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U.S. Bonds, Dollar Soar as Asian Markets Drop as Asian Markets Drop --- Yield at 5.697%; Dow Industrials Retreat 78.22 | The U.S. bond market and the dollar soared amid weak Asian markets and reassuring comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, but U.S. stocks declined, in a turbulent day for global investors.</br></br>After initially gaining on Mr. Greenspan's hint that an interest-rate increase isn't imminent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 78.22, or 0.86%, at 8971.70. Several earnings warnings drove down major technology stocks, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 27.51, or 1.53%, to 1773.25. The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 6.13, or 0.55%, to 1112.28.</br></br>Several traders said Asian investors were shifting money out of U.S. stocks and into Treasury bonds as Asian stock markets tumbled yesterday. The declines were sparked partly by rumors -- that China might devalue its currency, for example, or that a big Japanese oil company was about to go bankrupt. The continuing flight to quality moved more money into dollarbased financial instruments and pushed the dollar to yet another seven-year high of 141.49 yen, up from 140.22 yen. As if that weren't enough to push up bonds, Mr. Greenspan's comments reassured traders that interest rates aren't likely to rise soon, making existing bonds look more attractive.</br></br>The 30-year bellwether Treasury bond rallied 1 8/32, or $12.50 per $1,000 bond, pulling the yield back to 5.697%, the lowest yield since January.</br></br>"There was a lot of cash on the sidelines waiting to see how this [bond] market was going to break," said Scott Graham, head government bond trader at Prudential Securities. Once the rally started, cash flooded in, he noted. | no | 0 |
TEXAS JOURNAL --- Why Do So Few Texans Own Homes? --- Among the Answers: Low Incomes, Age And Fears of a Bust | In Texas, home sweet home is probably a rental.</br></br>Although the state boasts some of the nation's cheapest houses, just 6.1 out of 10 Texans own their homes -- ranking Texas 43rd in the country. And in some parts of the state, such as Austin and Houston, the ratio is closer to five out of 10.</br></br>Put part of the blame on money. Or rather, a lack of it. While Texas housing prices may be low by national standards, Texas incomes are even lower, putting homes out of financial reach for many.</br></br>But that's not the only reason. Housing experts also say that Texans' ethnic mix, lingering memories about past housing busts, and the relative youth and mobility of the state all contribute to the low home-ownership rate.</br></br>Whatever the reason, though, nearly everyone agrees on the result: It hurts Texas. | no | 0 |
Ahead of the Tape | [Today's Market Forecast]</br></br>Looking for Work</br></br>If they keep it up, Wall Street economists may be able to report personally on the jobs market from the actual unemployment lines.</br></br>Wall Street expects that 125,000 workers were added to payrolls in March. This is certainly a case of things being down so long they are starting to look like up. Such a figure would be objectively weak, but the stock market would breathe more easily and the bond market could sell off if the number comes in at that estimate or higher.</br></br>As in the past several months, economists and investors believe in their hearts that the number will be better than expected and that the jobs market is better than the government's figures suggest. | no | 0 |
Hospital Costs pg.A25 | heightened cost conscious behavior mitigated the inflationary problemÛÓcausing the rate of increase in hospital costs to turn down before the introduction wage-price controls.</br></br>Our hospitals are actively engaged in efforts to contain their costs by continuing to improve their management techniques, installing cost control programs, and focusing on ways to increase the efficiency of their operations.</br></br>Currently, the hospital industry is successfully performing a dual role: It is holding the line on price increases, while at the same time maintaining the high quality of care which the people of this country deserve and expect.</br></br>As president of the American Hospital Association and on behalf of its 7,-000 member hospitals, I would like to set the record straight regarding the performance of the hospital industry in combating inflation.</br></br>Contrary to the article by John Twiname (ÛÏHealth Costs: Out of Control/Ûª Post, Aug. 11), hospitals are continuing to act responsibly and are exercising self-restraint in containing price increases. | no | 0 |
Options Report: Caution Is Order of the Day in Options Market, As a Mix of Factors Makes Mood a Bit Bearish | NEW YORK -- Be cautious. Be smart.</br></br>This is the options market's advice to stock investors. With few people interested in adding to, or opening, positions, sentiment was slightly bearish, representing a shift from the previous week's listless mood when most traders watched everything from the safety of the sidelines.</br></br>"As traders say, 'It's a heavy market.' It's for sale," a specialist at the American Stock Exchange said.</br></br>The change in confidence was caused by a confluence of events including another sell-off in the technology and Internet sectors, an analysts' downgrade to sell from hold for bank stocks and lingering concerns about interest rates and inflation.</br></br>"No one's making money-long or short," the head of a major options-trading desk said. | no | 0 |
Hunt for Stocks With `Modest Expectations' Pays Off for John W. Rogers Jr. | Merrill Lynch & Co. has its bull. Dreyfus Corp. has its lion. And money manager John W. Rogers Jr. has his turtle. Sometimes he wishes he didn't. A sketch of the symbolic turtle adorns the masthead of his newsletter, The Patient Investor. Not surprisingly, magazine photographers often ask Rogers to pose for pictures with live turtles.</br></br>As it turns out, the turtles Rogers has met are anything but patient. When he was being photographed for the cover of Black Enterprise magazine recently, Rogers said, "I had to spend the day getting the turtle to stand still - so they could get just the right shot."</br></br>Turtles aside, there is nothing slow or plodding about Rogers's career. At 34, he is the president of Ariel Capital Management Inc., a Chicago-based, minority-owned firm that manages $2.2 billion in mutual fund and pension fund money. But Rogers's meteoric rise didn't come about because he was selling some hot new stock market strategy. Just the opposite.</br></br>Rogers's investment strategy is pure and simple, and worth studying. He will invest only in well-run companies that have strong managers and quality products, he said. And he refuses to pay a lot for his stocks. He likes stocks selling at a modest 11 times their earnings for the coming year.</br></br>Rogers, who developed a fascination with stocks as a young man, said he came to the conclusion early in his career that the best chance to make money was to buy stocks for which there were only "modest expectations." This was generally true of companies that were not closely followed by Wall Street analysts, he said. | no | 0 |
333S25EMEmS THE WASHINGTON POST | 24 ?l Ducom n 70b 3 3 283å¨ M'rtOunosn 115*161 5* 160 on too lOo 7.3 16% 12' Û¢åÈ Ouplx 60 4 4 6 x!62 14 13%</br></br>24 ?l Ducom n 70b 3 3 283å¨ M'rtOunosn 115*161 5* 160 on too lOo 7.3 16% 12' Û¢åÈ Ouplx 60 4 4 6 x!62 14 13% 3TÛ_ 23å¨FalrmC U% 6*4 FayDrg 34b 4.9 19 23% 17% FodRl 1.77 9.0 17 10' m 2% FedRes 64% 76 Folmnt .10 .4 23 36Va 36% 9*4 13% 3% 43å¨ 21 17% 14% 16% 16% 31% 18% 15 Vå¨ 58 '/a 0% 16Ûª4 31% 4% 6' n 15% 283å¨ 29V.i 22-Hi</br></br>Ni?w York 1AP)ÛÓWe*åÈklv s.tles. high, low, , losing nrit e and net change of the ten most active stocks lor Hip week Sales Slock 1.7/8.600 DomcP s 1,105.000 Gif Cda 876,900 AlskAir 869, J00 DcIhiO 683,400 Hud B y</br></br>4' a Jaclyn 40b IB' 4 Jacobs s .40 4% Jensen /'aJeiero 35o 2 Jetronlc ?% JohnPd 11' m JunlpP 11' a Jupiter 8Ûª a KTelln 40 8% Kalslad 3Û÷ 4 KapokT 15 KavCo 75b 9Ûª * Kenwln 80a 4 Koichm I8t S'åÇKåÈv Co 40 14% KiivPh S i Kllern 2Ûª 4 KlnArk 19 KlngR 12 KirbV S IV. K It Mftf J% KlerVu 2' a Klelnrl 9' a Knogo</br></br>SecuPac rv9 1 åÈ06 SedcoAA 7 15s92 Shear L 10%03 SheraL 15' ,90 SheliOll 4%.06 ShellOII 5 Js9? ShellOil 8 .00 SheliOll 8' ,05 ShellOil 8s0/ SnetiOll U#*i9l ShellOil 14 1II SherW *.v6' ,95 Signal 0 85s94 Singer 8s99 SkllCo cvSs9? Smlthkin 0.15s84 Sorony 4' ,s93 SohioBP 9%s99 SohloQP B'ftsSJ SohloPL 8%01 SoAtlT 6' i0?f SoCenBl 8Ûª 4S04 SoCenBI 7å¨åÇs07 SoCenBI 7'å¨sl2 SoCenBI 8Ûª Û¢ s 1J SoCenBI 10s II SoCenBI 9.?s 10 SoCenBI 8.2s83 SoCenBI 8' .1/ SoCenBI 8' Û¢ 1S SoCenBI 9' .*19 SoCenBI 9%10 SoCenBI 12%20 SoestBk cv4%97 SoestBk I0s83 So Bell T 7 1 is05 SoBellT 2 ÛªÛ¢<s07 SoBellT 7 6l)s08 SnBelir 7'n^lO SoBeiir /'ms 13 Sullen r fls 14 SoBeiir 8Û÷isl6 SoBellT fl *17 SoBeiir 12'.-70 SoBellT 8'åÈi 18 SoBellT 10 9s 19 SoCalGs 885s95 SeCalGs I0%81 SoNGas 7 70s9l SoNGas 8%s86 SoNEngT 8'ftOB SoNHug T 9Û÷,.I0 SoNEngT 14Ûª o20 SoPac I0.35s94 SouRy 5s94 SouRy 5s94r SoulhF I0%s86 SwBollT 2 %s85 SwBcllT 8'407 SwBellT 6'1*It SwBcllT 7%09 SwBcllT 7 MåÈs 12 SwBcllT 7%s13 SwBcllT 8'-as 14 SwOollT 82s82 SwBcllT 9'. 15 Sv/BOIIT S', a 16 SwBcllT 8'417 SwBclir 8 1118 Sv/Bdir 9%19 SwBcllT I1M.20 SwBcllf 14' ,20 Sperry fl 2s96 SoorryFn 7%85 Spiegel cv4' a90 SniilbbCn 8s85 SlalevM 8'ftS95 SlOIICol 4å¨>03 SfOIICal 5 ',92 SfOIIC.il 7s96 SlOIIC.il 8 ' .05 itOlllml ilOillnd ifOllInct ÐÊJlOIIInd 6s9l ilOillnd 6sV8 StOillnd 9.?s04 StOlllu 16.IOS09 StOillnd fllhs05 SlOIIInd 7%07 StOillnd 14s91 SlOllOh 8Ûª a00 StOUOh 7Û÷ afld MOllOh 8 l,'07 Sl.lPkg lvSÛª ,90 StdPkg 6s90 St.u.lCh 8Ûª.V*6 St.iulO* 8'-s86 StaufCh 0.85sOl SienOcP cv6' a90 Slokolv åÇ*v4 .82 Slor tv 10'i00 Stor cv9s01 SåÈorer rv8Ûª a06 SunCn /Ûª .S2002 SunCn 9 15s86 SunCo 10 ' j06 Sunbcn 5: ;s92 SunsM B' ^95 SunMbiv 8 a95 SupOH 9'm89 Svbron < v4* ;87 Svbron 7Ûªas94 Svbron 9'ms85 | no | 0 |
Inflation Is Robber No Longer In America, Land of Property | to countries, in = which the rich : were very rich! indeed and the poor an over-: whelming majority. It applied to a society in which peasants and workers had very little they could call their own except what t.hey earned from week to week and day to day. It does not apply to the United States of America, 1953.</br></br>WTEÛªVE got to do some rigorous rethinking about inflationÛÓ] Û you and I. WeÛªve got to reexamine the classical economic theory that inflation impoverishes widows, pensioners, and others who live on fixed incomes; that it steals from families who depend on salaries; that it makes life harder for wage earners.</br></br>The theory had its roots in a inflationÛªs good for the farmer, property-less society. It applied ThatÛªs borne out. His home, his land, and the equipment necessary to operate the farm average out to eight times his annual income. So when prices rise, he more than makes up in capital gains what he loses in the pux-chasing power of his income. Self-employed people are in the same inflation-hedge bracket.</br></br>Managerial, professional and semiprofessional persons are not so well insulated. Though they have a big stake in homes and other property, their incomes are high too. At the lower end of the scale are semiskilled,- unskilled and service workers. Their property barely exceeds their annual income. But, in this own property of some kindÛÓ group are many youngsters, just homes, real estate, automobiles, staiting at the bottom of the</br></br>THOSE IN the lowest income brackets and those in the highest are well protected during inflation. Both groups are dominated by families who had either the time or money to accumulate property. HereÛªs the story: | no | 0 |
Market Unchanged In Day of Drifting | The Dow Jones average closed unchanged' at 760.68, after wandering only a point or two throughout most of the day.</br></br>Analysts described the session as lackluster. Most investors stayed on the sidelines, they said, in the absence of ket ÛÏneutral.Û He said it appeared to be pulling in its wings after recent rises by some of the more speculative issues.</br></br>Theodore Bukowski, analyst for E. F. Hutton & Co., said he looked for a ÛÏquiet, drifting marketÛ over the near term as investors wait to see how quarterly earnings will shape up. He noted that they are expected to provide a clue whether the administrationÛªs game plan for economic recovery is on schedule.</br></br>However, declines outnumbered advances 666 to 628 on the New York Stock Exchange, while 278 stocks were unchanged.</br></br>9.7 million shares, compared to 14.8 million shares Wednesday. The slow Volume was due in part to observance of the Jewish New Year. | no | 0 |
Market Closes Mixed As Volume Declines: Market Indicators Selective Buying New Parent Firm Called By Phil Thomas | The slock market turned in sJNeiV l*(irent hrill mixed performance today ÛÓy 11 i ^ one in which the Dow Jones'KÛÏ"^* IrfOUpCO industrial average closed j_ .... , .</br></br>The DJI, off as much as 3.59 å¡yees Group, Inc. at 11:30 a.m., closed off 1.35, The latter is the newly or 0.16 per cent, at 821.23. formed holding company Losses led gains by a bit lesfor Government Employ-than 300 issues at one point? <s Insurance Co., its four but the picture changed lateia'</br></br>The Associated Press stock average clipped 292.8, with industrials changed, rails off 1.5, and uuui-i ties off .3. ra< filiates and the Putnam anagement Co., Inc. Groupco is in the com-icated midst of plans for indja i exchange of its shares fe r the six companies and awaiting SEC clearance its 103-page preliminary</br></br>ÛÏIt looks like the rally wli boosted the market last w might be coming back,Û analyst said, noting that ' market ran up pretty fast d1 Motors were mixed, with Ford up Yb at 43, and General i Motors off Vs at 721/8. j Among computers, IBM I gained 7% to 334%, and Con-I trol Data rose 5% to 151%.</br></br>There were 5 new highs for the year and 72 new lows. The highs were posted by American Research & Development when issued; Boise Cascade, when issued; Federal Paper Board preferred; Kendall Co., and Revco D.S., Inc. | no | 0 |
200 Youths Still Seeking Work | Two hundred District teenagers who have signed up for the city's summer jobs program but still have no jobs will be available for hire at half-day and daily rates under a new Washington Urban League program.</br></br>Organizers at the league say they hope to help the youths, ages 14 and 15, find work with homeowners, small businesses, retail merchants and offices with occasional jobs that would require a few hours' work and could be done by unskilled youths.</br></br>The program, called "Hire a Teen" is open only to youths from Ward 1 and Ward 8, the wards with the highest unemployment rate among youths.</br></br>People can call the league with a job, and it will find a teenager to do it. Teens will be screened by the league, sign a work agreement with the league and be available for a minimum of four hours at $4.25 an hour, to be paid by the employer.</br></br>Jobs could include painting, window washing, sidewalk cleanup and stock inventory. Homeowners could use the youths for errands or yard work or household chores, said Jim Zais, manager of the program. | no | 0 |
Dow Gains 9 Points in Cautious, Post-Holiday Trading | The Dow Jones industrial average ended 8.92 points higher at 3339.21. Advancing issues nudged out those declining on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume reached a modest 186 million shares.</br></br>Analysts said investors were weighing their options following last week's bleak jobs report. They said investors also were cautious ahead of the second-quarter corporate earnings results, which will start next week.</br></br>"We're getting a reaction from the employment numbers," said David Shulman, U.S. equity strategist at Salomon Brothers, referring to the spike in June unemployment to an eight-year high of 7.8 percent and the steep 117,000 drop in payrolls.</br></br>The Federal Reserve also chopped its key discount rate to 3 percent from 3.5 percent, the lowest in almost 30 years, last week.</br></br>Analysts said growth stocks were returning to favor. Food, beverage, tobacco, drug and retailing shares were among the issues posting gains. | no | 0 |
Good News Gives Wall Street a Lift | A drop in oil prices and upbeat outlooks from Wal-Mart and Lowe's helped send stocks sharply higher Monday on Wall Street, with the swing exaggerated by thin late summer trading.</br></br>Volume was light on Wall Street, even with the retail sector's rare good news, as many investors were tentative, hoping for better economic news in the week ahead.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average gained 129.20, or 1.3 percent, to 9954.55; the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index advanced 14.54, or 1.4 percent, to 1079.34; the Nasdaq composite index was up 25.62, or 1.5 percent, at 1782.84.</br></br>Venezuela's continuity of government eased oil concerns, and a smooth start to the Olympic Games in Athens helped reduce fears of terrorism.</br></br>Wall Street will be looking closely at Tuesday's consumer price index, hoping to see signs that the rise in oil prices this summer have not unduly affected the price of goods and services. A better- than-expected reading could result in an extension of Monday's rally, while a poor reading will likely result in a sell-off, analysts said. | no | 0 |
