Consumer Reports Morning Update

Good Thursday morning. Here are the top stories our editors are keeping an eye on today. Check back with ConsumerReports.org throughout the day for updates and analysis on these topics and many more.

White House Pushing Credit Card Companies:

President Obama, who is said to support efforts by Congress to pass new credit card regulations, is scheduled to meet today with the heads of major credit card companies to discuss lending practices. "The president believes new rules of the road for the credit card industry are needed and he looks forward to having an open and productive conversation tomorrow with the representatives of the credit card industry," White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said Wednesday in a written statement. (ABC News)

Obama and some congressional leaders are particularly focused on what they consider to be abusive and deceptive practices that squeeze people into paying much higher fees or interest rates than anticipated. Both the House and Senate are considering a credit card "bill of rights" to limit the ability of credit-card companies to raise interest rates on existing balances and to require greater disclosure. (Associated Press)

Have you had a bad experience with your credit card company? Share your story with Consumers Union.

Consumer Lending Program Struggles:

In its first two months, the government's signature initiative to support consumer lending has fallen well short of expectations, deploying only a fraction of the amount officials had hoped to extend to stimulate auto loans, student loans and credit card lending. The slow rollout of the program has frustrated staff at government agencies working on the effort and diminished hopes that they could engineer a rapid return to healthy lending levels, according to interviews with government and industry sources. (Washington Post)

Housing Crisis Keeps Americans Where They Are:

The housing crisis has dramatically eroded Americans' ability to move, driving the custom of relocating for better opportunities to its lowest level since the Census Bureau began tracking it in 1948, data released Wednesday show. About 35.2 million people moved from 2007 to 2008, about 3.5 million fewer people than the previous year. The moving rate dropped to 11.9% of Americans from 13.2%, the Census Bureau reported. (USA Today)

Falling home prices are starting to ignite bidding wars in a few parts of the U.S. as first-time buyers compete with investors for the same foreclosed properties. In most of the nation, the supply of unsold homes continues to swamp demand. Home prices in many markets continue to fall, and foreclosures, which slowed in late 2008 as mortgage companies delayed taking action against delinquent borrowers, are picking up again. (Wall Street Journal)

Good Economic News Of The Day: Apple Outperforms

Shrugging off a bad economy, Apple Inc. on Wednesday reported a 15.2% jump in profit and an 8.6% uptick in revenue for its first quarter, juiced by sales of its iPhones and iPods. "Apple continues to surprise," said Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst, who noted that consumer jitters about job losses and lower housing values did not prevent them from buying millions of the relatively pricey iPod Touches, which sell for $229 to $399 depending on the capacity of the disk drive. (Los Angeles Times)

In the market for a new MP3 gadget? Check out the Consumer Reports guide to digital music players.