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Delphi Corp., a bankrupt auto parts supplier spun off by General Motors in 1999, has announced that a group of lenders has successfully bid to take control of the company.

The lenders’ group, which includes Elliott Management and Silver Point Capital, own $3.4 billion in Delphi debt, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Delphi said General Motors supports the deal, which requires the approval of U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Drain. A court hearing is scheduled Wednesday at the bankruptcy court in New York.

Delphi said that if the court does not approve its bidding process, it will sell its assets through a 363 sale.

As part of this process, Delphi said in June that it can no longer fund its pension benefit plan for retirees and current workers after it emerges from Chapter 11 personal business cards. But the company also said it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to take over the pension plan.

Delphi, based in Troy, Mich., is a supplier of mobile electronics and transportation systems, including power train, safety, steering, thermal and security systems.

The company reported $18.1 billion worth of revenue in 2008. At the end of that year, Delphi had 133,000 employees and 138 factories in 34 countries.

A Delphi spokesman did not immediately return a message from CNNMoney.com. 

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Aetna Inc. sharply cut its full-year earnings forecast on Monday because of higher-than-projected medical costs, sending shares down as much as 12% as the health insurer also posted a 28% drop in second-quarter net income.

Aetna, one of the largest providers of employer-based insurance, has boosted its enrollment while rivals struggle with such gains, but some analysts have worried that the gains could be a sign the company is underpricing and sacrificing profit margins.

The lower earnings reflect "the consequences of Aetna’s aggressive market share strategy," Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Borsch said in a research note.

The No. 3 U.S. health insurer expects 2009 operating earnings of $2.75 to $2.90 per share. In June, Aetna lowered its full-year outlook to $3.55 to $3.70 per share from an initial forecast of $3.85 to $3.95.

Even after Aetna cut its forecast in June, some on Wall Street expected the health insurer would slash its forecast again as industry-wide concerns over medical costs and underpricing catch up to the company.

Second-quarter net income fell to $346.6 million, or 77 cents per share, from $480.5 million, or 97 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, earnings of 68 cents per share fell 10 cents short of the average estimate of analysts, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose 10% to nearly $8.7 billion, compared to the analyst estimate of about $8.6 billion.

Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna said higher medical costs stemmed from use of more services in the emergency room, laboratory and preventive services, which is a continuation of issues cited earlier this year.

"We continue to see upward pressure on medical costs beyond what we projected in early June, which we believe is driven in part by changing provider behavior in the face of a deep recession," Chief Executive Officer Ron Williams said in a statement cheap payday loan. "We did not fully capture the impact of these forces in our 2009 pricing."

The company spent 86.8% of its premium revenue on medical costs in the quarter, up from 81.9% a year ago. It had to spend $65 million pre-tax to cover claims from prior periods, mostly in 2008.

For its commercial plans serving employers, it expects to spend between 84% and 84.5% of its premiums on medical costs for the full year.

Aetna’s total membership stood at 19.05 million at the end of June, up 9% from a year ago.

An Aetna spokesman declined to comment on a report in the Wall Street Journal that said the company was shopping its pharmacy benefit business, citing unnamed sources.

Rival insurer WellPoint Inc. (WLP, Fortune 500) announced plans to sell its pharmacy benefit unit to Express Scripts Inc. for $4.68 billion in April, sparking speculation that other insurers would follow suit.

Aetna (AET, Fortune 500) shares were down 7.6%, or $2.04, at $24.40 in premarket trading, after falling as much as 12% earlier in morning.

Through Friday, Aetna shares had fallen 7% this year, underperforming most rivals. Aetna also reported higher-than-expected medical costs for the first quarter. 

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Stocks rallied Thursday, with the Dow jumping 200 points and hitting its highest point since November, as investors welcomed better-than-expected quarterly results and home sales.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 188 points, or 2.1%, closing at its highest point since Nov. 5. The S&P 500 (SPX) index added 22 points, or 2.5%.

The Nasdaq composite (COMP) gained 47 points, or 2.5%. The Nasdaq has now closed higher for 12 consecutive sessions, its longest winning streak since January 1992.

Treasury bond prices plunged, raising the corresponding yields, as investors pulled money out of the safe-haven and put it into stocks. The dollar gained versus other major currencies. Oil and gold prices rose.