The Economy; THE OUTLOOK: Could Overseas Financing Hurt the U.S.? | AS THE U.S. has grown ever reliant on foreign central banks to finance its trade and budget deficits, the question arises: Could foreign governments, like China's, one day use this clout to influence U.S. foreign policy? Most experts say it's far-fetched. But some look at history and the state of modern markets and are worried.</br></br>"There is surely something odd about the world's greatest power being the world's greatest debtor," Lawrence Summers, Harvard University president and former U.S. Treasury secretary, said in a recent speech. He calls it "troubling" that the U.S. depends so much on "inevitably political" entities to finance its foreign debts.</br></br>Last year, the U.S. ran a $542 billion deficit in its current account -- the balance of goods and services between the U.S. and the rest of the world -- which had to be financed by selling stocks, bonds, and other assets to foreigners. The U.S. has run such deficits for years, but most of the time they were financed by private investors and their purchases were seen as a sign of confidence in the U.S. economy. But in recent years, private inflows haven't kept pace with the growth in the current-account deficit and foreign central banks have stepped into the breach, buying more than $200 billion of U.S. assets, mostly Treasury bonds and bills, last year. They do this to hold the dollar's value up against their own currencies, which makes their exports more competitive.</br></br>Foreign central banks, led by China's and Japan's, now hold close to $1 trillion of Treasury bonds and bills, almost a quarter of publicly held U.S. debt. That serves their economic interest, but it also gives them a potential financial lever.</br></br>IMAGINE A standoff between the U.S. and China over Taiwanese independence. What would happen if China stopped buying U.S. bonds, or sold them outright? As bond prices fell, their yields, which move in the opposite direction, would rise. Mortgage rates would rise, depressing home sales and weakening the economy. | no | 0 |
Affinity Realty Deals Abound; Unions, Professional Affiliations Provide Help to Home Buyers and Sellers | When the Air Force captain was transferred to Washington from New Mexico last winter, he decided not to use old-fashioned networking -- asking friends and colleagues -- to find a real estate agent.</br></br>It would have been easy, Alvarado admitted. After all, he said, "Everybody knows a Realtor; it's just like knowing a stockbroker."</br></br>But because he and his wife, Kathy McConnell, were so unfamiliar with the ar\ea, Alvarado decided he needed extra help and attention. So he sought out USAA, a company that provides insurance and other financial services to military officers.</br></br>With just one phone call, Alvarado was linked to a local realty firm and an agent. It took Alvarado and his wife one month to find the right home. A relocation consultant called Alvarado every other week to make sure he was getting all the help he needed, sending along extra material on interest rates and living costs in the District.</br></br>But the best feature came at settlement: Simply by using USAA to find an agent, Alvarado got $800 cash back when he settled on the $225,000 Silver Spring town house in February. "We used the money to buy a nice rug to cover the hardwood floors," he said. | no | 0 |
Consumers Chip Away at Debt Mountain --- Strong Economy Spurs Rise in Credit-Card Payments | A husband, father and entrepreneur with more responsibilities than he cares to count, Marshall Lane is happy to see his pile of bills getting shorter as he hacks away at credit-card debt.</br></br>In 1996, Mr. Lane and his wife, Jannicke Kolderup-Lane, carried a combined credit-card balance of "about $20,000." Three years later, that balance has been cut in half. "We're at a point where we could pay it off if we wanted to," said the 31-year-old San Francisco art dealer.</br></br>He may not know it, but Mr. Lane -- and others like him -- is beginning to demonstrate a new level of prudence in personal finance that could have broad implications for the U.S. economy.</br></br>For years, economists warned that a high level of consumer debt was the Achilles' heel of an otherwise athletic economy. Overextended consumers, they pointed out, would be forced to use an ever-growing share of household income to pay credit-card bills, leaving little to support consumer spending. And if consumer spending slowed, they bemoaned, so would the economy.</br></br>Yet in recent months, the statistics on the consumer debt front have shown signs of improvement. The pace of new debt has slowed significantly, delinquencies and charge-off rates are falling sharply and the amount of revolving credit outstanding declined in the first quarter. Reducing credit-card debt, say economists, could be the first step to raising the U.S.'s low rates of saving. | no | 0 |
U.S. Budget Deficit For '95 Projected To Decline by CBO | WASHINGTON -- Thanks mostly to better-than-anticipated economic conditions, the fiscal 1995 federal budget deficit is projected to be $13 billion less than earlier projections, the Congressional Budget Office said.</br></br>The CBO's new $161 billion deficit projection is roughly in line with the $160 billion projection the Clinton administration released last month for the fiscal year ending Sept 30. If it meets expectations, the deficit would be the smallest since 1989. As a percentage of the nation's total economic output, or gross domestic product, the deficit, at 2.3%, would be the smallest since 1979, the CBO said.</br></br>The revised figures were reported as part of the CBO's midyear economic and budget update.</br></br>In keeping with previous predictions, the CBO said the deficit would begin to increase again starting next year, rising to $189 billion in fiscal 1996. The 1996 deficit projection is $21 billion lower than earlier projections. Without efforts to reduce federal spending, as have been proposed by congressional Republicans, the deficit would reach $350 billion by 2002, the CBO said.</br></br>The 1995 and 1996 deficits are expected to come in lower than anticipated largely due to factors such as declining interest rates, which the CBO said are expected to be about a full percentage point lower than previously forecast. On the other hand, the CBO said, "legislation adopted so far this year has scarcely affected budget totals." | yes | 1 |
Reagan Open to `Summit' With Hill Series: THE STOCK MARKET CRISIS: THE DAY AFTER | Yielding to heavy pressure from financial markets, Congress and advisers, President Reagan yesterday opened the door to an economic "summit" with Congress and the possibility of tax increases to deal with the federal budget deficit.</br></br>Reagan said he was directing White House aides to begin talks with congressional leaders and was "willing to be a participant" if necessary to reach a budget agreement. The president, who up to now has refused to consider even the possibility of a tax increase, said he was "willing to look at whatever proposal" the congressional leaders might make.</br></br>But senior officials cast doubt on whether Reagan would walk through the doors he had opened. Meeting with reporters less than a half-hour after Reagan's statement, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said that the president "does not envision" the need for personal participation in a summit or a tax increase. {Related story on Page A11.}</br></br>Reagan made his statement yesterday after an emergency meeting with senior advisers that was triggered by Monday's stock market collapse. He met for 40 minutes in the living quarters of his White House residence with Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, White House chief of staff Howard H. Baker Jr., deputy chief of staff Kenneth M. Duberstein and Beryl W. Sprinkel, the outgoing chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.</br></br>An official familiar with the discussions said "Reagan was hesitant at first but realized that something must be done." | no | 0 |
Rising Campaign Rhetoric Over a Reappointment; Another Term for Greenspan A Litmus Test for Candidates | Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's term doesn't expire for another six months, but that hasn't stopped presidential candidates from offering President Clinton advice on reappointing him to a fourth four-year term as head of the central bank.</br></br>Their comments have ranged from replacing Greenspan because he's doing a lousy job (Steve Forbes) and thinking others could do just as well (Bill Bradley), to enthusiastic endorsement for his "outstanding A-plus-plus performance" (Al Gore) and extremely enthusiastic endorsement (John McCain).</br></br>During a Republican debate earlier this month, the Arizona senator said, "If Mr. Greenspan should happen to die--God forbid--I would do like they did in the movie 'Weekend at Bernie's.' " Referring to a comedy in which two men take over a dead man's beach house, he said: "I'd prop him up and put a pair of dark glasses on him and keep him as long as I could."</br></br>And President Clinton? When asked about Greenspan's future at a news conference in July, he said: "I have, as you know, enjoyed a very good relationship, both personally and professionally, with Mr. Greenspan. I think he has done a terrific job. I have no idea whether he would even be willing to serve another term."</br></br>He added that he expected to decide in a "timely fashion." That, it turns out, is just what he is doing. | no | 0 |
California Strains to Pay Workers, Avert Bankruptcy | .SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 16ÛÓBattered by economic crisis and a series of natural and manmade disasters, the state of California will be forced to issue warrantsÛÓequivalent to post-dated checksÛÓto pay its work force of 274,000 unless severe budget cuts are made within two weeks.</br></br>Gov. Pete Wilson (R) met privately today with legislative leaders in a grim effort to avert potential bankruptcy. Wilson warned that California will be out of money when the fiscal year begins July 1.</br></br>Û÷ÐÊ'We have no choice except to bite the bullet and cut the size and structure of state government,Û said State Senate Minority Leader Ken Maddy (R). Maddy was one of the few Republicans who last year supported what was then seen as a bold Wilson proposal to raise state taxes by more than $7 billion to deal with a growing and inherited deficit. Because of the economic slide, the tax hike produced little new revenue and the deficit is higher than ever.</br></br>.Registered warrants, a modern form of the scrip used by hard-pressed governments in colonial days, are numbered, state-issued checks that can be cashed only as money comes into state coffers to cover them. The state treasurer's office would publish the numbers of the checks that could be cashed on any given day.</br></br>Wilson and the legislative leaders today failed to agree on rival Democratic and Republican plans for closing an $11 billion deficit in a $60 billion budget. While details were not made public, sources said both would drastically cut many services, reduce welfare grants and school funding and close or merge various agencies. | no | 0 |
US Payrolls Rise, While Unemployment Slides | February and March payrolls were revised up by a combined 53,000</br></br>Unemployment rate falls to its lowest level in more than three years</br></br>Labor force participation rate slips to lowest level in more than 30 years</br></br>WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. job growth slowed again in April and more Americans dropped out of the work force, a fresh sign that the economy could be settling into a sluggish spring.</br></br>Nonfarm payrolls grew by 115,000 last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate, obtained by a separate survey of U.S. households, ticked down a tenth of percentage point to 8.1%. | no | 0 |
Market Takes Loss For Second Day: Lower From Start Tidewater Active | NEW YORK, Nov. 18 (AP)ÛÓThe stock market showed only feeble recovery tendencies today and took another sharp loss, much to the disappointment of those who ex-</br></br>NEW YORK, Nov. 18 (AP)ÛÓThe stock market showed only feeble recovery tendencies today and took another sharp loss, much to the disappointment of those who ex- pected a snapback after the The Dow Jones industrial' Average lost 6.63 at fil)!).40. j Volume was 6.91 million, shares compared with 8.91 inil-! lion yesterday. I</br></br>Most of the glamor stocks whose losses featured the Thursday session were losers once again, but not so sensationally. At the same time there was generally weak tone among blue chips.</br></br>The market was lower from the start, as expected, in a follow through to Thursday's rout. Rallying movements were abortive, however, and when it became apparent that there was no muscle behind them, traders sold slocks sharply. j , All four top auto stocks sank to new lows for the year.</br></br>Significant to the market action was weakness all day in ; General Motors which was fourth most, active and sank jl'/H to 69%, breaking 70 for the first time this year, i Although a lag in auto sales | lias dampened auto stales right along, a distinct reason for this new weakness in GM did not become apparent until after I the close when there came a | no | 0 |
Market Rally Falters; Dow Gains 0.95 Points | Sperry Rand, down 1% to ... and RCA, up % to 3614. on the sidelines. q 1 the American Stock Exsmall buying sr trtiMge, the price change index</br></br>In the news background was a Commerce Department report that the composite index of leading economic indicators during August fell 0.9 per cent. In July they rose 1.7 per cent.</br></br>The international monetary situation, the continuing deficit in the U.S. balance of trade and reports that consumer sentiment remained low all added to investor edginess, analysts noted They said they expected the market to show continued softness until President Nixon clarified his plans for Phase 2 of his new economic program.</br></br>Closing Amex prices included volume leader Tesoro Petroleum, off % to 3314; Potter Instruments, up 1% to 16; LoewÛªs Corp. warrants, down Vi to 24; Imperial Oil, off % to 27%; Buttes Gas, up % to 14%; Braniff Airways A, up % to 12%; and Asamera Oil, up Vi to 16%.</br></br>Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 11.26 million shares, compared with 10.23 million shares Monday. | no | 0 |
U.S. News --- CAPITAL: Blasting the Bailout Blues | The world has had a terrifying brush with another Great Depression. Although the recent scare in Europe is a reminder that this isn't over yet, it looks like we've escaped that -- in no small measure because of taxpayer-financed bailouts and fiscal stimulus, as maligned and imperfect as they were.</br></br>Yet no one is throwing ticker tape parades for Barack Obama or Angela Merkel, or the legislators, central bankers or finance ministers. A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that 42% of Americans doubt the Obama fiscal stimulus will ever help the economy, and another 20% say the benefits have yet to arrive.</br></br>The ousting of a longtime, business-friendly incumbent senator by rebellious Republicans in Utah is the latest manifestation of political discontent. "They're angry and they're angry at Washington. And I'm in Washington," the victim, Republican Sen. Robert Bennett told his hometown paper. Nearly a third of the respondents to the Wall Street Journal poll say they "almost never" trust the government to do the right thing.</br></br>The distrust goes beyond government: People are angry at pretty much the entire establishment. More than 60% of Americans in Pew Research Center polls say banks, big corporations and Congress have a negative effect on the way things are going in the U.S. -- and the national news media don't do much better.</br></br>Corporate chief executives frequently complain that the president and Democrats in Congress are stirring animosity toward business. "It has been easy to vilify business," the head of the Business Roundtable, John Castellani, said in a TV interview earlier this year. "That raises questions and that inhibits investment. People say wait a minute, am I next?" | no | 0 |
