The writer of Friday's Movie Projector column, which looks at weekend box-office prospects, finds going to the multiplex is still a relative bargain.
In Berkeley circa 1971, a weekend matinee at the local movie house cost about a buck. Ten-year-old Projector, flush with his $5 weekly allowance, could catch "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," hit the concession stand for popcorn, a Coke and Bon-Bons, and still have enough cash left over to buy the next week's essentials at the corner store: baseball cards, Hershey bars and comic books.
U.S. stocks will face renewed pressure next week, with investors facing not only another heavy week of earnings, but also key data that may confirm the U.S. economy is in recession and a Federal Reserve increasingly expected to pause its campaign to lower interest rates.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman has submitted a $580 million bid for Tribune Co's Newsday daily newspaper on Long Island, New York, matching a bid by News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, according to a source familiar with the matter.
A North Sea pipeline which supplies around 40 percent of Britain's oil and gas is expected to close within the next 24 hours because it has been hit by a strike, operator BP said Saturday. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 9:18 am
As JPMorgan Chase wraps up the Federal Reserve-inspired buyout of Bear Stearns, some shattered Bear employees are fuming over a seemingly sweet severance package that very few could end up getting. JPMorgan... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 9:15 am
Is that Clear? A New York state judge dropped Clear Channel Communica tions from a lawsuit filed by six banks, who them selves had been sued for allegedly refusing to fund a $19.5 billion acqui sition... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 9:15 am
Cablevision is the frontrunner to acquire Robert Redford's Sundance Channel, The Post has learned. According to two sources close to the negotiations, Cablevision was the high bidder when final offers... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 9:15 am
The very same Wall Street firms that are cutting back on lending to clients are having no trouble borrowing money themselves. Despite a squeeze in the credit markets, a record $40 billion in investment... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 9:15 am
Kushner Cos. is selling a 49 percent stake in the retail portion of 666 Fifth Ave. to The Carlyle Group and Stanley Chera's Crown Acquisitions for $525 million. According to sources familiar with the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 9:15 am
Facing a proxy battle next month, struggling retailer Charming Shoppes said it will explore strategic options for its non-core apparel catalogs and further cut spending this year. The Bensalem, Pa., women's... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 9:15 am
The U.S. Trade Representative said that Russia and China had been put on a list of countries that do not do enough to fight piracy of intellectual property. American officials said the two countries "aren't doing enough to combat intellectual-property crimes," according to The Wall Street Journal. It may be do to all of those DVDs and copies of Microsoft Windows found in Lenin and Mao's tombs. Douglas A. McIntyre
Wachovia (WB) may have taken deposits from drug cartels. The Wall Street Journal reports that the government probing the bank for "alleged laundering of drug proceeds by Mexican and Colombian money-transfer companies." Perhaps the cash was used to make subprime loans. Douglas A. McIntyre
businessminute Wall Street ended its second straight winning week with a moderate advance Friday, overcoming concerns about consumer confidence and inflation. After slumping early in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 7:24 am
AMR (AMR), parent of American Airlines, is in talks with US Air about a merger. Based on balance sheet and stock price performance AMR needs a partner more than most of the other large carriers. According to Reuters "American Airlines has had early-stage merger talks with US Airways and is in advanced talks for an alliance with Continental Airlines." Northwest (NWA) and Delta (DAL) have already begun the merger process. With fuel prices high and moving higher, the major carriers are closer to Chapter 11 than they will admit. All lost large sums in the first quarter. Douglas A. McIntyre
Northwest Airlines will match the fare increases put in place by other major carriers this week. Northwest said Friday night it will match the approximately 3 percent to 5 percent... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 7:14 am
The Food and Drug Administration has turned down an application by two drugmakers to produce an allergy drug combining the active ingredients of their popular Claritin and Singulair... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 7:12 am
Martine Rothblatt founded Sirius Satellite Radio from a desire to link people together. She founded United Therapeutics from a desperation to save her daughter's life. With no... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 7:08 am
The stories this week about people hoarding rice at some big-box U.S. retailers had to send at least a slight chill up the spines of Federal Reserve policymakers.
Digital Domain, a leading visual effects company that tried to go public this week, is now weighing alternatives after a tepid response from public investors.
Supercar Life leads the all-access drive for dream machines at almost $5,000 a spin. For exotic car fans, it's a chance to switch from one high speed to another.
How much would you pay to puke in a Porsche 997 Turbo?
The stories this week about people hoarding rice at some big-box U.S. retailers had to send at least a slight chill up the spines of Federal Reserve policymakers. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
A survey shows consumer confidence at the lowest level in 26 years amid inflation and housing worries. U.S. consumer... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
Wall Street has so far had a mostly subdued reaction to corporate earnings released in the past few weeks, but that could be about to change. Just about halfway through the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 6:40 am
U.S. stocks will face renewed pressure next week, with investors facing not only another heavy week of earnings, but also key data that may confirm the U.S. economy is in recession and a Federal Reserve increasingly expected to pause its campaign to lower interest rates.
