Highlights include General Motors Corp. (
GM), Lear Corp. (
LEA), TRW Automotive Holdings, Inc. (
TRW), Wells Fargo & Co. (
WFC) and Fifth Third Bancorp (
FITB).
The Federal Reserve released the minutes from its meeting of March 17th and 18th. At the meeting, there was no changer in the Fed Funds rate (it is already effectively at zero and the LAST thing they would consider doing now is raising it), but they did decide to get more aggressive on buying long-term T-notes to expand the money supply (quantitative easing, or as Bernanke is now calling it, "credit easing").
The key "news" was that the staff economic forecasts are more downbeat than they were at the January meeting. Here is a key excerpt from the report:
"In the forecast prepared for the meeting, the staff revised down its outlook for economic activity. The deterioration in labor market conditions was rapid in recent months, with steep job losses across nearly all sectors. Industrial production continued to contract rapidly as firms responded to the falloff in demand and the buildup of some inventory overhangs.
"The incoming data on business spending suggested that business investment in equipment and structures continued to decline. Single-family housing starts had fallen to a post-World War II low in January, and demand for new homes remained weak.
"Both exports and imports retreated significantly in the fourth quarter of last year and appeared headed for comparable declines this quarter.
