Money - AOL Money & Finance

The nearly year-long positive trend in the U.S. housing sector is continuing. Existing home sales surged 10.1% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million units, the National Association of Realtors announced Monday. That's the highest level for existing home sales in more than two years.

The consensus of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had been for October existing home sales to come in at a 5.7 million unit annualized rate. The annualized existing sales number for September was revised to a 5.54 million units, and for August to 5.1 million units. Existing home sales are also up 23.5% in the past 12 months.

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Jamie Dimon for Treasury chief? Or will Geithner be Obama's Rumsfeld?

By Peter Cohan | Nov 23rd 2009, 9:50AM EST Filed Under: Economy, JP Morgan Chase, American International Group, INC.

During the reign of America's 43rd president, calls came in to replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who took the blame for the administration's failure to deliver a quick military victory in Iraq. But George W. Bush refused to give in to those who wanted Rumsfeld's head until after the 2006 midterm election. Now, as another midterm election approaches, I wonder whether President Obama is taking the same attitude toward Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have a very definite opinion about this issue. For example, when Geithner first testified in front of Congress about his plan for fixing the financial system, I thought he could have done better. And I've been disappointed with the administration's failure to sufficiently investigate the causes of the financial collapse and fix what went wrong. I attribute that to Wall Street's having effectively purchased the Treasury Secretary's position.

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Microsoft, Murdoch talk team-up to freeze Google out of online news

By Alex Salkever | Nov 23rd 2009, 9:30AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Technology, Media, Google , Microsoft, News Corp.

Can Microsoft (MSFT) gain much needed market share for its Bing search engine by signing a deal with News Corp. (NWS) and other news publishers to remove their web pages from the Google (GOOG) search index and give Bing an exclusive on links to The Wall Street Journal? That's the kernel of an argument which has been gaining traction online in the past month.

Certainly, such an arrangement is legal and possible. Google allows sites to opt-out of the index and even explains how to do this on its website. Whether the maneuver would actually work is a far trickier question. Sentiments remain mixed, with some observers saying freezing out Google would have zero effect on the search giant, but might harm the newspapers by reducing their traffic. After all, WSJ.com has remained behind a paid subscription wall since its inception.

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Hedge fund star John Paulson rushes into gold, but investors should be wary

By Vishesh Kumar | Nov 23rd 2009, 8:00AM EST Filed Under: Investing

The euphoria bubbling around gold may have gotten another big boost -- not that it needed one.

Hedge fund manager John Paulson is raising a new fund that will focus on gold and related items like miners and derivatives. The move by Paulson -- who made a fortune betting against real estate -- is seen as another vote of confidence for gold prices already near all-time highs.

But investors should avoid getting star struck and take a careful look at the volatile gold market. For starters, the mania surrounding gold now shows many of the telltale signs of a bubble. And while a skilled trader like Paulson might know how to ride and when to bail on the momentum, other investors could get caught by a sudden unwinding.

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Upset about deceptive 'free' credit reports? FTC wants to hear from you

By Lita Epstein | Nov 23rd 2009, 11:00AM EST Filed Under: Economy, People

A lot of people like the catchy jingle on the television ads for FreeCreditReport.com, but the monthly fee that accompanies the service offered on the site is less appealing. It seems that some people who sign up for a free credit report at the website don't realize they also signed up for Experian's Triple Advantage credit monitoring service, which costs $14.95 a month, until they get their next credit card bill.

The Federal Trade Commission wants to prevent the deceptive marketing of "free credit reports." In October, it announced new guidelines known as the Free Annual File Disclosures Rule, and now the FTC has extended the public comment period on the new rule, now called the Free Credit Report Rule, to December 7. The deadline was extended in response to a request by the Illinois Attorney's General's Consumer Protection Division...

