GM to Start Repaying Feds

The automaker said it has trimmed losses and can start paying back its $6.7 billion in government loans. Plus: Stocks surge on consumer spending data.

GM to Start Repaying Feds GM is about to start paying back the $6.7 billion loan from the government. GM’s financial picture is also getting brighter. It says that it lost 1.2 billion from the time it left bankruptcy through the end of September but that’s far less than it lost in previous quarters. On Wall Street, stocks rally to new highs for the year on the news. Americans loosened up their purse strings last month. The Dow ran up 136 points to 10,406. The NASDAQ rallied nearly 30. Retail sales rose 1.4% in October mostly because people were buying cars. If you don’t include autos, sales were up and more modest to 2/10 of a percent. Home improvement retailer Lowe’s said that profits tumbled to 30% last quarter as consumers continue to delay buying big ticket items like appliances, but the CEO of Lowe’s said that some of the hardest hit housing markets are starting to stabilize. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sees the economy growing next year even with unemployment at a 27-year high. Bernanke told the economic club of New York that the fed would keep a close eye on the sliding dollar even as he promised to keep interest rates at record Lowe’s. For more money headlines, be sure to head to CBSMoneyWatch.com. In New York, I’m Alexis Christoforous.