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

DETROIT — The chief executive of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, accepted an invitation on Thursday from the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee to testify next week in Washington in the aftermath of the recall of millions of cars because of sudden unintended acceleration.

Mr. Toyoda’s decision to testify came in a brief statement released in late afternoon by the automaker, hours after the invitation was made by Representative Edolphus Towns, a Democrat of New York who chairs the committee.

“I have received Congressman Towns’ invitation to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on February 24 and I accept,” Mr. Toyoda said in the statement. “I look forward to speaking directly with Congress and the American people.”

In a letter earlier to Mr. Toyoda, Mr. Towns said it was important for Mr. Toyoda to appear to “help clarify the situation.”

Previously, the committee had invited the president of Toyota North America, Yoshimi Inaba, to appear at next Wednesday’s hearing, one of three scheduled in Congress in the next two weeks.

“We are pleased Mr. Toyoda accepted the invitation to testify before the committee,” Mr. Towns and the committee’s ranking Republican member, Darrell Issa of California, said in a statement. “We believe his testimony will be helpful in understanding the actions Toyota is taking to ensure the safety of American drivers.”

“As you know, there is widespread public concern regarding reports of sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota motor vehicles,” Mr. Towns wrote earlier in his letter. “Toyota has recalled millions of its vehicles and even halted production. In addition, there are reports that this problem may have been the direct cause of serious injury and even death.”

He continued, “There appears to be growing public confusion regarding which vehicles may be affected and how people should respond. In short, the public is unsure as to what exactly the problem is, whether it is safe to drive their cars, or what they should do about it.”

Mr. Towns said Mr. Toyoda could submit written testimony, but should be prepared to provide a five-minute opening statement and to answer questions.

The decision to testify now turns the spotlight on Toyota, where there has been debate inside the company in the United States and Japan over whether Mr. Toyoda should appear, or send company executives in his place. Until Thursday, neither of the two House or one Senate committees holding hearings on Toyota had invited him to attend.

Analysts and public relations experts say that it was in the company’s interest for Mr. Toyoda to appear.

“This is a moment when Toyota is going to be in the world’s eyes,” said Michael Useem, professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s going to be the most powerful and effective if the C.E.O. does appear.”

But there are enormous risks for any chief executive who testifies before Congress, as leaders from Wall Street and Detroit can attest, and that is causing concern within Toyota, people with knowledge of the company’s deliberations said Wednesday.

Just 14 months ago, the chief executives of the Detroit automakers endured hours of questions before Congressional committees, along with heated criticism over their use of corporate jets best humidifiers.

In 2000, Jacques Nasser, chief executive of Ford, and Masatoshi Ono, his counterpart at Japanese tire maker Bridgestone/Firestone, also were questioned by members of Congress after accidents involving exploding tires on the Ford Explorer. Both left their companies within about a year.

In the hearings next week, the role of N.H.T.S.A., the federal safety agency, is also expected to be addressed, including whether it acted promptly enough on information it received from consumers.

They are set for Tuesday, by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Wednesday, by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. (The energy panel moved up its hearing.)

The energy panel has invited James Lentz, the president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., to testify at its hearing on Tuesday.

On Thursday, the Texas governor, Rick Perry, sent a letter to a member of the committee, reminding him of the importance of the company to the Texas economy. Toyota has a truck plant in San Antonio that employs 3,000 people, while the state’s 83 dealers employ another 7,500 people.

In the letter to Representative Joe L. Barton, a Republican of Texas, Mr. Perry said it appeared negative news about the company “is being encouraged by plaintiffs’ trial lawyers, union activists and those interested in cutting Toyota’s market share.”

Mr. Perry went on, “Toyota is a valued employer and corporate citizen and an integral part of the Texas economy. Many Texas families depend on Toyota not only for safe, reliable transportation but for a good paycheck.”

Mr. Perry is the latest governor to come to the company’s defense. The governors of Mississippi, Indiana, Kentucky and Alabama, which all have Toyota plants, also have written letters to members of Congress backing the automaker.