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Wikipedia volunteers dropping like flies

By Jonathan Berr | Nov 23rd 2009, 10:30AM EST Filed Under: Technology, Media

Volunteers who maintain Wikipedia are quitting in droves, burnt out from the stress of maintaining the free online encyclopedia.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the site has seen a net loss of 49,000 editors during the first three months of the year, 10 times the net loss of 4,900 during the same period a year earlier. Wikipedia officials, however, told the paper that they still have enough people to get the work done.

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Stocks in the news: Hewlett-Packard, Cadbury, Ciena, LDK Solar

By Melly Alazraki | Nov 23rd 2009, 9:05AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Hewlett-Packard, Exxon Mobil, Google , Kraft Foods, Microsoft, Nokia, Apple, Campbell Soup Company, Valero Energy, Hershey, News Corp.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) is slated to report quarterly results after the closing bell. It pre-announced its fiscal fourth-quarter results of 99 cents a share on revenue of $30.8 billion last week when it acquired 3Com. Still, the market will be watching closely for signs of improving health in the high-tech arena after techs were hit hard last week.

Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) may raise its offer for Cadbury Plc. (CBY) or offer more cash in its bid if rival takeover offers emerge, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday. Hershey Co. (HSY), Italy's Ferrero and Switzerland's Nestle are now weighing takeover bids as well. But if no rival bidders emerge, Kraft could keep its bid unchanged, a source told Reuters. With investors hoping for a bidding war, Cadbury shares rose to a new high, up 2.5% ahead of the bell.

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More incentives on new car purchases: Consumers win, car companies don't

By Douglas McIntyre | Nov 23rd 2009, 5:05AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Honda Motor Co., Toyota

A new 2010 Chrysler with $4,000 cash back? Large incentive programs for new cars are usually set up to help dealers dump inventory they cannot sell or clear lots of last year's models as current model year cars and light truck come in.

Incentives like this have been one of the primary reasons that Detroit has had trouble making money. Overseas manufacturers like Honda (HMC) and Toyota (TM) are already seeing their profits hurt by a weak dollar, and if they have to match incentives from the U.S. car companies, they could lose even more money on many of their models.

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India's Prime Minister is bullish on the greenback and the U.S. economy

By Vishesh Kumar | Nov 22nd 2009, 8:00PM EST Filed Under: Economy, People, Investing

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh threw his support behind the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency and took an upbeat view of the U.S. economy in an interview on CNN's Sunday talk show GPS.

The statements come as Singh prepares for a state dinner hosted by President Obama in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday -- and in the wake of India's $6.7 billion gold purchase from the International Monetary Fund earlier in the month. The 200-metric-ton purchase made India the ninth-largest holder of gold reserves in the world and set off speculation that other governments may also seek to diversify from dollar-based assets.

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Galleon's Raj Rajaratnam gears up for a legal showdown

By Vishesh Kumar | Nov 22nd 2009, 7:30PM EST Filed Under: People, Investing

With a mountain of evidence ranging from a cooperating witness to wiretapped confessions by an accomplice all but admitting guilt, prosecutors in the Galleon Group insider trading case might think they have an airtight case. But billionaire Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam seems to be bracing for a fight.

Last week Rajaratnam's lawyers took to the offensive and succeeded in having cooperating witness Roomy Khan's criminal background included in the hearings. Khan, a former employee of both Intel and Galleon, is a central witness against Rajaratnam. Khan has already pleaded guilty to trading on and passing on insider information as part of a plea agreement.

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Seven reasons to expect a slow-growth U.S. economy ahead

By Joseph Lazzaro | Nov 22nd 2009, 3:00PM EST Filed Under: Economy

Is the U.S. headed for a "new normal" -- a slow-growth economy that lasts perhaps for as long as a decade? The evidence supporting the new-normal argument, predicting a future in which the U.S. GDP grows at no more than 2.0% to 2.5% per year, is compelling. That low growth rate would constrain corporate revenue, earnings growth and stock prices, among other consequences.

The U.S. has already registered below-trend GDP growth at this recovery's start -- just 3.5% in the third quarter, versus the more than 6% GDP growth typically registered in an expansion's initial stage. Here's why the slow-growth conditions might continue:

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