BUSINESS BRIEFS
Bankruptcy fears drive GM shares to 54-year low
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Shares of General Motors Corp. plunged yesterday to close below $10 for the first time in more than half a century, on worries about the company's cash needs and speculation about a possible bankruptcy protection filing down the road.
GM shares fell $1.77, or 15.1 percent, to close at $9.98. Their session low of $9.96 marked their lowest point since Sept. 13, 1954, when they hit $9.92, according to the Center for Research in Security Prices at the University of Chicago. The price is adjusted for splits and other changes.
The drop came after a Merrill Lynch analyst cut his rating for GM to "Underperform" from "Buy" and slashed his price target for the company to $7 from $28, saying that the decline in automotive sales has been more severe than anyone expected and will likely continue through next year.
OIL SUPPLY DROPS, PRICE SKYROCKETS
NEW YORK — Oil prices skyrocketed to a record above $144 a barrel yesterday as the government reported a bigger-than-expected drop in U.S. supplies and the threat of conflict with Iran weighed on traders' minds.
The latest spike means a barrel of crude has gone up by about half since the end of last year, when oil was going for $96 a barrel. Retail gasoline prices climbed to a record of their own in the U.S.
The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said crude oil supplies fell by 2 million barrels last week, or about 800,000 barrels more than analysts surveyed by the energy research firm Platts predicted.
However, the report offered a mixed picture of energy use by the world's thirstiest oil consumer. Gasoline supplies unexpectedly grew by a considerable amount, and demand continued to slide — suggesting that record fuel prices are prompting a shift in Americans' driving habits.
FACTORY ORDERS UP 0.6% IN MAY
WASHINGTON — Orders to U.S. factories turned in the slowest performance in three months in May as a surge in demand for commercial aircraft was not enough to offset weakness in autos, heavy machinery and steel.
Factory orders rose by 0.6 percent in May, less than half the gains turned in during April and March, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. It was the poorest showing since factory orders had fallen by 0.4 percent in February.
Analysts said the figures for the past three months have been inflated by big increases in the cost of refined petroleum and related products such as chemicals, which have been soaring because of the rising cost of global oil prices.
Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm, raised its forecast for how high oil will go this year, predicting that West Texas intermediate crude will hit $160 a barrel in December, up from its previous forecast that oil would hit $124 per barrel.
FUGITIVE SWINDLER SURRENDERS
NEW YORK — A hedge fund swindler who set off a national manhunt when he faked his suicide to avoid reporting to prison surrendered yesterday to Massachusetts police after three weeks in which authorities suspected he was hiding out in RV parks and highway rest areas. Authorities say his own mother helped broker the surrender.
Samuel Israel III, 48, walked into the police station in Southwick, Mass., about 9:15 a.m. wearing a colored T-shirt and shorts, identified himself and said he was a fugitive wanted by the federal government, officials said.
Israel disappeared June 9 just hours before he was to report to prison to begin serving a 20-year sentence handed down in April for his role in the collapse of the Bayou hedge funds.
Israel's SUV was found abandoned on a bridge over the Hudson River in suburban New York City with the words "Suicide is Painless" — the theme song for the "MASH" television show — scrawled in dust on the hood.
