Toyota May Drop U.S. Joint Venture with GM

Toyota Motor Corp said on Friday it would consider liquidating its stake in a California-based joint venture with General Motors Corp after the US automaker pulled out of the venture. Toyota has been mulling options for the Fremont, California auto plant (commonly known by its acronym NUMMI for the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc) since GM cut operating ties to the plant in late June. GM and Toyota had been 50-50 partners in the northern California auto plant since 1984. More

Delphi Receives No New Cash Bids for Assets

Delphi Corp. said no companies offered to top the auto-parts supplier's government-orchestrated deal with buyout firm Platinum Equity LLC by Friday's deadline, though lender J.P. Morgan Chase may make a credit bid by next week. The deadline for credit bidding by J.P. Morgan or another lender is July 17. Friday was the deadline for cash bids. More

Bankruptcy Behind It, GM Vows to Shift Into High Gear

A new, smaller General Motors Corp. emerged Friday from a lightning-fast bankruptcy, humbled by a taxpayer bailout but with its chief executive vowing a brash, innovative, nimble company determined to repay the government and become great again. "Business as usual is over at GM," Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said at a news conference at the company's Detroit headquarters. "We know we have to change. Today is about the beginning of that change." More

May Trade Deficit Falls to Lowest in Almost Ten Years

The U.S. trade deficit fell to the lowest level in more than nine years in May as exports posted a small gain and the weak economy pushed imports down for a 10th straight month. The Commerce Department said Friday the deficit narrowed to $26 billion, a drop of 9.8 percent from April and the lowest level since November 1999. Economists expected the deficit to widen to $30.2 billion in May. More

White House Eyes Bailout Funds to Aid Small Businesses

The Obama administration is developing an initiative to take money from the $700 billion rescue program for the banking system and make it available to millions of small businesses, which officials say are essential to any economic recovery because they employ so many people, according to sources familiar with the plan. More

Michigan Factory Jobs Shrink

Manufacturing, which represented about 1 in every 5 nonfarming Michigan jobs at the turn of the millennium, now employs just 12 percent of the state's workers, and the downward trend line in that job sector shows no sign of a turnaround. "What this decade has been all about is the collapse of the economy that has made us prosperous during the last century," said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arbor think tank that studies employment trends in the state. More

Growing Debt Burdens Ford

Even if Ford Motor Co. reaches all of its targets by 2011, the Dearborn automaker's growing debt load could end up weighing the company down. Ford has $25.8 billion in automotive debt -- much of which was accumulated to raise cash so the company could survive the economic downturn that it correctly forecast several years ago. General Motors Co., by contrast, will exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a much lighter $17 billion in debt. More

Business Aviation Groups Fear Costs in Climate Bill

Business aviation advocates are becoming increasingly concerned that a sweeping climate-change bill that has the potential to shape the future of aviation operations continues to progress through Capitol Hill with few details on how it might impact the aviation industry. More