Economy Tanks--Dow-Jones Breaks 13,000
Even though the world has somehow lost untold trillions, each individual piece of bad news juices the stock markets yet another notch (Business Week) Make sense of this one. On Apr. 30, General Motors (GM) reported a $3.25 billion loss...and investors saw a buying opportunity. By day's end, shares were up 9.4%, based in part on analysts' assertions that if you subtracted $2.9 billion in one-time charges, GM beat Wall Street estimates--read entire article-- (Fox Business News) Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday record crude prices helped its net income grow 17% in the first quarter, but the results came in below Wall Street forecasts . . . shares fell $2.32, or 2.5%, to $90.75 in premarket trading--read entire article-- (Forbes) Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.'s 'BBB+/A-2' counterparty credit rating remains on positive watch, after Countrywide reported an $893 million net loss for f…