Microsoft's unwanted courtship of Yahoo hits a critical point Saturday as a deadline arrives for the Internet pioneer to accept the software giant's 44.6 billion dollar takeover offer. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 1:50 am
Reuters - A New York judge dismissed
counterclaims against Clear Channel Communications Inc
on Friday in a lawsuit over the funding of a $20 billion buyout
of the radio station operator. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 26 Apr 2008 | 1:47 am
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A New York judge dismissed counterclaims against Clear Channel Communications Inc on Friday in a lawsuit over the funding of a $20 billion buyout of the radio... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 1:47 am
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A New York judge dismissed counterclaims against Clear Channel Communications Inc on Friday in a lawsuit over the funding of a $20 billion buyout of the radio station operator.
The west must stop hectoring China over human rights, the Olympics chief has warned, even as Beijing showed the first signs of bowing to international protests by saying it would hold talks with aides to the Dalai Lama Source: FT.com - US homepage | 26 Apr 2008 | 1:29 am
AFP - Carlos Fernandez, the head of Argentina's tax collection agency, took over as economy minister Friday after his predecessor was sacked amid spiralling inflation and anger among farmers.
Reuters - The stock market will likely start the
week on a hesitant note with Wall Street facing the first
Federal Reserve interest-rate decision in many months not
knowing that a cut is virtually guaranteed.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The stock market will likely start the week on a hesitant note with Wall Street facing the first Federal Reserve interest-rate decision in many months not knowing that... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 1:04 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The stock market will likely start the week on a hesitant note with Wall Street facing the first Federal Reserve interest-rate decision in many months not knowing that a cut is virtually guaranteed.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P rose on Friday, after signs that American Express Co was holding its own amid the economic slowdown, but Microsoft Corp's weak profit forecast... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:33 am
The head of Goldman Sachs's mortgage business is stepping down just months after his team made a $4bn (£2bn) profit on its successful bet against the sub-prime mortgage market. Source: Telegraph Business | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:01 am
The number of people who think the best place to keep their money is under their mattress has nearly trebled during the past year, figures show. Source: Telegraph Business | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:01 am
The country's largest mortgage lender has put up its borrowing rates for the second time in eight days, with some deals rising by more than half a percentage point. Source: Telegraph Business | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:01 am
Wachovia agreed to pay up to $144m to settle allegations that it failed to stop abusive practices by a group of telemarketers and payment processers who were customers of the bank Source: FT.com - US homepage | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:01 am
The battle of Grangemouth is not really about pensions or petrol - it's about politics. It's the power struggle within the Labour party, and the left more broadly, that's causing the disruption threatening petrol supplies. Source: Telegraph Business | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:01 am
Chris Mort, a Freshfields corporate partner and chairman of Newcastle United, has become a star of home-made video website, YouTube. Source: Telegraph Business | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:01 am
Rampant food inflation, which has caused riots around the world as well as higher grocery bills at British supermarkets, is now even affecting children with the rising price of chocolate and sweets. Source: Telegraph Business | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:01 am
Tobacco manufacturers and retailers engaged in "unlawful practices" as they swapped information about the future prices of cigarettes, the Office of Fair Trading has claimed. Source: Telegraph Business | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:01 am
German carrier Lufthansa is poised to take control of Bmi, the UK airline controlled by Sir Michael Bishop for the past 30 years, in a deal that could value the business at £500m-£600m. Source: Telegraph Business | 26 Apr 2008 | 12:01 am
A major Wellington building company has been placed in liquidation.
Pilbrow Residential collapsed on Thursday, leaving $5 million of construction projects in limbo, more than $1 million owed to creditors and 19 jobs axed, The... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:54 pm
Reuters - New York Daily News owner Mortimer
Zuckerman has submitted a $580 million bid for Tribune Co's
Newsday daily newspaper on Long Island, New York, matching a
bid by News Corp (NWSa.N) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch,
according to a source familiar with the matter.
Reuters - American Airlines has had
early-stage merger talks with US Airways and is in
advanced talks for an alliance with Continental Airlines
, sources briefed on the situation said on Friday.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Airlines has had early-stage merger talks with US Airways and is in advanced talks for an alliance with Continental Airlines, sources briefed on the situation said on Friday.
The Texas governor's office is seeking a partial waiver on complying with new renewable-fuel standards, saying ranches and families were already hurting from "skyrocketing food costs."
Tess reads your letters. This month: Greenspan bashing, walking away from mortgages, a bad night in Vegas and revisiting the "magic age." Source: Marketplace Money | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:06 pm
Through a preset stock-trading plan, Mattel's CEO sells about a million shares as price hovers near quarter's peak -- just before earnings report triggers decline.
The Internet lets us manage our own travel plans, but it's not always that easy or cheap. Tess asks Scott McCartney when it's best to leave things to the professionals. Source: Marketplace Money | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:02 pm
Microsoft sees shares fall 6%, a day after posting a fall in profits and disappointing earnings forecasts. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:01 pm
Picture the scene for a moment: London, 2012, the Olympic stadium and glory
for a British athlete on sport’s greatest stage. “Break open the bubbly,”
somebody shouts, and the new champion, medal hanging proudly around the
neck, is doused in a shower of . . . Kent’s finest.
It is a prospect that has persuaded a British producer to set out on the long
road to producing a sparkling wine to rival champagne, the sporting
champion’s toast of choice, for the Games.
Next month the English Wines Group, the Plus Markets-listed company behind the
Chapel Down brand, will start to plant 72 acres of a site near Maidstone
with chardonnay and pinot noir vines with a view to producing the first
sparkling wine in time for London 2012.
