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March 11th, 2010 — Free, economy, finance, opinion, people
SMITHFIELD, Va. – Meat processor Smithfield Foods returned to a profit in the third quarter, partly due to strength in its packaged meats business and higher sales overseas.
Smithfield, like many meat companies, has been gradually recovering from a mix of high feed prices, low demand and industry consolidation.
Earnings were $37.3 million, or 22 cents per share, for the period ended Jan. 31. That compares with a loss of $105 business
March 7th, 2010 — Free, finance, markets, money, world
NEW YORK – A hotel has opened on the edge of ground zero, and executives say the view it offers on the World Trade Center site rebuilding is a selling point.
The World Center Hotel is still under construction on some floors but began taking reservations last month. Its Web site features photographs of a memorial and the construction.
The hotel offers some rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows that open directly onto the work site. Guests and members will have access to the restaurant patio with views of giant cranes, jackhammers and metal scaffolding auto loan rates.
Australian tourist Josh Rowlands says he would like to stay at a hotel with a view of the rebuilding, especially because it’s so hard to see into the pit from the street.
But German tourist Michael Meindorfer says he thinks staying there would be too sad.
Ground zero hotel wants to attract WTC tourists
Hot News: Canadian Markets: Canadian stocks rise as commodity prices gain
March 3rd, 2010 — Free, business, money, politics, world
ALAMEDA, Calif. – Celera Corp., a laboratory testing products and disease management services company, reported a fourth-quarter profit on lower costs and a tax benefit.
The company said it earned $7.8 million, or 9 cents per share, compared with a loss of $6.1 million, or 8 cents per share, during the same period a year prior. Revenue fell 15 percent to $40 million from $47.3 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of 3 cents per share on revenue of $39.6 million.
Celera was part of Applera Corp. until July 2008, but was separated from Applera after that company’s other component, Applied Biosystems, was sold to Invitrogen Corp. Those two companies combined into Life Technologies Corp.
Lab services revenue fell 25 percent to $22 million, while products revenue increased 1 percent to $11.3 million. Corporate revenue fell 3 percent to $6.7 million.
Meanwhile, selling and general expenses fell 17 percent to $22.4 million. The company had a tax benefit of $9 payday loans guaranteed no fax.1 million.
For the full year, the company lost $32.7 million, or 40 cents per share, compared with a loss of $124.6 million, or $1.56 per share, in 2008. Revenue fell to $167.1 million from $175.2 million.
Looking ahead, the company expects a loss between 11 cents and 13 cents per share on revenue between $30 million and $32million in the first quarter. It expects a loss between 15 cents and 21 cents per share on revenue between $145 million and $155 million in 2010.
Analysts expect a loss of 1 cent per share on revenue of $40.5 million in the first quarter and profit of 4 cents per share on revenue of $173.5 million in 2010.
Shares of Celera rose 1 cent to $6.15 in after-hours trading after falling 1 cent to close at $6.14 during the regular trading session.
March 2nd, 2010 — Free, money, news, people, politics
Warner Chilcott PLC said Monday that its fourth-quarter loss narrowed as its acquisition of Procter & Gamble’s global branded prescription drug unit added to revenue.
The Irish company, which makes women’s health and dermatology products, recorded a loss of $9.5 million, or 4 cents per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That compares with a loss of $115.7 million, or 46 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2008.
Revenue more than doubled to $686.2 million.
Not counting one-time items like a $127 million amortization charge, adjusted earnings were 65 cents per share for the quarter.
The company also recorded a $33.5 million gain in the quarter from the sale of certain inventories to Leo Pharma in connection with a deal it completed in the third quarter of 2009.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected, on average, earnings of 60 cents per share on $588.1 million in revenue business cards.
In October, Warner Chilcott completed a $3.1 billion buyout of P&G’s global branded prescription drug unit. The company gained a portfolio of products worth about $2.3 billion in annual revenue including blockbuster osteoporosis drug Actonel.
Products from P&G contributed a total of $351.8 million in revenue growth in the fourth quarter. Aside from Actonel, that included the ulcerative colitis treatment Asacol and Enablex, a treatment for overactive bladders.
Warner Chilcott also said selling, general and administrative expenses more than quintupled in the quarter, to $277.5 million, due in part to costs tied to the P&G deal.
The company’s shares fell 67 cents, or 2.5 percent, to close at $26.55.
February 17th, 2010 — Free, all, business, people, world
LONDON – The British subsidiary of Reader’s Digest filed for administration, a form of bankruptcy protection, in a move intended to help its parent company complete restructuring under bankruptcy protection in the U.S.
The parent, the Reader’s Digest Association Inc., said the action to isolate the British unit would allow it “to emerge from Chapter 11 promptly.”
The British subsidiary’s filing follows its failure to gain regulatory approval for a plan for funding a pension deficit, the company said Wednesday. Without approval for its plan to deal with the British pension issue, the company said the U.K. unit was unable to meet its debts and sustain its operations, the company said.
Reader’s Digest had hoped to emerge from Chapter 11 protection — under which a company in financial trouble is allowed to shed debts and restructure — by the end of the January but was delayed by the pension problem in Britain.
