Reuters - Italian carmaker Fiat has held talks with U.S. rival Chrysler in recent weeks over various forms of cooperation, Alfa Romeo brand chief Luca de Meo told German magazine WirtschaftsWoche in a story published on Saturday.

Reuters - The United States is already in a recession and it will be longer as well as deeper than many people expect, U.S. investor Warren Buffett said in an interview published in German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday.

Saturday, May 24, 2008; D02

AUTOMOTIVE

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian said he has added $100 million to his funds for buying shares of Ford Motor a day after the automaker abandoned its forecast that it will return to profitability next year.

Reuters - China will issue three licenses for high-speed third-generation mobile phone services and encourage a restructuring of leading telecoms companies, including a merger of China Unicom (0762.HK) and Netcom (0906.HK), the government said on Saturday.

Oil and the Fed
May 23, 2008; Page A14

So the Federal Reserve is signaling that its rate-cutting binge may finally be over, and we can be grateful for that small favor. The consequences of its easy-money bender will roll through the economy for years to come, however, so it's important to draw the right lessons.

All the more so because the Fed's most senior officials continue to insist that recent price increases have almost nothing to do with . . . monetary policy. Imagine that. The latest to wash his hands of responsibility for the value of the currency is Donald Kohn, the Fed's current Vice Chairman and long-time resident intellectual. In a speech in New Orleans this week, Mr. Kohn acknowledged soaring oil and food prices, but he blamed them on global supply and demand for corn, oil and so on.

Reuters - Oil prices will likely take on more importance for the stock market next week as the summer driving season officially kicks off and as more companies are seen feeling the pinch of higher energy prices on their profit margins.

Reuters - Shares of General Motors Corp hit a 26-year low and Ford Motor Co also tumbled on Friday as investors reacted to disclosures from the leading U.S. automakers about the toll from a slumping auto market and from recent strikes against GM and one of its key suppliers.

Reuters - Belgian brewer InBev NV is working on a $46 billion bid for Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc , according to a source familiar with the situation.

Reuters - Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel may have had internal help when he built up massive stock market bets that led to the world's worst trading scandal, a report published by the French bank said on Friday.

Reuters - Belgian brewer InBev, the world's second-biggest by volume, is working on a $46 billion bid for Anheuser Busch, a Financial Times report said, boosting the U.S. brewer's stock price.