The site is part of a further 116 acres in the North Downs that the Kent-based
company, which numbers the property entrepreneurs Nigel Wray and Richard
Balfour-Lynn among its shareholders, has bought to cope with the growing
demand for English wines.
Frazer Thompson, chief executive, said that the land was ideal for growing
high-quality sparkling wine similar to those produced only 250 miles away in
Champagne. He said that the company would be planting “exactly the same
plants and root stock used in Champagne”. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
Britain has not hit the buffers yet. Yesterday's GDP figures confirm that the
economy entered 2008 not with a loud crash, but instead with only a sharp
squeal of brakes. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
Tata, the Indian conglomerate that acquired Land Rover and Jaguar, is to take
a stake in Pininfarina, the iconic Italian car designer. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
He is stronger than his superhuman rivals, immune to conventional disease and
highly resistant to injury. Oh, and he's a god. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
Growth in the economy fell to its weakest in three years in the first quarter
as the credit crunch sapped activity in key parts of the services sector,
official figures showed yesterday. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
BBC News online recently featured an interview with Justin King, chief
executive of Sainsbury’s, which, intriguingly, did not focus on his hopes
for the supermarket’s like-for-like sales or elaborate on plans to unlock
greater shareholder value from the store’s property estate, but concentrated
entirely on his new car, the apparently environmentally friendly
petrol-electric hybrid Lexus LS600hl.
“The Lexus does 30 miles per gallon, which is fantastic,” he was quoted
trilling as he was driven around in the £88,000 limousine that has replaced
his £77,110 Maserati Quattroporte. “[However] the area between the seats and
the boot is taken up by batteries, so there are performance sacrifices.”
I was impressed. So much so - the idea of pandas drowning in ice cap water
upsets me as much as the next man – that I called Lexus to ask for a test
drive, to experience for myself the car’s eco-enhancing qualities. It
arrived two Thursdays ago and the first day was a remarkable success: the
Lexus was left in a neighbour’s parking bay and towed away as a result,
meaning I didn’t drive it and hence contributed zero carbon into the
atmosphere. Hooray!
But the remainder of the loan witnessed patchier results. Friday: unplanned
drive from home to work car park, and subsequent unplanned Tube journey
home, because the 5.15m Lexus didn’t fit in my home parking bay (CO2
increase of 5.1kg). Weekend: journey from London to Wolverhampton and back
again that would otherwise have been done by train: (83kg increase in CO2 ).
Monday: entirely unnecessary trip to country because I’d developed an
attachment to the car’s 19-speaker Mark Levinson Reference Surround System
(17kg of CO2 ).
You get my point. The Lexus may be less polluting than a 14.9mpg Maserati or,
say, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, but it is still polluting. It will do
for the pandas, and perhaps the polar bears, too, what John Prescott has
regularly done for Mr Chu’s menu in Hull. But, having said that, my four
days in the closest thing you can get to a private jet on the road didn’t
make me think Justin King was mistaken for broadcasting his ownership.
But before I explain why, I need to highlight one particular thing about
British business’s conversion to the environmental cause: it has been
sudden. So sudden, in fact, that I missed it, as I was at the time on
sabbatical. Having taken a break of around nine months from business
journalism in 2006-07, I was expecting to return to a corporate world that
was, as ever, oblivious to the planet’s accelerating ecological collapse,
but instead found companies suddenly competing to promote their
environmental credentials.
Someone had even coined a new phrase – “greenwash” – to explain how
corporations were disseminating disinformation so as to present a
responsible public image. But even this phrase didn’t convey the extent of
the revolution. Many companies weren’t just trying to make out they were
green, they were trying to make out they were Greenpeace. And some of these
companies, such as BP, claiming to go “beyond petroleum”, had caused the
worst environmental destruction.
The last time that I had felt so surreally out of touch was when I had spent
a summer in the United States and returned to find people exclaiming
“zig-a-zig-ahhh” in the middle of conversation: the Spice Girls had landed.
And here we have the first reason King should not be mocked for his Lexus: it
is a tiny gesture, but compared with other examples of corporate
environmental hypocrisy, it is insignificant. Even within the context of
executive cars, there has been worse behaviour: Sir Stuart Rose at Marks &
Spencer made a big deal of switching his Bentley for a hydrogen-powered BMW
last year, but it has subsequently transpired that he has swapped it for a
petrol BMW, has a Bentley for personal use and uses private aircraft to
travel around the country.
Another reason not to mock King: it’s not easy, as Kermit the Frog once
complained, being green. The advice on what is environmentally beneficial
keeps changing. Two years ago, biofuels were touted as the solution to our
imminent global demise, but now it is said that they threaten food supplies,
rainforest and climate. A similar thing has happened with carbon offsetting,
with many people now questioning the benefits of certain types of offsets,
and with “green” cars, too.
Toyota’s Prius may have become a byword for eco-friendliness, but a recent
report claimed that if you take into account the energy used in producing
and disposing of vehicles, the petrol-swilling Jeep Wrangler is actually
greener. Meanwhile, other experts like pointing out that many diesel cars
exhibit better fuel economy than such hybrids and that even electric cars
aren’t truly emissions-free, given that CO2 is produced at power stations.
Within this context, King’s argument doesn’t seem so silly.
