The London Telegraph thinks it has a scoop. Maybe it does. The paper claims that "People close to JP Morgan say it has begun consulting on the scale of job cuts but that it was likely to be on a comparable scale to those of rivals."

The paper is vague on how many people that will be. Is it 10% of the investment banking division, or 10% of the entire company? In the first case it would be a few thousand people but in the second it would be close to 25,000.

Either way, if JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) is making big cuts, it is noteworthy. Among the large U.S. financial firms, it is the one that stands out as having dodged most of the explosion that has done so much to cripple credit markets, in large part because it was better managed than the rest.

Mass layoff at JPM would indicate that even Jamie Dimon, the bank's CEO and something of a hero on Wall Street, has come to the conclusion that even strong management cannot save his firm from more tremendous losses.

That really is bad news.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Maybe the government should start subsidizing the anti-depressant industry. That's the only way investors are going to be able to cope with the drumbeat of depressing economic news such as consumer confidence hitting near a 28-year low.

According to Bloomberg News, The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment unexpectedly rose to 57.9, from 57.6 in October. In 2007, the index averaged 85.6. I was able to tell things were bad this summer by the huge number of garage sales that I saw in my area. A few people placed their living room furniture for sale on their front lawns. It was among the saddest things I have ever seen.

Consumers have good reason to feel uneasy. Companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) are laying off thousands of workers. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson abruptly changed his mind yesterday about how to prop-up the ailing banking sector and still wants to keep details of the deals that have been cut secret. My colleague Peter Cohan persuasively argued that President-elect Barack Obama should scrap the Paulson plan when he takes office in January.

Obviously, things are getting worse in the financial world and not better. Most Wall Street firms have laid off workers on mortgage trading desks and fired overlapping workers due to "mergers" like the one between Bear Stearns and JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM). But, the evaluations by management at banks and investment houses is moving to other areas which are no longer making money like M&A and corporate finance. That could lead to more firings before the end of the year, in some cases to avoid paying bonuses to those who will get throw over the side.

According to the FT, "Executives and analysts say the redundancies – to be finalised this month as banks prepare next year's budgets – could top 70,000 among US groups alone and add to the estimated 150,000 jobs already lost by the financial sector worldwide."

Many Americans have little sympathy for New York City. Manhattan is often viewed as a center for rich people with multi-million dollar apartments, limousines, and private jets. But, a significant loss of jobs in the largest city in the US will do more than erode the tax base there.

Because of the concentration of wealth in NYC, there is also a concentration of demand for consumer goods. This is not just for Mercedes. It also includes hardware and software at Wall Street firms, building materials for high-rises, luxury goods from major retailers, and infrastructure supplies for the region's massive transportation and road systems.

What is bad for NYC is, to a very large extent, bad for the country.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

The carnage at Circuit City Stores Inc. (NYSE: CC) continues as the company flails desperately -- and probably futilely -- to avoid a bankruptcy filing. The company announced that is laying off hundreds of workers at its Richmond, VA, headquarters, on top of previously announced store closings, liquidations, and 6,800 store-level layoffs. This is all in the past week.

Spokesman Bill Cimino told The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that "Out of respect for our associates, we're not commenting" on the details of the layoffs.

The company's stock closed at 25 cents on Friday, down from a 52-week high of $8.24. Back in 2006, the company's stock traded as high as $30 per share. In 2000, the shares briefly traded at more than $50 per share.

The company's cash problems and inability to get suppliers to extend credit will prevent the company from being competitive during the holiday selling season that is its last chance to save itself.

This June, Houston was the most economically attractive place in the country. That was when oil was climbing to its peak of $147 a barrel. Back in those glory days for the offshore oil patch, 81% of oil trading was conducted by speculators who were long oil and short the dollar. But that trade has lost its appeal and now Houston is suffering the effects of a 56% drop in price as the dollar booms 25%.

With the 40% decline in stocks this year and a financial crisis upon us, it looks like New York and Houston -- two cities which are culturally apart -- will both be suffering but for different reasons. Houston is going to suffer due to an expected oil demand slowdown. Despite OPEC's decision to cut its production quotas by 1.5 million barrels a day, crude still dropped $3.39 to close at $64.15 on Friday. Since oil trades in dollars and the world is buying up our Treasury bills due to a belief that the U.S. is a safe haven, the dollar is rising which means it takes fewer of them to buy a barrel of oil.