Don't Worry About Inflation | The Federal Reserve is facing a major challenge because high commodity prices, especially oil, have produced high headline inflation. But the Fed should not overreact.</br></br>The Consumer Price Index (CPI) last month rose more than 5% over a year earlier, way above a rate that is consistent with price stability. At the same time, the federal-funds rate is at 2%, so the real interest rate on federal funds -- the interest rate adjusted for inflation -- has turned very negative.</br></br>Will this low real interest rate lead to inflation spiraling out of control? Shouldn't the Fed react more to the currently high inflation numbers by tightening policy, a view often advocated on this page, or at least not further lower the fed-funds rate if the economy looks like it might go into a tailspin? The answer is no.</br></br>It is certainly true that central banks should be worried about high headline inflation caused by high commodity prices. After all, households daily pay for energy and food items, and they are a big chunk of people's budgets. But central banks cannot control relative prices for food and energy. When a cold snap freezes the Florida orange crop or a tropical storm hits the gasoline refineries along the Gulf Coast, monetary policy cannot reverse the resulting spikes in prices for fresh orange juice or for gasoline at the pump that lead to high inflation in the short run. Particularly volatile items like food and energy, which are included in headline measures of inflation, are inherently noisy and often do not reflect changes in the underlying rate of inflation, the rate at which headline inflation is likely to settle and which monetary policy can affect.</br></br>This is why the Fed pays attention to measures of core inflation, which attempt to strip out or smooth volatile changes in particular prices to distinguish the inflation signal from the transitory noise. Relative to changes in headline inflation measures, changes in core measures are much less likely to be reversed, provide a clearer picture of the underlying inflation pressures, and so serve as a better guide to where headline inflation itself is heading. Of course, if a particular shock to noncore prices turns out to be more persistent, then the higher costs are likely to put some upward pressure on core prices. | no | 0 |
MERCHANDISE TRADE DEFICIT: ROUNDUP Trade Deficit Up By $4.6 Billion | The nationÛªs merchandise trade deficit grew by $4.6 billion in April, the biggest monthly increase since last October. Story, F10.</br></br>The nationÛªs merchandise trade deficit grew by $4.6 billion in April for the biggest monthly increase since last October, as imports other than oil increased.</br></br>In April, exports dropped 4 percent from the March level to $16.07 billion, mostly because of a big drop in the volatile category of aircraft sales. Agricultural exports also were down. Imports rose 1.4 percent to $20.67 billion.</br></br>BANK CHIEF RESIGNS: J. William Middleton has resigned as president of Equitable Bank N.A. and as a director of its holding company, Equitable Bancorp, the bank announced yesterday.</br></br>The bankÛªs chairman and chief executive officer, H. Grant Hathaway, said that Middleton is stepping down because he ÛÏfelt that his particular talents and experience were no longer being fully used.Û | no | 0 |
D2 Saturday,July 19, 1986 Û¢Û¢Û¢ | Aluminum Co. of America said yesterday that its second-quarter profits rose 31 percent over last year, despite a month-long strike by 15,000 union members.</br></br>Also yesterday, RJR Nabisco Inc. said its net rose 21 percent in the quarter; Bell & Howell Co. said it suffered a 21 percent dip in second-quarter earnings, and Sperry Corp., in its final earnings report, said its profits fell 87 percent in its first fiscal quarter, mainly because of special costs related to its acquisition by fellow computer maker Burroughs Corp.</br></br>Alcoa, which is based in Pittsburgh, said net income for the three months was $53.3 million (63 cents a share). In the same quarter last year, Alcoa earned $40.6 million (49 cents) after a $15.6 million charge from a utility rate case at a subsidiary.</br></br>For the first half, Alcoa reported earnings of $54.7 million (64 cents) compared with $47.3 million (57 cents) in 1985. Sales and operating revenue for the periods declined to $2.41 billidn from $2.68 billion.</br></br>Alcoa Chairman Charles Parry said second-quarter earnings improved because of a more profitable product mix, price and cost improvements and a favorable foreign currency exchange. | no | 0 |
Our Uncertain Economy | In recent times, most economists have pretended that the economy is essentially predictable and understandable. Economic decision- and policy-making in the private and public sectors, the thinking goes, can be reduced to a science. Today we are seeing consequences of this conceit in the financial industries and central banking. "Financial engineering" and "rule-based" monetary policy, by considering uncertain knowledge to be certain knowledge, are taking us in a hazardous direction.</br></br>Predictability was not always the economic fashion. In the 1920s, Frank Knight at the University of Chicago viewed the capitalist economy as shot through with "unmeasurable" risks, which he called "uncertainty." John Maynard Keynes wrote of the consequences of Knightian uncertainty for rational action.</br></br>Friedrich Hayek began a movement to bring key points of uncertainty theory into the macroeconomics of employment -- a modernist movement later resumed when Milton Friedman and I started the "micro foundations of macro" in the 1960s.</br></br>In the 1970s, though, a new school of neo-neoclassical economists proposed that the market economy, though noisy, was basically predictable. All the risks in the economy, it was claimed, are driven by purely random shocks -- like coin throws -- subject to known probabilities, and not by innovations whose uncertain effects cannot be predicted.</br></br>This model took hold in American economics and soon practitioners sought to apply it. Quantitative finance theory became a tool relied on by most banks and hedge funds. Policy rules based on this model were adopted at the Federal Reserve and other central banks. | no | 0 |
Do Job Reviews Work? | Of all the management devices to take hold in the American workplace, none has acquired a firmer grip than the performance review.</br></br>Business school professors extol it. Quality management consultants continually refine it. Corporate leaders such as General Electric Co.'s John F. Welch Jr. and well-regarded politicians such as Vice President Gore embrace it as the key to making all organizations work.</br></br>Yet just as it has reached a level of near universal acceptance in American offices, the performance review - the annual evaluation of an employee's strengths and weaknesses - is encountering a backlash from the ranks of the industrial psychologists and efficiency experts who once considered it indispensable.</br></br>The performance review has spread so far in the 1980s and early 1990s that it is now the rare employee who has not fidgeted in his chair while hearing or reading his working life picked apart. Gore has enshrined the management device by dubbing his effort to reinvent government the National Performance Review, and making improved employee evaluations a key part of it. Corporate leaders are promising to revolutionize the workplace by bringing computers and customers into the performance review process.</br></br>And yet with all this riding on performance reviews, management consultants and psychologists have concluded that the reviews have severe shortcomings. Detailed studies of performance appraisals show that at their best they often are wildly inconsistent and damaging to the loyalty and commitment that help employees do their best. | no | 0 |
Kohl Confronts Disillusion in East; Campaign Trail Rocky as Crowds Jeer German Chancellor Over Joblessness | The boos and whistles began raining down on Helmut Kohl as soon as he mounted the stage in the market square of this dilapidated industrial city. When the chancellor of German unity began reciting his achievements, the chorus of catcalls nearly drowned out his amplified voice.</br></br>"Kohl must go! Kohl must go!" chanted many protesters in the crowd of 1,000 people, who had come to a campaign rally Thursday night to hear Europe's longest-serving leader make his pitch for an unprecedented fifth term after 16 years in office. As police in riot gear shoved unruly demonstrators behind barricades, other spectators jeered and waved signs saying: "Thanks for 20 percent unemployment" and "Enough with your broken promises!"</br></br>As he tours eastern Germany courting votes for the Sept. 27 national election, Kohl is confronting an ugly mood of disillusionment that has jeopardized his hopes for another comeback victory. Although some polls indicate he has narrowed the gap with Social Democratic rival Gerhard Schroeder to as little as 3 percentage points, the hostility Kohl encounters at nearly every stop in the east suggests he is making no headway in recapturing the allegiance of Germany's most fickle swing voters.</br></br>Four years ago, Kohl came from 18 points down to win reelection with the help of an avalanche of votes from easterners still grateful to the father of German unity for liberating them from the bleak repression they endured under the Communist authorities of the German Democratic Republic. The republic collapsed in 1990 along with other Soviet-backed Communist regimes, and its five regions, along with Berlin, were folded into the Federal Republic of Germany.</br></br>But rampant despair over widespread joblessness and embittered dismay with capitalist society have compelled many easterners to turn against Kohl with a vengeance. Many politicians and commentators now believe Kohl's Christian Democrats could tumble to third place in the east, behind Schroeder's Social Democrats and the former Communists known as the Party of Democratic Socialism. | no | 0 |
Stocks Spurt Early in Week, Then Decline | NEW YORK, Sept. 6 tfiÛÓ1The ' stock market rode along this week on the .coattails of a high-stepping business boom, and; held on for dear life. |</br></br>There was plenty of fear that the stock market might tumble, but confidence in current and future business kept trading on the track.</br></br>After the Labor Day holiday, which shortened the trading week to four days, the bulls had high expectations that the recovery movement would extend itself with emphasis.</br></br>Oil Tuesday it did. After that things got mixed up, the market faltered and finally declined. By the end of the week it was right where it started as measured by the Associated Press average of 60 stocks which held unchanged at $108.40.</br></br>With such a dead-center type of action, few conclusions could be drawn. With volume, however. it was a different matter. | yes | 1 |
An Appraisal: Triple Expiration Wasn't So Momentous After All | As trading ended at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Friday, scores of traders threw their order cards in the air, like graduates tossing their mortar boards at a high school commencement. And like many graduation exercises, Friday's stock-market session turned out to be less momentous than many had anticipated.</br></br>The final minutes of trading Friday were probably the most intensely scrutinized in the history of the stock and futures exchanges. Federal regulators, exchange officials, investors, newspaper reporters and television crews all wanted to see what market contortions might be produced by the simultaneous expiration of stock-index futures and options and individual stock options.</br></br>This quarterly phenomenon got so much attention because exchange officials and regulators are considering measures to alleviate some of the sharp price swings that sometimes result when arbitrage traders and other investors rush to even out their related positions in stocks and expiring futures and options contracts.</br></br>Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 11 points at 3:59 p.m. EDT; Big Board volume was about 109 million shares. By the time all the "market on close" orders were executed, the industrial average had gained more than 12 points to close at 1879.54, up 23.68. The final volume tally was more than 149.1 million shares, compared with 129 million Thursday.</br></br>Even so, traders on the floor of the Big Board said there were "no surprises at the close." | yes | 1 |
D.C. Area Stimulus Numbers Cheered; First Figures Find Eager Audiences in Local Governments | The economic stimulus bill facing key votes in Congress would provide enough money to modernize more than 300 schools in the District, Maryland and Virginia and would boost unemployment benefits to more than half a million people in those jurisdictions hurt by the recession, according to White House projections released yesterday.</br></br>The nearly $790 billion measure is expected to provide a windfall for road repairs, energy projects, education and hospitals. Information began to trickle out yesterday about its impact on the Washington area as officials await the release of additional details.</br></br>The region would benefit not only from new education, transportation, Medicaid and other funds provided to all states, but also from an extra jolt of money for repairing government buildings and helping federal institutions, officials said.</br></br>The Obama administration predicted that the bill would create or save 66,000 jobs in the next two years in Maryland, 12,000 in the District and 93,000 in Virginia. Some economists said the administration's figures appeared too high, however, and others cautioned that it was difficult to predict exactly how the stimulus package would translate into jobs.</br></br>"The numbers, as we understand them, are very positive for Maryland," said Shaun Adamec, a spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley (D). "There appears to be a good variety of funds that will provide flexibility to shore up shortfalls in our general fund and provide strategic investments in transportation and education." | no | 0 |
Nation Facing Slower Recovery: End of Talks Means a Slower Recovery | The breaking-off of budget negotiations between President Reagan and congressional leaders yesterday leaves the nation facing a string of huge budget deficits and continuing high interest rates, with little chance for a sustained economic recovery anytime soon.</br></br>Congress still could find some way to reduce the deficits. But, in the absence of major spending cuts and tax increases, interest rates are likely to stay so high that the important, housing and auto industries almost certainly will remain deeply depressed, according to a number of economists. The high rates also probably will lead businesses to keep cutting back their capital investment plans, the key to healthy, longterm economic growth.</br></br>Murray L. Weidenbaum, ReaganÛªs chief economist, recently said that even the $56 billion worth of spending cuts and revenue-raising measures proposed in the presidentÛªs February budget are not regarded as large enough to relieve pressures in financial markets and bring interest rates down. There will be ÛÏa slower, less robust recoveryÛ if there is no budget accord, he said. .</br></br>POLICY, From A1 mann, an economist at Morgan Stanley & Co., a New York investment banking firm, said last week that in the absence of ÛÏa significant change in the budgetary trend currently in prospect... we expect that any drops in interest rates will be shortlived, which should serve effectively to limit the scope of economic expansion this year and next.Û</br></br>One of the few points on which the administration and congressional negotiators agreed was that, without tax increases or further spending cuts, the 1983 deficit likely would be about $180 billion, and that figure assumed that the economy would begin growing at about a 4 percent annual 'rate at mid-year. A weaker economy could push this figure higher. | yes | 1 |
'Triple Witching Hour' May Spur A Stock Market Rally This Friday | Investors reeling from last week's record stock market plunge will barely be able to catch their breath before Friday's "triple witching hour."</br></br>The witching hour -- market parlance for the simultaneous expiration, once a quarter, of stock-index options and futures and individual stock options -- often results in violent swings in stock prices.</br></br>But several Wall Street strategists predict that some of the same factors knocking the market for a loss last week -- the sophisticated trading strategies employed by arbitragers -- are likely to fuel a market rally this Friday.</br></br>Analysts are split as to what the market will do leading up to Friday. But on Friday, barring negative news on interest rates or other market-moving developments, "there's a strong likelihood we'll see an up day," says Gerald Walsh, stock-index analyst with Prudential-Bache Securities Inc., New York.</br></br>The market continued its pattern of explosive volatility last Friday, taking yet another tumble. The Dow Jones Industrial Average skidded 34.17 points to 1758.72 on record volume of 240.5 million shares. That broke Thursday's volume record of 237.6 million shares, when the index plunged a record 86.61 points. | no | 0 |