But the third and main reason why King shouldn’t be ridiculed for his new toy
is that he runs a corporation, and corporations are, because of their size,
incapable of doing anything with any subtlety. Changing corporate culture
takes time and British business is still at the stage with the environment
that it was with race in the mid-1980s, when “diversity” comprised little
more than a chief executive posing with a single black employee, usually a
cleaner, on the cover of the annual report.
Business’s attitude to race has since become more sophisticated, and it will
do so in relation to the environment, too. The Lexus may, like many
corporate green gestures, be a gimmick and its size may mean it emits many
times more the CO2 of smaller cars, and, yes, of course, if King really
wanted to make a difference, he would travel by public transport, but at
least it is a start, a sign that Sainbury’s has begun to think about the
environment. And the planet needs every gesture it can get. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
The centrepiece of the Government’s plan to unclog Britain’s money markets
could be disrupted by European regulators because it falls foul of state-aid
rules, competition lawyers said yesterday.
The Bank of England’s scheme to free up Britain’s home loan market by
injecting £50 billion into the banking sector risks contravening the rules
because it gives unfair advantage to British banks over rivals, experts say.
Anthony Woolich, head of competition for LG, the business law firm in London,
said: “It seems to me that this is prima facie state aid because this scheme
gives banks operating in the UK an advantage over other European banks
operating outside the UK.”
Mervyn King, the Bank’s Governor, unveiled the bonds-for-mortgages plan this
week to try to encourage banks to resume lending to each other. Alistair
Darling, the Chancellor, said it was hoped that the move would revive the
mortgage market. However, last night lawyers gave warning that because it
was primarily British banks that stood to gain from the rescue package, and
because of the duration of the scheme, the plan was sure to raise eyebrows
in Brussels.
The Treasury has denied that the scheme contravenes state-aid rules because
the funding is available to all financial institutions that have a franchise
in the UK, and not just British banks.
Yet lawyers argued that it was clear that the plan was designed to help to
address the growing crisis in Britain’s housing markets. They also pointed
out that it was the heads of Britain’s biggest banks who met Gordon Brown
and Mr King before the announcement of the £50 billion plan.
If the European Commission were to find that the package breaches its rules,
it could order that the loans be paid back more quickly than expected, and
at penal rates of interest.
The six biggest British banks have all undertaken to use the Bank facility.
HBOS yesterday completed the creation of securities backed by £9 billion of
home loans - which would qualify for the swap arrangement.
Another leading competition lawyer, who declined to be named, said: “You can
argue that it’s a general attempt to improve the system in general and
everyone can participate, but in reality it’s a measure aimed at helping the
British banking sector.”
The Commission said it was staying in constant contact with the Government as
the Bank rescue plan comes into effect. One Brussels source last night said:
“Even if the Commission does not think that the measures amount to state
aid, it will want all the details to make absolutely certain.” Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, said that higher commodity prices
had boosted the American advertising market in the first quarter, although
he said that group growth in March was slower than expected. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
Royal Bank of Scotland is considering selling a strategic stake in its
insurance business and running the owner of Direct Line and Churchill as a
partnership as it moves to raise capital to repair its tattered balance
sheet.
Bankers managing the sale of RBS Insurance are preparing to send out sales
memorandums to prospective buyers, including private equity and trade
buyers, over the next few weeks.
A source close to the sales process said: “Some people would be interested in
buying a large stake and having a partnership.”
Analysts are speculating that the Edinburgh-based bank, which hoisted a “for
sale” sign over the businesses this week, will be able to sell its insurance
unit for about £6 billion.
RBS confirmed that it was selling its insurance business as it pressed on
with a deeply discounted £12 billion rights issue that has raised hackles
among its big institutional shareholders. Going for a rights issue, after
pledging for months that it had no need to raise capital, has put the jobs
of Sir Fred Goodwin, chief executive, and Sir Tom McKillop, chairman, on the
line.
The bank is aiming to free £4 billion in capital gains from the process,
which is running alongside its record breaking rights issue. Merrill Lynch
is managing the sale, helped by Goldman Sachs. Banking sources said that
there was huge interest in RBS Insurance, which also includes the Privilege
car and home insurance operations.
RBS Insurance underwrites a third of UK retail motor premiums, according to
analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), who said that a new owner
would be in a position to redefine the market for insuring cars in Britain.
Personal motor insurance accounts for more than half of the business’s gross
written premiums, KBW said.
Direct Line was founded in 1985 and RBS bought Churchill in 2003 for £1.1
billion. As well as selling through the well-known brands, RBS Insurance
underwrites policies sold by Tesco, Nationwide and several car retailers.
KBW suggested that potential bidders were AIG, the American insurance giant,
Allianz, of Germany, and AXA, of France. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway
reinsurance group, Generali, of Italy, and the Swiss Zurich Financial
Services were also named. Aviva, Britain’s largest general insurer,
yesterday ruled itself out as a bidder.
Banking sources said that RBS would prefer to sell the business as a whole
but would consider the sale of individual business lines, as well as a
strategic stake. Sources close to the bank said that it would sell only if
it received a sufficiently high offer but it hoped to complete a sale by the
end of the year.
Apax and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts are said to be considering a consortium bid,
with Lehman Brothers, the investment bank, in line as an adviser.
