Here at the Fool, we've searched high and low across the
Web this Monday morning to find the biggest news and best
stories around. Here are your top five morning reads.
1. CIT Group (NYSE: CIT)
dresses up as WaMu for Halloween
CIT filed for bankruptcy on Sunday. The firm pursued a
last-ditch effort to convert debt to preferred shares, but
bondholders balked, and the plan failed. One casualty of
CIT's bankruptcy: taxpayers will be out the $2.3 billion that
was given to the company as part of the TARP program. (Read
more at
CNNMoney
.)
2. Ford (NYSE: F)
cruises to profits
Ford released an upbeat earnings report this morning.
The company, which was expected to post a loss, ended up
generating nearly $1 billion in earnings. While Ford received
one-time benefits from the Cash for Clunkers program last
quarter, it also expressed confidence in its long-term
business by increasing guidance for 2011. (Read more at
The New York Times
.)
3. Steve Ballmer rains on the tech parade
While IT industry stalwarts such as
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT),
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), and
IBM (NYSE: IBM) all had solid quarters,
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was quick to downplay
expectations. In a speech to South Korean executives Ballmer
said he doesn't see IT spending returning to pre-crash levels
anytime soon. (Read more at
Yahoo! Finance)
4. How to earn $10 million a day
The Wall Street Journaldetails how John Paulson, a
somewhat obscure hedge fund manager before the crisis,
decided to place major bets on housing prices collapsing.
Paulson's foresight netted more than $15 billion for his
hedge fund and grew his personal wealth by more than $10
million a day during 2007. (Read more at
The Wall Street Journal
.)
5. The iPhone gets poor reception in China
Despite large amounts of fanfare,
Apple 's (Nasdaq: AAPL) roll out of the
iPhone in China wasn't met with much enthusiasm. The phone is
being sold by
China Unicom (NYSE: CHU), which is much
smaller than the country's largest wireless operator, China
Mobile. Also, the Chinese iPhone may struggle because it's
being sold at higher prices than "gray-market" iPhones and
lacks Wi-Fi services. (Read more at
The Wall Street Journal
.)
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This article was originally published as
Monday's Top Stories in 2 Minuteson
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