Archive for May 15th, 2008

For the first time since just after the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans plan to drive less on Memorial Day weekend than they did the year before, with high gasoline prices in a weak economy a prime reason, according to a AAA study released Thursday.

Long-term bond yields are edging close to 4%, a level they haven't touched since the end of last year. And some experts believe yields will only head higher in the coming months.

Stocks inched higher Thursday morning, but gains were limited as investors eyed rising oil and gas prices, mixed economic reports and a spate of deal news and speculation.

On a spring day at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Key Biscayne, Fla., Michael Klein, Citigroup's chairman of institutional clients, took the stage at the bank's ninth annual private equity conference. In front of pension fund investors, hedge fund managers, and private equity dealmakers including the Blackstone Group's Steve Schwarzman and the Apollo Group's Leon Black, Klein flashed a series of newspaper headlines on the giant screens.

The wretched earnings environment is expected to improve dramatically in the second half of the year, in what may be an early sign that the economic recession or slowdown will be short-lived.

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Industrial production fell in April, matching the largest decline since the one following Hurricane Katrina, according to a report released by the Federal Reserve on Thursday.

Until recently, celebrity rocker Tommy Lee didn't worry about the environment. He was too busy being one of his industry's foremost rude boys. Now the Motley Crue drummer thinks it's "really cool" to evangelize about how the earth is in trouble.

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