Mr. Toyoda would probably find a more hospitable audience if he were to appear on March 2 at a hearing by the Senate Commerce Committee. Its chairman, John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, has known the Toyoda family for decades and has a Toyota plant in his home state.

A spokeswoman for the Senate committee said no decision had been made on whether to invite Mr. Toyoda.

One complexity in inviting Mr. Toyoda is that he most likely would speak through a translator during the question-and-answer session, though he is conversant in English. Mr. Toyoda, who attended business school at Babson College and lived in New York and California, spoke in English to an industry conference held last August in northern Michigan, and uses it in interviews. But he has spoken primarily in Japanese during the recent series of news conferences that he has held in Japan.

Mr. Toyoda has traveled to Washington in the past, for meetings with dealers and members of Congress, and has met a number of representatives who have Toyota facilities in their districts. Company executives had planned for him to visit the United States in March and have been exploring ways he could meet with lawmakers outside of a formal Congressional setting.

Toyota Chief Agrees to Testify Before House Panel

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OSLO – Norwegian telecommunications group Telenor ASA on Wednesday reported a 25 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits, primarily thanks to growth in Asia, but said it may have to cut costs this year to strengthen its finances.

Net profit rose to 2.5 billion kroner ($425 million) in the October-December period, from just under 2 billion kroner a year earlier. Revenues slipped to 24.2 billion kroner during that time, from 25.9 billion kroner in the fourth quarter of 2008. That excludes pro forma figures from Telenor’s troubled Ukrainian holding Kyivstar that were also provided for comparative reasons.

Telenor shares dropped 3 percent, to 75.85 kroner ($12.84), in morning trading in Oslo.

A strong quarter for Telenor in the Pakistani, Thai and Bangladeshi markets, as well as in the company’s consistently strong Scandinavian operations, contributed to a sustained revenue stream.

New subscriptions in these markets offset slumping revenues from Telenor’s operations in Eastern Europe, where the global financial crunch has depressed the telecoms market. Telenor subscriptions grew by 2 million in the fourth quarter.

Carnegie analyst Espen Torgersen said the result was “substantially over market expectation free credit scores.” He attributed the negative market reaction to Telenor’s lower-than-expected outlook for 2010.

Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas warned of potential cost-cutting measures in 2010 to cope with hits to the group’s finances in the wake of the financial crisis.

Telenor “will strive to secure our market positions, while capturing organic growth opportunities. We will continue to implement necessary efficiency measures and provide innovative and viable solutions to our customers,” Baksaas said.

Among its priorities in 2010 are the expansion of its Indian subsidiary, which launched on Dec. 22, and the end of a long and expensive legal battle with Russian conglomerate Alfa Group over joint operations in Russia and Ukraine.

Telenor employs more than 40,000 people in 14 countries and claims 174 million subscribers worldwide.

___

On the Net:

http://www.telenor.com

Norway’s Telenor posts 25 pct rise in Q4 profits

BERLIN – Industrial production in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, was down 2.6 percent on the month in December, government data showed Friday — a drop propelled in part by weaker car production.

The performance compared with a modest rise of 0.7 percent in November and was much worse than the 0.6 percent increase that economists had forecast.

While production of consumer goods rose by 1.5 percent, there were big drops in other sectors, such as so-called investment goods such as machinery. The Economy Ministry said those stemmed largely from weaker production of chemical products and motor vehicles.

Car sales in Germany were boosted for much of last year by a government car-scrapping bonus program, but that expired in September.

Output in the construction sector also was down, declining by 2.6 percent.

The Economy Ministry acknowledged that industrial production lost the momentum of the previous two quarters at the end of last year, but said the quarter-on-quarter trend remained positive in the October-December period, rising 0.3 percent get a free credit report.

The impact of lower car production was “likely exacerbated by temporary plant closures during the Christmas holidays,” said Alexander Koch, an economist at UniCredit in Munich.

“The temporary boost from the car-scrapping premium helped to stabilize domestic sales earlier in 2009 and now weighs on the overall industrial dynamic,” he added.