RBS shares closed the week almost 2.5 per cent higher, up 8¼p at 349p. RBS
will offer 11 new shares for every 18 existing shares, priced at 200p. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
Phil Rogers, the chief executive of SCi Entertainment, the beleaguered
computer games maker, has promised to restore the company to profit after he
announced plans to raise £60 million in a rescue from a sceptical City. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 pm
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc believes regulators would not bar a potential business deal with Yahoo Inc because it would be "non-exclusive" and falls short of an outright merger, a person familiar with Google's thinking said on Friday.
Reuters - Google Inc believes
regulators would not bar a potential business deal with Yahoo
Inc because it would be "non-exclusive" and falls
short of an outright merger, a person familiar with Google's
thinking said on Friday.
Life's tough for the carless and gas prices are stinging car owners. Brendan Newnam learns how both sides can get a bargain by turning to Craigslist. Source: Marketplace Money | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:46 pm
On this week's "A Day In the Work Life," we meet Deb Cage, a hairdresser with a unique salon that helps those for whom a haircut is usually out of reach. Source: Marketplace Money | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:37 pm
In this edition of Getting Personal, Chris and Tess talk about property values, dealing with a collection agency, savings bonds and switching life insurance. Source: Marketplace Money | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:31 pm
The average college textbook bill is pushing $1,000 a year. Jill Barshay tells us how students and professors are dodging high prices. Source: Marketplace Money | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:24 pm
Student loan rates may reset to new lows in July, but as Stacey Vanek-Smith explains, deciding to consolidate now or after the rate change involves rolling the dice. Source: Marketplace Money | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:18 pm
Mortgage companies may not want to hear it, but economics editor Chris Farrell has an idea to help fix the housing crisis. Chris sets the story straight on strip-downs. Source: Marketplace Money | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:08 pm
On April 25, a MarketWatch report on Exxon Mobil's first-quarter earnings estimates misstated analysts' highest net income estimates. The high-end forecasts were for nearly $12 billion for the quarter. See the corrected story.
Shares of E-Trade Financial Corp. lose ground after the online broker says its chief financial officer will resign, and Medarex Inc. tumbles following plans to delay a license application for a cancer treatment.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Exxon Mobil's profit is expected to jump as much as 30% when it reports its first-quarter earnings next week as the oil giant joins the crowded stage of $120 oil, U.S. retail gasoline prices approaching $4 a gallon and flare-ups in the geopolitical scene from Nigeria to the Persian Gulf.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An investigation has cleared a for-profit adviser of any blame for tripping up U.S. government plans to create a wireless network that could be shared with emergency workers.
A Federal court in New York offered a new lease on life to a lawsuit charging some of the nation's largest banks with colluding to force credit card customers into arbitration.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan on Friday vacated a lower court decision dismissing class action claims against all of the major banks – including Bank of America, Capital One Bank, Chase Bank and Citibank. The court ruled that antitrust claims, based on allegations that the banks colluded to insert such clauses into their credit card contracts, could proceed.
The antitrust claims, which seek to invalidate these mandatory clauses, arose during a class action against the banks involving currency conversion. In the course of that litigation, which involves three different cases, the plaintiffs lawyers discovered that the bank formed an “arbitration coalition” and held at least 18 meetings, during which they honed their mandatory arbitration clauses to make it clear that cardholders also waived their right to participate in class actions. The clauses started appearing in contracts in 1999 and 2000.
By a combination of fate and creative lawyering, it seems the banks may have to face up to charges that they colluded to put these clauses into their contracts. The clauses are “almost uniform,” according to Merrill Davidoff of Philadelphia’s Berger & Montague, lead counsel for the plaintiffs. Because he is seeking an injunction, there are no money damages on the line.
“It was such a travesty of justice, we felt duty bound to bring these cases,” says Davidoff.
Bank of America led the charge inserting mandatory arbitration clauses into the bills of its credit card customers back in 1992.
For more than a decade, lawyers for consumers have been pushing claims challenging mandatory arbitration but none of them has been very successful: The United States Supreme Court gave the green light to mandatory arbitration clauses in brokerage contracts in 1987, in a case called Shearson/American Express v. McMahon, and the financial services industry has basically thumbed its nose at consumer complaints ever since.
In the most recent suit, the trial court had dismissed these claims, finding the plaintiffs did not have what is known as “standing” to bring a lawsuit. Standing requires that there be a “case or controversy” for a lawsuit to go forward in federal court and the trial court found the alleged antitrust injuries of the cardholders to be “entirely speculative.”
It all may sound technical, but “standing” as it is called, is a chief weapon conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, among them Justice Antonin Scalia, have relied upon to halt lawsuits in their tracks. On Friday, the Second Circuit went out of its way to point out that this is a very early victory. “We do not address the question of whether the cardholders’ alleged injuries would survive an antitrust standing analysis,” according to the unanimous decision from the three-judge panel.
The consumer claims go back to the trial court for further hearings. Meanwhile, Congress has basically stalled on a billed called the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007, a bid by consumer groups to make mandatory arbitration in consumer and employee contracts null and void.
A spokeswoman for Bank of America said the bank had no comment on the decision. “We haven’t even seen the ruling at this point,” she said.
When the Central Intelligence Agency rolled out evidence to support allegations that North Korea had helped Syria build a nuclear reactor, officials said they had "low" confidence that Syria was developing the reactor to produce nuclear weapons Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:58 pm
In this time of uncertainty, Tess turns to financial heavyweight John Bogle for some common sense advice on weathering this economic storm. Source: Marketplace Money | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:57 pm
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp Chief Executive Rick Wagoner's salary and other compensation rose 64 percent in 2007 to about $15.7 million, mainly due to option grants, according to a proxy filed on Friday.
