NEW YORK SHARES

PARIS/HANOVER, Germany Feb 19 (Reuters) - Automotive companies sped up cost-cutting efforts to protect 2009 earnings and assured investors that open financing lines would ward off liquidity risks, sending their shares higher on Thursday. Continental in BUSINESS NEWS >

NEW YORK (AP) - Shares of Comcast Corp. bounced back Thursday as analysts offered a mainly positive take on the cable company's fourth-quarter financial results. The Philadelphia-based company reported a 32 percent decline in profit on Wednesday in BUSINESS NEWS >

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hewlett-Packard Co. cut its 2009 profit forecast Wednesday as the recession is hurting nearly all its business lines. The world's top seller of personal computers expects profit of $3.76 to $3.88 per share for the full year in BUSINESS NEWS >

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. stocks advanced for the time in six days, as investors snapped up bank shares trading near the lowest valuations on record and mining companies rallied with metal prices. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc , the biggest U.K in BUSINESS NEWS >

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc shares fell to almost 18-year lows Thursday, with Bank of America Corp stock also plunging, amid renewed fears that growing losses could lead to government control of troubled U.S. banks, wiping out shareholders. In in BUSINESS NEWS >