I pass along the following tidbits of business information that caught my eye this morning:

The auto industry just recorded its worst October for U.S. sales in 13 years;

For most of October, the nearby price of a natural gas futures contract closed at a high of $14.34 per million British thermal units. That was more than twice what natural gas traded for at the beginning of the year. However, an Energy Information Agency inventory report last week revealed an unexpectedly large increase in natural-gas storage just as most of the U.S. was experiencing an unusually mild autumn. Accordingly, the price of a nearby natural gas contract closed yesterday at $11.60 per million BTUs, down almost 20% from last week’s highs; and
Clear Thinkers favorite James Hamilton notes that, despite record profits, oil and gas companies are reinvesting a surprisingly low percentage of their profits and he is not sure why.

You would think that hammering Morgan Stanley for $1.57 billion in damages would be enough for Ronald Perelman.
No way. This Wall Street Journal ($) article reports that Mr. Perelman has requested the same Florida state district judge who eviscerated Morgan Stanley’s defense in his lawsuit to hold the investment banking firm in criminal contempt of court for allegedly lying to the court in connection with testimony over when company executives found out that certain electronic tapes at issue in the trial might have contained potentially relevant email.
Under normal circumstances, Morgan Stanley should not worry too much about Mr. Perelman’s motion. Unless the contemptuous behavior takes place in the judge’s presence, all the judge should be able to do is refer the matter to the local district attorney for prosecution if she concludes that Mr. Perelman has made a prima facie case of criminal contempt. Moreover, the judge should recuse herself from overseeing the criminal case because she would likely be a witness in that case.
Having said all that, the way this case has gone for Morgan Stanley, the firm would be well-advised to have bail money immediately available for use after the hearing.

This Wall Street Journal ($) article picks up on a subject that I have previously addressed in regard to the legacy airline bankruptcies — that is, the federal government’s increasing equity stake in public companies resulting from the conversion of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.’s debt to equity in the reorganized companies under their chapter 11 reorganization plans:

The U.S. government is on its way to becoming a big shareholder in the nation’s airline industry and possibly in the auto industry.
The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., the federal agency that partially guarantees traditional pensions, recently was awarded 7% of US Airways Group Inc. by a federal bankruptcy court handling the company’s Chapter 11 reorganization, according to the PBGC’s recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The agency got the shares as compensation for the underfunded pension plans it assumed when the company filed for bankruptcy.
The agency is likely to get an even larger stake — between 15% and 35% of new shares — of UAL Corp.’s United Airlines when it emerges from Chapter 11 in February, after 38 months in court protection, according to a PBGC official. And it’s likely to get sizable chunks of Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Delphi Corp. — if, as expected, the companies ask the bankruptcy courts to dump their pension plans on the insurer.

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