Blue chips gained Friday, with the Dow closing at a nearly 4-month high, as investors set aside worries about rising oil and gas prices and Microsoft's forecast, and scooped up a variety of financial shares.
Biofuel production is critical to meeting current and future fuel demand in spite of its possible role in driving up food prices, the west's energy watchdog has cautioned Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:30 pm
Oil prices approach record levels as a planned UK refinery strike threatens production in the North Sea. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:27 pm
Thousands of people in Africa will be paid to avoid unsafe sex in a $1.8m experiment in rural Tanzania aimed at halting the spread of the disease Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:25 pm
The Democratic party's 'superdelegates' have every right to overturn the popular vote and choose the candidate they believe would be best equipped to defeat John McCain in a general election Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:04 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court reinstated a class-action suit on Friday against a group of banks that force their credit card customers to use arbitration instead of the courts to settle disputes.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The warning signs of a U.S. recession flashed again on Friday as consumer sentiment sank to its lowest in 26 years and corporate earnings appeared set for their third consecutive quarter of contraction.
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Research in Motion shares fell 3 percent on Friday after a Fortune.com story said that a high-speed wireless version of its BlackBerry smartphone for top U.S. phone company AT&T Inc is facing delays.
Blue Chip Financial Solutions advanced "substantial" deposits from investors to a company owned by the property scheme's co-founder Mark Bryers, a 2005 independent report says.
The PricewaterhouseCoopers appraisal report, written... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 8:00 pm
Despite the recovery we have seen, many stocks are still hitting 52-week lows. Some of the names this Friday were as follows, just keep in mind that not all of these actually closed on their lows: AirTran Holdings (NYSE: AAI) traded under the $3.13 lows ($12.65 hi, ouch) late in the day. Getting financing done at year lows... Horizon Lines Inc. (NYSE: HRZ) down almost 20% to under the $12.38 lows from $36.55 year highs, ouch. Container shipping and logistics. Idearc, Inc. (NYSE: IAR) actually touched its 52-week low of $3.40 down 90% from highs. Who uses Yellow Pages &...
April has been the cruelest month for government bond markets in years, with prices falling and interest rates rising sharply in the US, Europe and Japan Source: FT.com - US homepage | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:34 pm
In their new book, "The Levity Effect," Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher contend that having a sense of humor in the office can actually help the bottom line. They shared that view with Kai Ryssdal. Source: Marketplace | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:06 pm
Billboard and other outdoor advertising is the fastest growing division at CBS. And just this week the company spent $100 million to expand in South America. Dan Grech reports. Source: Marketplace | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:06 pm
Stockbroker and business analyst David Johnson chats with host Kai Ryssdal about what happened on Wall Street this week and what may lie ahead. Source: Marketplace | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:06 pm
Fortune Magazine's recent list of 10 businesses facing extinction includes record stores, crop dusting, telemarketing and . . . gay bars? That one caught our eye because gay business in general is booming. Stacey Vanek-Smith checked it out. Source: Marketplace | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:06 pm
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is asking the Bush administration to waive some federal requirements for renewable fuels that he says are hurting his state and adding to rising food prices. Kai Ryssdal gets reaction from Joseph Romm of the Center for American Progress. Source: Marketplace | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:06 pm
Luxury brands usually don't suffer much when the economy tanks. But Gucci is struggling and making a big shift to cheaper down-market goods. Meanwhile, Louis Vuitton is growing like gangbusters. Jill Barshay reports. Source: Marketplace | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:06 pm
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has a big decision to make this weekend -- how hostile he wants his bid for Yahoo to be. Microsoft set Saturday as a deadline for Yahoo to accept its $44 billion offer. Or else...? Alisa Roth reports. Source: Marketplace | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:06 pm
With the summer driving season looming, congressional leaders are lining up to ease the pain at the pump. But what can they do? John Dimsdale reports. Source: Marketplace | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:06 pm
The next chapter in the long-running battle for the Red Sheds plays out in a Wellington courtroom on Tuesday.
But while the three day Court of Appeal hearing will ultimately decide the next steps in the corporate machinations to... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:00 pm
One day, we will pay for nothing. All goods and services will be ad-supported. This will continue until the only advertisements are for more ad-supported services. Then, late one Monday afternoon, sometime in 2012, the Singularity will occur, snakes will swallow their own tails and, born from the collapse of reality, a second big-bang will birth the Googleverse.
At least, that's the first thing that popped into my mind when reading that in Britain, a free, ad-supported mobile phone service has hit 100,000 subscribers in just six months. Blyk gives away text messages and calls in return for text and video ads (this is one case where it pays to have a crappy low tech cellphone). According to Blyk, the ads are getting a huge 29% response rate, an order of magnitude better than most other advertising.
Whether this means that cellphone ads really work, or that the ads themselves are just particularly well made, we don't know. What we do know is that the king of the new reality will be George Forman, Lord of the Infomercial.
NEW YORK -- Eagerly awaited tax rebates will begin reaching U.S. consumers Monday, but struggling retailers may only get a small boost from the stimulus checks as shoppers use the extra cash to pay down debt, or cover basic expenses, like gas and food bills.