The pension proposal had been accepted by the company, pension trustees and the U saving account pay day loan.K. Pension Protection Fund, but was rejected by the U.K. Pensions Regulator.
“The agreement, which contemplated a lump sum payment by parent company RDA plus an equity stake in RDA UK, was authorized by the U.S. bankruptcy judge overseeing RDA’s U.S. Chapter 11 proceedings, and would have relieved RDA UK of significant financial obligations associated with its underfunded UK pension plan,” the company said in a statement from its headquarters in Pleasantville, N.Y.
“Absent an agreement, RDA UK is financially unable to meet those obligations and sustain its operations.”
The British pension issue does not affect any other part of the company, Reader’s Digest said.
A U.S. judge has already approved the company’s Chapter 11 plan, which cuts its debt load to $555 million from $2.2 billion.
February 16th, 2010 — Free, business, economics, economy, people
LONDON – European stock markets won some respite Monday ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels, where the Greek debt crisis will likely top the agenda. However, public holidays in many Asian countries as well as the U.S. have reined in some of the volatility that gripped markets over the last couple of weeks.
The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 34.48 points, or 0.7 percent, at 5,176.93 while Germany’s DAX rose 34.26 points, or 0.6 percent, at 5,534.65. The CAC-40 in France was 26.54 points, or 0.7 percent, higher at 3,625.61.
The main point of interest for Europe’s markets will continue to be the debt problems afflicting Greece, as finance ministers from the 16 euro countries gather in the wake of last Thursday’s meeting of EU leaders. On Tuesday, the finance ministers of the full 27-nation European Union meet.
Though EU leaders gave Greece some vocal support, no money or guarantee was offered, primarily because Germany was not willing to stump up any cash as it could undermine German bonds and put further pressure on the euro.
Instead, all agreed that Greece’s progress in bringing down its budget deficit will be closely monitored and it would not be allowed to threaten the eurozone. Markets interpreted the latter comment as an implicit guarantee that eurozone policymakers will help the country if its own efforts fail.
An ensuing narrowing in spreads between German and Greek bonds — a sign that the markets think a Greek default is becoming less likely — and a more steady tone to the euro have diminished expectations that anything substantially new will emerge later.
“Risk aversion remains in vogue, though the resilience of equity markets suggests we are seeing nervousness more than outright fear and I sense the dollar’s rally may therefore be losing momentum,” said Kit Juckes, chief economist at ECU Group.
By mid afternoon London time, the euro was unchanged at $1.3610. Last week, at the height of the Greek fiscal concerns, the euro had slid to a nine-month low of $1.3533.
Besides Greece, investors have fretted about the public finances in Spain, Portugal and Ireland easy fast payday loans.
Dubai is also a growing concern amid fears that the highly indebted emirate may repay creditors less than the amounts due — it was November’s debt postponement from Dubai World, a government investment company with around $59 billion in debts, that stoked the markets’ concerns about overborrowed countries.
Dubai’s stock market fell sharply while the cost of insuring against the emirate’s debts edged back up.
“The theme of sovereign debt risk is likely to remain on investors’ agenda as fresh rumblings in Dubai make clear,” said Neil Mackinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.
Earlier, much of Asia was closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Seoul.
However, Japanese and Australian markets fell as investors reacted to China’s move late Friday to curtail bank lending to cool off strong growth there.
Better-than-expected Japanese fourth quarter economic growth figures failed to lift Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which slid 78.89 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 10,013.30. Analysts said that the monetary tightening in China — the second such move in a month — and uncertainty about the economic outlook in coming quarters weighed on sentiment.
Japan’s gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 4.6 percent in the October-December period, keeping Japan just ahead of China as the world’s No. 2 economy. Japan’s nominal GDP for the 2009 calendar year came to about $5.1 trillion, ahead of China’s $4.9 trillion.
Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX200 fell 16.6 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,545.5.
Wall Street is closed for the Presidents Day holiday.
Elsewhere, oil prices were flat, with benchmark crude for March delivery down 1 cent to $74.12 a barrel.
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Associated Press Writer Malcolm Foster in Tokyo contributed to this report.
February 7th, 2010 — Free, all, blogs, finance, markets
CAMARILLO, Calif. – The average price of regular gasoline in the United States fell 5.76 cents over a two-week period to $2.67.
That’s according to the national Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday.
Analyst Trilby Lundberg says the average price for a gallon of mid-grade was $2.80. Premium was at $2.91.
Cheyenne, Wyo., had the lowest average price among cities surveyed at $2 short term personal loan.38 a gallon for regular. Honolulu was the highest at $3.32.
In California, a gallon of regular cost an average of $2.94.
Fresno had the state’s least expensive gas at $2.86 a gallon. San Francisco remained the steepest at $2.97.
February 5th, 2010 — Free, life, markets, money, world
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar advanced Thursday, while the euro fell to a seven-month low and the Japanese yen attracted some buyers, amid renewed fears about fiscal problems facing a handful of European countries and as a U.S. report showed an unexpected increased in jobless claims last week.
The dollar index , which tracks the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, rose to 79.950 from 79.369 late Wednesday.
