Grim holiday season for PCs

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:26 pm

Futures drop as recession fear mounts (Reuters)

Reuters - Stock index futures fell on Wednesday as investors worried that efforts to ease the credit crisis would not avert a recession, overshadowing solid profits from Coca-Cola Co , a bellwether for consumer spending.

Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:19 pm

Futures drop as recession fear mounts

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures fell on Wednesday as investors worried that efforts to ease the credit crisis would not avert a recession, overshadowing solid profits from Coca-Cola Co , a bellwether for consumer spending.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:19 pm

Oil back near 13-month low

Read full story for latest details.

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:18 pm

Overstock.com nears settlement

A chapter in one of Wall Street's more bitter and colorful legal sagas ended Monday when Internet retailer Overstock.com and independent research outfit Gradient Analytics settled their differences.

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:17 pm

UPDATE 2-St. Jude profit rises, ICD sales jump

* Forecasts fourth-quarter EPS between 59-61 cents (Adds forecast, analyst comment, stock)
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:17 pm

JPMorgan profit sinks as credit deteriorates (AP)

AP - JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s profit tumbled 84 percent in the third quarter after it took big hits from souring mortgage investments, leveraged loans and home loans.
Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:17 pm

World stock markets slip on recession fears

European and Asian markets mostly fell back Wednesday following a strong two-day rally amid concerns that the global efforts to restore confidence in the battered financial system will not...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:16 pm

Oil price slides below $72 to 13-month low

The price of oil slumped below 72 dollars on Wednesday, its lowest level for more than 13 months, as recession fears raised concerns about a prolonged drop in energy demand, analysts said.
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:16 pm

Stocks set for lower open as JPMorgan profit skids

Wall Street headed for a lower open Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported an 84 percent decline in its third-quarter profit in a sign of how the financial crisis is slamming the...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:13 pm

JPMorgan profit sinks as credit deteriorates

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s profit tumbled 84 percent in the third quarter after it took big hits from souring mortgage investments, leveraged loans and home loans. The profit at the New...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:13 pm

Abbott Labs profit soars 51 percent, raises forecast

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc reported a 51 percent rise in third-quarter profit on Wednesday, citing double-digit sales increases for its prescription drugs, medical devices and nutritional products, and raised its 2008 earnings forecast.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:11 pm

Coca-Cola third-quarter profit tops Wall Street view

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co reported better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday as strong international demand offset falling volume at home, sending its shares up nearly 6 percent.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:10 pm

Coca-Cola earnings top forecast

Coca-Cola reported better-than-expected quarterly profit as strong international demand offset falling volume at home, sending its shares up in premarket trading
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:09 pm

Weak US oil demand, looming recession, hit overall market: OPEC

The global financial crisis will give a vicious twist to the economic slowdown that is hitting world demand for oil although the effect on emerging economies is unclear, OPEC said on...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:06 pm

Delta Air Lines reports loss on higher fuel costs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc reported a third-quarter loss on Wednesday as it faced more than $800 million in extra fuel bills as oil spiked in the quarter.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:06 pm

UPDATE 1-Abbott Labs profit soars 51 pct, raises forecast

NEW YORK, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories Inc reported a 51 percent rise in third-quarter profit on Wednesday, citing double-digit sales increases for its prescription drugs, medical devices and...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:04 pm

RPT-FEATURE-Teleradiology paves way for remote medicine

BANGALORE, Oct 15 (Reuters) - On a computer monitor in his office in the high-tech hub of Bangalore, Indian radiologist Arjun Kalyanpur examines a scan of the skull of a six-year-old boy who fell off his...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:04 pm

European central banks pump $250bn liquidity

European central banks have matched heavy demand for dollar liquidity by pumping more than $250bn into financial markets in the latest move to restore their proper functioning
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:04 pm

Delta Air Lines swings to quarterly loss on fuel costs

Delta Air Lines swings to a third-quarter loss as higher fuel costs more than offset a nearly 10% jump in operating revenue.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:04 pm

Movers & Shakers: Wednesday's biggest gaining and declining stocks

Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Wednesday's session are Alcoa, Altera, Callaway Golf, Coke, Genentech, Intel, J.P. Morgan, and State Street.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:04 pm

Robert Peston

When will payment of bank dividends be resumed?
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:01 pm

Earnings Watch: Updates, advisories and surprises

A roundup of the latest corporate earnings reports and what companies are saying about future quarters.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:01 pm

EU to press for reform, Asia joins bailout

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - European leaders pressed on Wednesday for an overhaul of global financial structures after Asia joined western bastions of capitalism in bailing out banks to avert financial meltdown and tackle looming recession.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:59 am

EU to press for reform, Asia joins bailout (Reuters)

Reuters - European leaders pressed on Wednesday for an overhaul of global financial structures after Asia joined western bastions of capitalism in bailing out banks to avert financial meltdown and tackle looming recession.

Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:59 am

Iceland cuts interest rates

Iceland's central bank slashed official interest rates by 3.5 percentage points on Wednesday as it warned that the collapse of its banking system will lead to a "very sharp" contraction in...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:58 am

Coca-Cola: Profit up 14%

Read full story for latest details.

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:58 am

Delta swings to 3Q loss

Delta Air Lines says it swung to a loss in the third quarter despite a 9 percent rise in sales. The results missed Wall Street's reduced expectations. Delta said Wednesday that for...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:58 am

J.P. Morgan's profit tumbles, CEO cautions on outlook

J.P. Morgan Chase's third-quarter net income falls 84%, amid the worst banking environment in about 70 years, and the firm cautions that earnings would remain weak for several quarters to come.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:58 am

Oil at 13 month low on economic weakness, ebbing demand

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday to their lowest level in 13 months, dragged down by expectations that economic weakness will cut further into demand for crude.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:55 am

Jet Airways lays off cabin crew

India's largest private airline Jet Airways lays off 800 staff as it cuts back on flights amid soaring costs, officials say.
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:54 am

Global stocks shaken down on recession fear

LONDON (Reuters) - Risk aversion wrestled stock markets down on Wednesday, snuffing out a two-day rally as investors returned to last week's rattled state even after government bank bailouts took the edge off money market stress.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:49 am

Global stocks shaken down on recession fear (Reuters)

Reuters - Risk aversion wrestled stock markets down on Wednesday, snuffing out a two-day rally as investors returned to last week's rattled state even after government bank bailouts took the edge off money market stress.

Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:49 am

JPMorgan profit plummets on loan losses

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co's third-quarter profit fell 84 percent, due to mark-downs on underperforming loans in its leveraged lending and mortgage-related portfolios, the bank said on Wednesday.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:46 am

Rio Tinto delays asset divestment; reviews capex

Rio Tinto PLC says Wednesday output of iron ore hit record levels in the third quarter, and added that its long-term outlook remains positive despite the crisis roiling global financial markets.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:46 am

Encana suspends Cenovus spin-off amid 'too much uncertainty'

Canada's EnCana suspends plans to spin off Cenovus Energy, a reflection of punishing losses seen recently in the energy sector.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:46 am

International strength boosts Coca-Cola's profit

Coca-Cola Co.’s third-quarter profit rose 14%, fueled by international growth, the beverage giant said Wednesday.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:46 am

JPMorgan surprises with profitable quarter

JPMorgan Chase continued to weather the financial storm better than most rivals in the third quarter of the year, recording a small profit that beat analysts' expectations
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:38 am

Stock markets retreat after rally

After dramatic rises earlier in the week, most European and Asian stock markets give up some ground.
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:36 am

Iceland's central bank cuts rates

Iceland's central bank cuts the country's interest rate by 3.5% from a record high of 15.5%.
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:36 am

Coca-Cola third-quarter profit tops Wall Street view (Reuters)

Reuters - Coca-Cola Co reported better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday as strong international demand offset falling volume at home, sending its shares up nearly 6 percent.

Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:36 am

JPMorgan Chase posts surprise profit

JPMorgan Chase reported a surprise quarterly profit Wednesday, even as the company took a hit related to its purchase of failed savings and loan Washington Mutual and warned of earnings pressure in the months ahead.

