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It happened back in 1989, but the lawsuit is still being fought, and the latest round goes to Exxon. A Federal Appeals Court cut the amount of punitive damages Exxon owes nearly in half to 2.5 billion dollars. The 11-million-gallon spill harmed 1,500 miles of coastline. The jury awarded the damages to fishermen and others affected by this spill. The amount has been reduced 3 times since the original case was heard, and Catherine, the judge hopes that this will be the end of it.
I can't just believe that it's been 17 years now, how is this ruling going to affect Exxon's financial outlook?
Well, Exxon had already set aside more than 5 billion dollars, so this can only be a positive development for the company which is already flush with cash, I should add, you might remember that ExxonMobil earned record profits last year: more than 36 billion dollars.
Speaking of profits, Valerie, you know, yesterday's reports came out that, said that Toyota could move ahead of Ford as the No. 2 seller of autos in the US, sounds like Toyota doing even more now to put the pedal to the metal, right?
Well, Toyota really appears to be on the verge of becoming No.1 worldwide. Now the Japanese automaker has been ramping up production for next year, planning to produce 9.4 million vehicles. That's 4% more than this year, and it is apparently lifting it right past General Motors. GM hasn't given a production target for next year, but it has been forced to slash jobs, scale back on production after seeing its market share eroded by Asian automakers. GM has been the global leader for many decades. Now Toyota stock closed up nearly 1.5%, but it was a very different story for the rest of the market. There was no Santa Claus rally after a surprise decline in orders for durable goods. The Dow Industrials, as you see, with this shot of the Big Board at the New York Stock Exchange fell 78 points. The NASDAQ Composite lost about two-thirds of a percent. Trading volume was very light and the market will be closed on Monday, Christmas day. Typical of the day Research In Motion initially rose on a positive earnings report. The maker of the Blackberry wireless e-mail devices posted a 47% increase in quarterly profits, but by the end of the day, shares were down nearly 3%.
punitive damages (n.) damages awarded in a lawsuit as a punishment and example to others for malicious, evil or particularly fraudulent acts
put the pedal to the metal (idiom.) to make something go forward or increase as fast as possible.
Ingrid put the pedal to the metal and finished writing her essay a day early.
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