AP Business NewsBrief at 10:25 a.m. EDT

updated 10:25 a.m. ET July 18, 2009

FRANKFURT (AP) — The struggle over control of Porsche, the heavily leveraged maker of world-class sports cars including the 911, appears to be coming to an end, according to media reports. The German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported on its Web site Saturday that Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen AG would initially get 49.9 percent of Porsche AG and later take the remaining shares. The magazine did not reveal its sources in its report.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A deal to solve California's $26.3 billion budget deficit could come as early as this weekend after legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made "huge progress" during hours of closed-door negotiations, state lawmakers said. "This thing is coming to an end sooner than later," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said Friday. He said an agreement could come as soon as Sunday night, when talks are scheduled to resume.

NEW YORK (AP) — The big banks are making big money again, but they won't be back to health as long as they have to deal with a recession and customers defaulting on mortgages and credit cards. The impressive numbers included a $3 billion second-quarter profit announced Friday by Citigroup and $2.4 billion for Bank of America. They followed similarly robust earnings for Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators on Friday shut two banks in California and two smaller banks in Georgia and South Dakota, boosting to 57 the number of federally insured banks to fail this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the four banks. The two biggest were Temecula Valley Bank, in Temecula, Calif., with $1.5 billion in assets and deposits of about $1.3 billion as of May 31 and Vineyard Bank, National Association, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. It had assets of $1.9 billion and $1.6 billion in deposits as of March 31.

NEW YORK (AP) — CIT Group Inc.'s shares nearly doubled Friday as the commercial lender held talks with several large banks about securing emergency financing in hopes of avoiding a bankruptcy filing. But the company's stock remains well below $1 — and down 54 percent from only a week ago — suggesting investors still rate its prospects of survival as slim after the federal government refused to rescue the firm.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fifteen states have crossed a painful threshold: 10 percent unemployment. More states, and the nation, likely will follow, one of the biggest dangers to an economic recovery. How consumers behave in the face of rising unemployment will figure prominently in shaping a broader rebound. If they go back into hibernation and sharply cut spending like they did at the end of last year, the recovery could cave in. More likely is that consumers will stay cautious, making for a fragile and slow-moving national economic turnaround, economists said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction of new U.S. homes rose in June to the highest level in seven months as builders rushed to pour foundations for homes that must be completed by the end of November for first-time buyers to take advantage of a special tax break. The Commerce Department said Friday that construction of new homes and apartments jumped 3.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 582,000 units, from an upwardly revised rate of 562,000 in May.

DALLAS (AP) — A federal judge dismissed a civil insider-trading lawsuit against Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban on Friday, dealing the Securities and Exchange Commission a rare high-profile setback. U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater ruled that the SEC could not hold Cuban liable for insider trading because the agency didn't allege the billionaire NBA team owner had agreed not to trade based on confidential information he received about an Internet search engine company, Mamma.com Inc.

NEW YORK (AP) — Investors are betting that the stock market has restarted its spring rally. Stocks ended little changed Friday but held onto an enormous gain for the week. Investors are looking to another flood of corporate earnings reports next week to provide more signs that the economy is healing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee asked the Obama administration Friday to release documents on the federal bailouts of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, seeking more details on decisions that led to the auto industry bankruptcies. "They negotiated, they reviewed and they approved every aspect of the Chrysler and General Motors reorganization," Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said of the White House. "We don't know how the president's auto task force reached its conclusion."