The government has forecast that Germany’s economy will grow by a steady but unspectacular 1.4 percent this year as the export markets that traditionally have fueled its performance pick up.

While domestic demand looks subdued and a long cold snap could weigh on construction in the first quarter, “the outlook for ongoing solid fresh supply of foreign demand still remains intact,” Koch said.

On Thursday, the Economy Ministry said that German industrial orders were down 2.3 percent on the month in December, reversing a large gain the previous month.

German industrial production down in December

SEATTLE – The needs of the poor are greater than the money available to help them, but that’s not enough to discourage Bill Gates in his work as co-chair of the world’s largest charitable foundation.

In his second annual letter, issued Monday, Gates says investment in science and technology can leverage those dollars and make more of a difference than charity and government aid alone.

In his 19-page letter, Gates says the foundation currently is backing 30 areas of innovation including online learning, teacher improvement, malaria vaccine development, HIV prevention, and genetically modified seeds.

The Seattle-based foundation focuses most of its donations on global health, agriculture development and education. Since 1994, the foundation has committed to $21.3 billion in grants. As of Sept. 30, 2009, its endowment totaled $34.17 billion.

Gates said his and his wife’s experience at Microsoft Corp. is not the only reason they are so taken with technology.

“Melinda and I see our foundation’s key role as investing in innovations that would not otherwise be funded,” he wrote. “This draws not only on our backgrounds in technology but also on the foundation’s size and ability to take a long-term view and take large risks on new approaches.”

Gates begins his letter by talking about how much fun he’s having at his new job: 2009 was the first year he worked full-time as co-chair of the foundation, after a decade of part-time work as he led Microsoft full-time.

He talks about enjoyable visits around the world to talk to scientists, politicians, teachers, farmers and people doing the work of the foundation.

“Seeing the work firsthand reminds me of how urgent the needs are as well as how challenging it is to get all the right pieces to come together,” Gates wrote. “I love my new job and feel lucky to get to focus my time on these problems.”

He talked about the way he and Melinda work as partners at the foundation, each focusing on problems that interest them and then sharing what they’ve learned and making decisions together on what the foundation should do.

Nearly seven pages of the letter focus on the foundation’s work in global health and repeatedly Gates admits the work to reach the foundation’s ambitious goals is harder than they expected no fax pay day loan.

Vaccine development is progressing, but the cost to provide those vaccines to the poor is still a problem. It’s going to be difficult to meet a six-year goal to get the retrovirus vaccine to more than half the kids who need it.

Bed nets are helping decrease malaria deaths over Africa, but “malaria is a particularly tricky disease,” Gates acknowledges. The foundation has resorted to a very expensive scattershot approach to meeting Bill and Melinda’s goal of eradicating malaria, with many researchers pursuing a lot of different ideas.

Despite having one vaccine in a Phase III trial, an effective malaria vaccine is still 8 to 15 years away, he said.

The economy rates a paragraph at the beginning and about two pages at the end of Gates’ letter. He expressed concerns that budget deficits in the richest nations leading them to cut foreign assistance. He applauds Canada and Australia for their significant efforts and chastises Italy for not doing enough. Gates commended President Barack Obama for his proposal to double international aid.

The letter ends with Gates’ explanation about why the foundation hasn’t gotten involved in working to fight climate change, despite its potential impact on the poorest nations.

He said he believes developing electricity that is cheaper than coal and emits no greenhouse gasses is the most important innovation to help fight climate change, but the foundation has not yet found a way it can play a unique role in this area. He added, however, that outside of the foundation he personally is investing in energy research.

“I am surprised that the climate debate hasn’t focused more on encouraging R&D since it is critical to getting to zero emissions,” said the man who admits to spending some of his spare time watching online MIT lectures on physics and chemistry.

Bill Gates says innovation can leverage change

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks opened lower on Friday as materials lagged and earnings in the technology sector failed to meet high expectations.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 28, or 0.3%, to 10363, in early trading.

