Financial Update for Jan. 30, 2009

· TSX -143.47 profit taking after 4 days of gains lowered the tsx amid further signs of a worsening global economy
· DOW -226.40 fresh wave of dismal U.S. data, including labor market and housing figures, added to the economic gloom and rattled investor confidence, sending N.American equity markets lower
· Dollar -.54c to 81.75USD Canada's dollar weakened against the greenback as the price of oil dropped and a batch of bleak U.S. economic data kept investors away from riskier assets.
· Oil -$.72 to $41.44USper barrel.
· Gold +16.90 to905.10 USD per ounce

· www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/bond-look.html Canadian bond prices

Retailers are becoming creative to try and help stimulate the US economy.

Lose your job, Hyundai will take your car back Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post
Buy or lease a new car and if you lose your job over the next 12 months, we'll take it back.
The offer is from Hyundai Motor Co. to Americans. The program's name: "Hyundai Assurance," whose TV ads state, perhaps in a cheeky stab at Detroit's big three automakers asking for billions in taxpayer-funded emergency aid: "An automaker that's got your back. Isn't that a nice change?"

It is a sign of the times, an automaker tapping into the national gloom with an offer of solace. It's also a reworking of the relationship between a car company and its customers, shifting responsibility for unpredictable events over to the seller from the buyer. And it just happens to be the brainchild of a Canadian entrepreneur named Vince Beretta.

Mr. Beretta is the founder and chief executive of Walkaway Canada Inc., a Toronto-based developer of credit products for the auto and recreational vehicle market. For the past eight years, he has been chipping away making small gains selling his protection plan, underwritten by ING Novex Insurance, to individual retailers. Just over 208 dealers now offer it to their clients wanting a bit more piece of mind.

In October of last year, Mr. Beretta hit real paydirt.

As he tells it, Hyundai Motor America executives were talking in a meeting late last year about the lack of consumer confidence, lamenting how vehicle incentives just weren't driving consumers to dealership doors any more. They were trying to figure out if there was some way to give Americans the reassurance to buy their cars. Someone in the room mentioned Walkaway and suggested Hyundai look at it.

A deal was quickly struck that saw Hyundai offer Walkaway's product, under the "Assurance" banner, across its entire U.S. lineup of vehicles starting Jan.2. Walkaway Canada will earn royalties, Mr. Beretta says, allowing it to double its current $14-million annual revenue.

Hyundai believes the program is striking such a chord that the automaker is replacing one of its two Superbowl ads featuring its Genesis car with a commercial centered on Assurance.

"This product helps sells cars. We've known that for years," Mr. Beretta says. "Why hasn't it landed with an [auto manufacturer before this]? Quite frankly because they haven't needed it. They've been selling record amounts of vehicles."

Until last year that is. U.S. auto sales were sliding for 11 straight months through September. But in October, they collapsed.

As the financial crisis ripped through stock markets, U.S consumers completely lost their appetite for buying big-ticket items, pinning most automakers to the ropes in what General Motors Corp. called the worst sales month since the end of the Second World War. Hyundai's U.S. sales fell 31% that month, mirroring double-digit increases at other companies.

People hesitate to buy a new car for one of three reasons, Mr. Beretta says: The unwillingness to take on more debt, job security, and health. "We answer all three of those," he says. "We're selling security in an insecure time."

In all, Walkaway has allowed Canadians to break more than $32-million in total vehicle loan and lease obligations since 2000. That may be nothing compared to the value of credit Americans may abandon with the Assurance program.

The ranks of America's jobless is growing as major employers announce layoffs to cut costs. The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of U.S. workers drawing on unemployment benefits was 4.78 million in the week ended Jan.17, the highest since record-keeping started in 1967.

"It doesn't matter whether you can get a $199 a month lease or a $239 a month finance payment," says Richard Cooper, vice-president in Canada for market research firm J.D. Power & Associates. "That's not going to matter if what you're concerned about is whether you're going to have a job in three or four months."

Through Assurance, Hyundai pledges to offset up to $7,500 of negative equity in the vehicle returned, meaning it will pay up to that amount to make up the difference between what you still own on your vehicle loan and what the now-used vehicle is worth. Responsibility for the returned vehicle falls to the dealer. Buyers can return their vehicle if they lose their job, become disabled, or go bankrupt, among other conditions.

Hyundai has no plans at the moment to offer the Assurance program in Canada, saying newly-introduced pricing offers and low financing are resonating well with buyers here.