GM no longer on review for downgrade - Fitch

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, July 12 - Fitch Ratings on Thursday said General Motors Corp. is no longer on review for a downgrade because a new labor contract with its key supplier Delphi Corp has reduced the risk of a work stoppage.



Fitch affirmed GM's issuer rating at "B," the fifth-highest junk rating. The outlook is negative, however, indicating the rating could still be downgraded over the long term.


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UAW chief says not in "concessionary mode"

(Reuters) - "It won't be an issue for us," Gettelfinger said, speaking on the sidelines of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People event in Detroit. "We are not going in to these negotiations in a concessionary mode."




General Motors Corp , Ford Motor Co and Chrysler Group face a crucial round of contract talks with the UAW beginning this month.


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U.S. Stocks Drop as Jobs Growth Tops Forecast; Microsoft Shares Decline

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell, paring a weekly
gain, after signs of a tightening labor market heightened
concern that economic growth will stoke inflation.

Verizon Communications Inc., General Motors Corp. and
American Express Co. led the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower
for a second day. Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software
maker, dropped after it said repairs to its Xbox 360 game
console will cost as much as $1.15 billion.


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Already sprawling, Onex expands reach with GM deal

(Reuters) - TORONTO, June 28 - With investments as diverse as
cosmetics, electronics, aircraft manufacturing and movie
theaters, Onex Corp. again expanded its portfolio on
Thursday by announcing it would buy a stake in General Motors
Corp.'s Allison Transmission unit.




Onex, Canada's only large publicly traded private-equity
firm, has been buying companies in an array of industries since
1983.


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Ford offers month-end incentives

(Reuters) - The sale, which begins on Thursday and runs through July 9, will offer an additional $2,007 in cash to customers buying 2007-model Ford, Lincoln or Mercury trucks or sport utility vehicles.




The announcement comes after larger rival General Motors Corp. said on Tuesday it would offer qualified buyers zero-percent financing for three years with an additional $1,000 cash on select vehicles.


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US stock indexes climb on lower bond yields

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday as data on existing-home sales were in line with analysts' forecasts, allowing investors to focus on the recent pull-back in bond yields and the Federal Reserve's policy-setting meeting this week.

General Motors Corp. gave a boost to the Dow after Goldman Sachs lifted its rating on shares of the largest U.S. automaker.


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Dow Average Futures Advance as Bond Yields, Oil Drop; GM, Blackstone Gain

(Bloomberg) -- Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
rose after bond yields fell and oil prices dropped.

General Motors Corp. climbed after Goldman, Sachs & Co.
advised clients to buy shares of the biggest U.S. automaker
because the United Auto Workers union may offer larger-than-
expected concessions. Blackstone Group LP, the private-equity
firm valued at $38 billion after its initial public offering June
22, also gained.


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Chrysler pushes for more efficient truck design

(Reuters) - The Ram trucks remain Chrysler's best-selling vehicles and
accounted for about 17 percent of the automaker's overall sales
in 2006.




As the No. 4 automaker prepares to launch a revamped pickup
truck line to go up against newer, competing offerings from
General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. ,
improving fuel efficiency is a key part of the design process,
according to Chrysler Group Vice President Ralph Gilles.


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Fuel plan backed by carmakers offered in Senate

(Reuters) - The bipartisan alternative offered by Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, and Christopher Bond, a Missouri Republican, would require cars, sports utilities and pickups to get better mileage over time, but is weaker than the chief plan approved by the Commerce Committee in May.




Financially struggling carmakers, including General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler Group, have lobbied fiercely against the commerce measure, arguing that it would break their backs.


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U.S. Stocks Rise, Led by Energy Shares; Exxon Mobil, Merck Lead Advance

(Bloomberg) -- Energy shares rallied on higher oil
prices, stoking the U.S. stock market after the biggest weekly
decline since February.

Exxon Mobil Corp., Merck & Co. and General Motors Corp.
carried the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial
Average to their second straight gains


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RPT-U.S. automakers look to shift huge health-care burden

(Reuters) - CHICAGO, June 10 - U.S. automakers faced with
enormous retiree health benefits costs may well join other
large U.S. companies in shifting more of the long-term risks of
meeting those obligations to workers.




Among the biggest companies now dealing with the choking
costs of health-care benefits agreed to in more prosperous
times, General Motors Corp. , Ford Motor Co. and
Chrysler would not be alone if they shift responsibility for
maintaining those programs to workers and the unions that
represent them.


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GM, Ford Trounce Toyota's Shares, Bonds; Chrysler Buyout Buoys Investors

(Bloomberg) -- In case you missed it, General Motors
Corp. and Ford Motor Co. outperformed Toyota Motor Corp. in the
stock market the past 12 months. The next year may be no
different as Cerberus Capital Management LP seeks to turn
Chrysler around.

Armed with a $12 billion war chest, the private-equity firm
can take a hard line in July-to-September labor contract talks
with the United Auto Workers. That will benefit all of the Big
Three U.S. automakers because contract settlements at one company
usually form the basis for agreements at others, analysts said.


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