Finance news

Government bonds resume rise in short session after two days of record auctions did little to stymie demand. Bond investors bought up Treasurys after government reports on jobs, durable goods, consumer spending and personal income confirmed continued economic weakness and a poor labor market.Dour economic news is expected to persist well into 2009 and Treasurys will continue to rise for at least several more months, pushing yields even lower.Lending rates between banks remained near record low levels.

The Japanese Yen roared higher in overnight trading as the US Senate failed pass a vote that would have led to a decision on a bailout plan for America’s top three automakers. Japanese Yen Soars to 13-Year High against the US Dollar.The Euro posted its best single-week performance in eight years, as an outright tumble in the US dollar left the Euro Zone currency as the prime beneficiary of a turn in market sentiment. Currency traders seemingly lost their patience with the US dollar, opting to sell the American currency on dismal developments out of the US economy.

$12.1 billion was withdrawn from stock-based mutual funds in the previous week. Investors had put $10.4 billion into these funds.In addition to the drainage of stock-based mutual funds, bond funds had an outflow of $6.8 billion.

Venezuela and Russia Friday began drilling the first gas well in the Gulf of Venezuela, an area abound with natural gas resources. Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA and Russian Gazprom jointly launched the project called Rafael Urdaneta near the state of Falcon, on the west coast of Venezuela.Chavez proposed that Russia should build a gas pipeline of 50 km for the people and industries in Paraguana in Falcon, northwest from the gas field.

Auto industry is facing a huge quarterly loss that was much worse than expected and General Motors warned it is in danger of running out of cash in the coming months.The nation's largest automaker reported that it lost $4.2 billion. Shares of GM fell 9% Friday to $4.36, a nearly 60-year low.Bankruptcy for GM is a very real risk.Meanwhile Ford has said that it has lost 2.7 Billion dollars.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc reported a 77% drop in third-quarter earnings hurt by declining insurance profits and a $1.05 billion investment loss.Berkshire began the year with an unrealized $1.67 billion loss on its futures, options and other derivative contracts. Berkshire and Buffett have made several deals over the past two months including a $5 billion infusion in Goldman Sachs and a $3 billion stake in General Electric.Those deals aren't reflected in this quarter's results.

Skytrax had conducted a world airline survey. It had ranked the top 10 airlines as:

1.Singapore Airlines
2.Cathay Pacific
3.Qantas
4.Thai Airways
5.Asiana Airlines
6.Malaysia Airlines
7.Qatar Airways
8.Air New Zealand
9.Emirates
10.Etihad Airways