Production Fell For December, 3rd Time in Row --- Drop of 0.2% Raises Doubt About State of Recovery In National Economy | WASHINGTON -- Industrial production fell in December for the third consecutive month, offering bleak news on the state of America's smokestack economy.</br></br>The 0.2% drop last month followed declines of 0.2% in November and 0.1% in October, the Federal Reserve Board said. A string of strong growth numbers last spring and early summer had seemed to indicate that the industrial sector was recovering, but the more recent figures from the Federal Reserve cast doubt on that.</br></br>"This is not a free fall," said Stuart Hoffman, senior economist for PNC Financial Corp. in Pittsburgh, referring to a term President Bush used last week in New Hampshire to describe the economy. "But industrial production was a source of strength for the economy last spring, and now it is a source of weakness."</br></br>Most of the decline in industrial production last month stemmed from a 3% drop in output of utilities; unusually warm weather reduced demand for electricity. Factories posted an 0.1% gain in output after declining 0.3% the month before. The auto industry, struggling to cope with excess inventories, cut output of cars and trucks 2.3%.</br></br>Mr. Hoffman predicted that autos will continue to be a source of problems in the first quarter and will drag industrial production figures down. | no | 0 |
Dollar Advances Slightly; Gold Also Posts Small Rise | LONDON, Aug. 28 (UPI)ÛÓ The U.S. dollar moved fractionally higher in world money markets today, partly reflecting higher interest rates in the United States and Japan but mostly continuing the dollarÛªs general upward trend.</br></br>Dealers and traders tended to discount specific causes for the reversal of MondayÛªs slight dollar slide.</br></br>ÛÏThe fluctuations in August have little to do with the underlying trend, which is a gradual improvement of the dollar,Û said a Paris banker in a typical comment.</br></br>But the higher American and Japanese interest rates helped price the dollar upward in every market. The price of gold also rose slightly.</br></br>The dollar closed higher on both branches of the Paris marketÛÓat 4.40 francs for the financial dollar tourists use and at 4.35 francs for the official commercial dollar. | no | 0 |
Parker Hannifin Expects Better Year In Fiscal 1993 | CLEVELAND -- Parker Hannifin Corp. expects "moderate improvement" in sales and earnings for the year ending next June 30, in spite of a continued recession in Europe, Paul G. Schloemer, president and chief executive officer, told the annual meeting.</br></br>In an interview after the meeting, Mr. Schloemer said he is comfortable with analysts' earnings estimates in the range of $1.70 to $1.90 a share for fiscal 1993.</br></br>In fiscal 1992, the industrial and aerospace products concern had earnings from continuing operations of $63.5 million, or $1.32 a share, on sales of $2.38 billion. Net income after the effects of accounting changes was $11.2 million, or 23 cents a share.</br></br>Net for the Sept. 30 first quarter was $16 million, or 33 cents a share, up from operating profit of $15.3 million, or 32 cents a share, a year earlier. Accounting changes produced a net loss in the year-earlier quarter of $37 million, or 77 cents a share. Sales for the quarter rose 6% to $608.2 million from $573.7 million.</br></br>Although business conditions in Europe aren't improving, they don't appear to be growing worse, Mr. Schloemer said. Demand for Parker products appears to have stabilized at a lower level, he said. The company gets about 25% of its sales overseas, mostly in Europe. | yes | 1 |
U.S. Eyes Dumping Of Cars: Car-Dump Probe Seen As Likely | A "Treasury Department official said yesterday the government is likely to conduct an investigation into complaints that foreign cars arc being dumped in U.S. markets at less than fair value prices, causing loss of sales and unemployment in the domestic auto industry.</br></br>David R. Macdonald, assistant treasury secretary for enforcement, operations and tariff affairs, said predictions that the department ÐÊwould investigate the complaints were ÛÏfairÛ statements.</br></br>ÛÏThe best guess,Û he said, ÛÏis that for some countries a sufficient amount of information will be filed to make a valid complaint.Û</br></br>Macdonald said a dumping complaint filed by Rep. John Dent (D-Pa.) nine days ago will not be considered valid without comparative price information. An aide to Dent said that this and other information required to warrant an investigation would be delivered to the Treasury next week.</br></br>If a Treasury investigation finds that foreign autos are being dumped in the U.S. for less than the price in the countries where they are made, it would turn the case over to the International Trade Commission. The 1TC would investigate for damage caused to the domestic auto industry by increased imports. If injury is found, the Treasury could impose extra customs duties or require price increases. | no | 0 |
World: Dollar Up Sharply | The U.S. dollar rose sharply in Tokyo and was higher in Europe yesterday after the Easter Ijoldidays, and dealers said trading reflected the expectation that the Federal Reserve would tighten credit.</br></br>Gold closed in Zurich at $232,525 an ounce against $235.95 last Wednesday, the last day of trading before the long holiday weekend. In London gold fell $1.50 to $232,125 an ounce from $232,625 Thursday. In New York gold closed at $233.25 an ounce and dealers said results of the U.S. Treasury sale of gold were modestly bullish.Û The cutoff price, or the .lowest bid accepted, was $230.10,</br></br>In Zurich, the dollar rose sharply to 1.7235 Swiss francs from 1.7135 last Wednesday. In Paris, the dollar rose to 4.3725 French francs from 4.3675; in Brussels, to 30.72 Belgian francs from 30.6370; in Amsterdam ' to 2.0585 guilders from 2.0560; and in Milan to 845.45 lire from 843.70.</br></br>OPEC PRICES: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries^Ûª will reconsider oil prices at its meet-"' ing scheduled for June in Kuwait,11* Kuwait oil minister Sheikh Ali Kha-'~ lifa as Sabah said yesterday. "</br></br>The Kuwaiti minister denied- re-"' ports that Kuwait would not impose?Ûª a surcharge of $1.80 per barrel irt'å¡ selling Kuwaiti crude to the Third World countries. " Û | no | 0 |
Dukakis Takes Early Lead Over Bush;Concern About Economy, Aversion to Vice President Surface in Poll | Negative views of Vice President Bush and declining confidence in the future of the economy and the country have combined to help give Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis an early double-digit lead in a presidential trial heat for November.</br></br>The latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll of 1,172 randomly selected registered voters found Dukakis-the likely Democratic nominee-ahead of Bush-who has cinched the Republican nomination-53 to 40 percent. However, nearly half of each candidate's support is soft and could easily shift in coming months.</br></br>Last March, when the two first emerged as probable general-election rivals, Dukakis led by 5 points. Tom Kiley, a senior political strategist for Dukakis, said that the latest poll and similar findings by other news organizations "come out at a time when Dukakis appears to be a very impressive winner" in a series of primaries against his lone remaining challenger, Jesse L. Jackson. "None of us suffers from the illusion we'll continue to see these margins. We expect a very tough race. But it's hard not to be encouraged."</br></br>The survey made it clear that Dukakis, at this point, is benefiting more from voters' aversion to Bush and declining confidence in President Reagan and his policies than from deep-seated personal appeal.</br></br>Almost three of every five Dukakis supporters in the poll-57 percent-said they plan to vote for him largely because they don't want Bush to win rather than because they like Dukakis. About two out of five Bush partisans said they see their vote as against Dukakis rather than for Bush. | no | 0 |
Bush, on Mideast Trip, Shifts Focus to 'Justice' | ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- President Bush offered a cautious critique of political repression in the Middle East, reassuring nervous Arab leaders of continuing U.S. support while calling political and social change inevitable.</br></br>"The best way to defeat the extremists in your midst is by opening your societies, and trusting in your people, and giving them a voice in their nation," Mr. Bush said to Gulf Arab leaders in the major speech of his nine-day Middle East trip.</br></br>While Mr. Bush continued to tout democracy, he put more emphasis on the need for "justice" and broader societal changes. The rhetorical shift, while subtle, helps align the White House's agenda more closely with the changes that are under way in the oil-rich Gulf states. Boosted by their soaring oil revenue, many are investing heavily in education, infrastructure and social programs. At the same time, there is relatively little progress on the political front. Despite isolated changes, for instance in Kuwait, most Gulf Arab leaders still govern as hereditary and near-absolute monarchs.</br></br>"We believe that helping to build a strong regional economy is our best opportunity for lasting social stability in the Middle East," wrote Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, in a commentary in The Wall Street Journal's opinion pages Saturday, during the Bush visit to the Middle East. "We don't have political ambitions," he continued.</br></br>The speech came as Mr. Bush barnstorms through the region that originally gave rise to his "freedom agenda" following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. Mr. Bush often has blamed the rise of militant Islamists in part on repressive political cultures in the Gulf region, and he has called repeatedly for change. | no | 0 |
Local Governments Most Vulnerable to Rate Shock, Fitch Report Says; An Interest-Rate Shock Would Likely Hit Property Tax Collections, Which Buoy Local Revenues | Local governments in the U.S. are more vulnerable than states or the nation's transportation infrastructure to a potential interest-rate shock and resulting economic slowdown, according to a new report by Fitch Ratings.</br></br>Most local governments are still recovering from the effects of the Great Recession and a sharp rise in interest rates, combined with low growth, could negate the effect of incremental improvements in state funding and moderate revenue increases, Fitch said. A shock could lead to budget shortfalls and higher borrowing costs, in part because it would likely hit the property tax collections that provide about three-quarters of local government revenues, Fitch said.</br></br>"When you think about the impact of a recession or zero-growth environment, it's often lagged with local governments," said Olu Sonola, senior director at Fitch. "Most of them are just recovering, so if we do have zero growth induced by an interest-rate shock, the ones that are not fully recovered would suffer the most."</br></br>States would also face economic challenges in a low-growth, higher-rate environment, since income and sales taxes provide almost two-thirds of their revenue, the report said. While sales taxes have proven relatively resilient in times of economic stress, income tax receipts often become volatile. Stock market declines can also affect state governments, since those can impact the assets of pension plans and reduce capital gains tax collections that can make up a large part of income taxes.</br></br>States are still better positioned to cope than local governments, Fitch said. The federal government has provided states with some sort of aid during four of the past five recessions and states have repeatedly demonstrated the willingness to balance their budgets in the absence of federal assistance. That includes passing fiscal challenges down to local governments. | no | 0 |
&bc toasfjingfon post") T -y | The director of the Council on Wage and Price Stability, noting that Teamsters have ÛÏdone especially Û¢wellÛ at the bargaining table throughout the decade, said yesterday that the government will intervene in next yearÛªs national trucking negotiations to assure a moderate settlement.</br></br>Barry P. Bosworth, speaking to a group of trucking industry officials who will be involved in the talks, did not set out the limits of the governmentÛªs intervention in either the Teamsters negotiations or other major industry contract talks that will follow next year.</br></br>He conceded that earlier government involvement in labor negotiations has been ÛÏless than satisfactoryÛ and at times the government intervention ÛÏhas acted to worsen the inflation pressures.Û That was a reference to the. last-minute entry by the Carter administration into the coal talks.</br></br>Most analysts think the administration pressured coal industry officials into accepting a higher wage and benefit package than they bad to because it waited to long to act.</br></br>Bosworth told trucking industry officials yesterday that it is ÛÏnaive to believe that the government can stand aside in negotiations that are so fundamental to the health of the economy. The economic implications of your settlement will extend far beyond your own industry.Û | no | 0 |
Stocks Fall As Investors Take Profits | Investors pulled back ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, selling highflying technology names and other stocks in order to take profits.</br></br>The hot, tech-driven Nasdaq Composite Index broke its recent streak of records, falling 49.69 points, or 1.46%, to 3342.87. Amid continuing fears of inflation and rising interest rates, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 93.89, or 0.85%, to 10995.63, slipping below the 11000 level. The blue chips still are up almost 20% for 1999, and the Nasdaq composite is up more than 52%.</br></br>The declines hit almost every stock group except airline stocks, which benefited from plans for a fare increase. Bonds and the dollar were mixed.</br></br>"It was just a breather in technology after a remarkable string of new highs," noted Robert Harrington, co-head of listed block trading at PaineWebber. But "the way some of the interest-rate sensitive indexes have been acting has given some people cause for concern," he said, adding, "You're heading into the last month of the year and performance has been fantastic. It could be sideways to down for a while here."</br></br>Interest-rate worries were reflected in bank stocks, which fell for a fifth straight trading day, and in the Dow Jones Utility Average, which now is down more than 15% from its June record. | yes | 1 |
World News: Strong Call for Weaker Yen Spurs Talk of Copycat Moves | Unusual explicitness from Japan's new leaders has helped convince the market they are serious about weakening the yen to revive the nation's embattled exporters, but such moves threaten to complicate Tokyo's relations with the U.S. and other major trading partners.</br></br>Many central banks, including others in Asia as well as in Latin America, have been trying to keep their currencies from becoming too strong after the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank adopted super-loose monetary policies that have suppressed their currencies.</br></br>Confronted by weakening domestic growth, nations around the world are trying to support their economies by boosting exports. Weaker currencies make a country's exports cheaper. Japan's latest signals mark a bid to help its exporters as the yen faces upward pressure from investors fleeing trouble spots.</br></br>Senior Japanese officials, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have signaled they are determined to keep the dollar above 85 yen through further monetary easing and other bold measures.</br></br>The dollar broke above 86 yen after Asian markets closed Thursday, hitting a 28-month high of 86.16 yen. The yen has since regained some ground, capitalizing on its status as a haven, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) warned the U.S. may go over the fiscal cliff. At Thursday's peak, the dollar had climbed about 11% this quarter. | no | 0 |
