Business news for Fri, 26 Oct 2007. 1303 news.

Moody's cut credit ratings on CDOs, instruments tied to mortgage-backed securities. More downgrades are expected.

(Crain's) -- A $3.8 billion-investment gain, among the highest ever, helped compress the funding gap in a pension fund for Illinois teachers. The Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois (TRS) reported Friday that June 30, the end of its fiscal year, it had $41.9 billion in assets ...

(Crain's) -- DePaul University's long-term debt rating was raised Friday one notch by Moody's Investors Service analysts that looked favorably on the institution's financial standing. The debt rating for the Chicago-based private university was bumped to A3 from Baa1. That will affect $192 ...

About 1.7 million households, mostly those with incomes over $500,000, would pay higher taxes under a bill introduced by Rangel.

WHAT: Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender, reported a $1.2 billion loss in the third quarter as fallout from rising home loan defaults and the ongoing housing downturn put a crimp on the company's loan originations and forced the company to set aside millions in loan-loss provisions and writedowns. Management predicted it will turn a profit in the fourth quarter and in 2008 and cited efforts to shift funding of its home loan originations through its banking arm.

Volkswagen said its quarterly net profit surged, driven by strong sales in China, South America and Eastern Europe, as well as lower costs.

Federal prosecutors say in court papers that David H. Brooks, the indicted former head of DHB Industries, should be held without bail as a danger to the community because he has threatened people and has had close ties to a recently murdered member of the Genovese organized-crime family.

This was Facebook's week. The golden child of Web 2.0 scored a $240 investment deal from Microsoft , launched a new mobile application for the BlackBerry , and was even rumored to have closed two more investments from hedge funds worth an additional $500 million . Can Facebook do no wrong?

As I talked to Wim Coekaerts, VP of Linux engineering at Oracle, about "Unbreakable Linux," a gap emerged between what he was saying and what Red Hat's product management director, Joel Berman, was saying. Riders of Linux's impressive upsurge are advised to "mind the gap" and try not to fall into it.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved a $24.7 billion buyout of Alltel Corp., the nation's fifth-largest wireless carrier, to a private investment group....

The slumping U.S. currency should result in more expensive items, as it takes more dollars to buy the same amount of foreign imports.{b} More on shrinking U.S. dollar

The percentage of vacant homes for sale stayed at elevated levels in the third quarter, and the homeownership rate fell.

THE chief of Boeing's commercial plane unit said overnight that orders might level off in 2008, but the company is hopeful US airlines are ready to start buying new aircraft, keeping it ahead of Airbus.

Chart: Default notices by county A record number of California homeowners entered the foreclosure process in the third quarter, a real estate information service reported today.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (MarketWatch) -- Money might not grow on trees, but if a group of biotechnologists have their way, plastic will.

Hello, kitty! When Mac OS X 10.5 launched at the Fifth Avenue flagship store, it was pouring rain--but that didn't stop fans from waiting in line for a few hours to get it.

Sprint Nextel agreed to provide departing Sprint PCS customers with the code necessary to unlock their phones' software as part of a proposed class-action settlement.

The Wachovia Foundation said Friday that it will contribute $1 million to help victims of the California wildfires. (WB) (SWY)