Before the bell: Futures retreat ahead of dataIt has just been announced that Wachovia (NYSE: WB)'s board asked CEO Ken Thompson to retire. With mounting losses at banks and other financial institutions, such moves have actually been more rare than they probably should be.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) said Monday it completed a definitive agreement to exchange European banking assets with Banco Santander SA where GE Commercial Finance will acquire Banco Santander's Italian commercial bank Interbanca. Santander will take over some GE Money's businesses Europe. Each company is receiving operations that are valued at about 1 billion euros ($1.56 billion).
Also, there was a massive fire at GE's Universal Studios in LA which destroyed several buildings.
In deal news, seems that InBev is one step closer to acquiring Anheuser-Bush Cos Inc. (NYSE: BUD) as the former is close to securing a $50 billion financing package to enable it to launch the takeover bid for the latter, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The paper said InBev had held talks with several banks about a financing package. The was no official confirmation of this bit of news.
General Motors (NYSE: GM) shares are up 3.5% in premarket trading after a positive article from Barron's, which argued the stock could rise to $30 and possibly $45 once big cost reductions impact earnings in 2010.
Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) is testing a free e-waste recycling program that will help consumers dispose millions of obsolescent TVs, old computers and other unwanted gadgets in a more environmentally safe manner. Stores will collect a wide variety of unwanted and old electronic appliances and gadgets at no charge, even if wasn't originally bought at Best-Buy.
Time Warner (NYSE: TWX)'s Warner Bros. movie Sex and the City, the film version of the television series, had $55.7 million in ticket sales at U.S. and Canadian theaters this weekend, ousting last week's top film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from Disney (NYSE: DIS)'s Paramount.
While The Times Online reports that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s next-generation iPhone could be available in Britain for about £100 next month, it seems that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Gphone could be delayed to 2009, according to a source of TheStreet.com.
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