Stocks have been on the rise for the last week-and-a-half, bouncing after a four week retreat, as better-than-expected corporate reports have surprised investors.

"You are seeing companies in large part beating expectations in just about every sector, and while revenues are coming in a bit lower in a lot of categories, we seem to be able to look past that," said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.

Cost-cutting has largely driven the earnings growth, raising concerns about what the second-half economic growth is going to look like.

"Somebody’s cost cutting means somebody else’s job," said Ben Halliburton, chief investment officer at Tradition Capital Management.

He said that rising unemployment and its impact on an already-strapped consumer suggests that expectations for a second-half recovery are overdone.

"There’s really no place for a recovery if the consumer is still on the decline," he said.

Friday brings a revised consumer sentiment reading from the University of Michigan, but the report is not likely to move markets.

Microsoft and American Express should be active Friday, after reporting quarterly results after the close of trading.

Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) reported weaker earnings that topped estimates and weaker revenue that missed estimates. The tech leader said its results were due to weakness in the global PC and server markets.

American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) reported a big drop in earnings due to the cost of paying back the loan it received from the government last year. However, the earnings still managed to top analysts’ forecasts.

Results: Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) reported a second-quarter profit due to its efforts to reduce debt. The automaker also reported an operating loss that was narrower than a year ago and smaller than forecast. Ford’s drop in revenue was also narrower-than-expected. Shares gained 9.4%.

Ford is the only U.S. automaker that was not forced to declare bankruptcy last quarter, as a result of the slowdown in auto demand amid the recession.

Dow component AT&T (T, Fortune 500) reported quarterly sales and earnings that fell from a year ago but topped estimates. The telecom benefited from its exclusive contract with Apple, as strong iPhone sales boosted subscriber growth cheap payday loans. AT&T shares gained 2.6%.

Fellow Dow component 3M (MMM, Fortune 500) reported weaker quarterly sales and earnings that topped estimates. Considered to be a bellwether for the economy due to the breadth of its businesses, 3M also lifted its forecast for full-year profit. Shares gained 7.4%.

AT&T (T, Fortune 500) and 3M (MMM, Fortune 500) were among the 27 Dow components that rose, with three falling.

IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500), Verizon Communications (VZ, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500), Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500) and Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) were among the big Dow gainers.

But another Dow component, McDonald’s (MCD, Fortune 500), disappointed investors by reporting a bigger-than-expected drop in revenue and an in-line drop in earnings. Shares fell 4.6%. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, Fortune 500) and Boeing (BA, Fortune 500) were the other two losers.

Other company news: Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY, Fortune 500) said late Wednesday that it will buy biotech company Medarex (MDX) for $2.4 billion.

Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500) said Wednesday it would buy online shoe retailer Zappos.com for $807 million.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners topped losers by over five to one on volume of 1.39 billion shares. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancers topped decliners by over three to one on volume of 3.13 billion shares.

Economy: The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment rose to 554,000 last week from 524,000 in the previous week, according to a Labor Department report released Thursday morning. Economists thought claims would rise to 557,000, according to Briefing.com estimates.

June existing home sales rose to a 4.89 million unit annual rate from a revised 4.72 million unit rate in May, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sales were better than expected, with economists forecasting sales would rise to a 4.85 million annualized rate.

The median home price continued to slide, falling 15.4% versus a year ago.

Bonds: Treasury prices tumbled, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.66% from 3.54% Wednesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Other markets: In global trade, European markets gained late in the day, while Asian markets ended higher.

In currency trading, the dollar gained against the euro and the Japanese yen.

U.S. light crude oil for September delivery rose $1.76 to settle at $67.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for August delivery rose $1.50 to settle at $954.80 an ounce.  

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The independent overseer of the $700 billion bailout has caused a ruckus over an important question: How much do taxpayers have on the line?

Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said the total amount committed for federal programs supporting companies, industries and consumers affected by the economic meltdown was $23.7 trillion.

Lawmakers seized on the number as evidence that the government rescues are a runaway train. Treasury Department officials shot back that the number was overblown.

To be sure, the federal government is taking unprecedented — and expensive — measures to address the financial crisis and salvage the economy.

Make no mistake: Taxpayers have a lot of skin in this game. But just how much?

