NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters surged nearly 25% Thursday after a stellar earnings report.

After the closing bell Wednesday, Green Mountain (GMCR) reported $96 million in net income for the quarter ended in December, a 264% increase over the same quarter in the previous year that crushed analyst estimates.

After closing at $53.63 Wednesday, shares of Green Mountain, which makes the popular K-Cup, opened the trading day Thursday at $65.05 and closed at $66.42, up 23.8%.

“The value of single-serve, at-home brewing seems to be resonating with consumers,” Green Mountain CEO Lawrence Blanford said in a statement announcing the earnings.

Car sales zoomed ahead in January, with many automakers reporting solid sales at the start of a year expected to show a steady gain in vehicle purchases.

Chrysler, now privately held and majority owned by Italy’s Fiat, was the notable standout for the month. It posted a 44 percent rise in U.S. auto sales, led by gains for its Jeep brand, while its larger domestic rival General Motors lost ground in a month marked by modest growth.

Chrysler’s sales blew past some analysts’ expectations of a 35 percent increase, demonstrating the remarkable comeback of the smallest U.S. automaker nearly three years after its taxpayer-funded bankruptcy restructuring. It also reported its first full-year profit since 1997.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks recovered most of their lost ground Monday afternoon but struggled to pull out of the red as concerns over Greece continued to weigh on the market.

Stocks started the day down about 1% after the weekend came and went without Greek leaders reaching an agreement on a debt-relief deal. But as the trading session wore on, the major indexes trimmed most of those losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) finished 7 points lower, or 0.1%. Earlier, the blue chip index had declined 131 points. The S&P 500 (SPX) lost 3 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq (COMP) slumped 5 points, or 0.2%.

Full Story at Stock Markets – Jan. 30, 2012 – CNNMoney

Stocks trim losses, but end in red on Greek woes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — My 401(k) is managed by a brokerage firm that was busted by the SEC for fraudulent practices (although those practices weren’t related to my 401(k) plan). Still, I don’t want to invest my money with, or pay fees to, to a firm I consider unethical. For now, I’ve switched all of my money into the bond account figuring it’s the safest place to invest until I can figure out what to do. But I’d really like to get into another 401(k) plan. Can I do that? — Michael S.

The short answer is probably not without considerable effort.

The housing market ended the year on a positive note with strong sales in December, but a glut of unsold homes will likely push prices lower through much of this year, forecasters said Friday.

Sales of existing homes hit an 11-month high last month and the number of properties on the market fell to the lowest level in nearly seven years, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Unseasonably warm weather may have helped boost sales, but analysts said a strengthening job market and record low mortgage rates should buoy housing in coming months. Still, they were troubled by the high level of “distressed homes” for sale, including short sales of underwater properties or sales of foreclosed properties. Nearly one-third of existing-home sales were distressed last month, according to the Realtors.

But ask them how they got that way. The employees of one McDonald’s are not happy. They have to run labor at the percent that they did before min. wage began going up. I can see them making money, but not at the way they want to cut help and run with less help and more business.

(Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp is poised to report robust December sales from U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months, according to a survey of U.S. franchisees.

Thirty McDonald’s franchisees — who together operate 212 of the more than 14,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the United States — reported an aggregate 9.1 percent rise in same-restaurant sales for December, Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski said in a client note.

The analyst, whose surveys are closely followed by investors, boosted his forecast for U.S. December same-restaurant sales growth to match results from the poll.

SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Group, which includes Samsung Electronics Co, said on Tuesday it is raising its 2012 investment to a record $41.4 billion, underscoring the widening gulf between the dominant South Korean conglomerate and its faltering competitors.

Best known for making massive investments in new technologies ahead of rivals, Samsung is now banking on logic chips and OLED displays to repeat its roaring success in flash chips, computer memory chips and LCD flat-screens, even as a gloomy global economic and IT spending outlook forces its peers to be conservative in spending.

(Reuters) – Eastman Kodak Co is in advanced talks with Citigroup Inc to obtain financing that would be used if the money-losing photography company files for bankruptcy protection, Bloomberg News said on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

Advisers to Kodak are also lining up a “stalking horse” that would become the lead bidder for a patent portfolio should it be auctioned via the Chapter 11 process, the newswire said, citing one of the people.

Neither Kodak nor Citigroup immediately responded to requests for comment.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Foreign firms, hungry to cash in on the American energy boom, have invested nearly $6 billion in U.S. gas and oil drilling in the last few weeks.

Energy giants from China, France and Spain have snapped up stakes in fields in Ohio, Mississippi, Colorado and Michigan.

These investments will likely add to the recent boom in U.S. natural gas production, pushing already low natural gas prices even lower.

Low domestic prices could drive natural gas producers to seek out European and Asian markets, according to analysts, where the fuel commands three or four times the price.

“Of course that will” lead to more exports, said Nansen Saleri, president of the oil field consulting firm Quantum Reservoir Impact. “And it will be a tremendous opportunity.”

ATLANTA (CNN) — Gas prices in the United States increased by more than a dime over the past three weeks, the first increase seen since mid-October, according to a survey published Sunday.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.35 as of Friday, the Lundberg Survey found. That’s an increase of 12 cents from the last survey of 2011, conducted December 16.

“The price hike comes from higher crude oil prices, which pulled up wholesale gasoline prices, but retailers have yet to pass through to motorists all the hikes they received,” publisher Trilby Lundberg said.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Concerns are growing that the Federal Housing Administration will need to be bailed out by taxpayers.

The agency’s latest monthly outlook report revealed a spike in serious delinquencies for FHA-insured loans, posing a further threat to the agency’s already depleted cash reserves.

According to the report, the percentage of loans in the FHA’s portfolio with three missed payments or more rose to 9.3% in November, up from 8.4% in August.

“It’s highly likely that the FHA will need a taxpayer bailout over the next three to five years,” said Joseph Gyourko, a real estate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and author of a report entitled “Is FHA the Next Big Housing Bailout?.”

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Angry Verizon Wireless customers took to chat forums and social networks on Thursday after the company said it would begin to charge customers $2 for making one-time bill payments online or by phone using a credit card.

“This has seriously got to be the dumbest thing I have ever seen,” wrote commenter Clay Utley. “If they insist on making me pay $2 to pay my bill … well they will only get it one time when I pay the final bill next month.”

“Oh Verizon I save trees, paper costs and postage for you by paying online. DO NOT add a fee because I do all the work for you,” tweeted Vanessa Stiles, a small business owner in Indianapolis.