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:35 am

Coke (KO) Astounds

Even if people are feeling poor or are poor, they can still buy a soft drink. Coca-Cola (KO) proved that today with strong earnings. It is extremely good news for companies which sell extremely inexpensive goods to consumers. The best of it is that the ripples may even extend to low-end food chains like McDonald's (MCD).

Coca-Cola reported third quarter earnings per share of $0.81, an increase of 14 percent versus the prior year quarter on a reported basis

Third quarter net operating revenues increased 9 percent to $8.4 billion.

Operating income in the quarter increased 20 percent $20.2 billion

The stock was up in the pre-market. Other consumer goods companies should move higher on the news as well

Douglas A. McIntyre

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:34 am

EU backs higher bank guarantees

EU leaders are to discuss multi-billion-euro rescue plans for Europe's ailing banks at a two-day summit in Brussels.
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:34 am

Indications: U.S. stock futures lower before data wave; Coca-Cola climbs

U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat-to-weaker start Wednesday with several key economic reports on tap, though better-than-forecast results from Coca-Cola, Intel and J.P. Morgan Chase limited the downside.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:29 am

JPMorgan profit plummets on loan losses (Reuters)

Reuters - JPMorgan Chase & Co's third-quarter profit fell 84 percent, due to mark-downs on underperforming loans in its leveraged lending and mortgage-related portfolios, the bank said on Wednesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:28 am

JPMorgan Makes Key Tech Upgrades & Downgrades (AAPL, IBM, HPQ, EMC, DELL, LXK, NTAP)

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:26 am

Iceland central bank slashes key rate to 12% from 15.5%

Iceland’s central bank on Wednesday slashes its key interest rate, warning that a "very sharp" economic contraction will follow the implosion of the island nation’s banking sector.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:20 am

Jamie Dimon Shows How It Is Done (JPM)

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:11 am

British Airways follows Virgin with fuel surcharge cut

British Airways today joined rival carrier Virgin Atlantic in reducing passenger fuel surcharges.
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:11 am

Mortgage applications rose 5.1% last week: MBA

Mortgage applications filed last week increase a seasonally adjusted 5.1% compared with the week before, reflecting an increase in refinancing activity, but activity remains keenly tuned to volatility in interest rates, the Mortgage Bankers Association says.

Source: MarketWatch.com - Top Stories | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:06 am

Iceland slashes interest rates

Iceland's central bank slashed interest rates from 15.5 per cent to 12 per cent, citing the 'grave situation' facing the country, whose banking system collapsed last week
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:04 am

Credit Crisis In Hand, Economy Faces Rolling Lay-Offs Which Could Hit Millions

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Oct 2008 | 11:01 am

BA and Virgin cut fuel surcharges

BA and Virgin Atlantic are to cut their fuel surcharges for most passengers in response to a fall in the price of oil.
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:57 am

M&S whistleblower loses appeal for job

A worker sacked by Marks & Spencer for leaking information about the high street retailer’s plans to slash redundancy pay has lost his appeal against the dismissal.
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:54 am

Apple unveils sleeker laptops

Apple announced Tuesday a new line of MacBook laptops in the hopes of juicing sales at a time when investors are increasingly nervous about a consumer spending slowdown.

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:53 am

With US Budget Deficit At $455 Billion, Government Option Narrow

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:52 am

Carlyle sees great opportunity to invest in banks

DUBAI (Reuters) - Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein said on Wednesday that he saw great opportunity to invest in financial assets affected by the credit crunch, and said the U.S. government's actions could help free up availability of leveraged buyout debt in the coming months.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:45 am

Oil prices decline still further

Oil prices continue recent falls, dragged down by the expectation turmoil in the financial sector will lead to a wider economic slump.
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:32 am

Brown urges fresh push in battle to end turmoil

Gordon Brown today called for the EU's 27 member states to move to "stage two" of the effort to restore confidence in the financial system, and urged regulators to adopt an early warning system to prevent the collapse of banking groups.
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:32 am

Jobless rise highest for 17 years

The UK jobless total rose by 164,000 - the biggest rise for 17 years - to 1.79 million between June and August, figures show.
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:30 am

Pearson beats gloom with upbeat statement

Pearson, the publisher, said today that it was trading in line with expectations and that its earnings per share would be towards the top end of current estimates if the dollar retained its strength against the pound.
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:22 am

Bank Lending, You Can Lead A Horse To Water...

Paulson's plan to put $250 billion into nine banks, whether they want the money or not, is really supposed to do as much for financial firm customers as it is for the companies themselves. The theory behind the credit crisis is that no one would loan anyone else a dime for a cup of coffee. To make matters worse, Citigroup (C) would not loan money to Bank of America (BAC), even overnight.

Treasury's plan may work in part. It could allow big banks to weather more write-offs as they have to mark down more securities, especially those tied to mortgages.

But, the banks are not going to lend their customers anything, no matter how many times Paulson goes on national television and asks them to. Financial houses want that cash as dry powder and there is not much more to be said.

According to Bloomberg, "Treasury officials acknowledge they can't force banks to get the taxpayer money into the hands of their customers." The capital was supposed to meander back to corporations which employ taxpayers so they could borrow for operations and expansion. Perhaps more important, consumers were supposed to get loans for cars and improve mortgage terms.

The theory was nice but flawed at its core and at its beginning. Once Congress and the administration forgot to put provisions into the Paulson legislation to force bank lending, the cause of moving capital downstream from the banking system was lost.

The ancillary conclusion which can be drawn from the fact that banks are not likely to loosen credit is that financial firms expect more monumental losses. It has occurred to them that the housing market is still getting worse and much of their fortunes are tied to that.

Banks won't lend out money because they know they are as poor as they were when Paulson sent them their big checks.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:18 am

Gulf stock markets stay volatile

Trading on major Arab stock markets remains volatile, with many of the indices falling sharply after two days of big gains.
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:10 am

Carlyle moves in on Lehman's Neuberger Berman

Carlyle Group, the US private equity giant, is to launch a rival bid for Neuberger Berman, the highly prized asset management arm of Lehman Brothers, the collapsed Wall Street bank.
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:06 am

Your vote, your crummy highways

The economy isn't the only thing falling apart in the United States.

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 10:04 am

Tech Earnings On Deck, Looking Ugly (AAPL)(GOOG)(MSFT)(INTC)(SAP)

Intel (INTC) said it loved its past and hated its future. The Age of Romance must be over. These sentiments are supposed to be the other way around.

The world's largest chip company said third quarter earnings were up 12%. But Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a call with analysts that the financial crisis is "creating some signs of stress that may impact our business."

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer made similar comments two weeks ago. Since he is usually in high spirits, that is an especially bad sign.

In the tech world, the funereal atmosphere is almost everywhere. SAP (SAP), the world's No.2 enterprise software company, said it would miss its numbers. Analysts have begun talking down Google's (GOOG) prospects. New Gartner figures show that PC sales growth in the last quarter was only 4.6% in the US. It also appears that sales of cellphones are leveling out which would hurt several handset makers and the companies that supply them chips.

Fools with their silly dreams believed, at least until now, that company IT departments could not do without the latest four-processor chips and virtualization software. Perhaps that is why VMWare (VMW) is down from a 52-week high of $125 to $21.

Even Apple (AAPL) is not immune. It cut the price on its least expensive Mac notebook to $999. A retail trick just like the one that works in the used car industry.

Tech sold off after the furious rally that drove US shares up 11% on Monday. Tech took the markets down more than any other sector. The faithful were driven out of the temples of hardware, software, and e-commerce.

If investors want to see how much the carnage has spread, they only need to look to third quarter earnings at Microsoft (MSFT) and Google. They represent the life of online and IT spending in a tea cup. If both falter when they make their forecasts for the fourth quarter and next year, the correction in technology stocks will become a a full-fledged massacre.That will do the broader market no favors.

If tech is the sector which was to be the belt and suspenders for stocks, the pants are about to drop.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Oct 2008 | 9:59 am

Russia suspends regional airlines

Russia's national aviation authority is to suspend the flights of nine regional carriers because of unpaid debts.
Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 15 Oct 2008 | 9:36 am

Blackstone eyes China property, sees lower prices

MACAU (Reuters) - U.S. private equity giant Blackstone Group said on Wednesday that it still aims to complete a pair of property deals in Shanghai, although a company official said valuations in China need to come down and regulations should be friendlier to foreign investors.

