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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors, no stranger to hard times and red ink, still managed to shock Wednesday when it reported an operating loss more than 11 times larger than expected and a $39 billion charge that was among the biggest profit hits ever reported.

The nation’s No. 1 automaker, which was hit with a soft U.S. auto market and a two-day strike by the United Auto Workers union during the quarter, lost $1.6 billion, or $2.80 a share, excluding special items.

Among the problems hurting GM results was a $2.3 billion loss in the home loan business at GMAC due to problems from the meltdown in subprime mortgages. GM sold a majority of GMAC but still owns 49 percent of the lender.

In addition, GM took a huge charge in the quarter related to the writedown of tax credits for losses over the last three years.

That caused it to post a net loss of $39 billion, or $68.85 a share, for the third quarter, compared with the net loss of $147 million, or 26 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Only a gain from the sale of the Allison Transmission unit stopped the loss from being worse.

In addition, the charge is significantly larger than the $12.4 billion net loss posted by GM for all of 2005 and 2006, when the company was hammered by falling shares and labor costs far in excess of its nonunion rivals. The company had net income of $953 million for the first six months of the year before hitting the problems in the third quarter.

Revenue from auto sales rose to $43.1 billion from $39.6 billion a year earlier. That topped First Call’s revenue forecast of $40.3 billion. The automaker sold a record 2.39 million cars and trucks worldwide in the quarter, enough to edge back in front of Toyota Motor in the race to be the world’s largest automaker in terms of vehicle sold.

Cliffnotes (for those lazy mofos): GM posted a huge $39 billion loss in the third quarter due to accounting charges, even as its global auto operations reported a profit sending shares to new lows.

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It looks like during overnight and New York sessions, the Yen gained in strength and with oil prices declining, the Canadian dollar lost strength however it did break in to the $91.00 region. The American dollar got pounded by the other majors (Euro, British Pound, Swiss and Yen) after reports from Chinese officials looking to diversify its $1.4 trillion currency reserves into stronger currencies, and explicit mention of the euro sent the single currency flying to fresh record highs. This in turn also gave the US equity markets their continued recent declines on a sharp rise in global risk aversion, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average a sizeable 200 points lower to 13,465.

Positions from yesterday:

CAD/JPY - trailing stop loss of 100 hit giving a profit of +186 pips.

NZD/USD - trailing stop loss of 80 pips hit gaving a profit of +91 pips.

EUR/JPY - stop loss of -34 pips hit after going up +35 pips.

Positions still open:

EUR/CHF - short at 1.6692, stop loss is at break even and up 81+ pips.

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Possible long on EUR/JPY and AUD/JPY as the carry trades look to be kicking with the Dow Jones gained 0.87% today and with the recent cuts in interest rates, the Dow will possibly head up a lot higher within the next few days and weeks. Canadian and New Zealand pairs are exhibiting the most strength at the moment gaining on every pair they are against.

Long positions of CAD/JPY (opened on Sunday night) and NZD/USD (opened Monday night) are both still open with 220 pips and 120 pips gained respectively.

I stumbled upon a great site dealing with forex education as most of the commentary is video based which provides for great visual aid. Click here to access Profitting with Forex (PFX).

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Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) — Gisele Bundchen wants to remain the world’s richest model and is insisting that she be paid in almost any currency but the U.S. dollar.

Like billionaire investors Warren Buffett and Bill Gross, the Brazilian supermodel, who Forbes magazine says earns more than anyone in her industry, is at the top of a growing list of rich people who have concluded that the currency can only depreciate because Americans led by President George W. Bush are living beyond their means.

Even after the dollar lost 34 percent since 2001, the biggest investors and most accurate forecasters say it will weaken further as home sales fall and the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates. The dollar plummeted to its lowest ever last week against the euro, Canadian dollar, Chinese yuan and the cheapest in 26 years against the British pound.

When Bundchen, 27, signed a contract in August to represent Pantene hair products for Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co., she demanded payment in euros, according to Veja, Brazil’s biggest weekly magazine. She’ll also get euros for the deal she reached last October with Dolce & Gabbana SpA in Milan to promote the Italian designer’s new fragrance, The One, Veja reported. Bundchen earned $33 million in the year through June, Forbes reported in July.

“Contracts starting now are more attractive in euros because we don’t know what will happen to the dollar,” Patricia Bundchen, the model’s twin sister and manager in Brazil, said in a telephone interview in September from Sao Paulo. She declined to discuss details of the arrangements last week, as did Anne Nelson, Bundchen’s agent in New York at IMG Models.

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