NPR 2008-10-11

Treasury 1 Secretary Henry Paulson announced today the administration will move ahead with a plan to buy up stock in financial institutions. The treasury secretary, who met today with finance ministers from the group of seven industrialized nations and central bankers, said the plan to purchase shares in financial firms will be open to what he termed "a broad array of institutions". "Consistent with the legislation, any equity 2 the government purchases through a broadly available equity program would be on a non-voting basis except with respect to market standard terms to protect our rights as investors 4." The administration last week received the authority to make direct purchases of stock in banks as part of the government's 700-billion-dollar financial rescue package. Finance officials with the G7 who were meeting this week in Washington also issued a five-point plan, which would include protecting banks, preventing their failures and getting credit flowing freely again.

Wall Street, irrespective of what actions have been taken by government officials, remains 5 in an extremely volatile 6 place these days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended its worst week ever on a day in which there was a thousand-point swing in the market. Alan Skrainka is a financial analyst 7 of Edward Jones in St. Louis. He says with investor 3 sentiment as negative as it has been in anytime in recent memory, some people simply had enough. "This was one of the worst weeks ever for the stock market. And most folks were selling indiscriminately. They are concerned about the economy and the credit freeze. And they just want out."

Still despite the wild swings, there were some signs of investor optimism. The Russell 2000 Index that tracks smaller companies ended the day with a 4.6% gain. Still the Dow fell 128 points today. For the week, the Dow was down 18%. Standard & Poor's 500 lost 10 points. The NASDAQ gained 4 points today.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed a bill with India that gives the green light to use energy companies to enter into India's multi-billion-dollar nuclear industry. NPR's Michele Kelemen has more.

After signing a civilian 8 nuclear cooperation agreement with her Indian counterpart, Secretary Rice said she thinks this deal will end decades of mistrust between the US and India. "The world's largest democracy and the world's oldest democracy, drawn 9 together by our shared values and increasingly by our many shared interests, now stand as equals, closer together than ever before." Under the deal already approved by Congress, US companies will be able to sell nuclear technology and fuel to India for the first time since India tested a nuclear weapon in 1974. In return, India will allow United Nations inspectors 10 at its civilian reactors 11, though not at its military facilities. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.

Despite recent comments from rating agencies, the nation's domestic car companies could face the threat of bankruptcy 12. Both GM and Ford 13 are moving to reassure 14 the financial markets. General Motors today said bankruptcy protection is not an option at the moment. Similar comments were made by Ford CEO Alan Mulally.

This is NPR News in Washington.

Pirates who hijacked 15 a Ukrainian tanker 16 off the coast of Somalia have now issued an ultimatum 17 threatening to destroy the vessel 18 if they do not receive ransom 19 for the ship. Currently the tanker which was carrying weapons and Soviet-era tanks is surrounded by US warships 20. So far this year, pirates operating the waters off Somali have seized more than two dozen vessels 21. Today's threat is unusual in that generally these pirates have tried to hold out for ransom money.

Major League Baseball play-offs continue today. The Philadelphia Phillies are trying to build on their one game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers 22. And tonight the defending champion Boston Red Sox start their series against the Tampa Bay Rays. From member station WBUR in Boston, Curt 23 Nickisch has more.

You think the world champion Boston Red Sox would be the favorites. They have few injuries and they beat the regular season's most successful team to advance to the American League Championship for the fourth time in six years. But the Tampa Bay Rays are at their best ever. They went from the worst record in baseball last year to winning their division this year over the Red Sox. That means the Rays have home field advantage and the Tropicana Field crowd should be fired up for its upstart team. The eventual 24 winner of the best of seven series will advance to the World Series later this month to face the National League Champion, either the Philadelphia Phillies or the Los Angeles Dodgers. For NPR News, I'm Curt Nickisch in Boston.

Even in the current vicious market downturn, it seems at least one guy is making money. After falling behind Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffet 25 again tops Forbes' list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. Forbes says it found 17 billionaires on the list have lost more than a billion dollars in the past month, but Buffet actually managed to boost his wealth by eight billion dollars.