By Daniel Costello

Good Morning Planet Money readers. Here are some early highlights from the morning financial news:

Good economic news keeps on coming this week. New job losses came in lower last month than expected, bolstering hopes the nascent U.S. economic recovery is for real. Private-sector firms in the U.S. cut 203,000 jobs in October, according to an ADP employment report released this morning.

Although this was slightly more than the 190,000 forecast by analysts, it represents the smallest number of job losses for the survey since July 2008.

Across the pond, German lawmakers and unions reacted strongly against General Motors' surprise decision late Tuesday to keep car brand Opel and abandon its sale to Canada's Magna and Sberbank of Russia. German labor and government officials strongly favored the sale as the option most likely to save German jobs.

German unions have planned protests for tomorrow while Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin said Magna and Sberbank would make a legal analysis of the situation.

Media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. followed Viacom's rosy earnings report on Tuesday and reported a 38 % drop in third-quarter profit, hurt by declines at its AOL and publishing segments. The news is likely going to be considered positive by investors as results beat expectations and the company boosted its full-year earnings forecast.

The company, which also owns the Warner Bros. movie studio and the HBO and Turner cable networks, said it is still on track to spin off its struggling AOL unit.

Meanwhile, gold prices continued their surge , reaching a record on Wednesday, as a weak dollar and India's recent purchase of bullion continued to whet investors' appetite for the precious metal. Gold and other commodity prices have surged recently as investors have moved away from the US dollar.


categories: Morning Report

9:45 - November 4, 2009

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