AP Executive Morning Briefing

The top business news from The Associated Press for the morning of Tuesday, November 25, 2008:

Obama promotes fiscal restraint, big spending

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President-elect Barack Obama wants to project fiscal restraint even as his economic team assembles a massive recovery package that could cost several hundred billion dollars. A day after introducing the captains of his economic team and promoting a giant jobs plan, Obama on Tuesday was to lay out his budget belt-tightening vision. The dual images _ big spender and disciplined budget watcher _ were designed to give both political and economic assurances to the public, the Congress and the financial markets.

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Asian markets rise after Wall Street rally

TOKYO (AP) _ Asian markets rose sharply Tuesday as investors regained some confidence after a strong overnight showing by Wall Street and the U.S. government's bailout of banking giant Citigroup. European markets, which soared Monday, opened lower. Initial reaction in the region to the Citigroup news _ which broke midday Monday in Asia _ was tepid, and most benchmarks had ended the day lower. But after seeing markets in Europe and the U.S. surge overnight, Asian investors joined in the rally.

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Reports to detail economic fallout in 3rd quarter

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Investors on Tuesday braced for several reports expected to show the U.S. economy contracted even more than originally thought in the third quarter as home prices shrank, more banks fell into trouble and consumer confidence sagged. The reports come on the heels of a Wall Street rally that drove up major indexes more than 4.5 percent Monday on news of the government's plan to bail out Citigroup Inc., a move investors hope will help quiet some of the uncertainty hounding the financial sector and the overall economy.

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Oil falls below $53 in Asia after rising overnight

SINGAPORE (AP) _ Oil prices fell below $53 a barrel Tuesday in Asia after surging overnight as investors mulled whether a U.S. government bailout of Citigroup Inc. restores enough confidence to staunch crude's slide since July. Light, sweet crude for January delivery was down $1.68 to $52.82 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by late afternoon in Singapore.

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Ford Motor Co. tops safe car list

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Dozens of new cars and trucks, led by Ford Motor Co. and its Volvo subsidiary, made the insurance industry's annual list of the safest vehicles, helped by the growing adoption of anti-rollover technology. For the 2009 model year, Ford and Volvo have 16 vehicles on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's list of the safest cars, followed by Honda Motor Co. with 13 vehicles, the institute said Tuesday.

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Stocks soar after government bailout of Citigroup

NEW YORK (AP) _ The government's plan to bail out Citigroup sent Wall Street soaring Monday for the second straight session as investors hoped that the worst of the financial industry's problems might finally be over. The Dow Jones industrials surged nearly 400 points, and all the major indexes jumped more than 4.5 percent. The rally gave the market its first two-day advance in three weeks and the Dow its biggest two-day percentage gain since October 1987, the month of the Black Monday crash.

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HP backs guidance but Wall Street wary

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Even in troubled times, Hewlett-Packard Co. has managed to stack up some impressive gains. Laptop sales soared 21 percent to $6.3 billion in the latest quarter, despite warnings of a sharp slowdown in PC sales growth industrywide, slashed guidance from major suppliers like Intel Corp. and signs of momentum from competitor Dell Inc.

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King Pharma's $1.6B offer wins over Alpharma

NEW YORK (AP) _ Alpharma Inc. has finally agreed to King Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s $1.6 billion cash takeover offer, ending the drugmakers' months-long battle. On Monday, Bristol, Tenn.-based King said it agreed to pay $37 per share for Alpharma, representing a 54 percent premium to the Bridgewater, N.J.-based company's closing stock price on Aug. 21, the last trading day before King's initial $33-per-share bid.

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Analysis: Why Citi had to be rescued

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Taxpayers may be wondering why they're forking over more money to rescue yet another behemoth, Citigroup, even as their own nest eggs crack and jobs evaporate. The answer is that Uncle Sam thinks letting Citi fail is unthinkable.

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Campbell Soup 1Q earnings down 3.7 percent

MILWAUKEE (AP) _ Campbell Soup Co.'s higher soup sales were watered down by commodity hedging losses in its first fiscal quarter, as the soupmaker said Monday that profits fell 3.7 percent even as more cash-strapped consumers reached for its brands. Shares of the Camden, N.J.-based company tumbled 8 percent as investors worried about the nation's largest soupmaker's ability to keep ahead of currency fluctuations and to translate a bigger thirst for soup into higher earnings.

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Japan Markets

TOKYO (AP) _ The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average surged 413.14 points, or 5.22 percent, to 8,323.93 on hopes for a thaw in credit markets.

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Dollar-Yen

TOKYO (AP) _ The dollar was trading at 96.43 yen Tuesday afternoon in Asia from 96.88 late Monday.

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