Higher auto, steel production: Output at America’s factories, mines and utilities rose for the third straight month in September, positive signs for the ailing manufacturing sector. Higher output of motor vehicles and parts spurred much of the increase, due in part to the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” auto incentives program. Still, steel and other sectors also posted gains, and General Electric reported separately Friday that its industrial businesses grew in the third quarter. The Federal Reserve said industrial production rose 0.7% last month. That beat the 0.2% increase that Wall Street economists expected, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
U.S. supplies drop: Oil prices were up to near $78 a barrel today, continuing a weeklong rally amid an unexpected drop in U.S. gasoline inventories. By mid-afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for November delivery was up 10 cents at $77.68 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, it rose as high as $78.17. On Thursday, the contract rose $2.40 to settle at $77.58. The Energy Information Administration said Thursday that U.S. gasoline supplies fell 5.2 million barrels while analysts had expected a jump of 1.6 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
Consumers still struggling to pay bills: Bank of America Corp. said today it lost more than $2.2 billion in the third quarter as loan losses kept rising, providing further evidence that consumers are still struggling to pay their bills. The nation’s second-largest bank said it wrote down loans on its books by almost $10 billion during the July-September period, up almost $1 billion from the second quarter. The bank also added $2.1 billion to its reserves to cover bad loans, bringing its provision for credit losses to $11.7 billion. The bank’s total allowance for loan and lease losses now totals $35.83 billion. Bank of America said it lost $2.24 billion, or 26 cents per share, after accounting for the preferred dividends of $1.24 billion. That compared with earnings of $704 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier.