American Express led the decline after reporting fourth-quarter revenue was nearly flat from a year earlier, though fourth-quarter net income surged to $716 million.

Boosting the Dow, General Electric climbed 3.7% after beating expectations with a 19% drop in fourth-quarter earnings, revenue of $41.4 billion and an upbeat outlook for 2011. See story on GE’s results.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 0.4%, weighed by its materials and technology sectors. Shares of major tech companies were down Friday, including Google , which fell 2.9% after reporting fourth-quarter earnings late Thursday. Despite posting nearly $2 billion in profits, the Internet giant but still didn’t top some expectations, as advertising clicks grew, but costs per click rose car loan interest rates. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.5%.

Dow component McDonald’s climbed 1.2% after its earnings rose 23% as same-store sales grew across all regions, despite pressure from U.S. unemployment. Details about McDonald’s report.

Advanced Micro Devices fell 7.9% after registered its first profitable quarter in three years, helped by a settlement with Intel late Thursday.

Stocks took a hit in the previous session, dropping to new lows for the year after President Barack Obama proposed the most extensive curbs on market speculation by banks since the outbreak of the recent financial crisis, sending bank shares tumbling. Investors also fretted over prospects of China cooling its economy further.

In other markets, crude oil prices sank to below $76 per barrel, while gold futures also slipped. The dollar weakened against both the euro and the yen, while Treasurys edged down. The 10-year note was off 7/32 to yield 3.621%.

Market Snapshot: U.S. stocks open lower as tech earnings lag

NEW YORK – The following stocks were among those that moved substantially or traded heavily Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market:

NYSE:

Tiffany & Co., down 24 cents at $46.44

The luxury jeweler boosted its annual profit forecast and said strong worldwide sales during the holidays will likely help results.

KB Home, down 66 cents at $15.72

The homebuilder turned a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter, the first time since early 2007, as it benefited from a new tax rule.

Alcoa Inc., down $1.93 at $15.52

The world’s largest aluminum maker posted worse-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter on soft demand.

Kraft Foods Inc., up 49 cents at $29.29

Cadbury PLC stepped up its defense against a hostile takeover bid from Kraft by announcing that 2009 results will beat expectations.

Great Atlantic & Pacific Co payday cash advance loans., down $2.66 at $10.22

The operator of A&P and other grocery chains said losses grew sharply due to drastic changes in shopping habits at supermarkets.

Gap Inc., down 66 cents at $19.96

A Goldman Sachs analyst downgraded the clothing retailers stock, saying few factors will boost its profit soon.

Salesforce.com Inc., down $5.36 at $68.29

The company said it plans to raise $500 million by offering convertible senior notes and received a downgrade from an analyst.

KKR Financial Holdings LLC, down 37 cents at $6.31

The investment firm said its fourth-quarter results will be hurt by non-cash charges on mortgage investments and corporate loans.

Tiffany, KB Home, Alcoa, Kraft are movers

Shares fluctuated Wednesday as good news on manufacturing helped offset a decline in commodities prices.

The market got support from an economic indicator that signaled growth in the Midwest manufacturing industry for a third month. The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index rose to 60 in December from 56.1 in November. The report showed that production and new orders increased and employment improved.

But the market’s gains were held back by a drop in energy and material stocks. A stronger dollar pulled on commodities prices, making the shares of companies that produce commodities less attractive.

Some investors have been buying the dollar on the belief that the economy is improving and the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in the next year. That buying interest comes after a months-long slide in the dollar. Rock-bottom interest rates have encouraged investors this year to move out of cash and into riskier assets like stocks and commodities that have the potential to earn bigger returns.

While a rise in interest rates would be a sign that the economy is on the right track, it could hurt the stock market’s advance. A stronger dollar makes commodities more expensive for foreign buyers and can hurt the profits of companies that do business overseas.

There were also plenty of reminders that corporate America is still hurting from the blows of the recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 18 points, or 0.17 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 3.39 points, or 0.3 percent, , while the Nasdaq dropped 6.74 points or 0.29 percent.