Source: Reuters: Business News | 15 Oct 2008 | 9:20 am

Is Skype on sale at eBay?

In its mere five years of existence the word "Skype" has taken on an unusual dual meaning in the Internet world - known equally as a stunningly successful example of consumer adoption and a dealmaking flop of multibillion-dollar proportions.

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 9:18 am

Jobless shock sends London shares diving

London shares ended a two-day rally this morning as fears of a recession intensified and UK unemployment jumped at the fastest rate in 17 years.
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Oct 2008 | 9:07 am

Europe and Asia Fail to Sustain Rallies

Stocks fell in Europe after a mixed session in Asia as investors began to face the likelihood that dislocations would plague the economy even if bailouts were to succeed.
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 8:52 am

Unemployment rises at fastest rate in 17 years

UK unemployment has surged by a 17-year high of 164,000 to 1.79 million and could rise even further to two million by the end of the year.
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Oct 2008 | 8:40 am

Alchemy leads in Fraser and Mosaic bid talks

Jon Moulton’s private equity firm Alchemy Partners is believed to be the front runner in the race to buy beleagured Icelandic property investment group Baugur.
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 15 Oct 2008 | 8:20 am

Saturn, Leo to blame for global meltdown: astrologers (AFP)

AFP - From his base in India's financial capital Mumbai, Raj Kumar Sharma has been tracking the turbulence in the world stock markets and has come to one firm conclusion -- it was written in the stars.

Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 8:09 am

Media Digest 10/15/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

According to Reuters, economic attention has now turned to the recession.

Reuters reports that a new survey shows that half of all workers are worried about their jobs

Reuters reports that unions are worried about a possible GM (GM) merger with Chrysler.

Reuters reports that many Asia nations are also considering bailing out their banks.

Reuters writes that even though the Fed sees a threat of inflation it is not ready to cut rates.

Reuters reports that the US budget deficit hit $455 billion.

Reuters writes that banks stocks surged on news of the US government bailout.

Reuters writes that Intel (INTC) beat its numbers but was unsure about future quarters due to a slow economy.

Reuters reports that Toyota (TM) said the US car market was weak and that the US market was extremely troubled.

Reuters said that Acer is gaining in the global PC notebook business but HP (HPQ) continues to be the overall world market share leader.

The Wall Street Journal reports that "Pimco will manage the Fed's program to fund purchases of commercial paper."

The Wall Street Journal reports that there is no quick fix for housing prices.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple (AAPL) held the prices of its notebooks steady.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Genetech (DNA) did well because of sales of its top drugs.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Pepsi (PEP) will cut jobs.

The Wall Street Journal reports that former AIG (AIG) CEO Hank Greenberg called for changes to the insurance company's bailout.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the CEO of P&G (PG) said the company is confident about its future.

The New York Times reports that despite a big rally the outlook for jobs is grim.

The New York Times reports that poor numbers are increasing concerns about a recession in Europe.

The New York Times reports that October auto sales are on track to be as bad as September.

The New York Times reports that Daimler will cut jobs in the US and Canada.

The Wall Street Journal reports that GE (GE) is having trouble selling commercial property that it owns.

The Wall Street Journal reports that lower salaries could keep Wall St from attracting new talent.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Democrats are looking at a $300 billion stimulus package.

The Wall Street Journal reports that banks may still not be "buys" now.

The Wall Street Journal writes that the rally in Citigroup (C) ignores its increasing losses.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Airbus is doing well despite economic turbulence.

The FT writes that banks in Europe deny that they rushed to get access to new capital.

The FT reports that American companies are keeping cash instead of making share buy-backs.

Bloomberg writes that Paulson does not have the powers to make banks lend out the new money he is investing in them.

Bloomberg says that the Fed offered Citigroup (C) and GE (GE) aid in commercial paper

Douglas A. McIntyre

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:56 am

The 'netbook' revolution

Ever heard of a "netbook"? They're small, light, machines that sell for as little as $250 to just north of $600 - and they're selling like hot cakes.

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:50 am

Market Rally Loses Steam in Asia

Most Asian stock markets fell modestly as analysts and investors around the world digested details of the massive bailout plans in the United States.
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:43 am

Rio Tinto warns of slowing Chinese growth

Attention switched back to the health of the global economy on Wednesday after Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest mining companies, warned that because of slowing Chinese growth it would cut capital spending and miss a sales target
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:28 am

Asia Markets And Europe Open 10/15/2008

Many markets in Asia were lower.

But, the Nikkei rose 1.1% to 9,547.

The Hang Seng fell 2.4% to 16,438. ICBC fell 2.7%. CNOOC waa off 3.8%. PetroChina (PTR) moved down almost 4%.

The Shanghai Composite fell 1.1% to 1,995.

The FTSE upened down .7% at 4,362. The DAX fell .3% to 5,183. The CAC 40 was off .3% to 3,608.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntyre

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:16 am

Hospitals protest new California rules on patient billing

Physicians also dispute a ban on charging emergency room patients for balances not paid by insurers.

Emergency room patients can no longer be stuck with the bill when hospitals or physicians disagree with insurance companies on their fees.

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

U.S. plan for direct bank investment is promising, problematic

The Bush administration's sweeping new plan to pump $250 billion directly into U.S. banks promises to be a faster, easier, simpler and more direct way to revive the nation's prostrate financial system, but it also sets the stage for a political tug of war that could persist long after the current crisis has passed.

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Record retreat in gasoline prices provides scant relief

Demand is down and supplies are up but drivers won't be clogging the highways.

Pump prices took a record-setting weekly nose dive, the Energy Department said Tuesday, as oil costs and fuel consumption slumped while gasoline supplies returned to normal around much of the nation.

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Which banks live or die? Wielding $250 billion, U.S. may decide

Those fortified by federal money could swallow up smaller rivals, leading to fewer, bigger institutions. Some say, however, that the capital-infusion program could help weaker banks stay in business.

By flooding the U.S. banking system with hundreds of billions of dollars in cheap capital, the government could find itself funding the most dramatic change in the nation's financial landscape since the deregulation drive of the 1980s.

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

FDA's lax approach to China comes back to bite us

If we've learned anything watching our 401(k)s go down the toilet and the stock market take a pistol-whipping, it's that too-lax regulation and the nowhere-to-hide nature of the global economy leave us vulnerable to all sorts of shenanigans.

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Apple unveils line of laptops but avoids slashing prices

CEO Steve Jobs instead focuses on a new manufacturing process for the MacBook that carves machines out of a single 2.5-pound aluminum block.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled a line of laptops Tuesday but did not dramatically slash prices.

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Stricter regulation of business sought, Americans say

An L.A. Times/Bloomberg survey finds that nearly 70% of Americans in each of a wide range of demographic categories say the lack of controls is responsible for the nation's economic problems.

Ian Bagley thinks he pays too many taxes, says welfare rolls need to be reduced and believes the private sector usually does a better job than the public sector.

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

A day after posting huge gains, stocks fall modestly

The Dow ends down 0.8% , retaining most of the 936-point advance it registered Monday. The Nasdaq falls 3.5%. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Hospitals protest new California rules on patient billing

Physicians also dispute a ban on charging emergency room patients for balances not paid by insurers. Emergency...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Ban against Qualcomm chips overruled

The International Trade Commission overstepped its authority in barring imports of cellphones with the chips, a federal appeals court says. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Judge OKs $24 million for pets sickened by tainted food

Owners may be compensated for medical and burial expenses and the value of their animals. A federal judge Tuesday...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Which banks live or die? Wielding $250 billion, U.S. may decide

Those fortified by federal money could swallow up smaller rivals, leading to fewer, bigger institutions. Some say, however, that the capital-infusion program could help weaker banks stay in business. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Apple unveils line of laptops but avoids slashing prices

CEO Steve Jobs instead focuses on a new manufacturing process for the MacBook that carves machines out of a single 2.5-pound aluminum block. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

U.S. plan for direct bank investment is promising, problematic

The Bush administration's sweeping new plan to pump $250 billion directly into U.S. banks promises to be a faster, easier, simpler and more direct way to revive the nation's prostrate financial system,...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Stricter regulation of business sought, Americans say

An L.A. Times/Bloomberg survey finds that nearly 70% of Americans in each of a wide range of demographic categories say the lack of controls is responsible for the nation's economic problems. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 15 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Currency: Dollar retreats to test support

The New Zealand dollar retreated from week highs as confidence dissipated and the local share market fell again. The NZ dollar rose to US63.50c overnight but retreated to US62.03c by 8am and by 5pm was back at US61.70c. The...
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 5:15 am

Developers seek to revamp Beverly Hills condo project

The Candy brothers want to build a hotel and reduce the number of condos on the 8-acre site of the former Robinsons-May department store.