A Modest Recovery From Winter's Pain | Mutual funds squeezed out small gains in the second quarter of 2005 after a lackluster start to the year, as inflation remained tame and investors seemed to shrug off concerns about surging energy prices.</br></br>U.S. diversified stock funds, which are the most common type of mutual funds, posted a return of 2.32 percent for the second quarter as of June 30, compared with a negative return last quarter. But analysts say investors should still be cautious.</br></br>Whether positive returns continue depends on volatile oil prices and on how much the Federal Reserve raises its benchmark short-term interest rate this year, analysts said. On Thursday, the Fed bumped up the short-term interest rate by a quarter percentage point for the ninth time this year, bringing it to 3.25 percent.</br></br>"It's the magnitude of changes people are concerned about," said Tom Roseen, a senior research analyst at Lipper, the mutual fund research company that released the latest preliminary numbers. "If the Fed decides to tighten more aggressively, both in time frame and in magnitude, that could put a strain on the market as a whole."</br></br>People got nervous in the first quarter of 2005, as consumer prices rose more quickly than in previous months. Investors worried that the Fed would raise its short-term interest rate more aggressively to curb the risk of inflation. The result: U.S. diversified stock funds saw negative returns of 2.52 percent. | no | 0 |
A Noisy Housing Component Muddies the CPI's Signal | Over the past 18 months, the change in the consumer price index has never been the same for two months in a row. It could be that inflation really has been bouncing around like that, but more likely the volatility is a phenomenon statisticians oil "noise,Û in which background events drown out the message the numbers should be telling.</br></br>0.1 percent, decidedly good news on the inflation front But January foDowed with a 0.5 percent surge, the largest monthly increase since oil prices were soaring in the fall of 1990, and inflation watchers at the Federal Reserve and in financial</br></br>The February price increase eased to a.modest 013 percent, and some of the worry began to subside. Things became balmy when the March index showed a tiny 0.1 percent rise, only to turn distinctly stormy again when April came in at 0.4 percent. At that point interest rates rose, and some Fed officials wanted to boost short-term rates to assure everyone that the central bank would not stand idly by as inflation accelerated. Calm began to return once more with MayÛªs benign 0.1 percent increase.</br></br>One reason for the volatility of CPIÛªs monthly changesÛÓand for the difficulty investors, analysts and policy makers have had this year in trying to figure out just what is happening to inflationÛÓis shown in the chart at the right It shows the See TRENDLINES. G4, CoL 1</br></br>HOMEOWNERS' EQUIVALENT RENTÛÓwhich indirectly captures changes in the cost of the shelter a home provides its ownerÛÓaccounts for almost a fifth of the consumer price index. Its unusual volatility, shown below, skews the index and makes it hard to discern short-term inflation trends, but no one has figured out how to smooth the volatility and make the CPI more trustworthy. | no | 0 |
Share Prices Fall in Europe as Investors Worry About Decline of Dollar Overseas --- A Wall Street Journal News Roundup | Stock prices fell in London and across Europe as the dollar's decline in overseas trading worried investors.</br></br>Concern over the dollar affected early trading Wednesday in Japan. In Tokyo, the Nikkei average of 225 selected stocks stood at 23106.07, down 252.53, at the end of Wednesday's morning session. The Japanese market was closed Tuesday for a national holiday; other Asian markets were generally higher.</br></br>In London, share prices were sharply lower at the close Tuesday as participants remained concerned about the dollar's slide and the implications for U.S. interest rates. The U.S. currency bounced back after European markets closed.</br></br>The Financial Times 30-share index closed 56.6 points lower at 1286.1. Volume was 727 million shares, well above the 462.7 million shares a day earlier. The 100-share index was off 69.8 points at 1653.9.</br></br>Dealers said the market remained nervous all day about a further slide in the dollar. Some investors fear a tumbling dollar will prompt U.S. officials to raise interest rates, which in turn could add to recessionary pressure. | no | 0 |
Sharing the Wealth: More Social Security Or Less? Clinton Plan Faces Lots of Questions --- But Stock-Market Proposal Opens Debate With GOP On a Key National Issue --- A New Kind of Savings Fund | WASHINGTON -- President Clinton made a bold opening bid in the Social Security debate, proposing to invest hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in the stock market and to create government-sponsored, 401(k)-type individual savings plans for taxpayers.</br></br>"We must help all Americans, from their first day on the job, to save, to invest, to create wealth," the president said during his State of the Union address last night.</br></br>The plan, offered in the face of a congressional effort to remove the president from office, drew immediate and harsh criticism from congressional Republicans. But by agreeing to channel Social Security funds into the stock market and advocating individual savings accounts, the president advanced a debate that promises to be one of the most provocative of 1999.</br></br>For Wall Street, the stakes are huge. The Clinton plan and some congressional alternatives would channel between $650 billion and $1.2 trillion of taxpayer dollars into stocks over the next 15 years. At the end of that time, White House officials said, the government would own 4% of the entire U.S. market. A number of Republican alternatives would channel as much money into the stock market, but would do it through individual accounts.</br></br>The amounts being talked about are large but not overwhelming. An investment of $650 billion over 15 years would equal about $3.6 billion in new money a month. By comparison, individual investors have put $1.1 trillion into the stock market since 1991 through mutual funds, or about $11.5 billion a month, according to the Investment Company Institute. Since 1996, those mutual-fund inflows have averaged $17.1 billion a month. | no | 0 |
FreeShop.com, Scoot.com, Osicom, Gentex Rise, As Tech Stocks Help Push Nasdaq to New Record | NEW YORK -- Small-capitalization stocks rose solidly Friday, although the group's gains were considerably more contained than those of the broad market and blue-chip stocks.</br></br>The overall Nasdaq Stock Market was up sharply, posting steeper gains than most of the other major stock-market indexes, the biggest exception being the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at a record level for the second straight session.</br></br>The Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization stocks rose 4.14, or 0.90%, to 464.58, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 67.85, or 1.97%, to 3520.63. Meanwhile, the Dow industrials surged 247.12, or 2.24%, to 11286.18.</br></br>Stocks pushed higher at the opening following the release of the November employment report, which showed that employers eased the pace of hiring. The benign jobs data have led many analysts and investors to presume that the Federal Reserve won't see a need to raise interest rates for the next several months.</br></br>The small-cap and Nasdaq markets were driven higher by the strength of technology stocks, with software and Internet issues setting the pace. | no | 0 |
Law Journal: Bingham, Morgan Lewis Talk Merger | Boston law firm Bingham McCutchen LLP is in substantive merger talks with a larger firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, according to two people familiar with the matter.</br></br>Bingham, which has about 800 lawyers, began making overtures to rival firms after a leadership change in May. The firm is working to reverse a 12.6% revenue decline in 2013 and has lost a number of partners. It has worked on some high-profile matters this year, including the $2 billion sale of Oculus VR Inc. to Facebook Inc.</br></br>Morgan Lewis was founded in Philadelphia and has roughly 1,350 lawyers in 25 offices around the world. A combination with Bingham could create a significantly larger firm, though the details and scope of any potential deal aren't clear and no formal agreement appears to have been signed. Talks could shift direction or end.</br></br>Major law firms are grappling with diminished demand for legal services since the recession, and a number have turned to mergers as a way to expand market share. Earlier this month, for example, Texas firm Locke Lord LLP and Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP announced their intention to merge. In June, a new firm, Squire Patton Boggs, was formed through the tie-up of Washington, D.C., firm Patton Boggs LLP and a larger international firm, Squire Sanders.</br></br>But mergers can also be risky, and discussions between firms often end before formal agreements are reached or put to a partnership vote. Even advanced talks can founder as a result of client conflicts or other differences that emerge during detailed negotiations. | no | 0 |
Stocks Stage Minor Retreat; Trading Dull: Missile Issues Buoyant | NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (APIÛÓThe stock market went through a gentle and sluggish decline today on the lightest volume in more than a week.</br></br>Turnover was only 2.22 million shares compared with Friday's 3.37 million and was rite smallest since Sept. 22 when 1.97 million shares were traded.</br></br>Dawdling steel production, a cut in the copper price, strikes against Anaconda and General Electric were among dampening factors. At the same time, some analysis said the market may have been "digestingÛªÛª Friday's sharp recovery drive.</br></br>Some of the aircraft-missiles were higher. aided by defense contracts and the belligerent statement of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Assorted tobaccos, utilities and other stocks also advanced, helping to soften the decline.</br></br>The Associated Press average of 60 stocks dropped .30 to 206.00 with the industrials down .90, the rails down .60 and the utilities up .30. | no | 0 |
Early Rally Fizzles As Market Declines For Fifth Session | NEW YORK, July 30 (AP)ÛÓª_ The stock market declined today lor its fourth straight day after an early rally attempt fizzled.</br></br>The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials fell 2.99 points to 858.43. This brought the total decline in the past four sessions to 30 points and sent the Dow to its lowest level since Jan. 21. On that day it closed at 854.74.</br></br>Analysts said the rally effort, sparked by bargain hinting, failed to build much momentum. At one point, the Dow was up some 2 points, but it fell back in late session trading.</br></br>The market will ÛÏcontinue to erode unless there is some change in the negative news pattern,Û said Monte Gordon, analyst with Bache & Co.</br></br>In the news background was a Commerce Department report that consumer spending plans in the past three months had fallen sharply. The continuing rail strike and imminent steel strike were otlthe Big Board, 516 ad- | no | 0 |
Bad Ways to Pick a Mutual Fund; For Starters, Focusing on Ratings and Past Performance | Investors have shoveled almost $14 trillion into U.S. mutual funds, but a good chunk of that money is riding on mistaken assumptions.</br></br>Example: buying a fund based primarily on past performance, the most frequently cited factor in choosing funds (by 47% of investors), according to a report from research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates.</br></br>Apparently, the familiar refrain that "past performance is no indicator of future results" isn't top of mind when we decide where to invest our hard-earned money. You can't really blame investors. Historical returns are trumpeted in advertising and fund disclosures, and past results are a reasonable guide in our own day-to-day experiences.</br></br>Indeed, when choosing a fund "one of the few things you're given is past performance," says Shlomo Benartzi, a UCLA professor and chief behavioral economist at Allianz. "And, after you experienced so many things in your life where past performance will tell you a lot about what will happen, we're now asking you to take the most salient available information you have and ignore that."</br></br>The good news is that more investors appear to be cost-conscious. "The cost of the fund" was the second most commonly cited factor in choosing a fund (42% of investors), says the Cerulli report. "The message is getting out there that we cannot control performance, but we can certainly control costs," says George Papadopoulos, a financial planner in Novi, Mich., a Detroit suburb. | no | 0 |
Many Markets in Asia Climb Amid Hopes of a U.S. Recovery | SINGAPORE -- There was bad news almost everywhere they looked yesterday but investors chose instead to focus on the bright side in Asia, pushing many regional stock markets to healthy gains amid hopes of a U.S. recovery in the new year.</br></br>Those gains came on a day when the ripples from the demise of energy giant Enron Corp. continued to spread, Japan saw its sovereign credit rating downgraded to the same level as Italy by Moody's Investors Service Inc. and Argentina's troubles again raised the question of a contagion effect for emerging markets in Asia.</br></br>But it was evidence of renewed consumer spending in the U.S. that sent investors into the markets to buy technology stocks in places like Taiwan, where the local index rose 2.6% to a three-month high of 4766. A 2.9% rise in U.S. consumer spending in October, plus optimistic signs in construction spending data and a key purchasing managers' report, led some to see momentum building toward a U.S. recovery in the second quarter of next year.</br></br>Add the belief of many that Asian technology stocks have hit bottom and you have the elements for a sustained rally in regional markets, suggests Markus Rosgen, Asia strategist for ING Barings in Hong Kong.</br></br>"It's a real move up because there's a much higher likelihood of a recovery in the U.S. than there was three months ago," he said. | no | 0 |
A Working Thesis: Growth of Labor Force Slows, Raising Hopes Of Lower Jobless Rates --- Trend, if It Holds, May Lead To Greater Productivity; How Women Affect Data --- Baby Boomers Come of Age | The rapid decline in the unemployment rate to 8.4% in November from a postwar high of 10.8% just 11 months earlier has surprised economists and pleased the Reagan administration. But the best news may lie in the future.</br></br>Analysts see in the recent jobless data signs of a significant change in the growth of the work force. "We're switching from a decade in which the labor force grew faster than the population to one in which it will grow slower," William Dunkelberg, an economics professor at Purdue University, says.</br></br>If this trend holds, the current decade could turn out to be the mirror image of the economically troubled 1970s. The work force exploded in the last decade as women and members of the "baby boom" generation sought jobs. "We had some digestive problems," says Barry Bosworth of the Brookings Institution, noting that in the 1970s the jobless rate rose, the rate of growth of worker productivity slowed and inflation soared. But in this decade, "we may find ourselves able to do more on the employment front without causing an increase in inflation," Mr. Bosworth says.</br></br>Sidney Jones, the undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs, adds, "After getting ourselves convinced that 6 1/2% is a natural rate of unemployment, it may be that we can do better than that."</br></br>An easing of labor-force growth could have other implications as well. For instance, older workers, who in recent years were pushed out of the labor market by early-retirement plans to make room for younger workers, may find themselves in more demand again. Mr. Dunkelberg believes that the retirement age is likely to rise during the current decade as employers, faced with shortages of new workers, rely on older workers to stay on the job longer. | no | 0 |
