NPR 2008-10-29

Investors 1 jumped back into the market in a big way today. Bargain hunters moving into snap up stocks help propel both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the broader S&P 500 to more than 10% gains. Michael Farr is with the investment firm Farr Miller 3 & Washington. He says today's rally is fairly typical of a bear market, though he said there were some positives helping 4 to drive stocks higher. "You see these sort of dramatic bear market rallies, they're unfortunately somewhat typical but fundamentally we saw credit easing up a little bit, things starting to trade on the bond markets and the Federal Reserve is meeting today and should announce a decision to cut rates tomorrow." Investors apparently 5 looked past-week consumer confidence numbers. Today's gain for the blue chips was the second biggest one-day point gain in history. The Dow surged 889 points today closing at 9,065. The NASDAQ was up 143 points. The S&P 500 rose 91 points.

Appliance maker 6 Whirlpool says it plans to cut 5,000 jobs by the end of next year. The Michigan-based company says the slowing worldwide economy will drag down demands for its products. From Michigan Radio Dustin Dwyer reports.

Whirlpool had already announced four plant closures this year. Now it will close an additional two plants, one in Jackson, Tennessee and another in Findlay, Ohio. The company also plans about 500 white-collar job cuts in North America and 1,900 job cuts overseas. The news comes as Whirlpool reported a 7% decline in profits for the third quarter. Whirlpool CEO Jeff Fettig said on a webcast that he expects demand to continue to drop so the company must cut costs. "While the decision to eliminate jobs and close facilities is very difficult, they're necessary to ensure our cost-effective business structure." Whirlpool has downgraded its earnings 8 expectations for this year and the company has not put out an estimate for how it will do next year. For NPR News, I'm Dustin Dwyer in Ann Arbor 9, Michigan.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain is calling on Alaska Senator Ted 7 Stevens to resign. That's after Stevens was convicted yesterday of trying to hide gifts from a wealthy oil contractor 10. NPR's Scott Horsley has more.

John McCain says it's clear that Stevens has broken his trust with the people and the Alaska Senator should now resign. McCain who's long sparred with Stevens over earmarks and the appropriation's process, also calls Stevens' conviction a sign of the corruption 11 and insider-dealing has become so pervasive 12 in the nation's Capitol. McCain's running mate Sarah Palin also called on Stevens to step aside. The Alaska Governor told CNBC the people of her state should have a chance to elect someone else. Stevens is up for re-election next week. Scott Horsley, NPR News, traveling with McCain Campaign.

Federal Reserve has announced a move to help prop 2 up the Central Bank of New Zealand with a 15 billion dollar cash infusion 13. The federal describes it as a swap 14 arrangement. It will provide dollars to the bank in exchange for the country's currency. This is NPR.

Troubled domestic automaker Chrysler is reported to be offering buyouts to its white-collar workers as a part of an incentive 15 to get them to leave the company. The No.3 US automaker which is currently said to be in negotiations 16 about a possible merger 17 with GM is said to be offering workers up to $75,000 in cash as well as vehicle vouchers 18 valued as much as $25,000. The offer was detailed 19 in a memo 20 sent to employees. According to Reuters’ wire service which viewed the offer, Chrysler last week announced plans to cut as many as 5,000 white-collar jobs.

After 100 years the Christian 21 Science Monitor's decided 22 to end its daily print edition in favor of a web-only version. NPR's David Folkenflik reports.

The Boston-based Monitor was started by the founder 23 of the Christian Science church-Mary Baker 24 Eddy 25. She envisioned the newspaper that would quote "injure no man but bless all mankind." a vision prompted by the unrelenting crusader of newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer against Eddy and her new church. The Monitor is basically a secular 26 paper. It has reporters in eleven countries around the world and has won seven of the prizes named for Pulitzer. But an expensive bet on TV failed, paid circulation has plummeted 27 and cuts ensued. Editors say they will focus on a souped-up daily online edition and a less expensive weekly publication. It's been pretty bleak 28 for newspapers. The Gannett Company announced it would reduce its staff 10% and the Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey 29 just agreed to buy out 40%, that's 40% of its staff. David Folkenflik, NPR News.

The Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index which looks at housing prices in 20 US cities fell by a record 16.6% in August from a year ago. From their peak in July, prices are now down by more than 20%.