But despite an apparent slowdown driven by the economic crunch, official forecasts still forecast growth in demand -- albeit at a slower rate. For example, Paris's International Energy Agency (IEA) now predicts global oil demand will average 86.5 million barrels a day this year, up about 440,000 barrels a day from 2007 -- it previously forecast 940,000 barrels a day. This is making Houston's energy sector nervous. Why? The IEA reported that some analysts expect a big proportion of "global drilling rig orders will be canceled."

General Electric (NYSE: GE) CEO Jeffrey Immelt is a hard man to pin down. He speaks in generalities, and what he says often does not turn out to be true. He has made sweeping comments about how well the company will do providing infrastructure services to countries like India and China. How often does he give a precise update on how that is going?

Now Immelt is talking about cutting costs and expenses at GE. According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), in an interview yesterday he said, "Costs will be lower in 2009 than in 2008. That will be true across the board." He offered the observation that the cuts would include employees. How many? No one knows, and he is not saying.

Usually when a chief executives says his company will cut people, he either says how many or what percentage of the workforce it will be. That is not the case here. Immelt is keeping that to himself.

What is more remarkable than the man's reticence is the fact that the company did not move sooner. GE's results have been more modest that people would like The third quarter numbers were down right troubling. GE must have seen that coming. Where were the layoffs of thousands of people back then?

Hard to say. Immelt is cagey.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

I once worked for an ex-Yahoo! employee, and he conducted most of his business in lower-case. That's not, however, how he laid people off. In an email to the whole company today after Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) reported earnings were down 64%, CEO Jerry Yang announced he would be laying off 10% of the workforce "in the next several weeks." Net income reported was $54 million for the third quarter of 2008, compared to $151 million in the third quarter of 2007, with revenue of $1.325 billion. The company met expectations of nine cents per share.

"we understand that hearing this news now creates uncertainty, but we are moving ahead in a way that balances speed with a clear focus on accomplishing what is necessary to set the organization up for long term success," Yang wrote. At the rate the company has made change over the last few years, I hardly expect brilliant things. Long-term success? Investors would probably settle for "not making pathologically boneheaded mistakes that cost the company 70% of its stock price" at this point.

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), which keeps saying that bankruptcy will not happen on the current management's watch, is closing more plants. The automaker said today that it will be closing a Michigan stamping plant and a Wisconsin plant as well. Surprise: the Wisconsin plant is responsible for SUV production.

In Michigan, more than 1,300 jobs will be lost when the automaker closes down the plant roughly one year from now. The Wisconsin plant will close in mid-2009 as SUV sales continue to slump. Even though gas prices have come down quite a bit in the last few weeks, U.S. citizens don't trust gas guzzlers any longer. If you have one and it's under water, stick with it. If you're looking for a new vehicle, you're probably not looking at an SUV.

I guess people aren't drowning their financial sorrows with cola. And now PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) shareholders have plenty to be sorry about.

The perennial silver medal winner in the great cola olympics announced weaker than expected sales in North America for the third quarter. Sales were down by 3% and profits down by 9% as consumers presumably reacted to worsening economic conditions by cutting back on everyday luxuries like sugar water in its myriad forms.

In response to the poor results, PepsiCo announced that it will cut 3,300 jobs from its global workforce of 185,000. It will also close six plants. Savings from the cuts and closings were estimated to be $1.2 billion over three years.

Pepsi also said that it will get back to the basics of selling relatively inexpensive bubbly soda to consumers. This is a reversal of its recent emphasis on more expensive juices and energy drinks. As the economy worsens, consumers will presumably cut back on such items.

PepsiCo closed yesterday at $61.77 and is trading at $56.13 as of 1:10 pm, down 9%.

Since trading close to $25 per share in early 2007, shares of the former Hansen Natural (NASDAQ: HANS) heir-apparent Jones Soda (NASDAQ: JSDA) have tanked. They closed on Friday at a stunning 75 cents per share, down more than 27% on the day.