The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar against other major currencies, rose 0.4 percent. Gold and other metals fell. Oil prices added 12 cents to $78.99 a barrel in New York trading.

Bond prices were steady ahead of an auction of seven-year notes, the last of the government’s issuances this week payday advance lenders. In total, the Treasury is auctioning off $118 billion of new debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, was unmoved at 3.80 percent. Interest rates on many consumer loans track the yield on the 10-year Treasury.

The pullback in stocks added to modest losses on Tuesday when the market ended a six-day winning streak as reports on home prices and consumer confidence failed to rally investors. While the reports showed improvement, they were largely in line with expectations and painted a picture of a slowly recovering economy.

After a 24.7 percent rise in the S.&P. this year, many investors have closed their books and are making few moves ahead of the start of 2010. With fewer traders in the market, price swings can be exaggerated.

In London, the FTSE 100 index held its last full session of the year, declining 0.5 percent, or 27 points, in afternoon trading. In Paris, the CAC 40 retreated from its 2009 high reached Tuesday, slipping 0.5 percent, or 18.53 points, while the DAX in Frankfurt slid 0.9 percent, or 54.12 points.

Earlier, Asian markets fluctuated, with Japan’s benchmark index down nearly 1 percent as shares of Japan Airlines plummeted amid fears the beleaguered carrier could end up in bankruptcy proceedings as part of a turnaround plan.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 stock average fell 91.62 points, or 0.9 percent, to 10,546.44, with shares of JAL tumbling 32 percent at one point to a new low. Its stock closed down 24 percent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was little changed, off 2.82 points to 21,496.62

Wall Street Shares Wander as Year Nears a Close

NEW YORK, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) — Crude prices topped 78 U.S. dollars a barrel Thursday on upbeat economic reports.

The reports showing a drop in initial jobless claims and growth in durable goods orders in November boosted economic optimism.

Jobless claims, reached their lowest levels since last September, helped push energy futures higher Thursday before the long weekend.

Light, sweet crude futures for February delivery rose nearly 2 percent, or 1 easy fast payday loans.38 dollars to settle at 78.05 dollars on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent crude for February delivery rose 86 cents to 76.31 dollars on the ICE Futures exchange.

Crude prices rallied more than 3 percent on Wednesday due to a larger-than-expected fall in U.S. crude inventories last week.

Crude prices top $78 on upbeat reports

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SHANGHAI — An American automotive engineer has been detained by the Chinese police for more than a year on charges of violating trade secrets, according to United States officials.

Hu Zhicheng, a Chinese-born American citizen who won awards in the United States for his work developing catalysts that control auto emissions, is being held in a case that involves a dispute with a former business partner in the northern port city of Tianjin.

Mr. Hu’s detention is the latest trade secrets case to shed light on China’s harsh legal system and the complexities that can emerge in this country’s dynamic but often ruthless business system.

Earlier this year, Stern Hu, a Chinese-born Australian executive working for Rio Tinto, the Australian mining giant, was detained and initially accused of stealing state secrets while negotiating with some of China’s biggest steel producers.

The case created diplomatic tensions between China and Australia and is still unresolved although China did back away from the most serious charges being considered.

United States officials say that they have been allowed to visit Hu Zhicheng at least 10 times but that the mail he receives is being censored and that he is not allowed to receive any written communication from his wife business card.

The officials declined to discuss details of the case but said that it was still being investigated. Mr. Hu’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.

A spokeswoman for the Tianjin police, who would give only her surname, Liu, said by telephone Thursday that it was inappropriate to discuss the case.

“It involves business secrets,” Ms. Liu said. “It’d be too complicated to disclose any details. We’re not sure when the case will be closed.”

Mr. Hu once worked in New Jersey for Engelhard, which in 2006 was acquired by BASF, the German chemical giant.

United States officials said he was initially arrested in November 2008, but formally arrested and charged in January 2009, while working for a company called Hysci Specialty Materials.

Chen Xiaoduan contributed research.

American Engineer Detained for Year in China

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