The London-based owners of the former Robinsons-May department store property on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills said Tuesday that they wanted to reduce the number of condominiums in their planned $1-billion residential and retail development, replacing them with hotel rooms.

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 4:46 am

The Most Toxic Business in America

How could a project once budgeted at about $2 billion and slated for completion in 1994 now cost a projected $36 billion and be forecast to drag on for another decade? And why have some of the nation's largest chemical and engineering companies, including E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. and Parsons Corp., walked away from lucrative project contracts?

The short answer: The project, called the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program, involves destruction of America's estimated 31,500 tons of Cold War chemical weapons stocks—among them VX and sarin nerve agents, among the deadliest substances on earth.

The more complicated answer: When you mix miscalculation and public relations missteps by the project's operator, the Army, with an outsized public wariness over nerve-agent disposal methods, bad things are bound to happen.

Indeed, with the program, now entering its third decade, bogged down in delays and now mushroomed into the largest non-weapons outlay in the Pentagon budget, taxpayers, and some companies, are getting burned.

Insight into how this happened can be gleaned by heading off to Port Arthur, Texas, to talk to Dan Duncan, a stocky, loquacious man whose crew cut, mustache, and wraparound sunglasses lend him the bearing of an Army drill sergeant.

Beneath an imposing smokestack that he assures me is venting only harmless water vapor, Duncan, the plant's environmental, health, and safety manager, begins to tell the story of how the company he works for, Veolia North America, got a $49 million piece of the Chemical Stockpile Disposal pie when it landed a Department of Defense contract in 2007.

The mission: To incinerate, at long last, a 1,269-ton stockpile of neutralized VX nerve agent that has been stored for decades in heavily guarded Cold War chemical-weapons silos in Newport, Indiana, about 900 miles away.

The Port Arthur project has had its share of problems and controversies, but overall it has proceeded on time and within budget; the last of the nerve gas residue is being incinerated now. The problem: Incineration is only the last—and cheapest—part of what has morphed into a complicated and extravagantly costly process. And Veolia only got into the act after two previous contracts awarded by the Pentagon over a five-year period ended in costly, time-sucking failures amid citizens' uprisings and a slew of lawsuits.

In fact, the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program has been so dogged by such problems that Craig Williams, of the non-profit Chemical Weapons Working Group, says "the representations made to Congress and the American people by the Army on their projected technical capabilities, cost, and schedule ... were off by orders of magnitude and to a degree almost unheard-of even in government."

Williams, whose organization from the beginning has been involved in the two-decade-long fight over how and where to dispose of these agents, might seem like a spokesman for another alarmist watchdog group. But his sentiments were echoed in a 2005 letter signed by several congressmen, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, whose state, Kentucky, holds one of the storage depots.

The letter, flaying the Defense Department's stewardship of the disposal scheme, notes that it is one of only 22 programs in the entire federal government to be judged "'ineffective' by the Office of Management and Budget."

So what went wrong?

Following the checkered history of efforts to dispose of the Newport, Indiana, VX nerve gas proves instructive. The Veolia's Port Arthur hazardous-waste remediation plant is the tail end of a process that was originally supposed to take a year or two, but will end up taking almost a decade.

 Duncan is with Mitch Osborne, the plant's general manager, on a balmy windswept east Texas morning. Veolia's plant sits in an industrial park on the outskirts of Port Arthur, a gritty industrial town of about 60,000 perched just above the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana border.

The plant is incinerating a batch of neutralized VX as we speak. Though this isn't a sentiment generally shared by the public—and certainly not the activists who chronically shadow such disposal efforts—Duncan says, "We feel like we're providing a service to the country."

Duncan is an engineer by training, and from his scientific vantage point, there isn't much to worry about in the process: The VX, dosed onsite in Indiana with lye and neutralized into a caustic liquid called sodium hydrolysate, is shipped to Texas in unguarded tanker trucks. The liquid is then fed into incinerators and kilns at 1,500 to 2,050 degrees Fahrenheit and turned, according to all credible science, into a harmless trickle of steam.

The broader politics of disposal, on the other hand, are a nightmare, intensified, the Army's critics say, by the propensity of the military to try to push through disposal schemes with little, or evasive, public disclosure. Duncan, however, has some sympathy for the Army's predicament.

"It doesn't take much for someone to come out and say: 'A pin-head drop of VX will kill you in minutes—and they're sending 4,000-gallon lots of this material to Port Arthur,'" says Duncan.

Never mind that the VX arriving in Texas is neutralized residue and that Duncan says his facility handles far more harmful material from other clients. The bottom line, he says, is that those other wastes "don't have that nerve-agent connotation."

No doubt that in an America anxious about the environment, rattled by the specter of terrorists, and abloom with tort lawyers, environmental activists, and citizen watchdogs, "nerve agent connotation" is no small matter. It's also true, where a nerve agent is involved, that perception and public relations trump industrial process. But to many observers, the Army has proved awful at managing both.


The U.S. first got serious about destroying its Cold War chemical weapons stockpile in 1982; three years later, Congress adopted a mandate ordering the Pentagon to begin drawing up disposal plans. By 1993, when the U.S. signed on to the International Chemical Weapons Convention, the Army was supposed to already be well along with disposal efforts. It wasn't.

It's hard to know whether the Department of Defense was being optimistic or naïve when, under Congress' initial mandate, it decided it could most easily dispose of thousands of tons of VX, sarin, and mustard gas by simply burning the raw chemicals on-site at nine domestic storage facilities, some of them relatively close to major population centers.

In any case, the Army's initial cost estimate for the project was just under $2 billion; it projected the job would be done by 1994.

As the plan leaked out, however, communities near these sites, one by one, rose in protest. This sparked a reluctant rethinking by the Pentagon, and over time a plan that had seemed relatively simple became mind-bendingly complicated.

Years of study ensued—years that gave increasingly organized watchdogs time to do their own studies and to ratchet up political pressure. As a result, disposal became captive to local and regional politics, and the Army found itself often having to tailor its plans on a site-by-site basis in response to local protests.

Under pressure from McConnell, two facilities—one in the senator's home state of Kentucky and the other in Colorado—were put under the direct supervision of the Defense Department in 2003. The idea was to try alternative disposal methods. The Pentagon expects the Colorado site to finish its work in 2020; Kentucky in 2023.

Meanwhile, the Army program continues, though it too is slow. This is in part because most of the storage sites that the Army oversees in its program had little or no disposal capability and had to be retrofitted with what became enormously expensive facilities—neutralization chambers and, in some cases, incinerators. Thus, the original $2 billion estimate had swollen to $10.2 billion by 1994.

By last year, the Army had raised the estimate to $36 billion. One example why: By the time it is done, the disposal of the 1,269 tons of VX at Newport, Indiana, is estimated to cost $1.9 billion alone. That now includes the costs of delays, litigation, and the construction of on-site facilities to neutralize the gas. None of that had been included in the original estimate.

"I think the original estimates were probably made by somebody sitting around with the proverbial napkin and writing a figure and a timeframe on it," says Greg Mahall, an Army spokesman, "but we are held to that."

 Understandably, safety underpinned most of the political dust-ups over disposal. An accident involving leaked nerve agent could precipitate a major civilian catastrophe, causing full-body convulsions and asphyxiation after exposure to even minute doses.