On October 6th, the company reduced its workforce by 38% to 68 employees, adding that termination and severance expenses were not expected to be material. CEO Stephen Jones said that "Given the financial crisis we're in, you have to preserve cash. Cutting back people is a horrible thing to go through, but you do it as a result of strategy. And my strategy is to focus on the core of what Jones Soda is."

Jones (whose surname is a coincidence) told Fortune Small Business about an ambitious plan to focus on core strengths, reduce sales to discounters, and bring the company back from the brink. Maybe that will work but, either way, the stock looks interesting at its current price. With a market cap of about $20 million, Jones Soda had tangible shareholder's equity of about $27 million at the end of the second quarter -- including nearly $20 million in cash and short-term investments.

Hewlett-Packard's (NYSE: HPQ) CEO, Mark Hurd, certainly knows how to hit his numbers. But this often means making some extremely tough decisions.

The latest tough decision: HP will lay off 24,600 employees.

The layoffs, which represent 7.7% of HP's workforce, will occur over a three-year period. The key reason is to integrate the massive acquisition of EDS. The restructuring moves are expected to result in annual cost reductions of $1.8 billion or so.

Interestingly enough, about half of the layoffs will come from the US. In the hyper-competitive information technology space, it's often cheaper to send jobs offshore.

Patrons and employees alike await the final decision about which Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) stores will be closing and who will be getting kind notes explaining why closing 600 stores is necessary, making their jobs not.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, about 50 stores have already been notified that they will be closing by July 31, and the list will be made public by July 15. The Journal writes of anxiety for the Starbucks faithful who have come to appreciate the caffeine brew and do not have satisfactory alternatives.

There are two stores in walking distance of my office and when Starbucks opened the second one about 18 months ago I was very surprised. However, I will not be surprised if the newer store is among the casualties.

The headlines were simple enough. Siemens (NYSE: SI), one of the world's largest conglomerates, was laying off almost 17,000 people. Big companies make layoffs all the time. Big deal.

But Siemens really is different. It operates in almost every country in the world. It has large businesses in infrastructure, transportation, electronics, medical devices, and industrial materials. It is, in essence, a snapshot of the global economic system.

The fact that a company with Siemens' resources would have to dump so many poor souls is probably an indication that the recession, which may have been limited to the US and Europe, is starting to grow. Management at the conglomerate wants to hold profit margins for the second half and into 2009. They have clearly determined that revenue will not be driving those results.

Siemens thinks the global economy is in for a rough time. Actions speak loader than words.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

No more home mortgages for the time being. The former number two originator of home mortgages in the United States, IndyMac Bancorp (NYSE: IMB), is shutting down its operations and laying off 3800 workers, more than half of its employees.

By halting its prime business, IMB might as well have announced they have turned to stone, as it seems its financial situation is frozen for now. Last quarter it announced continued losses and changed its outlook from being profitable in the fourth quarter to seeing nothing but losses through 2008.

It is always difficult to discuss one's failings, but nothing has been worse than my suggestion that IndyMac might be a screaming buy last year. The stock is down 97%. The sad truth is it was a screaming sell and my worst call since I have been writing for BloggingStocks.com. That will be a separate story.

Today, IndyMac is trading down 47% to $0.37. It will have to restructure once again and will be submitting a survival plan to the FDIC. The current market cap is about $37 million, while its losses over the last twelve months exceed $600 million.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• According to people familiar with the situation, the Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) is again talking to Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX), this time about taking over AOL, with Time Warner taking a stake in the combined entity. News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) has its eye on any Yahoo moves. Meanwhile, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) is considering what its next move against Yahoo might be and is talking to News Corp.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that, as part of the company's plan to cut costs, Tribune Co's Los Angeles Times newspaper may look to cut about 250 jobs, including about 17% of its news staff.
• The Financial Times reported that Chrysler, which has been searching for foreign partnerships, signed with China's Great Wall Motor a memorandum of understanding to explore long-term business ties in areas that include technology, distribution and components.

OTHER PAPERS:

• According to the Dallas News, AMR Corporation's (NYSE: AMR) American Airlines informed its flight attendants' union that is may lay off 900 flight attendants on August 31.

WEB SITES:

• Yonhap reported that LG Electronics will release "Dare," a new touch-screen mobile phone in the U.S. that will compete with Apple Inc's (NASDAQ: AAPL) latest iPhone models.