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In the largest ever share buyback plan, Microsoft Corp. has decided to repurchase stocks worth $40 billion in the aftermath of last week’s turmoil at the Wall Street.

Several other companies like HP and Nike are expected to follow suit as Microsoft leads a buyback spree among companies. The software giant announced the largest repurchase deal in history according to which it will buy back about $40 billion in stocks. The company had already announced a $30 billion buyback plan in 2004 July which was later tied up with Procter & Gamble’s repurchase deal of a similar amount announced in August last year.

Along with Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard announced plan to by back stocks worth $8 billion. This is in addition to a previous $8 billion repurchase plan unveiled last year after which the company was left with about $3 billion worth of stocks. According to the company the buyback will offset the dilution caused by employee stock plans. Sports apparel giant Nike has also joined the fray by announcing a buyback plan worth $5 billion.

Microsoft shares rose by more than 3.5% by Monday midday to $26.06. The company’s stocks have fallen since its failed bid to acquire Yahoo! earlier this year and have stayed depressed due to its loss-making online business as well as slow growth in its core areas like Windows and Office.

General Growth Properties Inc. indicated on Monday that it might sell off some assets in an attempt to raise its stock price.

General Growth Properties Inc is a Chicago-based real estate investment trust and on Monday its representatives revealed that the trust was exploring various ways of raising its stock price. One of the primary means being considered was potential asset sales which would bring in more funds for meeting short term requirements of capital. Other ways of boosting capital could be selling off its joint venture or preferred equity or even combining some of its operations under a single division.

General Growth officials further added that it was seeking finances to meet some of its short term obligations. On the other hand the company would be ready to provide portfolio mortgage financing on long term and fixed rate basis to lenders by late November this year.

The stock values of General Growth Properties have come down by a whopping 47 percent since the beginning of this year. On Friday, its share prices closed at $21.42. Earlier this year, the company’s continuous losses had led to concerns among financial analysts that it might come under pressure from maturing debt.

Two main survivors of last week’s market meltdown – Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – have been converted by US federal regulators into bank holding companies.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were the two major stand alone investment banks to have emerged relatively unscathed from the collapse of the US financial market last week. Late Sunday night the US Federal Reserve decided to convert them into bank holding companies. The move would help the former investment banks to streamline their borrowings from the Federal Reserve besides insulating them from pullout by shaky investors and customers. Moreover the conversion would provide Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley with the funds to acquire more retail banks which would mean a stable source of income in the form of customer deposits.

However the conversion will place Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley under greater federal control under which the banks will be subject to wider regulatory oversight by the agency and probably be compelled to raise additional capital. This has implications for the future of the banks as they will be forced to avoid risks and thus incur fewer profits.

The conversion is the latest in the series of federal interventions aimed at bailing out the wrecked financial sector by buying up troubled mortgage assets and an extending an emergency loan to AIG, the biggest insurer of the US.

Oil prices on the last day of October contract rallied in the futures market as investors appeared to regain confidence on the strength of the $700 billion bail out package extended by the US Federal Reserve.

On Monday, oil traded higher by $1.75 $106.30 per barrel after touching its peak for the day at $107.80. This comes in then wake of a remarkable rise on Friday when crude oil prices rose by $6.67 in the second-highest jump of oil prices in dollar terms on record to settle at $104.55.

Investors seemed buoyed up by the federal aid for the troubled finance sector but were also cautious about the implications of the bail-out for the entire economy and especially its impact on the oil prices. One effect, noted analysts would be a weaker dollar as investors would look for other currencies to park their funds until the market was straightened out. A weaker dollar in turn was likely to push up oil prices.

Oil prices have repeatedly featured in market news since its record peak of $147.27 a barrel on July 11 this year. Since then however, oil prices have dropped on reduced domestic demand as well as on signs of continuing weakness of the US economy.

CarMax Inc, the leading US auto retailer, announced Monday that its second-quarter earnings had plunged by a whopping 78 percent due to declining demand in a weakened economy.

The largest retailer of used cars in the US, CarMax Inc. revealed its figures for the quarter ending August 31 during which its earnings fell to $14 million or 6 cents a share compared to $65 million or 29 cents a share it had earned in the same quarter the previous year. Total sales of the company were also down by 13 percent from $2.12 billion a year back to $1.84 billion in the recent quarter. The figures have come short of expert predictions which pegged CarMax earnings at 8 cents a share on sales of $1.93 billion.

CarMax Inc blamed the fall in earnings on external conditions like declining demand as consumers beset by higher gasoline prices as well as rising food costs were taking recourse to reduced spending. the demand for trucks and sports utility vehicles had significantly fallen as consumers were moving towards fuel efficient cars in a bid to save on rising gasoline costs. The slow down in the economy was also to blame for the lack of demand, company officials said.

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Nvidia, a leading graphics chips manufacturer in the US has announced that it would be slashing its workforce by 6.5% or by around 360 jobs.

Nvidia gained prominence in the gaming industry as one of the frontline supplier of graphic chips. Eventually it decided to diversify into selling graphic chips to a wide variety of clients who handle intense video jobs like airplane designing and creating animations. After this Nvidia diversified still further into corporate accounts by introducing programming interfaces on graphic chips which were used by oil and gas firms, biotech and other manufacturers. However the company’s diversification gamble collapsed and in the long run Nvidia lost out to major players like AMD.

Nvidia experienced a 5% drop in its second quarter revenues and the bad news was further compounded by reports of an additional $196 million cost incurred due to product defects. By reducing its workforce, the company hopes to cut down on costs but before that it will run up charges between $7 million to $10 million to cover expenses related to restructuring. The lay off is expected to affect most of the company’s offices and departments across the globe and will probably be completed by October this year

Morgan Stanley moved its merger negotiations with Wachovia into fast track in an attempt to strengthen its finances among fluctuating conditions still prevailing in the US financial markets.

Even though Morgan Stanley did not suffer the fate of other Wall Street majors like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, still the market meltdown has prompted many hedge funds to pull their businesses from Morgan Stanley while other clients have greatly lowered their trading with the investment bank.

According to sources close to the talks revealed that Morgan Stanley was considering a variety of merger combinations with Wachovia. One such option included a complex division of Wachovia into a safe and a risky division and the eventual merger of Morgan Stanley with the former so as to prevent Wachovia’s backing of sub prime mortgages from pulling down the post-merger, combined company.

Another option being considered by the parties was the inclusion of a third party investor such as a sovereign wealth fund to inject fresh capital into the future combined company. However people close to the negotiations also revealed that despite the ongoing crisis Morgan Stanley would still prefer to remain independent and to this purpose was prepared to seek more investment from financiers like Xi-Quing Gao of China Investment Corporation.