Stocks struggled Wednesday as investors took a breather after a two-day rally and braced for the start of earnings season. But banks and techs giane.d

Stocks slipped Wednesday as investors took a breather after a two-day rally and braced for the start of earnings season.

Wall Street momentum has clearly shifted back in the direction of the bulls. After falling for seven of eight sessions, the major averages have now risen for two consecutive days, with the Dow chalking up its biggest one-day advance since August 21. 

General Motors says it's shutting down the Saturn brand after an agreement with Penske Automotive Group to acquire the unit fell apart.

Opening a government meeting on auto safety, the Obama administration reported Wednesday that nearly 6,000 people were killed and a half-million injured last year in vehicle crashes connected to driver distraction, a striking indication of the dangers of using mobile devices behind the wheel.

Ford Motor is increasing its focus on the fast-growing car markets of the Asia-Pacific region, executives said Wednesday as they rolled out a new small car in India, says the New York Times.

General Motors will go to 24-hour operations at factories in Kansas, Michigan and Indiana to make up for production lost due to a large-scale factory consolidation announced earlier in the year.

It was not exactly a planned strategy, but the recession, particularly in the United States, has been very good for Hyundai, the South Korean automaker.

Automotive steel has changed quite a bit since the first Model T rolled off the assembly line. Prompted by crash-worthiness requirements and the need to make cars lighter to improve gas mileage, automakers are replacing conventional steels with advanced high-strength ones.

Cash-for-clunkers may have pushed retail sales higher, but the road to recovery is likely be a bumpy one, say economists.

President Barack Obama, claiming credit for an uptick on his watch, told autoworkers Tuesday that the economy is on its way back from the brink because of his policies.

An acrimonious trade dispute between China and the US is officially about tires, chickens and cars but is really much broader, the New York Times reports.

Taxpayers may not recover all of the bailout money awarded to the auto sector, said Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel in charge of the Troubled Assets Relief Program [TARP].

A Congressional Oversight Panel report on the use of TARP funds to restructure the auto industry questions some of the decisions President Obamas Auto Task Force made with regard to GM and Chrysler.

The government is looking closely at the pay of all top G.M. employees after bailing out the automaker. And that includes the unit that manages the pension fund, whose name was changed to Promark Global Advisors this year, says the New York Times.