The actual amount taxpayers have on the line is much, much less than $23.7 trillion.

In an interview with CNNMoney on Wednesday, Barofsky said the actual amount of money outstanding is closer to $3 trillion.

Barofsky’s math wasn’t wrong. It’s just that the $23.7 trillion figure assumes that all government rescue programs are used to their full extent and suffered total losses.

"We took a look at all these different programs … based on what the government said it is willing to commit to," Barofsky said in the interview. "This doesn’t mean the taxpayer is on the hook today for $23.7 trillion."

In the end, all estimates about how much taxpayers ultimately have at risk is a mind-melting exercise. But here are some facts about the government rescue investments and bailout programs.

AIG: Taxpayers have given the troubled insurer $117.5 billion since it nearly collapsed in September.

Of that, $83 billion is in direct loans to the company, and AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) can borrow up to $30 billion more. In late June, outgoing CEO Edward Liddy said there was an "excellent chance" the company could pay back its loan to the taxpayers, and reiterated the company’s payback timeline of three to five years.

The other $34.5 billion is in toxic assets that the New York Federal Reserve purchased from the company in exchange for the forgiveness of a $38 billion loan. The Fed actually purchased close to $50 billion in assets, but the value of those assets has since plummeted. The Fed said they lost $4.9 billion in value in the first quarter alone.

To end up in the black, the government needs AIG to repay its loans and sell its assets for at least as much as what the Fed originally paid.

Automakers: The government has lent General Motors, Chrysler, GMAC and the now defunct Chrysler Financial just less than $80 billion.

So far, $2.1 billion has been repaid.

But the vast majority of those loans will likely never get paid back. That’s because U.S. taxpayers took large stakes in GM and Chrysler in exchange for forgiveness of large portions of the loans.

The government has given GM $50 billion — $6.7 billion of which the company must pay back. The automaker has stated that it hopes to do that before the 2015 deadline life insurance companies. The Treasury agreed to convert the other $43.3 billion into GM equity, so the government’s ability to recover its investment will depend on the future market value of that stake. GM’s stock is not expected to trade publicly until 2010 at the earliest.

Chrysler still owes about $8 billion of its $15.2 billion federal loan. Like with GM, the government is banking on the value of its stake in Chrysler rising down the road.

Bank bailouts: U.S. taxpayers have given 534 financial institutions $204.2 billion in capital injections, of which $70.2 billion has been paid back.

Banks are eager to pay back their bailout dollars, as public scrutiny has grown about the inner workings of bailed-out banks, including executive compensation packages, lending decisions and earnings. Furthermore, bailed-out banks have to pay the government hefty dividends.

The money was supposed to go to healthy financial institutions, but the health of some of those banks, namely Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), has since worsened. They had to get bailed out again. They have yet to pay back the $45 billion they each owe taxpayers.

One of the hundreds of TARP recipients has been in the news of late: Troubled commercial lender CIT Group, which warned in a government filing Tuesday that it could be forced to declare bankruptcy if it can’t strike a deal with private lenders. Taxpayers have $2.3 billion at stake.

Federal Reserve programs: The Fed has created more than $6 trillion in programs aimed at restoring liquidity to banks, about $1.5 trillion of which has been used so far.

The majority of the programs charge financial institutions interest for using the facilities, and the Fed actually made money on those programs, taking in $3.3 billion in interest payments in the first quarter. Many of those programs are set to end in October, and others will end early next year.

But some programs won’t be paid back at all. Like AIG, the Fed invested $29 billion in some of the failed Bear Stearns’ assets that are now worth $26 billion.

And through its conservatorship of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500), the Fed has given the companies $85 billion of a possible $400 billion bailout. That money is not expected to be returned.

How has President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus program affected you or your community? Are you seeing a benefit from the Making Work Pay tax cuts or the additional $25 in unemployment benefits? Are you seeing construction jobs or other stimulus-funded work in your neighborhood? Do you still have a job because of stimulus funds? We want to hear your experiences. E-mail your story to realstories@cnnmoney.comand you could be part of an upcoming article. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here.  

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks rallied Monday, with the Dow adding more than 100 points and the S&P closing at an 8-month high, as investors signaled optimism about second-quarter financial reports.

