BUSINESS BRIEFS
Unemployment dole at 4.5 million
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The number of laid-off workers continuing to draw unemployment benefits bolted to 4.5 million in late December, and even more Americans are expected to join the ranks of the jobless in 2009.
While first-time applications for jobless benefits dropped last week, economists mostly attributed that to the Christmas holiday and cautioned that a more accurate picture of new layoff filings won't become clear until the holiday season is passed — around mid-January.
All in all, though, the picture that emerged yesterday was largely grim and is not expected to improve any time soon.
BAILOUT NOT EASY TO KEEP TRACK OF
WASHINGTON — Government officials overseeing a $700 billion bailout have acknowledged difficulties tracking the money and assessing the program's effectiveness.
The information was contained in a document, released yesterday, of a Dec. 10 meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Board.
The panel, headed by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, includes Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission's Christopher Cox.
The bailout program, created Oct. 3, is designed to break through a debilitating credit clog and spur financial markets to operate more normally again.
GMAC DEAL FALLS SHORT OF ITS GOAL
NEW YORK — The financing arm of General Motors Corp. completed a complicated debt deal that fell short of the goal it set for the amount of fresh capital needed to help the auto loan company ride out a historic collapse in auto sales.
The results of the debt exchange, announced yesterday, came a week after the Federal Reserve approved GMAC Financial Services' application for bank holding status, making it eligible for a portion of the $700 billion bank rescue package.
OIL PRICES JUMP, SETTLE AT $44.60
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Oil prices jumped 14 percent on New Year's Eve, capping a year that saw prices soar to unprecedented heights only to give up four years of gains in just five months. Energy prices began to collapse in July as the world's biggest economies began to falter.
Gasoline prices have been more than halved from summer peaks above $4 giving consumers some relief, but at the cost of millions of jobs and industrywide cutbacks. Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose $5.57 to settle at $44.60 a barrel on Nymex with trading volumes low.
CHEM COMPANY NEARS BANKRUPTCY
NEW YORK — LyondellBasell Industries, the world's third-largest independent chemical company, said yesterday that it its considering bankruptcy protection as a broadening recession eats away at consumer demand.
The company is controlled by Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik, who serves as chairman.
Blavatnik is also one of several wealthy Russian investors involved earlier this year in a fight for control over TNK-BP, a joint venture with the British oil company BP PLC.
LyondellBasell's problems come just a year after Basell International Holdings paid $12.7 billion for Houston-based Lyondell Chemical, taking on an enormous debt load shortly before credit markets dried up.
RUSSIA TO CUT OFF UKRAINE GAS FLOW
MOSCOW — Russia's state gas monopoly Gazprom said it will cut off all gas supplies to Ukraine today after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on how much Ukraine will pay in 2009.
The cutoff announced late yesterday by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller threatened a replay of the January 2006 crisis, when a halt in Russian gas shipments to Ukraine during a similar dispute resulted in a brief reduction of supplies to Europe.
