Media Digest 11/20/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

According to Reuters, Japan exports hit their lowest level since 2002.

Reuters writes that hopes for an auto bailout in this session of Congress are poor.

Reuters reports that the US is looking into lending practices at Golden West.

Reuters reports that small businesses are being hurt by trouble on Wall St.

Reuters reports that a bank analyst said financial firms need another $1 trillion in capital, especially Goldman Sachs (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC), JP Morgan (JPM), Citigroup (C), AIG (AIG), and Bank of America (BAC).

Reuters writes that GM (GM) and Toyota (TM) are cutting production output in Thailand.

Reuters reports that Yahoo! (YHOO) and T-Mobile announced a mobile search deal.

Reuters reports that Kohl’s will offer large price cuts for the holidays.

Reuters reports that over 100 "blue chip" stocks are trading under $10.

Reuters reports that Microsoft (MSFT) has modified it Zune subscription service to make it more competitive.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a number of housing and financial CEOs have received huge pay packages in the period just before the bust.

The Wall Street Journal reports that car manufacturing facilities in the South with their low labor costs could benefit from Detroit’s fall.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Boeing (BA) will cut jobs in its Kansas location.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft has ruled out buying Yahoo! .

The Wall Street Journal reports that executives at large companies are now more worried about risk management than workforce issues.

The Wall Street Journal reports that more and more analysts are rating Dell (DELL) as a "sell".

The Wall Street Journal reports that an industry group says chip sales will fall.

The Wall Street Journal reports that "Some mortgage companies are slashing the amount that borrowers owe, deciding that a permanent cut in the loan balance may pay off if that helps teetering borrowers avoid foreclosure."

The Wall Street Journal reports that Harbinger Capital has cut its stake in The New York Times (NYT).

The Wall Street Journal writes that Ambac (ABK) "reached a deal with counterparties to commute four securitized transactions worth about $3.5 billion on Sept. 30 in exchange for a $1 billion cash payment from Ambac Assurance Corp."

The Wall Street Journal reports that Sanofi-Aventis settled litigation with two drug makers over U.S. sales of generic copies of its allergy treatment Allegra,

The Wall Street Journal reports that BASF is closing plants and cutting thousands of jobs.

The New York Times reports that web retailers are staging holiday price wars.

The New York Times reports that "Some of the nation’s biggest companies want Congress to roll back rules requiring them to put more money into pension funds."

The New York Times reports that some economists think efforts by China and other emerging countries to take the global economy out of a recession.

The FT reports that the Fed vowed to fight deflation.

The FT reports that Chrysler hopes to restart merger talks with GM (GM).

The FT reports that yields on junk bonds spiked sharply.

Bloomberg writes that record options trading is drying up as hedge funds fold.

Douglas A. McIntyre