Wall Street also got a charge from reports that small business lender CIT has secured private-sector financing to keep it out of bankruptcy. Investors were encouraged to see that the financial sector can take care of itself, without government bailout funds.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) jumped 104 points, or 1.2%. Monday’s rally pushed the blue-chip index into positive territory (in 2009) for the first time in more than 5 weeks.

The broader S&P 500 (SPX) index added 11 points, or 1.1%, to close at its highest level in more than 8 months.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (COMP) added 23 points, or about 1.2%, to stretch to its highest level since early October, or about 9 months.

The major indexes are coming off a positive week. Last week was the Dow and S&P 500’s first up week — and the Nasdaq’s second — in the past five.

The major force on Wall Street is second-quarter earnings.

"We have a very heavy earnings calendar, light economic news calendar," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Company. "The name of the game is earnings."

Companies have beat analysts’ estimates by more than in other quarters, according to Ed Clissold, senior global analyst at Ned Davis Research, and that sentiment is supporting stocks Monday.

"The fact that companies haven’t come out with the dire earnings that were seen in the first quarter is a positive sign," he said.

Betting on recovery: Wall Street is using the second-quarter financial reports to set expectations for the pace of the economic recovery.

Investors "are looking at incremental changes in the earnings reports to give them a clue as to how companies are positioned to rebound when the economy starts to pick up some forward momentum," said Dickson cash loan.

A report from Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) released Monday increased its 2009 target for the S&P 500 index to 1060 from 940, a 13% jump in the index.

The report also cautioned that "the U.S. economic backdrop represents the most significant risk to our equity market forecast," and that "the risk of a double-dip recession is significant." Stocks hit their recent lows on March 9 of this year and have been struggling higher.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, advancers beat decliners by 3 to 1 on a volume of 1.13 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat out decliners by almost 5 to 1 on a volume of 2.08 billion shares.

Earnings for the week: This week, 145 of the S&P 500 companies, or 23% of the broad index, are due to report quarterly results. Among them, 12 Dow components, including American Express (AXP, Fortune 500), Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500) and Merck (MRK, Fortune 500), are set to release results.

Last week, a slew of major tech and finance companies reported either better-than-expected earnings or offered positive guidance: Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), and Citigroup (C, Fortune 500).

"The mood of the market was lifted by the earnings surprises last week," said Dickson. Even though companies were posting weak year-over-year sales and profits, investors were focused on the fact that companies beat analyst expectations.

Texas Instruments (TXN, Fortune 500) reported earnings after the closing bell Monday. The chipmaker posted sales that fell 27% from the year ago period and net income that plunged 56% from the same quarter a year ago. Compared to the first quarter of 2009, however, sales and profits jumped.

CIT: The board of CIT (CIT, Fortune 500) has approved a deal for a $3 billion loan from bondholders in order to stave off a bankruptcy filing, according to published reports. The deal is expected to be announced later Monday.

The small and midsize business lender has been scrambling to raise money after the government said it would not provide it additional bailout funds. CIT received $2.3 billion in aid from the government late last year.

CIT (CIT, Fortune 500) shares had lost more than 80% since the beginning of June. On Monday, shares surged 79% to $1.25 per share.

The way that CIT’s financial struggles have been managed have a positive impact on the market, according to Clissold.

"If you compare it to the chaos that surrounded Lehman and AIG, it shows you how far we have come," he said.

Economic reports: The index of leading economic indicators (LEI) rose 0.7% in June, according a report from the Conference Board. Economists polled by Briefing.com were expecting the index to have risen by 0.5% in June, according to a consensus estimate. LEI rose 1.2% in the previous month.

Bonds: Treasury prices bounced, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note falling to 3.61% from 3.64% Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Other markets: In global trade, Asian stocks rallied on the reports about the CIT loan, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ending the day up 3.7%. Tokyo was closed for a holiday. European markets ended between 1% and 2% higher.

In currency trading, the dollar lost ground against the euro and British pound. Meanwhile, the greenback edged higher against the Japanese yen, which is considered another safe-haven currency.

U.S. light crude oil for August delivery settled up 42 cents to $63.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for August delivery rose $11.30 to $948.80 an ounce.

Talkback: Do you work for minimum wage? How do you make ends meet? Will the increase in the minimum wage help you? E-mail you story to realstories@cnnmoney.com, and you could be part of an upcoming article. 

