General Motors and Chrysler may be getting hitched after all. On a day of plenty of auto-sector news, the Wall Street Journal breaks the scoop that the two struggling automakers have reopened merger talks. The new development is that "Chrysler owner Cerberus Capital Management LP has signaled its willingness to give away part of its ownership in the auto maker" to get the deal done, the newspaper writes, citing people in the know. It's hard to know how serious Chrysler's owner is about negotiating a second round of merger talks in a month.

Perhaps, the carmaker wants to show Washington it's serious about restructuring, a necessity if it's going to receive federal bailout money. Those negotiations for a bailout of GM and Chrysler, now being spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the New York Times writes, are still far from resolved. The Bush administration is keen to work out a plan by Christmas to provide the two firms with up to $14 billion in bridge loans to help cover operations through the first quarter of 2009. But for once it seems Washington plans to be a tough negotiator. "Giving them enough money to limp along doesn’t solve anything," a senior administration official explained to the NYT.

Chrysler and GM are taking some bold steps to cut costs and present lawmakers with a slimmed down, new-look version as they await a verdict on their bailout. On Wednesday Chrysler announced it would shut down all its North American production for at least one month starting tomorrow, BusinessWeek writes. And how is GM showing it can cut costs to survive? It is halting the completion of an engine factory for its Chevy Volt, one of its most highly anticipated new models that it hoped to have in showrooms by late 2010. GM tells the Detroit Free Press it had no choice. The company needs to preserve cash wherever it can.

Automakers got some unwelcome news from OPEC yesterday. In an effort to prop up the price of crude to $75 a barrel, the oil-producing cartel slashed output by a record 2.2 million barrels a day. And the market's response? The price of crude fell yet again. In fact, oil dipped below $40 a barrel in Asian trading this morning, Reuters reports. Evidently, the market has OPEC over a barrel. "The market is saying to OPEC, 'You really didn't do your job. If you want prices to go higher, we need a bigger cut in supply,' " Addison Armstrong, chief market analyst for Tradition Energy in Stamford, Conn., told the Houston Chronicle. "They set the stage for an oil price drop to $30." The plunging price of oil shouldn't necessarily be read as good news. Fears of a paralyzing global recession have all but decimated demand for oil, re-igniting fears of deflation, CNNMoney writes.