Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Washington may be focused on the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, but Wall Street is prepping for earnings from the nation’s biggest banks.

Among the financial institutions reporting this week are Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup. Other big names like Johnson & Johnson, IBM, General Electric and Intel also report this week.

Traders are buzzing about Goldman Sachs in particular, which recently paid back its share of government bailout money. Analysts are predicting the bank earned a profit of more than $2 billion in the March-June period, due to its trading prowess across world markets.

If they’re right, Goldman’s rivals will once again be left to wonder exactly how the bank, long the envy of Wall Street, could have rebounded so dramatically only months after the nation’s financial industry was shaken to its core.

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A GM dealership in Shanghai, China

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

After a six-week trip through bankruptcy, the “new” General Motors came into the world today — owned by the government and free of tens of billions in debt and minus its unaffordable brands, dealerships and plants.

The sale of the valuable assets of the old company to the new GM was completed this morning.

“This is an exciting day for General Motors, one that will allow every employee, including me, to get back to the business of designing, building and selling great cars and trucks and serving the needs of our customers,” GM CEO Fritz Henderson said.

“We deeply appreciate the support we’ve received. We’ll work hard to repay the trust, and the money, that so many have invested in GM,” Henderson added.

But he said he couldn’t promise that GM would repay the $50 billion the government has already given or promised to GM.

And while there are a lot of changes at the “new” General Motors, at least two things will stay the same: its name and its iconic blue logo. Keep reading

New claims for jobless benefits fell 52,000 last week.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week fell to lowest level since early January, while continuing claims jumped to a record-high.

New claims for jobless benefits tumbled by 52,000 to 565,000 — well below analysts’ expectations.

However, analysts said last week’s drop was distorted by a change in the pattern of seasonal layoffs in the automotive industry. Initial claims typically spike in July as automakers idle certain manufacturing plants, and the Labor Department adjusts its data for such seasonal factors.

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Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

We got a wave of jobs data this morning ahead of the long holiday weekend – and most of it troubling as the labor market took a step backwards last month.

Employers trimmed 467,000 jobs from their payrolls in June, compared with a revised loss of 322,000 jobs in May. This was the first time in four months that the number of jobs lost rose from the prior month.

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, rose for the ninth straight month — climbing to 9.5% from 9.4% and hitting another 26-year high. But that was actually better than expectations.

However, the report contained even more discouraging data.

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Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

We have new signs this morning that the housing market may finally be hitting bottom.

Home prices continued to tumble in April, falling more than 18% from a year earlier. But the month-over-month change narrowed sharply, indicating that housing markets may be starting to turn a corner.

The 20-city slice of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index recorded a drop of 0.6% from March to April, compared with a 2.2% drop in the prior month. The index has declined every month since July 2006.

And while S&P’s David Blitzer cautions that one month’s data cannot determine if a turnaround has begun, some stabilization may be appearing in some regions.

Consumer confidence drops

On the flip side, however, consumer confidence fell unexpectedly in June after two straight months of gains as Americans’ optimism over business and job conditions weakened.

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Prosecutors said the sentence would ensure chairman will stay in prison for the rest of his life.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Bernard Madoff, the 71-year-old convicted mastermind behind the largest and most sweeping Ponzi scheme ever, has been sentenced to a 150-year prison term.

Judge Denny Chin of U.S. District Court in New York announced the sentence just moments after Madoff apologized to his victims.

“I live in a tormented state for all the pain and suffering I created,” Madoff said. “I left a legacy of shame. It is something I will live with for the rest of my life.”

Victims had urged a judge to hand down the maximum life sentence against Madoff. Many of Madoff’s investors were wiped out financially by the scam and sent letters to Judge Chin requesting he spend the rest of his life behind bars.
 

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Bailed out financial giant Citigroup plans to raise the base salaries of its employees.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

The Federal Reserve this afternoon held its key interest rate steady at near zero, and said in a statement that although the economy remains weak, there are signs of a recovery.

Policymakers said that the pace of the nation’s economic decline is slowing and that household spending is showing signs of stabilizing.

The central bank also said conditions in financial markets have generally improved in recent months, and that while businesses continue to cut back staff and spending, their inventories are coming into line with demand.

Durable goods orders rise

Orders to factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose sharply for a second straight month in May, and a key indicator of business investment surged by the largest amount in nearly five years.

The Commerce Department said this morning that durable goods orders rose 1.8% last month, far better than the 0.6 percent decline that economists expected.

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Ford, Nissan and electric car start-up Tesla Motors will be the first companies to benefit from a new government program geared toward helping automakers produce more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

More government money is flowing into the auto industry.

It’s all part of a $25 billion loan program that Congress created to help automakers retool their factories to build cars that are at least 25% more fuel-efficient than vehicles made in 2005.

Ford, Nissan and electric car start-up Tesla Motors will be the first beneficiaries of that program. Ford is getting nearly $5.9 billion. Nissan will receive $1.6 billion and Tesla will receive $465 million. More than 100 auto and auto parts makers have applied to the program.

Ford says it will use some of the money to refit some of its truck and SUV plants for small-car production in North America. The company also has plans to build new flex-fuel vehicles and a variety of electric models.

Home sales rise, but prices plummet

Sales of previously-owned homes rose 2.4% last month as increasingly affordable home prices and a first-time tax credit attracted hesitant buyers.

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