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I am obsessed with personal-management systems. Name a routine that promises to help its adherents work smarter or lose a few pounds, and chances are I’ve tried it at least once — especially if it involves technology. (My latest scheme: taking pictures with my cell-phone camera of everything I eat, so I’ll be less likely to snack.)

But in the past four years I have encountered just one great system for organizing my entire life. It’s the same one that has swept Silicon Valley, rules the roost at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and recently inspired some of the most innovative personal-management software I’ve yet seen. Converts refer to it by just three letters: GTD.

GTD stands for Getting Things Done, a 2002 book by consultant and coach David Allen that has sold 1.2 million copies. Allen now runs a personal-productivity business, David Allen Co., in Ojai, Calif. CEOs pay the 12-employee firm up to $3,000 a day to organize their lives. The most important step in Allen’s method: Write the longest list of to-dos you can imagine.

"If you don’t have at least 150 next actions," Allen says, "you haven’t captured them all."

That brings up the one thing that bothers me about GTD: It wastes a lot of trees. "Believe it or not, putting one thought on one full-size sheet of paper can have enormous value," Allen writes. Some people are okay with that. Most of my plugged-in San Francisco friends use nothing more advanced for to-dos than a pen. There’s even a retro fad for carrying stacks of three-by-five-inch index cards. Merlin Mann, who writes the organization blog 43folders.com, dubbed this system the "hipster PDA."

It isn’t just the environmentalist in me that’s offended. Is this the 21st century or a world of Dickensian clerks? Your customer database, payroll and accounting spreadsheets probably live on your hard drive (and your backup drive, naturally). Why store your long list of next actions in the most combustible, irreplaceable format of all?

Thankfully, Allen seems less enamored with paper these days. "I’m working with this CEO who loved his hipster PDA," Allen says compare car insurance prices. "He took one look at the stack of three-by-five cards he’d created in our session and had his assistant digitize them all."

Allen currently uses a customized version of IBM’s Lotus Notes for PC, which he calls his e-productivity suite. It syncs automatically with his phone, so he can add notes on the go. Allen isn’t planning to commercialize e-productivity anytime soon, though. And he’s wary of most to-do-list software on the market.

"Very few things out there have gotten slick enough," Allen says. "You have to think too much to use them. In the heat of battle, every click counts."

Indeed, dozens of commercial software suites claim to be inspired by GTD. None inspired me until recently, when I tried the latest entries in this market: Omni Focus and Things. Alas, each requires an Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone or a Mac and works best if you have both. But these apps — Things, especially — are useful enough to make me trade my old Palm (PALM) Treo for an iPhone.

I’d recommend trying the free versions to see which one works for you. Omni Focus — developed by Seattle-based Omni in collaboration with Mr. Hipster PDA, Merlin Mann — has more bells and whistles and will please hard-core project managers. Things is the brainchild of programmer J

CIT Group Inc was in talks with a bondholder group on Saturday, as the lender tried to hammer out a rescue financing deal before markets opened and avoid bankruptcy, a source close to the situation said.

Talks with the bondholder group, advised by investment bank Houlihan Lokey, for a $2 billion to $3 billion financing were expected to continue into Sunday with the aim of announcing a deal by Monday morning, the source said.

If a deal is not reached, the 101-year-old lender that services nearly one million small- and mid-sized businesses could file for bankruptcy protection as soon as Monday, according to the source, who did not want to be identified because talks are private.

Talks are also going on a parallel track for debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing if the lender has to file for bankruptcy, the source said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Barclays PLC and Morgan Stanley, which is also advising the company, might take part in a DIP financing, the source said.

CIT spokesman Curt Ritter declined to comment.

The ripples from a potential CIT collapse could be widespread and worsen the effects of the economic downturn for some firms.

In one early sign, an Alabama hardware supplier filed for bankruptcy blaming the CIT situation for its woes no fax payday loan.

Moore-Handley Inc said in court papers filed Friday that it was forced to seek bankruptcy protection “due to difficulties accessing funds” under their financing arrangements with CIT.

Still, the impact of CIT’s demise would likely pale by comparison with the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers last September, analysts said.

CIT gained a bank holding company status in December so it could draw $2.33 billion of taxpayer money from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The company, however, faced a worsening liquidity crunch amid tight credit markets, forcing it to seek further help.