It's worth noting that there have been no major accidents, though equally worth noting that the Pentagon's safety record at its storage sites is far from pristine. Whistleblowers over the years have complained of shoddy safety practices at some of the chemical weapons depots and Army officials have confirmed recent spills of raw agent at two storage sites, including a gallon drum of highly lethal sarin that leaked onto the floor of its storage igloo at its Richmond, Kentucky, storage facility this past August. (None of the incidents caused injuries.)

In fairness to the Army, though, the program has also run into a fair amount of the "not-in-my-backyard" syndrome. "People will agree on A and Z, A being that we have these weapons and Z that they need to be destroyed," says the Army's Mahall. It's the how and the where that end up sparking the controversies, he adds.

Such politics help to explain why today there is no unified disposal regimen. The Veolia project represents one method, while nerve agents at the Kentucky site are processed and neutralized onsite without incineration. At yet another storage facility in Anniston, Alabama, military contractors employ the Army's original idea—incinerating raw sarin and VX on site.

As a result, progress on the larger goal of ridding America of all of its chemical agents has been woefully uneven and costly. By the Army's own estimates, about 97 percent of the nation's sarin nerve gas has been destroyed, while only about 85 percent of its VX agent has been disposed of.

The remaining sarin is housed at a single compound known as Blue Grass near Richmond, Kentucky, while Blue Grass and three other sites, Newport, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Umatilla, Oregon, hold the remaining VX. Meanwhile, only about 24 percent of the nation's 17,380 tons of mustard gas, scattered among seven chemical weapons bunkers, has been done away with to date.

The U.S. isn't the only laggard. While 183 nations signed on to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, they collectively have disposed of only about 40 percent of the estimated 70,000 metric tons of chemical agents that existed, according to a convention report released in May.

The U.S. and Russia between them account for about 90 percent of the world's "category 1" chemical agent stockpile—meaning the most lethal agents, including VX and sarin. So far, Russia has destroyed only about 27 percent of its category 1 agents and isn't expected to be done until 2012.

Of other nations with sizeable chemical weapons stocks—Albania, India, and Libya among them—only Albania has completed the task. India is about 97 percent complete while Libya is scheduled to finish by 2010.

In the U.S., the September 2001 terrorist attacks prodded the Army into trying to accelerate its disposal plans out of fears that terrorists might try to seize chemical weapons stored in military depots.

For the 1,269 tons of VX at Newport, on-site incineration would have been by far the quickest and cheapest way to go. But in response to intense lobbying—in part from Craig Williams' Chemical Weapons Working Group and politicians like McConnell—the Army abandoned that idea in favor of the two-step plan.

By 2002, the Pentagon thought it had found a solution when it awarded a $9 million contract to Perma-Fix Environmental Services, a unit of Parsons, a Pasadena, California, engineering and environmental services concern with more than $3 billion in annual revenues.

Perma-Fix, based in Atlanta, operated its flagship chemical treatment facility just outside of Dayton, Ohio, about 200 miles east of Newport. The contract called for Perma-Fix to neutralize the caustic sodium hydrolysate and dispose of the waste by pumping it into the local sewer system.

The Army didn't think it needed to hold public hearings on the matter, or to file an environmental impact statement on the plan. Perma-Fix officials said they went about briefing a number of local elected officials before they signed on.

But when neighbors of the Dayton facility got wind of the Army plan toward the end of 2002, alarm bells rang. The shared opinion was that the Army was trying to pull a fast one.

Soon, the Army found itself not just tangled in a public relations disaster but in a federal lawsuit filed by a group called Citizens for the Responsible Destruction of Chemical Weapons of the Miami Valley. The suit said, among other things, that the Army violated federal law by not having undertaken a formal environmental statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Perma-Fix C.E.O. Lou Centofanti has a different take. "The community didn't want it, period," he said. "And no mater what we said or how we said it…they just didn't want to hear it."

The battle over VX waste was so damaging that Perma-Fix—after trying in vain to convince the Army to let it build an on-site disposal plant at Newport—chose to sell its Dayton plant and shift its focus from chemical treatment to nuclear waste. "We made a major strategic error in doing that project," Centofanti conceded.

By October 2003, not a single gallon of sodium hydrolysate had been shipped to Dayton from Newport, and Parsons, the main contractor, decided to throw in the towel, ordering Perma-Fix to back out of the deal. The Army was back to square one.


That same year, the Army restructured its disposal efforts under a new outfit called the Chemical Materials Agency. But new or not, the C.M.A. didn't seem to apply any lessons it may have learned in Dayton to its next move.

About a year later, it concocted yet another plan to get rid of the Newport cache, this time contracting with DuPont, which operates a chemical treatment plant called the Secure Environmental Treatment facility in Deepwater, New Jersey, near the banks of the Delaware River.

The plan and tact were remarkably similar to the Dayton debacle. The Army, without briefing local or state officials, published a small legal ad in a tiny southern New Jersey newspaper announcing the barebones of the project and setting a date for a public hearing. This time, the treated sodium hydrolysate wasn't destined for public sewers—it was going to be dumped into the Delaware River.

 The river, which originates in New York and touches Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware on its way to the Atlantic, has in recent years made a remarkable comeback from the industrial pollutants that once fouled it. And the river has some fierce defenders, including an organization called the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

When the C.M.A.'s legal notice came to the attention of Tracy Carluccio, the group's deputy director, she immediately asked the Army what it was up to. The answer—using the river to dispose of nerve-agent residue—shocked her. "What the Army was proposing to do," Carluccio says, "was absolutely outrageous."

Carluccio and her group formed a coalition to oppose the plan. But her outrage was nothing compared with the wrath of New Jersey lawmakers, including Representative Robert Andrews, a Democrat whose district straddles a part of the Delaware River watershed.

Andrews sits on the House Armed Services Committee and "though the river runs through my district, no one ever told me or the elected officials who represent our area that this was even under consideration," he says.

The Army had another fight on its hands.

Congress took steps to delay the project while asking the Government Accountability Office to review the plan. The governor of New Jersey pledged to physically block nerve-agent residue shipments on the New Jersey Turnpike. Then, in December 2006, the Delaware Riverkeepers, the New Jersey Audubon Society, and others filed suit in Federal District Court in Washington. They alleged that the Army's plan violated all manner of federal laws, including bans on shipping of chemical agents across state lines.

This was too much for DuPont; in early January 2007, the company backed out, saying "it has become increasingly clear to us that the regulatory process will be lengthy and arduous....Therefore, we believe it is in the best interest of ...DuPont not to proceed." The company declined further comment for this story.

After the Dayton and DuPont debacles, the Army scrambled to find a new home for the processed VX, and settled on Port Arthur. According to Veolia and Army officials, the plant there was already permitted by the state of Texas to dispose of chemicals like sodium hydrolysate.

Although neither Army nor Veolia officials will say it, there's another compelling reason to select Port Arthur: The blue-collar city's economic fortunes are already tied to the chemical plants and oil- and gas-processing facilities there.

Port Arthur has environmental and community activists, but they're not nearly as numerous, well-funded, or politically connected as are the Dayton and New Jersey groups.

And by this time, the Army had finally seemed to learn a lesson: It agreed it was best to do some outreach to first sell the plan. It also decided it would be best if the Army itself stayed out of it. So in February 2007, only a month after the New Jersey fiasco, Veolia's Duncan, Osborne, and others spent five weeks briefing state and local officials about the project.

This was not a tour that included public hearings or press briefings, however. When the story leaked in a local newspaper, another firestorm erupted.

But Veolia had two things that neither DuPont nor Parsons could produce: a permit to dispose of the VX residue, and a claim that it had at least briefed some of the people who needed to know.

That didn't stop the Sierra Club and others from asking a federal court in Indiana to block the Newport shipments. A judge in late September rejected that request, ruling that the plan didn't violate federal or state laws.

Still, bitter feelings remain. "Surely we were hoodwinked," says Port Arthur city councilman Martin Flood, who was not among the officials briefed in advance.