The Growing Case For Dividends --- More Details Emerge on White House Plan, Offering Added Boost for Stocks with High Payouts | DIVIDEND-PAYING stocks are already on a roll, and the Bush administration's plan to cut individual taxes on dividends would give them another boost.</br></br>While reaction on Wall Street was muted yesterday because of the plan's uncertain future, several details emerged. At a minimum, an administration plan would likely provide tax relief for dividends not only on common stock but on preferred stock as well. Dividends passed on to holders of mutual funds, often in the form of additional shares of the fund, would also get taxed less. However, dividends paid by many small and family-owned businesses probably wouldn't be affected.</br></br>For investors, the likely inclusion of preferred stock is welcome news. Preferred stock, while technically stock, carries a high dividend and functions almost like a bond in people's portfolios, providing a steady stream of regular income. While preferred stock is often held by institutions, reducing the tax would spur more individual investors to buy it -- especially given its large dividends.</br></br>Proposals are being floated in Washington about how best to accomplish the administration's goals. One approach is eliminating the dividend tax altogether. Another would reduce the tax rate on dividends to equal that on capital gains, typically 20%. Currently, dividend payments are taxed at ordinary income rates, as high as 38.6%. Yet a third possibility would exempt some amount of dividends, say, $1,000, from taxes.</br></br>If the proposal becomes law, corporations would come under increasing pressure to change their approach to dividends. Companies that already have dividends would be pushed to boost them. And companies that have never paid dividends, such as Microsoft, Dell Computer and Cisco Systems, would face pressure to start paying them. | no | 0 |
THE DISTRICT LINE Some Signs Of the Times | Scattered reports from Christmas shoppers indicate that we are indeed in a recession. Nothing earth-shattering has happened yet, but prices are some* v what ÛÏsofter,Û and stores are starting their sales earlier.</br></br>ThereÛªs also a new camaraderie among shoppers. Their attitude appears to be: itÛªs us against them, so we have to stick together.</br></br>Mrs. Julian P. Freret says this is especially noticeable in toy stores. A few years ago, people would load their carts with just about anything that was on display, with little regard for price or quality. This year theyÛªre tak-' ing time to compare, to consult lists of other prices, and even lists of toys deemed unsafe by various groups.</br></br>. On several occasions, says Mrs. Freret, as she was examining a toy another shopper would come over and say something on the order of: ÛÏI wouldnÛªt buy that one. ItÛªåÇ cheaply made and falls apart very quicklyÛ Or: ÛÏThat toy has been criticized on safety grounds. Would you like to see what it says in this report?Û</br></br>Mrs. Freret saysr ÛÏIt's a much less frantic scene this year. People are buying, but theyÛªre buying with much greater care and attention.Û Well, itÛªs an ill wind that doesnÛªt blow a little bit of good somewhere along the line. | no | 0 |
Tracking the Economy | The Federal Open Market Committee meets tomorrow to plot the short-term course of interest rates. The pace of the economic recovery is at stake, says Robert Chandross, chief economist at Lloyds Bank in New York.</br></br>With the federal budget deficit frustrating attempts to stimulate the economy fiscally, "monetary policy is the only game in town," Mr. Chandross says. He contends that a cut in the Fed's discount rate to 4.5% from 5% would reduce the prime rate at banks as well as some credit-card rates, inviting holiday season sales.</br></br>Auto manufacturers and dealers could use some cheer. David Garrity, auto analyst at the Nomura Research Institute in New York, forecasts a small rise in late-October car sales to a 6.4 million-unit annual rate. A moderate pickup in rental fleet sales is expected to mask weak consumer demand for cars.</br></br>Mr. Garrity notes that for now, Detroit plans to produce 4.2% more passenger cars this quarter than it did in the fourth quarter of 1990. That would augur more auto sector jobs, he says, "but the crux of the matter is that if sales don't materialize, production schedules are subject to downward revision."</br></br>Statistics to Be Released This Week | no | 0 |
Dollar Jumps, Aided by Data | The dollar jumped to one-month highs against the euro and yen Friday on hard evidence that the U.S. economy isn't about to shrivel into recession.</br></br>New economic reports demonstrated the Federal Reserve's actions this week -- cutting interest rates a conservative quarter point and finding an alternative method to introduce more market liquidity -- were well-founded considering retail sales and inflation data reported Thursday and Friday, according to analysts.</br></br>"The Fed was roundly condemned on Tuesday afternoon for its seemingly detached attitude towards the crisis of confidence in the bank funding market," said Scotia Capital analysts.</br></br>But the reports have introduced some clarity -- and struck U.S. equities down in the process on the realization that another Fed rate cut might not be such a simple prediction, currency analysts concluded. The dollar, consequently, shot up against the euro with a newfound yield appeal and against the yen with the help of a negative economic report in Japan.</br></br>Late Friday in New York, the euro was at $1.4423 from $1.4625 late Thursday, while the dollar was at 113.40 yen from 112.22 yen. The pound was at $2.0172 from $2.0398, while the dollar was quoted at 1.1525 Swiss francs from 1.1413 francs. | yes | 1 |
Gap Between Richest, Poorest U.S. Cities Grew Wider in 1987 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- The gap between the nation's richest and poorest cities widened in 1987 as the posh Connecticut suburbs of New York stayed atop the per capita personal income list while Texas towns along the Mexican border remained last, the government reported yesterday.</br></br>In a report on 1987 personal income in the nation's 318 metropolitan regions, first place belonged to the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk-Danbury area of Connecticut, with per capita income of $26,316, the Commerce Department said.</br></br>Bringing up the rear was the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area of Texas, with per capita income of $7,001.</br></br>The first and last areas were the same as in 1986, but the gap between them grew as the 9.1% rate of per capita income growth in the Bridgeport area more than doubled the 4.2% pace in the McAllen region. The per capita income gap between the two regions was $19,315 in 1987, up from $17,412 a year earlier.</br></br>For the nation as a whole, per capita income rose 6% in 1987 to $15,484, according to the report by the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. | yes | 1 |
DonÛªt Leave Your Bonds at Wall StreetÛªs Beck and Call | On Wall Street, itÛªs the Year of the CallÛÓand for income investors, the Year of the Bawl. Falling interest rates are pulling the rug out from under folks who thought they had locked up high income for life.</br></br>Billions of dollars worth of high-income bonds are likely to be ÛÏcalled in,Û or retired, this yearÛÓmuch earlier than most investors had expected. TheyÛªll be replaced with securities paying lower rates.</br></br>What investments are at risk? Anything paying 2 percentage points or more above current interest rates.</br></br>YouÛªve been hitÛÓor soon will beÛÓ whether you own individual bonds or shares in income mutual funds and unit trusts. High-income unit trusts could be hammered the hardest because, unlike mutual funds, they cannot easily sell off bonds that are vulnerable to an early call. So the trusts are likely to lose some of the profits that theyÛÓand youÛÓexpected from the investment.</br></br>What do you lose when a bond is called? First, you lose the double-digit income that has been adding a little luxury to your life. | no | 0 |
Bill the Bold, Bill the Pleaser; The best thing for the new president to do is concentrate on a few big problems. | There have been two Bill Clintons in the past year. The first is Bill the Bold. He's a guy who seems eager to break with past dogmas and face the daunting problems of government. The second is Bill the Pleaser. He's someone who will say almost anything (with a few exceptions) to satisfy the audience of the moment, and as a result, he's said a lot of contradictory things. We still don't know which Clinton will govern - or if both will try.</br></br>Ever since his election, the press has analyzed his every appointment and utterance, searching for signs of what he'll do. So far, we've come up short. He gave a long interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he talked tough on deficits and sounded like Bill the Bold. But was he simply telling the Journal's readers what he thought they wanted to hear? We don't know. Even he may not know.</br></br>Speculation is futile. Clintonomics is an empty phrase, not a policy. We will know what Clinton does when he does it. It's better to ask what he should do. The answer is that he should concentrate on a few big problems instead of trying to fulfill a host of small promises. Specifically:</br></br>The Budget Deficits. Although they don't immediately threaten the economy, their persistence poses long-term dangers. As the government goes deeper into debt, rising interest payments on its borrowings crowd out other government spending. Since 1959, the interest burden has risen from 6 percent to 14 percent of all federal outlays. Likewise, huge deficits may ultimately depress private investment by raising interest rates and discouraging businesses from borrowing. Lower private investment rates would in turn gradually undermine the prospects for higher living standards.</br></br>Health Care. As Clinton concedes, it will be hard to control budget deficits unless health costs are controlled. Consider the projections of the Congressional Budget Office. By the year 2000, Medicare and Medicaid spending is forecast to reach 23 percent of federal spending, up from 13 percent in 1991. The same process is squeezing take-home pay. Soaring health insurance premiums are draining more money from wages and salaries. | no | 0 |
Merger Hopes Pull Rails to New Peaks | \E\V YORK, Nov. 24 (AP)ÛÓRails went to new highs, adding their strength to aerospace issues, airlines and other glamour stocks with the result that the stock market advanced today despite weakness in a number of blue chins.</br></br>the Dow-Jones Industrial Average had a gain of 2.39 at the end of the first hour but wiped this out to close unchanged to 948.94.</br></br>Other indicators, howevei, were unanimous in calling it a higher market. Standard & PoorÛªs 500-stock index, which represents about 85 per cent of the quoted values on the New York Stock Exchange, rose .16 to a historic closing high of 91.94.</br></br>Analysts said that merger-minded rails seemed heartened greatly by a favorable court decision Monday on the projected Atlantic Coast Line-Seaboard Airline Railroad merger. New York Central, up 3%, and Pennsylvania, up 3r;a, advanced like Siamese twins.</br></br>The Dow .loncs Rails advanced 3.11 to a record closing high of 240.89. Both Central and Pennsy attracted further buying by making and upside breakout in their price chart pattern, brokers said. The rise to a new high in the average was also a tip to chart-minded investors that buying was in order, Wall Street sources said. | yes | 1 |
Profits Often Evasive In Stock Mart Rallies Greer, Philip | When it comes to actually cashing in, stock market rallies are not always what they look like in newspaper headlines. Last weekÛªs big rally was a case in point.</br></br>ThereÛªs no denying that President NixonÛªs change of economic signals caught just about everybody by surprise. Some of the Wall Street pundits claim now that they had an inkling something was upÛÓa change of tone in the PresidentÛªs public statements, the inability to reach a favorite administration contactÛÓbut essentially the Street was as much surprised by the new-new economics as, say, the prime minister of Japan.</br></br>On Monday, for anybody who wasnÛªt looking, the market staged the biggest one-day rally it has ever seen. The Dow Jones industrial average was up nearly 33 points. Volume soared over 31 million shares for the first time. On Tuesday, the Dow became richer by another 11 points. Wednesday was for the profit-takers and the last two days saw little movement either way, but by FridayÛªs close, the Dow still showed a highly respectable gain of 24.90 points for the week.</br></br>LOOKING AT THE week-to-week figures for some specific stocks makes it look as if Wall Street was giving away money. General Motors was up about 7 points. Chrysler was ahead more than 4. Burlington Industries added about 3. Machine tool maker Cincin-atti Milacron climbed nearly 8 points (the stock didnÛªt even trade on the previous</br></br>So it went down the line. Companies that stand to benefit from the lessening of foreign competition because of the import surtax, or those that will save tax money because of the investment credit, or those whose future seemed brighter because of some other part of the Nixon package went soaring. | yes | 1 |
USA Interactive, Textron Slide As Investors' Forbearance Ebbs | NEW YORK -- Yesterday's stock-market rout again demonstrated how strong investors' contempt for corporate America's creative accounting and earnings misfortunes has become.</br></br>French entertainment company Vivendi Universal's American depositary shares sank $4.69, or 21%, to $17.76, sliding to a fresh 52-week low, after a news report in France said the company tried to bolster profits in 2001 through aggressive accounting of some assets. The slide came amid a pickup in volume, with 12 times the average daily volume in Vivendi securities changing hands in New York.</br></br>Investors also lashed out at other names in the media and entertainment sector. The selloff took a special toll on companies that have aggressively consolidated media assets during the years. Shares of AOL Time Warner fell 99 cents, or 7%, to 12.52, slumping to a 52-week low. USA Interactive eased 1.59, or 7%, to 20.66 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Online-advertising concern DoubleClick fell 98 cents, or 15%, to 5.45 on Nasdaq, trading in range of the 52-week low of $5.23, set Sept. 27.</br></br>Shares of Cardinal Health sank as much as 18% intraday in response to what company officials called an erroneous rumor about its dealings with former accounting firm, Arthur Andersen. Cardinal Health, which finished the day off 2.89, or 5%, at 54.41, insisted that there was nothing wrong with its accounting practices. It isued a news release saying, "We find ourselves in an unprecedented time of suspicion and lack of trust in the capital markets."</br></br>"It's important that companies are taking steps like this, trying to send a message that they are not tone deaf to what investors are concerned about," Richard Cripps, chief market strategist at Legg Mason, said. | no | 0 |
Currency Traders Return to Strategy Of Unloading Yen, Buying European | NEW YORK -- Currency traders returned to a strategy that some say is the only clear bet they can make: buy Europe, sell Japan.</br></br>What that amounted to was the same market pattern repeated on numerous occasions in recent weeks -- the dollar falling against the mark, but rising against the yen, alongside a healthy rally in mark/yen.</br></br>Analysts said Tuesday's quarter-percentage-point cut in the U.S. Fed funds rate suggests the Federal Reserve will make additional easings before year end, a process many believe will weigh on the dollar. Lower U.S. interest rates make dollar-denominated assets less attractive.</br></br>Notwithstanding recent signs that German Chancellor-elect Gerhard Schroeder favors softer monetary policy, the Bundesbank is believed to be adamantly opposed to German rate cuts. Add to this situation some additional bad news on Japanese banks yesterday and mark/yen looked like a strong buy, traders said.</br></br>"Mark/yen has been the favorite play of the past few weeks. If [the mark] gets through the 82/83 yen level, it will look like people are really coming back to start selling yen again," said John McCarthy, vice president, foreign exchange, at ING Barings Capital Markets in New York. | no | 0 |
Miners, Industrials Boost Europe; Aid request failed to help sentiment in Greece, where stocks fell for a fourth session and debt insurance hit records | Miners and industrial stocks gained in Europe, underscoring investors' belief that the global economy is recovering.</br></br>But Greece's stock market dropped for the fourth consecutive session, as investors appeared far from appeased by the country's formal request on Friday for financial aid. Worries about the risk of default remained strong, and the cost of insuring the country's debt against such an event hit fresh records.</br></br>The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed up 1% at 270.10, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.5% to 5753.85, Germany's DAX rose 1.2% to 6332.10 and France's CAC-40 firmed 1.2% to 3997.39.</br></br>The Athens General Index slumped 2.9% to 1696.68, its lowest level since April 7, 2009. It has skidded 8% over the last four sessions.</br></br>Rising metal prices and optimism about economic recovery from U.S. heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar boosted sentiment in Europe. Copper miner Antofagasta, a play on the global economy surged 7.1% in London. | no | 0 |
