Tue. April 22nd - Three Highlighted Articles UPDATE

[BUINVESTDOTCOM]

[Content Posted on BUinvest.com.com]

Highlight Article 1



Sales of hybrid cars rise 38%
Research group says more options, familiar technology help drive
sales; Toyota's Prius leads the pack.
Last Updated: April 21, 2008: 9:44 AM EDT

DETROIT (AP) -- Kim Fenske drives a bus in Colorado by day, but when
he's not working, he zooms around the mountains in a 2007 Toyota
Prius.

Fenske, an attorney by training who has also worked as a forest
ranger, was an environmentalist long before hybrid cars like the Prius
hit the market. In the early 1990s, he ran unsuccessfully for the
Wisconsin state legislature on a renewable energy platform.

But he recently decided to go one step further and make an
environmental statement with his car.

"My decision is a very political decision. I want to get people in
this country off their dependency on foreign oil," said Fenske, 48,
who lives at the Copper Mountain ski resort near Frisco.

A growing number of buyers feel like Fenske. U.S. registrations of new
hybrid vehicles rose 38% in 2007 to a record 350,289, according to
data to be released Monday by R.L. Polk & Co., a Southfield-based
automotive marketing and research company.

Hybrids made up just 2.2% of the U.S. market share for the year, but
they were growing steadily even as overall auto sales declined 3%.

Lonnie Miller, director of industry analysis at Polk, said rising gas
prices may affect some buyers, but they're not the main driver of
hybrid sales. Instead, he thinks sales jumped in 2007 because buyers
had more options, including the new Nissan (NSANY) Altima, Saturn Aura
and Lexus LS600h hybrid sedans and hybrid versions of the Chevrolet
Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Mazda Tribute sport utility vehicles. While some
of these vehicles weren't on sale during 2007, or sold in low numbers,
marketing and media reports about them have increased consumer
awareness of hybrid vehicles, Miller said.

"The gas price thing is a constant that is keeping consideration in
their minds," Miller said.

Another important factor is that hybrids have been on the market long
enough for consumers to trust the technology, Miller said. The Prius,
the second mass-market hybrid after the Honda (HMC) Insight, went on
sale in the U.S. in 2000.

The Toyota (TMC) Prius remained the best-selling hybrid in 2007,
commanding 51% of the hybrid market, up from 43% in 2006 despite the
influx of new hybrids.

Fenske's previous vehicle was a van, which he bought to move his
belongings from the Midwest to Colorado. But Miller said most buyers
appear to stay within the segment they were in previously when they
opt for a new hybrid. For example, more than half of those who bought
the Lexus LS600h had a previous vehicle in the luxury segment. Miller
said that's why it's important for automakers to have hybrid SUVs,
even though some drivers like Fenske argue that big hybrids don't save
enough fuel.

"It's a good call on automakers' parts to not make their hybrids so
funky and out of body style than what's already out there," Miller
said. "People have requirements for what they need."

California remained the top state for hybrid sales in 2007. Twenty-six
percent of all hybrid registrations were in California, up 35% from
2006. Florida, New York, Texas and Washington followed.

Miller forecasts more of the same this year, despite warnings from
automakers that U.S. car sales could be at their slowest pace in more
than a decade due to high gas prices and the weak economy. Miller
predicts hybrid sales will rise 30% or more.

"This segment has still outpaced what the rest of the industry has
done. I can't see the hybrid category totally chilling out," Miller
said.

Fenske, who closely monitors hybrid discussions groups on Web sites
like Edmunds.com, hopes more people will do the research and the math
he did and buy a hybrid car. He figures he's saving $3,000 per year in
maintenance compared to his old vehicle, plus $2,000 to $3,000 per
year in fuel costs for his 20-minute commute. He says he gets around
48 miles per gallon.

Fenske said he waited several years to buy a hybrid because he wanted
to make sure the technology was proven. Then, he was concerned about
how the little car would perform in the mountains. He has had to make
some compromises; he can't drive up some rough roads, but he has
decided to hike or bike instead. But for the most part, the car has
exceeded his expectations.

"Last night, I drove back from a union meeting in the middle of a
blizzard and I had no traction problems at all," he said. "I was
passing SUVs in the ditch left and right." To top of page
First Published: April 21, 2008: 8:37 AM EDT






Highlight Article 2



By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: April 21, 2008: 3:03 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General
Electric, said Monday much of the technology to make energy generation
cleaner and more efficient is available now. The challenge, however,
is deploying it and making it cheaper.

"A lot of the technology is already there," Immelt told a crowd of
electric utility executives at an industry meeting sponsored by the
Edison Electric Institute, a utility trade group. "This is a business
model issue, not a technical issue. Our job is to make them cheaper."

GE (GE, Fortune 500) makes a variety of energy products - from light
bulbs and appliances to coal and nuclear power plants - many of them
marketed to utilities.

The company is part of a consortium of manufacturers and utilities
urging lawmakers to pass nationwide restrictions on greenhouse gasses.

The Bush administration has so far resisted immediate mandatory
restrictions, largely on the grounds that waiting for better, cheaper
technology would yield better results. All three major presidential
candidates support mandatory restrictions.