Veolia's general manager, Osborne, says his company did what it could. "Could I sit here and tell you that we could have done more and briefed more people? Sure," he says. "But would that have alleviated some of the concern or stopped the misinformation from various entities? I don't know."

Later, Duncan weighs in. "We thought that if had we handled it any differently, we might have jeopardized the project."

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Source: Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 15 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Here Come the Lawsuits

As if bank failures, frozen credit markets, plunging stock prices, and a looming recession weren't enough to keep corporate executives awake at night, there is this:

Corporate lawyers are girding for a wave of lawsuits whipped up by the financial crisis, a flood that will reverse a recent slide in the amount of litigation involving companies.

About 43 percent of in-house counsel surveyed by the law firm Fulbright & Jaworski said they expected their companies to face more litigation in the coming year, in areas from bankruptcy to securities law. Only 22 percent of lawyers in last year's survey said they expected an increase in legal disputes involving their companies.

The past two years saw declines in new lawsuits, including a 25 percent drop in the number of multimillion-dollar cases. As the economy flags, however, more layoffs and corporate bankruptcies are expected to reverse that trend, they said.

The survey comes at “the start of a period of economic challenge that is likely to fuel litigation over who is to blame and who should pay for the consequences,” said Stephen C. Dillard, who chairs Fulbright & Jaworski’s global litigation practice.

There was some good news—at least for lawyers—in the 2008 Litigation Trends Survey: A forecast of plenty of jobs for staff lawyers to handle the expected uptick in legal business. That should comfort the growing number of lawyers recently let go by foundering private firms.

Slightly one-third of counsel surveyed forecast a rise in government regulatory actions, led by the Justice Department and followed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In addition to the perennial contract and employment disputes, lawyers said they were bracing for an uptick of cases involving professional liability, insurance coverage, bankruptcy, theft of intellectual property, and securities issues.

Insurance companies were the top target for new litigation in the past year, with two-thirds facing at least six new lawsuits and 29 percent facing more than 50 new actions. Retailers, manufacturers, and health-care providers followed—in that order.

Although financial companies drew some of the highest profile class actions and prosecutions, only 37 percent were hit with six or more new lawsuits—something that is likely to change. Other sectors, including energy, real estate, and telecom, were also included in the survey.

Almost half of the companies surveyed said they spent at least $1 million a year on litigation, a sum that does not include judgments and settlements. The biggest companies sue—and are sued—more often than midsized and small businesses.Related Links
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Source: Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 15 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Big Media. Bad Idea

Say what you want about the benefits of synergies and size for big media companies; for their shareholders, the bigger the company, the smaller the gains.

Between last week and the same week a year ago, Time Warner shares were down 50 percent; Viacom was off 59 percent; G.E. had fallen 46 percent; News Corp. slid 65 percent; and Disney, the big winner, had tumbled a mere 34 percent.

Is it time to say "Enough already" with big media and the dead-as-disco idea Japanese giants such as Sony had about buying movie studios to sell their VCRs?

How about small media? Or at least smaller media?

It sounds fairly logical. The supposed "synergies" between the divisions of modern conglomerates like Viacom, G.E., and Time Warner have never really blossomed. Time Warner's magazine group, cable networks, AOL, pay TV, and movie-studio divisions barely communicate, let alone work together. And if that lumping together doesn't deliver value in the stock market, why suffer through it?

Time Warner took one step toward unraveling those holdings last spring, with the spinoff of Time Warner Cable, which delivered shareholders over $10 per share in dividends. Before that move, long-awaited by analysts, the cable unit's success was never reflected in the larger company's share price.
    
AOL, by contrast, has had a disproportionately negative affect on the company's stock, leaving many investors wondering when a sale of the unit—or of the floundering magazine unit—will take place.

That's a tough break for the company's better-performing assets, like Turner Broadcasting, home to cable hits like The Closer, and  stellar studio Warner Bros., responsible for summer smashes like Sex and the City and The Dark Knight. Spun off independently, any of these properties could deliver substantial value to shareholders. As it is, the albatross of AOL is the only thing visible to anyone looking at Time Warner's stock price.

CBS is a similar story. Last week, it put Showtime content front and center in a new partnership with YouTube, offering the channel's most recent series premieres of Dexter and Californication to viewers for free.

In doing so, the company, whose share price was down 72 percent from a year ago last week, is trying to capitalize on its marquee pay-TV brand to bring viewers and media attention to its shows online, where it will take in revenue from ads played at the start, middle, and end of its shows.  

But could CBS unlock the value of its increasingly shiny Showtime brand by spinning off the network into its own independent entity?
 
The premium-cable channel is obviously feeling its oats, as buzzworthy original series like Californication, Dexter, and Weeds have led a 2 million jump in subscribers, to 16 million, over the past two years.

Some analysts agree that Showtime, as a stand-alone stock, could be the secret weapon of CBS shareholders. On its own, "Showtime would probably be worth more than CBS today," says Porter Gibb, a managing partner at Mediatech Capital Partners in New York.

"It's hot, it has an interesting future, and it's making money with video on demand."

Of course, not every premium pay-TV channel would perform as well as a stock. HBO, for instance, is probably better served—for now—by remaining a part of Time Warner, under intense pressure as it is to deliver hot, game-changing new shows with the frequency it used to, says Gibb.

But in general, if a media property is strong, it performs better outside of a conglomerate than inside one. Why keep a company's most valuable assets hidden inside a decaying shell?

The Dolan family's Cablevision, which owns a slew of valuable cable networks through Rainbow Media—including the Sundance channel, IFC, and AMC, home to the breakout hit Mad Men—is another example of a media company whose stock is undervalued.

Cablevision would do well to spin off some subsidiaries—or even just stop making new acquisitions. After paying almost $650 million for the paper Newsday, the company got very little back in terms of stock value.

G.E., which has been urged to spin off NBCU by eager analysts, no longer has that luxury with G.E. Capital suffering in the economic crisis. But should it do so in the future, the new company—made up of a movie studio and theme parks, with business models that are not advertising-reliant, plus a mature slate of cable networks with dual revenue streams—would likely perform well in the stock market.

News Corp. and Disney are two possible exceptions to the big-media curse. Disney makes sure that ESPN programming on ABC, for example, is obviously marked as such, an effective cross-marketing tool. And News Corp. is steadily integrating Dow Jones' components, such as MarketWatch, into its daily operations.

But even the most skilled managers are overextended when trying to grapple with the various subsidies of their enormous conglomerates.

A(nother) case in point: YouTube has lost some of its tech-darling status since being swallowed up by Google. Perhaps that explains the new partnership with CBS, which aims to expand YouTube's niche from clips of cats falling from trees to more mainstream content like you'd find on Hulu.com. But can one mammoth media company save another?

"I don't believe in conglomerates from a financial point of view because they totally depend on having good management," says Gibb. "That's a tough thing to depend on."

In other words, don't count on it.

Related Links
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Source: Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 15 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Barron's: Private-Banking Clients Are Fleeing

Private-banking clients are fleeing to the perceived safety of larger institutions.