Entrepreneurs Welcome Bush's Tax-Incentive Plan --- But Many Worry President Will Choose Wrong Combination of Measures | On one point, most small-business owners agree: It's time for a tax cut. But ask any two entrepreneurs what the White House's tax-relief package should look like and you're likely to get two entirely different recommendations.</br></br>The Bush administration is expected to propose next month its most comprehensive set of tax incentives to date. And small businesses almost unanimously welcome the initiative as an overdue stimulus to the economy.</br></br>But many business owners worry that the president might come up with the wrong combination of measures. Some fear that too many tax breaks could backfire by widening the budget deficit, triggering either new tax increases or deep cuts in government spending. Others fret that the administration might offer too little, too late. And entrepreneurs differ sharply about which tax proposals would do small business the most good.</br></br>Mark Landis, president of Health Information Technologies Inc. of Princeton, N.J., a provider of an electronic network to link doctors to insurers, wants a cut in the capital-gains tax. That would make it easier for his company, which has 75 employees and annual revenue of about $6 million, to raise money, he says. Health Information Technologies has been financed primarily through investments from wealthy individuals. But "these are difficult times for attracting capital to small, developing companies," Mr. Landis notes.</br></br>Others favor another White House idea: making permanent a temporary 20% tax credit for increases in certain research spending. Such a credit would give PictureTel Corp., a Peabody, Mass., developer of tabletop video-conferencing systems, "the confidence to invest in an additional project or invest in more people and hardware," says Norman Gaut, chief executive officer. | no | 0 |
House Votes to Extend 'Cyclical' Fund Program | sion package, had asked for extensioihaVC rGCeiVCu $522,000. Under the bill/ with a new ceiling of $2.25 billion fost remvoc nrithimr the current year and $2.25 billion a remve!l nuuM&' ' ) ÐÊ</br></br>Two weeks ago it looked like his request would be ignored. But the Senate tacked an emergency one-year extension onto the big tax bill. The House yesterday approved a separate bill also calling for a one-year extension but with slightly different provisions. The House bill provides a total of $2.25 billion for the 15 months ending Sept. 30, 1978.</br></br>Both the House bill and the Senate tax bill provisions use the same formula for triggering the program and for distributing funds. Once national unemployment reaches 6 per cent, the program goes into effect, and the benefits can then be paid to any state or community whose local unemployment rate exceeds 4.5 per cent. The higher their unemployment in excess of 4.5 per cent, the more they get.</br></br>When it takes up the tqx bill conference report next week, the House will ask the Senate to insert in the billÛÓin place of the Senate ÛÏcountercyclicalÛªÛª language ÛÓ the slightly different House version approved yesterday. The Senate is expected to agree, thus extending the program as part of the tax bill.</br></br>The major dispute over the bill yesterday was over an attempt by Les As-pin (D-Wis.) to install a distribution formula worked out by a House Government Operations subcommittee headed by L. H. Fountain (D-N.C.), based on the proportion of income residents of local communities pay in local taxes rather than unemployment rates. It lost, 216 to 127. | no | 0 |
U.S. Mapping An Attack on V iet Inflation: U.S. Mapping Attack On V ietnam Inflation | The Johnson Administration is moving quietly on several fronts to curtail a worrisome inflation in Vietnam that could grow bigger next year as American troop strength there expands.</br></br>One basic drive will be directed toward limiting the amount of dollars that U.S. soldiers will be allowed to convert into piastres for spending in Vietnam. Both voluntary incentives and mandatory ceilings on conversion are expected to be used.</br></br>Û¢ Forcing American military and contractors to reduce their dependence on Vietnamese manpower and supplies by purchasing more See INFLATE, A7, Col. 1 Û¢ Making greater efforts to break up congestion in the port of Saigon by short-circuiting importersÛª comfortable and profitable practices. A White House mission that includes economist Robert R. Nathan left Wednesday morning foi* a two-week study of this and other questions in Vietnam.</br></br>Implicit in all these moves is the prospect that U.S. troop strength in Vietnam, now about 297,000, will be boosted to slightly more than 400,000 by July, 1967. This will increase the total of free-and-easy spending by the GI which, combined with direct war expenditures by the U.S. and Vietnamese governments, constitutes the basic engine of inflation in an economy as poor as VietnamÛªs.</br></br>In the second quarter of this year, the cost of living in Vietnam skyrocketed at an annual rate of 74 per cent over 1965 levels, according to Vietnamese government data. As recently as 1964 and early 1965, the increase in the cost of livingwas only about 3.5 per cent a year. | no | 0 |
States Discover That What Goes Around, Comes Around | Texans, reveling in their seeming control over the nation's economic destiny, sported sneering bumper stickers: "Drive 70, Freeze a Yankee," and "Let the Bastards Freeze in the Dark."</br></br>Meanwhile up north, as factories closed and workers were laid off, thousands of families uprooted themselves and headed south and west. So many Michiganders moved south that they became known contemptuously as "black tag people," after their car license plates that were, for a time, black with white lettering.</br></br>People and jobs poured into California so rapidly during the '80s that some suburban communities saw their populations double annually, and officials' main concerns were how to find enough water, roads and schools to accommodate the boom.</br></br>As the charts at the right show, those much-publicized migration trends of the '70s and '80s have ended, and more people are now moving from Texas and California to places like Ohio than the other way around. As oil prices went into the tank, taking Texas's economy with them, and much of the news from California dealt with layoffs, natural disasters and social problems, the unglamorous old Midwest seems to be looking better and better.</br></br>"It's interesting to see how quickly {migration} responds to ... job signals," said Patricia Gober, the Arizona State University geographer who compiled the data. "It's not like it takes people two or three years to respond to the boom and bust in oil," defense cutbacks and the like, she said. | no | 0 |
U.S. in Control: Its Goal To Fix, Not Run, Firms; A Reluctant Role as Main Shareholder | When it comes to justifying state control of big corporations, Barack Obama is no Francois Mitterrand.</br></br>When France's late president nationalized huge swaths of the country's financial and industrial base in the 1980s, he made no apologies. Seizing a dozen industrial conglomerates and three banks, Mitterrand insisted that government control was in the interest of the economy. He asserted that the state, which already owned much of the nation's energy and transport industries, was best able to allocate resources.</br></br>Today the Obama administration finds itself in control of many of the pillars of U.S. finance and industry, but it is playing its role reluctantly. Obama's goal is to fix them, not run them, the White House says. With regard to GM, for example, one official said this week that the administration's "goal is to exert as little influence as possible" and "to exit as quickly as possible."</br></br>Yet the Obama administration, on behalf of American taxpayers, has become -- or will soon become -- the controlling shareholder of General Motors and Chrysler, mortgage behemoths Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and insurance giant AIG, not to mention the 29 banks taken over this year by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. And that puts the president in the awkward position of balancing public policy goals with the financial interests of taxpayers as investors in these ailing corporations.</br></br>"I think it's going to have to be both," said Dean Baker, director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The president "shouldn't seek to micromanage by deciding what cars to make if he were CEO." On the other hand, Baker added, the administration "can't escape responsibility for whatever actions the companies do. It can't wash its hands." "In many ways, we are in uncharted and potentially treacherous water here," said N. Gregory Mankiw, a professor of economics at Harvard University who was chairman of former president George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers. "It is almost inconceivable that the political process will be good at corporate governance. The most one can hope for is that this period will be temporary, that the federal government will sell off its equity stake to private investors as soon as possible." | no | 0 |
UPS Pact Complies With Guideline | A new three-year contract between the Teamsters and the United Parcel Service has been found in compliance with administration anti-inflation guidelines, even though wages will be raised more than 10 percent a year.</br></br>The union and UPS announced Thursday rank-and-file ratification of the new pact, which will increase wages by 32 to 40 percent over three years, assuming an inflation rate of 6 to 10 percent, well below the current rate of 13 percent annually.</br></br>The percentage gain in the UPS contract is even higher than the guideline-stretching wage settlement reached last spring by the Teamsters in their master freight agreement, which the union and industry calculated at more than 30 percent.</br></br>This is because the UPS average wage base of $9.30 an hour is lower than the master freight base of more than $9.50 an hour, making for a bigger percentage gain even though the dollars-and-cents provisions of the two contracts are the same.</br></br>Despite the percentage difference, the Council on Wage and Price Stability found the UPS contract in compliance with the guidelines because its pay rate changes were the same as those in the already-approved master freight pact and because there is a historical leader-follower relationship between the two contracts. | no | 0 |
Too Early for Panic in Seoul | South Korea faces a triple whammy of slowing economic growth, falling exports and weakening consumer demand. But it's still too early for Seoul to hit the panic button.</br></br>Thursday's economic data were weak--seasonally adjusted gross domestic product in the fourth quarter was up just 0.4% from the previous period, the slowest rate of growth since 2009 and below market expectations. More data due soon will also likely disappoint--the country may run its first trade deficit in two years in January.</br></br>With parliamentary and presidential elections later this year, the temptation to act swiftly will loom large. But knee-jerk policy steps would be foolish.</br></br>There is room for the Bank of Korea to cut interest rates if there is a sharp economic decline. Most analysts believe the central bank will deliver. The BOK considers its policy rate to be accommodative at 3.25%. Still, a cut of 0.25 percentage point could come as early as the first quarter of 2012. That should bolster consumer sentiment. But any gains could be offset if the won falls, stoking higher prices for important imports of energy and food.</br></br>Beyond that, further stimulus would be mistaken. The government has already front-loaded its 2012 budget to bring spending forward. Back in 2009, it also introduced a supplementary budget to boost the economy. Repeating that step now could also lead to inflationary pressures that would only crimp domestic spending. | no | 0 |
Area Jobless Rate Hits Highest Level in 6 Years; Sharp Increase in Number of Unemployed Persons in Suburbs Pushes Figure to 4.0 Percent | A sharp increase in the number of unemployed persons in Washington's suburbs pushed the metropolitan-area unemployment rate to 4.0 percent in December, its highest level in six years, according to figures released yesterday.</br></br>Unemployment in the District fell significantly, from 6.9 percent in November to 6.5 percent. But officials said the drop mostly reflected Christmas-season hiring, not a turnaround in the troubled economy.</br></br>Christmastime hiring in the entire area was only about half what it has been over the last five years. From September to December 1990, 10,800 jobs were added in the retail trade, according to Richard Groner of the D.C. Department of Employment Services, which compiles the area statistics. Over the previous five years, the average increase in jobs during the same period was 21,000.</br></br>In Maryland, which also released its unemployment rate yesterday, joblessness went up from 5.3 percent in November to 6.0 percent in December. Officials of the state Department of Economic and Employment Development said jobs were lost in the construction, auto-manufacturing, restaurant and hotel sectors, among others.</br></br>The Virginia unemployment rate, released earlier this week, was 4.9 percent in December, up from 4.5 percent the previous month. | no | 0 |
THE WASHINGTON POST, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 198.3 | Ronald Reagan will be visiting China in April, and there are those who imagine that, like Richard Nixon before him, lie can open the door to Moscow in Peking. But, in fact, the three-cornered game now plays the other way.</br></br>The United States cannot importantly advance its strategic position through the China connection. But the Russians will resent the attempt, thus ensuring further strain on a Big Two relation that is already worn to the point of clanger.</br></br>China represented an unknown back in L971, when Nixon and Henry Kissinger went to Peking. Revolutionary fervor still gripped, or appeared to grip, the billions. A heroic leader, Mao Tse-tung, was capable of bold, even mad leaps into the void.</br></br>By building mystery and drama around their diplomatic initiative, Nixon and Kissinger made it seem that a basic tilt in world power relations was about to occur, '[Ûªhe Russians were prepared to pay a price for cutting off what looked like an incipient Sino-American partnership. Rightly or wrongly, Nixon and Kissinger settled for detente with Moscow and the prospect of a safe exit from the Vietnam War.</br></br>The terror then inspired by China has long since been rubbed away by familiarity. The Chinese economy is known to be backward and exceedingly hard to improve. Chinese military forces lag way behind the forces of Russia and the United States in weaponry. The Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, has explicitly put aside revolution in favor of moderation. | no | 0 |
Under the Budget Ax | The catch-up-with-industry pay raises for federal workers, future pension benefits, lump-sum payments and even the benefits of widows and orphans of federal workers and retirees will be on the cutting table when Senate- House conferees begin work on the budget outlined by President Clinton.</br></br>The House-passed budget resolution goes along with the president's plan to deny federal-military personnel an across-the-board pay raise next year. But it does hold out the possibility of smaller locality adjustments in 1994, if cuts are found in other federal personnel programs.</br></br>The House plan also would limit the maximum 1994 retiree cost-of- living adjustment to $400. It would give retirees 62 and older adjustments 1 percent less than inflation in 1995, 1996 and 1997, and give half that amount to retirees younger than 62.</br></br>Benefits for widows of future federal retirees would be cut by about 10 percent under the House plan, which also would lower to 18 (19 for students) the age at which child survivor benefits end. Currently, such benefits can be collected until age 22.</br></br>The Senate-approved budget appears, on the surface, to be much easier on employees and retirees. It proposes to save money by doing away with the lump-sum pension benefit for retirees. Those payments are now available to terminally ill retirees and people forced to quit or retire; they are due to become available again to all retirees next year. | no | 0 |