The climate debate comes as the world is facing a surge in energy
demand and a simultaneous desire to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Energy consumption globally is estimated to grow by 50% over the next
few decades, while scientists say the world needs to at least halve
its greenhouse gas emissions over the same time period if it is to
avoid the worst effects of global warming.

In facing this challenge, Immelt urged utility executives to keep all
technologies on the table - from solar and wind to nuclear and cleaner
coal - and to not let new technologies languish at the expense of
maintaining the status-quo.

He said low oil and gas prices historically led to massive
underinvestment in the sector, with energy companies spending only
about 2% of their revenue on research and development. By way of
comparison, healthcare companies have invested about 8% of their sales
on R&D, Immelt said. (GE also is a big player in the medical devices
industry.)

But with high energy prices now soaring, Immelt believes investments
in energy will follow suit.

"There's plenty of incentive now to drive technology into the
industry," he said.

Immelt said GE is investing in a wide range of energy technologies. He
specifically mentioned solar as one that has great potential.

The cost of solar power should fall from 30 cents a kilowatt hour
today to under 15 cents "in a relatively short time," he said. "That
should open up a sweet spot for solar."

By comparison, American consumers currently pay about 10 cents an hour
on average for electricity, according to the Energy Information
Administration.

The U.S. utility industry will likely be a recipient of clean
technologies developed outside the U.S., Immelt added, whether it be
cleaner coal processes fine-tuned in China or renewable technology
pioneered in Europe.

But he encouraged the industry and U.S. government to take the lead in
capping greenhouse gas emissions and developing clean sources of
energy.

"The time to act is now," he said. "When you lead in clean energy, you
create jobs. This is a place the U.S. could lead." To top of page
First Published: April 21, 2008: 1:46 PM EDT





Highlight Article3

Stocks shake off bigger losses
Dow and S&P 500 end lower after BofA earnings disappoint, and oil and
gas prices spike to new records. But Nasdaq manages gains.
By Alexandra Twin, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: April 21, 2008: 5:30 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Blue chips dipped and tech shares ended
higher Monday as weaker-than-expected earnings from Bank of America
gave investors a reason to hesitate after last week's big advance.

Record oil and gas prices also factored into the day's trade.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) and the broader Standard &
Poor's 500 (SPX) index both lost a few points, while the Nasdaq
composite (COMP) gained 0.2%.

After the close, Texas Instruments (TXN, Fortune 500) reported
quarterly earnings of 43 cents per share, in line with forecasts and
up from 35 cents a year ago. Tuesday morning brings earnings reports
from Coach (COH), DuPont (DD, Fortune 500) and McDonald's (MCD,
Fortune 500).

Stocks had been weaker in the morning as investors mulled the day's
batch of earnings and opted to play it cautious after last week's
strong rally.

"This is just a very modest pullback after the last 3 or 4 weeks of
gains," said John Merrill, CIO, Tanglewood Capital Partners.

Stocks will continue to be volatile as investors sort through the
spate of first-quarter earnings reports, trying to get a sense of how
sectors - particularly those outside of financial - are handling the
economic slowdown.

Last week Google, IBM, Intel, Caterpillar and even JPMorgan Chase
reported results that beat forecasts. Plus, IBM and Intel issued
upbeat current-quarter forecasts.

But JPMorgan was one of the few financial companies to beat
expectations, with Washington Mutual, Wachovia, Merrill Lynch and
others disappointing investors. Citigroup's report was mixed, with the
bank reporting a big loss, but higher-than-expected revenue.

With 21% of the S&P 500 having reported results, earnings are
currently on track to have fallen 15% versus a year ago, according to
the latest Thomson Financial estimates.

Monday's earnings. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) was hit hard by
the credit market fallout, with profit in the first quarter falling
77% to 23 cents per share from $1.16 a share a year ago. Analysts
surveyed by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 41 cents per share.
The stock lost 2.5%.

National City (NCC, Fortune 500) said it has raised $7 billion in
capital after reporting big mortgage-related losses. The troubled
Midwestern bank also reported a quarterly loss versus a profit a year
ago, missing forecasts, and said it was cutting its dividend to 1 cent
per share from 21 cents per share. National City shares tumbled 27.6%
in active trade.

A variety of financial stocks slipped, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM,
Fortune 500), Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) and Wachovia (WB, Fortune
500).

Dow component Merck (MRK, Fortune 500) reported higher quarterly
earnings that topped estimates on higher sales that were short of
forecasts. Fellow drugmaker Eli Lilly (LLY, Fortune 500) reported
higher quarterly sales and earnings that were short of forecasts.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, decliners
beat advancers 8 to 7 on volume of 1.12 billion shares. On the Nasdaq,
losers topped winners 4 to 3 on volume of 1.64 billion shares.

Commodity prices spike. U.S. light crude oil for May delivery rose 79
cents to settle at a record $117.48 a barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange, after touching an all-time trading high of
$117.76 a barrel earlier.

The national average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas hit an
all-time record of $3.503, AAA reported.

COMEX gold for June delivery rose $2.40 to settle at $917.60 an ounce.

Other markets. The dollar flirted with a new record low against the
euro and declined versus the yen.

Treasury prices slipped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year
note to 3.72% from 3.71%. Bond prices and yields move in opposite
directions. To top of page
First Published: April 21, 2008: 9:42 AM EDT