The US government is to send consumers rebates totalling more than $100bn (£50bn), ahead of schedule. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Apr 2008 | 6:51 pm
The 1.7 square miles below Canal Street boasts the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, City Hall, and four major bridges and tunnels. A bomb at any of these places could kill hundreds, cost the city billions, and rattle the world financial system. Al Qaeda has hit the neighborhood twice, in 1993 and 2001. Officials say that several other plots have been broken up since.
City agencies have done their best to harden the financial district in the years since 2001. Today, explosives-sniffing dogs and two truckloads of cops wearing military-style body armor and waving M-4 machine guns surround the flag-draped stock exchange. Black metallic barriers rise out of the asphalt, blocking traffic on Wall Street, while concrete planters and strategically parked trucks keep vehicles off Broad Street. Some of the other streets surrounding the exchange have been cut off to pedestrians, and only invited guests are allowed inside. "Closed since 9/11," the guard tells visitors.
But you can't block off every street or have a guard by every door. There's no budget for that, and no one would want to live or work in that kind of armed camp anyway. "You can make a justification for putting bollards in front of every building," says a former high-ranking NYPD counterterrorism official. "But pretty soon you can't walk anywhere. People leave."
So New York has an audacious blueprint to wrap a high tech cloak around lower Manhattan. It will provide the most sophisticated armor of any major urban area in the world — one that relies on brains as much as brawn, on barely visible technology as much as brute stopping power. My article in the current issue of WIRED magazine has the details.
There will be upgrades citywide, including a new, next-gen cell network and an overhaul of the subway's security system. Electronic license plate readers, both stationary and mounted on mobile police units, can already scan thousands of cars per day and instantly alert police if a suspect in their database approaches or enters the financial district. Massive vehicle barriers will be able to block off the busiest streets on a signal from HQ, even shutting down the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. An array of 3,000 cameras will turn the area into a 1.7-square-mile, open-air Panopticon. And unlike London's surveillance system, the so-called Ring of Steel, New York's cameras are supposed to do more than identify terrorists after they've struck. Assistant chief John Colgan, who commands the police department's counterterrorism bureau, hopes they'll keep the next disaster from happening. "This is about identifying and eliminating a threat, rather than dealing with the consequences," says Colgan, a compact redhead with a bushy mustache. "I'm not in the consequence-management business."
Of course, the same technology could be used to invade privacy more efficiently, and even some in the NYPD are concerned: "I certainly don't want my family to come under view just because they're walking through a certain part of town," one counterterrorism official told me.
But that's only a concern if the surveillance net actually works. So far, similar efforts have flopped, badly.
For example -- and this is an exclusive to DANGER ROOM -- Chicago officials promised in 2004 that a citywide array of 2,000 public and private cameras would be ready by March of '06. Right now, there are only a few hundred cameras up, in the downtown "Loop," officials there tell me. All of them are city-owned. None are equipped with any kind of video analytics that would make it possible to interdict a terror attack.
The problem has been infrastructure: Chicago thought it had all the fiber it needed to put a camera ring together – over 500 miles worth; but when the city started building, it discovered it need 30 miles more, and right in the heart of town. Then the sidewalks starting collapsing. Those are the kind of snags you run into, when you're slipping new infrastructure into hundred-and-fifty year-old streets. Now, at least, Chicago has its core network complete: the combination of wireless nodes and fiber, to string the cameras together; the 56 terrabyte storage area network, to hold the video; the hot backup site in an undisclosed location, in case it all goes down. But it hasn't been easy. Or cheap.
Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) has just filed a shelf registration that would allow the international tobacco giant to sell debt securities and warrants to purchase debt securities. As this will be the first such shelf filing since Altria (NYSE: MO) spun this off, there is no dollar amount tied to it nor are any underwriters assigned. The company has described this as follows: "The debt securities covered by this prospectus will be our direct unsecured obligations. The debt securities will be issued in one or more series under an indenture dated as of April 25, 2008 between us...
Legal experts say the Commerce Commission faces a difficult task overturning the High Court judgment giving Woolworths and Foodstuffs the all-clear to buy The Warehouse.
"A lot of the issues that are being raised on appeal are... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 6:00 pm
The credit crunch that has hobbled Wall Street is metastasizing into a consumer crisis that is threatening a much wider and deeper swath of the economy.
Consumer sentiment plummeted this month to its lowest level in 25 years, Reuters and the University of Michigan report. Behind the gloom: the rising price of staples like food and gasoline, along with fewer jobs, declines in real wages, and falling home prices.
“The recent acceleration in the loss in confidence indicates a longer and potentially deeper recession,” Richard Curtin, director of the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, said.
Pessimistic consumers are often more reluctant to spend, Curtin added, and that can translate into weakness throughout the economy, two-thirds of which depends on consumer spending.
“Rising uncertainty about future living standards has caused consumers to adopt more prudent spending plans and become more wary of incurring new debt,” Curtin said. Flagging confidence, once limited to lower-income households, is now seen throughout the spectrum, he added.
President Bush yesterday urged consumers to keep their chins up, noting that the first of his recently enacted tax rebates will start being distributed today. But Curtin said that many of the people in his survey think the cash will be too little, too late.
Less than one-third of consumers said they plan to spend their rebates this year, Curtin said. Most of those surveyed said they intend to save the money or pay down debts, neither of which will have as direct a stimulus effect on the economy.