But the Obama administration declined CIT additional help, saying it had set high standards for granting aid to companies, leaving the embattled lender to work out a deal with private investors to avoid collapse.

Talks with JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs for short-term financing did not lead to a deal, leaving the lender to try to get rescue funds from the bondholders.

CIT has about $40 billion of long-term debt, according to independent research firm CreditSights. 

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, will announce Thursday the development of an index that will be used to measure the social and environmental impact of the products it sells in its discount stores.

The information could be used to one day provide consumers a label assessing how "green" or "sustainable" a product is.

"In 2005, Wal-Mart set an aspirational goal to sell products that sustain our resources and environment," states Matt Kistler, Wal-Mart’s senior vice president of sustainability, on a Web site discussing the index.

"While important strides have been made in this area, we believe that to drive Wal-Mart’s supply chain towards sustainable business practices we need a way to measure each of our current and potential products against this goal."

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) has reached out to professors and environmental groups for help in developing the index. The retailer said it will be used to evaluate its 60,000 suppliers and determine which merchandise winds up on its store shelves.

Company spokesman David Tovar said the retailer was not providing any comment on the event being held Thursday instant payday loans.

Wal-Mart has laid out the far-reaching goals of one day using only renewable energy and creating zero waste.

Since launching its environmental push in 2005 under former CEO Lee Scott, it has challenged the thousands of manufacturers that make the products its sells to cut waste, use renewable resources and produce products that can be easily recycled.

Because of its status as the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart is considered one of the few companies with enough heft to force its suppliers to change. Those that do not could face the prospect of losing Wal-Mart’s business.

In October, Wal-Mart held a summit in China where it said it would enforce stricter quality and environmental standards for suppliers in that country, even if that could pressure margins and result in higher prices.

Wal-Mart shares were up 21 cents, or 0.5%, at $48.35 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange. 

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday there was a “very encouraging” improvement in confidence in the financial system.

After meeting with French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde in Paris, Geithner also told reporters that markets were functioning better, which he saw as a good sign for the economy. “I think generally what you’re seeing in the United States is a very encouraging improvement in confidence in the overall stability of the financial system,” Geithner told reporters.

He said markets themselves were also showing signs of improvement.

“You’re seeing markets start to function better, you’re seeing risk premia reduced. That is a fundamentally good thing, a sign of success in our collective efforts to address the crisis,” he said.

In a separate television interview on Thursday, Geithner reiterated his belief that there were signs of a durable improvement in credit markets online health insurance.

“We are not going to have a strong durable recovery unless we have a financial system that’s able to provide the credit necessary for businesses. We have made a lot of progress,” he told Bloomberg television.

Asked about threats to finance company CIT, Geithner gave no direct answer, saying the administration was working to repair the broader financial system.

(Reporting by Glenn Somerville; additional reporting by Patrick Graham in London; writing by Sophie Hardach; Editing by Ron Askew)

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Chrysler Group LLC has reversed course and decided not to sell off its V-10 powered Dodge Viper sports car business. The car will remain in production after this year, the automaker announced Friday.

The Viper will be produced "though 2010 and beyond," a Chrysler spokesman said.

Chrysler had announced last summer that it would sell the Viper business and would not produce anymore Viper cars after this year. Ultimately, Chrysler later said, the carmaker did not receive any bids that met its requirements.

The Viper brand and the plant that makes the car were taken over by the "new" Chrysler, now called the Chrysler Group, that recently emerged from bankruptcy.

The Viper is a high-priced, limited production performance car. It is powered by a massive 8.4-liter, 600 horsepower V-10 engine and has a price tag that starts at about $90,000 us fast cash.

The car was originally introduced in the 1992 model year, and only about 25,000 have been sold since then.

But the car became an important marketing centerpiece for Chrysler’s Dodge brand.

"We’re extremely proud that the ultimate American-built sports car with its world-class performance will live on as the iconic image leader for the Dodge brand," said Mike Accavitti, president and chief executive of Chrysler’s Dodge brand in a prepared statement.

The Chrysler Group is owned by a combination of the Italian automaker Fiat, the U.S. government, the United Auto Workers union’s retiree trust and the Canadian and Ontario governments. 

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