ECB’s Trichet Sees Major Challenges Ahead
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet told reporters Thursday the euro zone still faces major challenges but is heading in the right direction. He was speaking shortly after the ECB kept interest rates steady.
For its part, the euro tumbled on renewed fears over debt problems in the 16-nation euro zone, and as the European Central Bank kept a key benchmark rate steady.
The single currency declined 1% to $1.3736, down from $1.3906 in North American trading late Wednesday.
The British pound also fell after the Bank of England kept rates steady, down 0.3% to $1.5851.
But the dollar lost ground to trade at 88.65 Japanese yen, down from 91.01 yen late Wednesday. The yen’s a frequent beneficiary of movements out of riskier assets to a more stable one.
The euro enjoyed a short-lived respite from pressure Wednesday after the European Commission cautiously endorsed Greece’s plans to slash its budget deficit over the next three years. But the selling pressure resurfaced as the focus turned to Portugal and Spain.
‘We’re short-term bearish on the euro.’
Ray Farris, Credit Suisse
The spread between government bonds issued by Greece and Portugal widened versus comparable German bunds, highlighting worries about the fiscal outlook for nations on the so-called periphery of the euro zone. Concerns over those countries also pushed the cost of insurance for sovereign debt above the cost for U.S. companies for the first time payday advance. Read about the euro zone’s persistent credit worries.
“Over the next several months, we’ll probably have a succession of negative news associated the fiscal stress coming, first with Greece but increasingly into other sovereigns,” said Ray Farris, head of foreign-exchange strategy at Credit Suisse. “We’re short-term bearish on the euro.”
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Those concerns also weighed down U.S. stocks, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropping nearly 2.5%. While less consistent in recent months, since the beginning of the credit crisis the dollar has tended to benefit when stocks fall, which traders take as a flight from risky assets to the relative safety of the U.S. currency.
That dynamic was overshadowing weak employment data in the U.S. during the session — one day before the government’s pivotal report on nonfarm payrolls for January, due out Friday.
The Labor Department said first-time claims for state unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since mid-December, up 8,000 to 480,000. The consensus forecast of Wall Street economists had been for claims to drop to 455,000. See more on U.S. jobless claims.
Also affecting trading in the British pound, Bank of England policy makers called a halt to its 200 billion pound ($319 billion) program of asset purchases but left the door open to resume purchases if it’s deemed necessary.
Currencies: Dollar up to 7-month high as risks seen in Europe
January 31st, 2010 — Free, blogs, economy, news, world
BERLIN/ZURICH (Reuters) – German politicians were divided at the weekend over whether to buy the bank data of up to 1,500 possible tax evaders with accounts in Switzerland that media say an informant has offered to sell authorities.
The respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that the whistleblower is asking for 2.5 million euros for the confidential data, which tax investigators believe could rake in 100 million euros for German state coffers.
The case risks prompting a fresh row over bank secrecy between Germany and Switzerland. Top Swiss politicians, including President Doris Leuthard, and bankers warned Germany against acquiring the data.
Without citing sources, Financial Times Deutschland reported in its online edition that the data belonged to German clients of HSBC (HSBA.L) and was among the information stolen from its private banking arm in Geneva by ex-employee Herve Falciani.
France already acquired some of that information last year by raiding the computer specialist's house, and used it to track down fraudsters, infuriating Switzerland.
A spokesman for the German Finance Ministry declined to comment on the report but said it would be the responsibility of individual German states to deal with such data.
A senior ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, said Germany would have to carefully check its legal right to purchase the alleged data cash advance.
"I have a problem with handing over money for something that has come into someone's possession in a legally questionable fashion," Guttenberg told Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
Members of the opposition Greens and Social Democrats (SPD) however encouraged the government to buy the data on behalf of "honest taxpayers."
Nicolette Kressl, SPD finance expert, told Die Welt am Sonntag the government should proceed as it did in 2008, when it purchased data on tax evaders from an informant about clients of a Liechtenstein bank.
The case snared former Deutsche Post chief Klaus Zumwinkel, who was given a suspended jail term for evading nearly a million euros in taxes using a Liechtenstein trust.
Former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck repeatedly accused Germany's neighbors Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg of serving as havens for German tax evaders, but the three countries have taken steps in the last year to improve transparency on taxes amid a global crackdown on tax havens.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Hans-Edzard Busemann in Berlin and Catherine Bosley in Zurich; writing by Sarah Marsh; editing by Andrew Roche)
January 27th, 2010 — Free, blogs, economics, markets, opinion
NEW YORK – A former senior managing director at New Castle Partners hedge fund has pleaded guilty to securities fraud charges, admitting making $900,000 through insider trading.
The plea was entered in federal court in Manhattan Wednesday by Mark Kurland. Kurland pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud.
In doing so, he admitted a role in what prosecutors have described as the largest hedge fund insider trading case in history.
Kurland is the eighth person to plead guilty in a case that has resulted in charges against 21 people so far fast payday loans. They are accused of making tens of millions of dollars through inside trades.
Among those charged is Raj Rajaratnam (RAHJ rah-juh-RUHT’-nuhm), a portfolio manager and one of America’s richest people.