“With the current high levels of economic uncertainty, most consumers favor adding to their reserve funds to increase their financial latitude as a safeguard against worsening future conditions,” Curtin said.
The Index of Consumer Sentiment was 62.6 this month, Reuters and the university said. That is down sharply from last month's reading of 69.5 and well below the 87.1 recorded a year ago. The index was as high as 96.9 as recently as January 2007.
The price of wheat falls 40% from its February peak, easing some concerns about soaring global food prices. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Apr 2008 | 5:04 pm
Engineering group Cavotec MSL expects the groundwork on marketing its unique mooring technology for ships will pay off in a big way this year, despite concerns over the ripple effects of a slowdown in the USeconomy on its other markets.
The... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 5:00 pm
Western media may be full of gloom and doom about an economic slowdown but there is no sign of an economic slump on the streets of Vietnam. The country is going through a major economic renaissance with GDP growth in excess of 7 per... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 5:00 pm
SEATTLE: Microsoft disappointed investors looking for stellar earnings yesterday with slow Windows software sales and a below-target profit forecast, which overshadowed a strong outlook for next year.
Microsoft, whose shares fell... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 5:00 pm
Colleagues say adman Keith Smith is treated like a celebrity when he boards any Cathay Pacific aircraft heading back to his base in Hong Kong.
With responsibility for TBWA Group around the world (outside the United States) the... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 5:00 pm
TOKYO: Japanese annual inflation hit a decade-high 1.2 per cent in March, driven by soaring energy costs rather than a strengthening of consumer demand that would have given the central bank more room to raise interest rates.
Like... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 5:00 pm
Giuseppe Lavazza doesn't offer a coffee, specifically. But then, he doesn't have to. He is the crown prince of the world's biggest independent coffee company, and the beverage that is synonymous with the family name permeates any... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 25 Apr 2008 | 5:00 pm
Maybe some of the investors short Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) figured the company would have a good quarter. Shares sold short in the consumer electronics firm fell 3.8 million shares to 18.4 million shares. The figures compare numbers on April 15 to those on March 30. On the 15th, the stock closed at $148.38. Earnings pushed that number to $170.41 earlier today, a move of almost 15%. Investors won't have another shot at Apple's earnings for 90 days. But, if the company releases a 3G iPhone during June, the stock may have another $20 in it. Watch for the short interest...
David Herro, Harris Associates' chief investment officer, recently said that he loves Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) as an long-term buy. A lot of short sellers don't see it that way. The short interest in Dell rose 7.2 million shares to 49 million, making it the fifth largest move up for any company listed on the Nasdaq. The number is as of April 15 and compares to figures on March 30. The main case against Dell may be Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Steve Jobs's company sold 2.2 million Macs in the first quarter, up 51%. That puts the run-rate for Mac sales this year...
The short position in Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) is moving up, For April 15, it jumped by 6.0 million shares to 33 million. The was the sixth largest move up among all stocks traded on Nasdaq. The news is especially troubling for Sun because it already trades fairly near its 52-week low, changing hands at $15.49. Sun still face one significant hurdle with investors. Revenue growth has been in the low single-digits the last two quarters. Analysts are looking for 3% sales growth for Q1. With the economy tight, there is some fair concern that the company may not even...
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) has become a short seller's dream. Shares sold short in the company moved up by 4.9 million to 39.8 million on April 15 compared to the figures on March 30. Those who bet against the company should have gotten a huge pay day. On the 15th, the stock traded at $17.32, near its 52-week high. But, when the company announced that it would miss both its Q1 and full year forecasts the shares dropped ot $15.39. Starbucks has lost over 60% of its value since spring of 2006. Most of the bad news is probably out, at...
Short sellers have fallen in love with Sirius Satellite (NASDAQ: SIRI). Actually, they were already in love. It has moved to infatuation. The short interest in SIRI sky-rocketed for the period ending April 15 compared to March 30. Shares sold short moved up 20.2 million to 157.9 million. The company's merger partner, XM Satellite (XMSR) also watched its short interest rise by 6.3 million shares to 22.7 million. The figure for Sirius is especially disturbing because, at $2.67, it was recently at a 52-week low. Investors could be making one of two bets. The first is that the FCC will...
Spain's unemployment rate rises to 9.6% in the first three months of 2008, the second highest rate in the EU. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 25 Apr 2008 | 3:24 pm
AFP - Carlos Fernandez, the head of Argentina's tax collection agency, took over as economy minister Friday after his predecessor was sacked amid spiralling inflation and anger among farmers.
Reuters - The stock market will likely start the
week on a hesitant note with Wall Street facing the first
Federal Reserve interest-rate decision in many months not
knowing that a cut is virtually guaranteed.
Reuters - New York Daily News owner Mortimer
Zuckerman has submitted a $580 million bid for Tribune Co's
Newsday daily newspaper on Long Island, New York, matching a
bid by News Corp (NWSa.N) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch,
according to a source familiar with the matter.
Reuters - American Airlines has had
early-stage merger talks with US Airways and is in
advanced talks for an alliance with Continental Airlines
, sources briefed on the situation said on Friday.
Reuters - Google Inc believes
regulators would not bar a potential business deal with Yahoo
Inc because it would be "non-exclusive" and falls
short of an outright merger, a person familiar with Google's
thinking said on Friday.