Business news with words action+billion. 54 news.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve added $17.5 billion in temporary reserves to the banking system Monday through overnight repurchase agreements, or repos, through the New York Fed's Open Market Desk. "The large operations this morning are intended to offset the drain to reserves arising from an elevated balance in the Treasury's account at the Fed," the New York Fed said in a statement on its Web site. The Fed injected $13.5 billion through a 4-day repo, and $4 billion through a 2-day repo. "Clearly the Desk is looking to provide a lot of liquidity into the system for the turn of the year," wrote analysts at Action Economics.

Class action lawyers pursuing Tyco International on behalf of shareholders have been awarded nearly half a billion dollars in fees, the largest legal payday in history.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The results of the Treasury Department's 3-month and 6-month bill auction show demand remains robust for risk-free short-term instruments ahead of the end of the year. The Treasury awarded $20 billion in 3-month bills at 3.28%, compared with last week's 3.0%. The bid-to-cover -- which measures bids received to bids tendered -- was 2.32, unchanged from last week. The indirect bid, a carefully watched category that includes foreign buyers, was 26.4%, up from 16.0% the week before. The Treasury also awarded $19 billion in 6-month bills at 3.49% compared with 3.28% last week. The indirect bid rose to 37.1% from 30.5% and the bid-to-cover rose to 2.61 from 2.34 last week. The auction "was well-bid, helped by the $2 billion cut in offering size to $39 billion, though light trading conditions limited demand," wrote analysts at Action Economics.

ITALY'S second-largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, is to pay 310 million euros (US$446 million) to settle a lawsuit with Parmalat SpA, an Italian dairy company that went bankrupt in December 2003. "The settlement brings all pending revocatory and damages actions and all reciprocal claims eventually to be filed to an end," the companies said in a joint statement distributed by the Milan-based Italian exchange. In June, Parmalat also settled lawsuits with Merrill Lynch & Co, ING Groep NV and Banca Monte Parma SpA for a total of 72 million euros, concluding all outstanding claims with those banks, Bloomberg News said. Legal action is still pending against Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, accountant Grant Thornton and other Italian lenders. Parmalat collapsed in 2003 with debt of 14 billion euros, almost eight times the amount reported by former management. The company had never generated a profit after its stock market listing in 1992, though it reported earnings

The auction process is part of a coordinated action with central banks around the world, trying to address a global credit crunch.

LEHMAN Brothers Holdings Inc, the largest US underwriter of mortgage-backed bonds, faces legal action by Australian municipal governments after the value of their subprime-related investments dropped as much as 86 percent. Wingecarribee Shire Council, in the Southern Highlands in New South Wales, is suing Lehman for "deceptive and misleading conduct" in selling A$3 million (US$2.6 million) of subprime-linked collateralized debt obligations, the council's managing director Mike Hyde said in a media statement yesterday. New York-based Lehman, which manages up to A$1 billion on behalf of 35 councils in New South Wales and Western Australia, may face further action as the assets in its US mortgage-linked product have declined amid a shakeout in global credit markets, Bloomberg News said. "We strongly deny the claims made in the press statement that we have not acted in their best interests, or that we have engaged in any misleading or deceptive conduct," Sinead

CENTRO Properties Group will be sued, possibly for hundreds of millions of dollars, over its failure to make proper disclosure of more than $1 billion of debt.

(AP) -- Real estate magnate Sam Zell took control of newly private Tribune Co. on Thursday and began shaking up the newspaper and TV company the moment the $8.2 billion buyout he led closed, reshuffling the board, naming two top executives and promising more action ahead. Taking on the CEO's ...

The action by the European bank eases conditions in credit markets that are grappling with a lending squeeze linked to the U.S. housing downturn and traditional year-end demands for cash.

A coalition opposing Google's $3.1 billion merger with DoubleClick renewed charges of conflicts and threatened possible legal action over a decision by a regulatory chairman not to recuse herself from reviewing the merger.

The ECB dishes out EURO350 billion THE European Central Bank (ECB) is keen these days to spew cash into troubled markets. On Tuesday December 18th it accepted bids from 390 banks for close to EURO350 billion in short-term money, at below-market rates (between 4.21% and 4.45%). Is this is a $500 billion Christmas present, or a justifiable measure to avert an unseasonal crisis? Certainly, it was a response to a sudden jump in two-week rates to over 4.9% the day before--a sign that banks were hoarding more liquidity than usual at this time of year, to tide them over the Christmas period. ...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Moody's Investors Service said its downgrade of Citigroup Inc.'s debt ratings was not a reflection of the company's move to consolidate its structured investment vehicles, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Friday. The newspaper said Moody's commented on a conference call that Citigroup's move to bring $49 billion in assets onto its balance sheet would not likely result in serious losses.

The Bank of England and four other powerful central banks are to inject £50 billion into global money markets in unprecedented joint action to ease mounting strains that threaten to tip the world’s leading economies into recession.

Tribune Co. has gone to court as expected to appeal the federal action that cleared the way for its $8.2 billion buyout but denied its request for indefinite waivers of rules against owning newspaper and broadcast properties in the same market.

(AP) -- Tribune Co. has gone to court as expected to appeal the federal action that cleared the way for its $8.2-billion buyout but denied its request for indefinite waivers of rules against owning newspaper and broadcast properties in the same market. The media conglomerate disclosed Thursday ...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Energy stocks fell along with oil prices amid weakness in the overall market in early action Tuesday. The Amex Oil Index fell 0.5% to 1,430, with Valero weighing on the gauge after falling 1.4% to $64.54. The Amex Natural Gas Index dipped 0.4% to 539. EOG Resources dipped 0.8% to $82.10 as it led the index into the red. Oil futures fell 82 cents to $88.49 as comments from Opec about sufficient supply eased prices. Transocean fell 4% to $132.01 as the stock gave back recent gains on plans to raise $8.5 billion through debt and stock offerings. Devon fell 0.4% to $82.98 after it reconfirmed its oil and gas production forecasts for 2007, 2008 and 2009.

The petition filed by Social Action Forum for Manav Adhikar, an NGO, has challenged the government's decision on October 19, this year to allocate spectrum as something that would result in a loss of Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) to the national exchequer.

MOODY'S Investors Service may cut the top ratings on six of Citigroup Inc's seven structured investment vehicles. The move is seen as part of a review of US$130 billion in SIV debt, Bloomberg News reported. The net asset value of the US$64.9 billion in Citigroup SIVs dropped to below or near 60 percent, prompting the ratings action, Moody's said in a statement on Monday. The junior notes of three of the funds have been downgraded to below investment grade. SIVs, which sell short-term debt to buy longer-term, higher-yielding assets, were shut out of the short-term market as losses on subprime mortgage securities prompted investors to retreat from all but the safest of securities. Unable to finance themselves, three SIVs have defaulted and others are being bailed out by their sponsors. The world's 30 SIVs have more than US$300 billion of assets. "In recent weeks, Moody's has observed material declines in market value across most asset classes in SIV portfolios," the

Cross-ownership exemptions granted Tribune Co. gets to keep the Chicago Tribune, WGN-Ch. 9 and WGN-AM 720 permanently as part of a Federal Communications Commission action Friday that removes a major regulatory hurdle to billionaire Sam Zell's $8.2 billion effort to take the media concern private.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Fitch Ratings on Friday downgraded the senior unsecured notes of Six Flags Inc to CCC/RR6 from CCC+/RR5 because of weaker than expected operating performance. The ratings agency did not change the company's other ratings, and reiterated its negative outlook for Six Flags. About $2.5 billion in debt is affected by the rating action, Fitch said.