 minutes. You can start with as little as $10… or as much as $10 million.

According to CNBC star analyst and Euro Pacific Capital President Peter Schiff, this money could double the value of your savings – automatically – in just 6-9 months.

For Schiff’s full analysis and recommendations, please go here.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Global Business Roundup, Global Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Due to the amount of comments we receive Money Morning will not be able to respond to all questions. If you have not already registered to leave a comment, once doing so you will receive Money Morning's Daily Email. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.