Source: SmartMoney.com | 15 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

NZ Shares: NZX down 1.7 pc

It's been a down day on the New Zealand Stock Exchange today, with the benchmark NZX-50 index down 1.7 per cent, or 51 points for the day, to 2897. Shares in top stock Telecom are down by 17 cents, a 6.5 per cent fall to $2.41....
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 3:56 am

Blog: Individual investors rush to buy California IOUs

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 3:08 am

Rogue trader takes NZ billionaire's bank for $US10m

A $US10 million rogue trader scandal has erupted in the Russian banking empire set up by Kiwi expat billionaire Stephen Jennings. The Bloomberg news agency says rogue trader Anton Stenin has taken Renaissasnce Capital for US$10m...
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 2:30 am

Auckland Airport bond issue opens

Investors are being offered a stake in the country's main international gateway. Auckland International Airport Ltd's retail bond issue programme opened today. The airport is making a public offer of $80 million of bonds with...
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 2:20 am

Blog: Cheap eats: Restaurant stocks sink on economy fears

Source: L.A. Times - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 2:16 am

BusinessWeek compares NZ to troubled Iceland

New Zealand is among 13 nations named by BusinessWeek as most at risk from the global financial crisis. The article compared New Zealand to Iceland because of its heavy dependence on foreign money to fund its current account...
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 2:00 am

New $574 network to transform mobile landscape, says Telecom

Telecom has boosted its forecast mobile capital expenditure for the next two years by $391 million as it rolls out a new network. But as spending rises the company's forecast bottom line is down and today's announcement was unenthusiastically...
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 1:30 am

Aussie growth tipped to slow in coming months

Australia's economic growth pace in coming months will slow as demand weakens and credit conditions stay tight, a survey shows. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute leading index, which indicates the likely speed of economic activity...
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 1:00 am

No end in sight to Boeing strike

With the collapse of revived contract talks after barely two days, a strike that shut down Boeing's commercial aircraft plants on Sept. 6 appears likely to continue well into November - and possibly longer. Neither Boeing nor the...
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 1:00 am

Deposit guarantee scheme conditions have banks 'flabbergasted'

New Zealand bank executives are privately stunned by parts of the deposit guarantee scheme sprung on them over the weekend, arguing much of it is unfair, unworkable and dangerous, according to a report on banking and finance website...
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:40 am

Business Briefs - Tuesday

Genentech's Avastin sales top views. The biotech giant said after hours that Q3 EPS climbed 11% to 81 cents, missing views by 7 cents, while...

Source: Investor's Business Daily: BUSINESS | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:20 am

After The Close - Tuesday

ALTERA (ALTR), a maker of programmable chips, said Q3 EPS rose 55% to 31 cents, a penny above views. Sales rose 13% to $357 mil, topping...

Source: Investor's Business Daily: BUSINESS | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:20 am

Professional Cooking Equipment Maker Digests New Acquisitions

Selim Bassoul is one of those globe-trotting chief executives.

Source: Investor's Business Daily: BUSINESS | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:20 am

Asia-Pacific gloom not pervasive in NZ

New Zealand investors have fared well in comparision to their counterparts in other Asia-Pacific nations in a survey about confidence in the economy. ING, the global financial services group, today released data from its Investor...
Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 15 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am

Need to know: Burberry growth ... Irish pay cut ... Beazley losses

Economics
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 14 Oct 2008 | 11:12 pm

Iceland secures €200m from Norway, Denmark

Iceland secured €200 million (£156 million) from Norway and Denmark yesterday as it sought help to stabilise its stricken economy, but talks to secure a far larger loan from Russia continued.
Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 14 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm

US warns on ageing Iraqi oil pipelines

Pipelines vital to Iraq's oil industry are in such poor condition they could rupture at any time, choking off supply from the region and devastating the country's economy, according to the US State Department
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 14 Oct 2008 | 10:32 pm

DeLong Says Bank-Rescue Plan `Bailed All of Us Out'

Source: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Oct 2008 | 10:05 pm

Redeker of BNP Paribas Sees Possible 3-Month Libor Decline

Source: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Oct 2008 | 9:52 pm

Pond of Barclays Sees `Worst Not Necessarily Behind Us' Yet

Source: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Oct 2008 | 9:48 pm

MF Global's Tazi Says `Something Had to Be Done' For Banks

Source: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Oct 2008 | 9:44 pm

VIX Index of U.S. Stock Option Prices Advances 0.25 % to 55.13

Source: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Oct 2008 | 9:41 pm

Home prices may plummet, but taxes won't

Housing prices have plummeted, but property tax bills probably won't budge.

Source: Business and financial news - CNNMoney.com | 14 Oct 2008 | 9:32 pm

US companies pass on buy-back opportunity

Fewer US companies are buying back their shares, in spite of eased regulatory restrictions, as they seek to conserve cash
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 14 Oct 2008 | 9:31 pm

Penney Wise?

Can't continue to afford A.B.S? Maybe it's time to consider J.C.P.

As the co-founder of apparel retailer Esprit de Corp and owner of the women's sportswear line A.B.S., Allen B. Schwartz has built a reputation around speedy translations of the latest runway trends for high-end consumers.

Now, he's teaming up with J.C. Penney on ALLEN B., a new women's apparel line designed exclusively for the department store.

"With its casual chic and cool California vibe, Schwartz's new line for J.C. Penney is perfect for hanging out or going out, showcasing the hottest trends with sharp looks that are stylish, fun and vibrant," the retailer said in a press release today.

J.C. Penney describes the collection as having been created for its "trendy lifestyle customer," and says it will be sold starting in next spring in 600 of their 1,038 stores, as well as via catalogue and online.

For Schwartz, ALLEN B. will be his least expensive project to date. A.B.S. is sold at retailers like Bloomingdales and Saks Fifth Avenue, with dresses priced from $150 to $500; ALLEN B. cuts that range to $70 to $80. Still, that puts the new line at the top of the J.C. Penney price range.

Lately, Plano, Texas-based J.C. Penney seems intent on beefing up its higher-end offerings. Earlier this year, it launched American Living, a line of apparel, accessories, and home furnishings designed by Polo Ralph Lauren, that were priced higher than most items at Penney.

In a similar move, J.C. Penney announced last week that it will launch a line of clothing named I "Heart" Ronson, designed by Charlotte Ronson, who already has an her own eponymous boutique label.

If J.C. Penney is looking to entice their core shoppers with pricier options, it's an odd time to be trying that strategy.

"Trading up current customers in this economy would be a huge challenge," says Candace Corlett, a principal at WSL Strategic Retail, a marketing consulting firm in New York. "J.C. Penney launched American Living right after Super Bowl, when gas prices started soaring, and prices were slashed on that within weeks."

But the problem with American Living might have been less about failing to appeal to core J.C. Penney customers and more about the designs not managing to lure higher end shoppers into stores.

While now is an improbable time for the chain's loyalists to start splurging, it is a likely one for shoppers to consider trading down from higher-priced department stores like Macy's or Nordstrom. Given the right merchandise mix, high-profile new brands, and effective marketing, J.C. Penney could catch those migrating customers.

"The launch of ALLEN B. might just be an ongoing campaign to attract a more upper and middle-income shopper," says Corlett. "If you look at it with a long term eye, it's going to take more than one launch to attract that demographic."

As financial turmoil continues to drain money from discretionary spending, it's clear that consumers are redrawing their shopping habits. Corlett says research suggests that the stigma of buying lower priced brands is fading across all ages and incomes.

Rather than aspiring to ostentatious lifestyles, it's becoming "cooler" to be frugal, according to the research, which was conducted for WSL Strategic Retail's "How America Shops" survey.

Retailers all across the spectrum are feeling the effects of that new parsimony. J.C. Penney reported a 12.4 percent decline in same store sales in September, and announced that it is cutting its third-quarter earnings forecast. Nordstrom lost 9.6 percent in the same month, Kohl's dropped 5.5 percent, and same store sales at Saks fell 10.9 percent.

Meanwhile, sales at Wal-Mart grew 2.4 percent as consumers continue to flee down market.

That across-the-board weakness and reshuffling of shopping habits is one reason why Britt Beemer, the founder and chairman of America's Research Group, thinks that now is a prime opportunity for any retailer with a smart strategy to gain market share.

Beemer stresses that the success or failure of ALLEN B. will be decided less by pricing than by whether or not the designs and merchandise mix make the grade.

"If you look at the successful products to come out in the last five years, it's all about how exciting the merchandise is," says Beemer. "The real question is whether J.C. Penney is doing something unique and different here.

"If the merchandise assortment is good, the line will do well," he says. "If its bad, the line will fail. It's that simple."Related Links
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Source: Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 14 Oct 2008 | 9:30 pm

Merrill's Patelis Says $125 Billion For Banks Is `Right Move'

Source: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Oct 2008 | 9:20 pm

Intel Tries Moderating Targets Ahead (INTC)

Source: 24/7 Wall St. | 14 Oct 2008 | 8:27 pm

European banks deny rush to raise capital

Leading banks in continental Europe insisted they did not need to take up the capital offered in the globally co-ordinated state rescue plans which are likely to see governments taking stakes in some of the biggest banks in the US and UK
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 14 Oct 2008 | 8:11 pm

InBev postpones rights issue

InBev postponed a $9.8bn (€7.2bn) rights offering that it hoped to use to finance its $52bn takeover of Anheuser-Busch, blaming 'unprecedented volatility in the global capital markets'
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 14 Oct 2008 | 7:23 pm

Calls for regulating credit derivatives markets

The backlash against the $54,000bn credit derivatives market gathered pace as US legislators renewed calls for regulating a sector widely blamed for contributing to the financial crisis
Source: FT.com - US homepage | 14 Oct 2008 | 7:15 pm

Living with food scares in China

Melamine, the chemical found in tainted milk in China, has begun to show up in other products. Scott Tong reports from Shanghai what it's like to worry about everything you eat and drink.
Source: Marketplace | 14 Oct 2008 | 6:03 pm

Don't forget the campaign trail stops

Small industrial cities get a lot of attention during presidential campaigns. Commentator Angela Glover Blackwell says they don't have to fade away after November. The new administration and the cities themselves can help ensure those cities' growth.
Source: Marketplace | 14 Oct 2008 | 6:02 pm

Parsing the candidates' economic plans

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain say they have starkly different plans to restore the U.S. economy. But in reality, Steve Henn reports, the candidates' policies are moving closer together.
Source: Marketplace | 14 Oct 2008 | 5:58 pm

Russia's downturn and U.K. soccer

The financial downturn in Russian markets is affecting an unlikely area: English football. Some of the super-rich Russians who own U.K teams have lost a lot of money. London Bureau Chief Stephen Beard reports on how that's playing out.
Source: Marketplace | 14 Oct 2008 | 5:58 pm

For real recovery, credit's just a start

With markets doing, well, better, what's going on with the rest of the economy? Another way of asking that question: Are we in a recession? Kai Rysdall brings up the dreaded "R" word with economist Steve Fazzari
Source: Marketplace | 14 Oct 2008 | 5:55 pm

FDIC has role in boosting confidence

An important part of the government's financial fix is to give the FDIC a bigger role in insuring bank deposits. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports it's all about restoring confidence in the markets.
Source: Marketplace | 14 Oct 2008 | 5:52 pm

The strings attached to cash infusions

The idea of having the Treasury Department take stakes in selected banks is to provide them with cash to start making loans again, not to keep it to themselves. Janet Babin wonders if banks will agree to that.
Source: Marketplace | 14 Oct 2008 | 5:41 pm

Best Buy takes aim at Europe's electricals market (Reuters)

Reuters - Best Buy, the world's top consumer electricals retailer, set out bold international growth plans on Tuesday, led by its European venture with Britain's Carphone Warehouse, despite a tough consumer outlook.

Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 14 Oct 2008 | 5:25 pm

Credit markets want to see the money

Have the financial rescue plans done anything yet to encourage banks to start lending again? So far, the major credit benchmarks aren't moving much. Senior business correspondent Bob Moon reports.
Source: Marketplace | 14 Oct 2008 | 5:10 pm

Stamenkovic Says U.S., U.K. Bonds Nearing 'Buy' Level

Source: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Oct 2008 | 4:32 pm

Google Share Price Estimate Cut at Deutsche Bank

Source: Bloomberg - All Podcasts | 14 Oct 2008 | 3:30 pm

Googling an Antitrust Deal

The search-advertising alliance between Yahoo and Google always seemed to be something of a Hail Mary pass.

How could regulators approve a deal that involves 90 percent of the market? Not only is Microsoft adamantly opposed, but a number of other companies have also come out against the deal.

It's not surprising to learn that Google and Yahoo are in talks with the Justice Department in an effort to stave off an antitrust lawsuit.

John Wilke of the Wall Street Journal reports that the talks are in the early stages. He says that concessions being discussed include "capping the volume of Google ads Yahoo would use, assurances that Yahoo would continue to compete in search ads, and a reporting mechanism to ensure compliance."

Michael Arrington of TechCruch says that the idea of a volume cap is the most compelling, as it helps lessen the incentive to neglect its own product in favor of Google.

"A cap means Yahoo can only rely on Google to a point, and if the cap is small enough, then Yahoo will be forced to continue to invest in their own search business," he says.

Yahoo is no doubt keen to make concessions in its quest to stay independent. At what point does it stop making sense to Google?


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Source: Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 14 Oct 2008 | 12:30 pm

All the Way to the Banks

With a $250 billion investment in the nation's banks, Washington has crossed a Rubicon, abandoning any hope for a private-market solution to the credit crisis. This is a new era of state capitalism.

Yet capitalists are hailing the move, which comes on the heels of $2.5 trillion in bank cash infusions by European governments, seeing it as the only hope to stop a collapse of the financial system.

"We're looking today at an absolute sea change in the global financial system in terms of liquidity," Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group told a conference in Dubai today, according to Bloomberg News. "This could be the time that breaks the back of the credit crisis."

Stocks in the United States, however, retreated a day after a powerful rally. The market opened sharply higher but then swung wildly. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 76.62 points, after trading in a range of 700 points. On Monday, it surged 936 points, its biggest point gain ever. The trading underscores that there are no quick fixes to the crisis. And even when the financial panic is quelled, the economy will continue to struggle in the throes of a recession. Credit markets eased today, with the dollar Libor rate slipping a bit.

Treasury plans to inject $250 billion into the nations' banks. About half will be invested into nine: Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase, State Street, and Bank of New York Mellon, as well as Merrill Lynch (which is being acquired by Bank of America), Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, which are now bank holding companies.

In announcing the plan this morning, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said that the banks that agree to sell preferred shares must accept restrictions on executive compensation, including a clawback provision on bonuses and a ban on golden parachutes as long as the government holds a stake.

He said that he expected participating banks to help struggling homeowners and to continue efforts to raise additional private capital. 

"The needs of our economy require that our financial institutions not take this new capital to hoard it, but to deploy it ,” he said.

At the news conference with Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman,  the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Sheila Bair, said that the "bulk of the U.S. banking system is healthy."

But to deal with the credit crisis, the F.D.I.C. will temporarily guarantee the senior debt of banks, she said. And it will provide unlimited insurance coverage for noninterest-paying accounts, like payroll accounts, typically used by small businesses.

The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, is finalizing a program to back commercial paper, the short-term debt used by many large companies to finance their day-to-day operations.

Earlier, President Bush outlined the steps being taken. "This is an essential short-term measure to ensure the viability of the American banking system," the president said. He stressed that the crisis was a temporary one and a global one, hailing the steps by Britain and other European governments to shore up their banks. They are "wise and timely actions," he said.

The nine U.S. big banks were told about their cash infusions at a sit-down with Paulson on Monday afternoon. The banks were reportedly not given a choice and signed agreements.

The rest of the $250 billion will go into smaller banks and savings and loans. The money is coming from the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.

The government will make these investments by taking perpetual preferred shares that pay a dividend of 5 percent. The payout rises to 9 percent after five years These shares will not dilute common shareholders, at least not at first. But the government will receive warrants for 15 percent of the face value of the preferred shares. The terms of the preferred shares will be the same for small and mid-sized institutions as it is for the big banks.

Many economists have been calling for a recapitalization of the banks, providing new capital and bolstering their balance so that they can return to lending. 

"The government's initial $250 billion dollar investment in the countries largest banks will be significant in that it will dramatically strengthen the balance sheets of the companies that hold the vast majority of the banking systems assets and deposits," notes the Prudent Speculations blog.

But everyone may not be on board. Paulson is expected to ask Congress for another $100 billion, the Washington Post reports.

"When I was talking to members of Congress back then, they believed they were voting to buy up troubled assets, not to make capital infusions in banks," Alan Blinder, a Princeton economist and a former Fed vice chairman told the paper. "If I were a member of Congress, I would be wondering about bait and switch because that was not really discussed."

Yves Smith on Naked Capitalism wonders how arms at the banks were twisted: "Even with the Treasury's sweeping new powers under the $700 billion rescue package, one wonders how it compelled banks to cooperate. The process by which this was done is alarming."

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Source: Portfolio.com: Top 5 | 14 Oct 2008 | 11:30 am