Jag Media Suit Targets Short Selling | VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Jag Media Holdings Inc., which streams market news over the Internet, is dragging the nation's largest brokerage companies into a Texas court in an effort to halt a short-selling campaign that management claims has nearly destroyed the company.</br></br>Stocks of thinly traded upstarts such as Jag Media are prime targets for short sellers. Companies that feel victimized by the shorts have tried to squelch them in court before without success. But this lawsuit opens a new front by alleging that sloppy bookkeeping by the nation's brokerage companies abets the shorts by letting them sell short more shares than they can legitimately control.</br></br>In June, Jag Media Holdings filed suit in District Court in Harris County, Texas, against more than 100 brokerage companies, including Merrill Lynch & Co. and the Brown & Co. unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. alleging fraud, negligent misrepresentation and violations of securities law.</br></br>The suit alleges the brokerage firms failed to properly close short sales by identifying and borrowing shares and taking possession of shares as required by securities regulators.</br></br>Short sellers borrow a stock and sell it in hopes of replacing the shares at a lower price in the future and pocketing the difference. | no | 0 |
U.S. News: Job Openings Remained Scant in May | Employers were less willing to hire in May and employees were more reluctant to quit, making it more difficult for the unemployed to find work, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.</br></br>There were about 5.7 unemployed workers for every job opening in May, up from about 5.5 a month earlier. As the growing number of job seekers meets the shrinking pool of openings means people are out of work longer, crimping consumer spending and shrinking government budgets.</br></br>"There are huge lines in front of the door of every job opening," said Heidi Shierholz, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank in Washington.</br></br>May data on job openings and labor turnover showed the drop in the rate of job openings at employers has started to flatten out. The report's silver lining was the latest in a string of indicators that show the U.S. economy may be nearing bottom.</br></br>There were 2.6 million job openings on the last day of May, about the same as a month earlier, but down from four million openings in May 2008. The seasonally adjusted job-openings rate was 1.9% in May, the same as in April and down from 2.8% in May 2008. | yes | 1 |
0 ÐÊ*'<åÇåÇåÈ Uil T<, | l week in more than four years today, l with a broad decline that left the L Dow Jones industrial average at a ÐÊ new 15-month low.</br></br>down 44.35 pointsÛÓthe biggest weekly loss since a 58.62-point drop during Oct 8-12, 1979, when* the Federal Reserve announced a major shift in its monetary policy strategy. [ In the past week, there was no such I lightning-bolt development in the : business or political news.</br></br>Before the market opened today, the Labor Department reported that I the producer price index of finished : goods was unchanged in May, dupli- i have been unresponsive to signs of improvement in the bond- market, Û÷ and that proved to be the case again today.</br></br>Brokers said that could indicate traders were growing increasingly fearful of a developing economic slump, which might help the bond market by reducing demand for credit, but might leave the stock market depressed because of disappointing corporate earnings prospects.</br></br>IBM dropped IV* to 99 Ms on turnover of more than 2.5 million shares. Weakness in this ÛÏbellwetherÛ issue, which traded as high as 134 Vi last year, has been cited as a depressant on the general market lately. | no | 0 |
Profit-Taking in Technology Sector, Weak Bond Market Push Prices Down | NEW YORK -- Volatility ahead of today's options expirations, profit-taking in the technology sector and a slumping bond market led to a modest pullback for small-company stocks.</br></br>Prices swung in a narrow range between positive and negative</br></br>territory as investors geared up for the "double witching" session</br></br>today.</br></br>"There's some skittishness as a result of tomorrow ," Leslie Seff, head of Nasdaq trading at Wagner Stott & Co., said yesterday. "I've seen profit-taking, and I've also seen some aggressive selling." | no | 0 |
Experts Now Foresee Drop In the Deficit; Declines in Rates, Spending Are Cited | Estimates of the federal budget savings due to an assumed 0.8 percentage point decline in interest rates on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes were misstated in a Business article yesterday. Such a reduction would reduce the deficit by about $12.5 billion in fiscal 1997 and a cumulative $33 billion between now and 1997 according to the office of the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. (Published 4/23/93)</br></br>Spending this fiscal year is running so much lower than expected for medical care, deposit insurance losses, interest on the debt and some other programs that budget experts said the 1993 deficit is apt to be $35 billion or so less than the Clinton administration estimated only a few weeks ago.</br></br>A number of Wall Street budget watchers now expect that the deficit for all of 1993 will be around $280 billion, about $10 billion lower than 1992's $290 billion and well below the $316 billion administration estimate.</br></br>James Blum, deputy director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said that unless revenue drops off unexpectedly, the Wall Street projections could be correct. "Right now, if I were a betting person, I would bet on a deficit lower than last year's level," Blum said.</br></br>The same big drop in interest rates that has homeowners scurrying to refinance their mortgages is responsible directly or indirectly for a large part of the brighter outlook on the deficit. The fall in interest rates has meant that the government's interest bill over the past six months actually has been slightly less than it was a year earlier. | no | 0 |
D&B Survey Expects Trends to Continue In Second Quarter | NEW YORK -- Business in the second quarter is expected to maintain the recent trend of ebbing sales, stable prices and marginal profit gains, according to a new Dun & Bradstreet Corp. survey.</br></br>D&B's quarterly survey of business expectations indicates that "inflation isn't accelerating," said Joseph W. Duncan, corporate economist and chief statistician. And, he noted, "while sales optimism is at the lowest level since 1983, it remains well above the levels generally associated with impending recessions."</br></br>In the survey, conducted between Feb. 7 and Feb. 27, D&B asked 1,500 executives in manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing whether they expect increases, decreases or no change from their first-quarter sales, profits, prices, inventories, employment and new orders. The index in each case is the difference between those expecting an increase and those expecting a decrease.</br></br>While the sales outlook among manufacturers deteriorated, retailers expect higher sales in the second quarter, "underscoring the fact that consumers are now responsible for most of the current economic growth," Mr. Duncan said. The retailers' sales optimism index rose to 61 from 55 in the first quarter and 1989 fourth quarter.</br></br>He said sales optimism is strongest in the oil patch states of the West South Central region, while New England has the bleakest sales outlook. And virtually no employment growth is expected in New England in the next few months. | no | 0 |
Mortgage Rate Lock-In Can Shelter You From a Surprise at Settlement -- But Get It in Writing | QWe signed a contract to purchase our first home last week, and settlement is scheduled for mid-May. Before the contract was signed, we shopped around for the best mortgage. After the real estate contract was signed, we immediately contacted the lender we had selected and made a formal application. The lender asked us if we want to lock in the interest rate.</br></br>This is our first house, and we have absolutely no understanding of the way the mortgage market works, so we did not understand his question. However, he explained that if we lock in by signing a document called a "loan lock-in," the rate the lender quoted would be guaranteed as long as settlement takes place by the time specified in the sales contract. We know that interest rates are on the rise. Will this lock-in document protect us?</br></br>AA lock-in agreement will be your best protection, but all terms and conditions must be spelled out clearly and the document must be in writing.</br></br>In the past few years, mortgage interest rates have been at their all-time low. So potential borrowers were satisfied with their under- 6 percent rates. But now that rates are on the rise, potential home buyers want absolute certainty that the loan they have arranged will in fact be available on the day of closing. I believe that we have seen the last of the under-6 percent loan rates, at least for the foreseeable future. Thus, the concept of locking in your mortgage interest rate becomes important.</br></br>You are concerned that your lender will honor its commitment to you. This is understandable. Even if you can afford a higher-rate loan, you may now have a double problem: I strongly suspect that because property values have dramatically escalated in the past few years, you probably agreed to pay a high price for your house and a higher mortgage rate will mean an even larger monthly payment. | no | 0 |
Hart Hits Personal Tax Boost: Says Corporate Increase Should Pay for Great Society | Sen. Philip A. Hart (D-Micb.) flatly opposed an increase ip the personal income tax yesterday, claiming it would be of little help in the fight against inflation.</br></br>ÛÏSo why hit consumers, already hard pressed by highÛª prices and high interest rates with another punishing blow in the form of a tax hike when it wonÛªt have the desired result anyway,Û he asked.</br></br>Hart, chairman of the Senate Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee, proposed: Instead that taxes on corporate profits be raised to furnish added funds for Great Society programs.</br></br>After-tax corporate profits, he said, have climbed 88 per cent in the past nine years, ÛÏin part because there is no longer enough competition to keep prices at minimum levels.Û</br></br>HartÛªs notion that prices ÛÏno longer bear a clear relationship to demandÛ is rank heresy to most Administration economists, particularly those who have leaned toward a tax increase in the past year. | no | 0 |
Unemployment Drops Slightly in September | The nationÛªs unemployment rate dropped slightly' in September after edging u]) the previous month, the government reported yesterday-allaying fears by some analysts that joblessness may bo on the rise again.</br></br>The Labor DepartmentÛªs monthly employment survey showed the jobless rale hack at 0.9 per cent of the work force, down from 7.1 per cent in August. At the same time, the number of jobs in the economy began growing again.</br></br>Importantly, the new figures showed a sizeable drop in the unemployment rate for blacks, reversing an August surge that many analysts had considered alarming. Julius Shiskin, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, said the new figures showed that the August rise was a fluke.</br></br>greeted with some fanfare by the White House. Jody Powell, the President's press secretary, said the improvement was "widespread enough to indicate there is a recovery from the summer slump.Û</br></br>However, economists noted Hint the decline still did not edge the jobless rate off the 7 per cent plateau on which it lias been stuck since Inst April. An internal analysis by the White House shows little improvement is likely over tile next several months. | no | 0 |
School Board Says Supervisors Obligated to Adopt Its Budget | The School Board on Tuesday night approved a $186.4 million operating budget for fiscal 1999 -- an increase of more than $33 million over the 1998 spending plan -- then said the county supervisors have an "obligation" to adopt the budget in full.</br></br>Board members acknowledged that the budget is a substantial increase, but they said growth, inflation and the stunting effects of the supervisors' past budget cuts, have made it necessary. School Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III has said that in the last eight years, the supervisors have given the schools $62.3 million less than requested.</br></br>"The Board of Supervisors could have funded every dollar of the School Board's approved budget within the eventually adopted tax rate and still produced a surplus," said School Board member Edward J. Kiley (Mercer).</br></br>"Instead, they reduced it by $64 million and put us under the inflation curve. If that happens again this year, then some people in this county ought to be ashamed of themselves."</br></br>The School Board made a few minor changes, involving teachers' salaries, to Hatrick's initial $185.5 million proposal, bumping up costs an additional $900,000. The board also approved a $214.9 million operating budget for fiscal 2000, $300,000 less than Hatrick's proposal. | no | 0 |
Heeding The Voice of Silent Cal | The chief business of the American people is business, Calvin Coolidge famously said seven decades ago. If Silent Cal were around today, he might conclude that Bill Clinton's chief business as president has been the politics of business.</br></br>From imposing trade sanctions on China to helping Mexico out of its financial jam, from fighting the budget deficit in his early presidential days of economic recovery to presenting his new, mildly reflationary budget, the president has steered a steady course of placating American business interests and seeking the financial markets' authenticating approval.</br></br>No surprise there. Clinton's concern with holding the strong support he got from the business community in 1992 and steadying the markets has long been evident. But David Alan Munro writes from Laguna Beach, Calif., to put the administration's quest for approval from Wall Street in a broader, more speculative perspective.</br></br>"There will always be a main non-governmental entity -- for example, the Church prior to the Reformation -- from which government seeks approval or legitimacy," writes Munro, a retired history professor. "That entity has been finance-capital for a long, long time."</br></br>Today Munro believes that the "authenticating mechanism" for government and politicians is shifting from financial markets to the media, which Clinton alternately courts and assails. Caught on the cusp of this transformation and not sure which way to turn, the Clintonites "are in for a rough ride" in 1996, the professor notes with sympathy. | no | 0 |
Plan to Lure Business Drawn Up in Fairfax | Businesses in Fairfax County would be offered tax breaks, developers would be issued building permits faster and some government pension funds would be used for private investment under a plan to be presented to the Board of Supervisors next week.</br></br>The sweeping proposals from a commission appointed by the board are intended to entice out-of-state businesses to move to Fairfax and revive the county's stagnant economy.</br></br>"Their recommendations are going to be very controversial, but profound," said Board Vice Chairman Elaine N. McConnell (R-Springfield).</br></br>"The first thing it would do is send out a message nationally that we're going to change our way of dealing with businesses that come in here," she said.</br></br>The plan, put together by a group of business leaders headed by McConnell, may become a blueprint for the new Republican majority that recaptured the board last year with a pro-business, pro-growth platform. | no | 0 |
Fed Plan Stimulates Companies --- Issuance of $12 Billion Makes for Busiest Day Since Sept. 8 | A bevy of household names rushed to sell cheap debt on Thursday after the Federal Reserve said it would pump at least $600 billion into the financial system in a bid to revive the economy by pushing down interest rates further.</br></br>At least $12 billion in high-grade bonds came to market, making it one of the busiest days in nearly two months, according to data provider Dealogic, the most since companies sold $19.2 billion of investment-grade bonds on Sept. 8.</br></br>Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, General Electric General Electric Capital and Oglethorpe Power were all in the market.</br></br>Coca-Cola's issue, at $4.5 billion, was the biggest of the day and the company's largest ever.</br></br>Corporations have been issuing bonds in droves this year, taking advantage of unprecedented market conditions, in particular the historically low yields on the Treasury securities to which their bonds are benchmarked. The Fed's renewed effort to lower Treasury yields rekindled their appetite to stockpile cheap cash for rainy day funds, acquisitions or share buybacks. | yes | 1 |
Buyout Fund Contemplates a REIT Turn | Richard Baker, a big investor in shopping centers and retailers, raised $400 million in 2007 for a "blank-check company" that would buy operating businesses like restaurants and casinos. But he didn't do a deal as the economy fell off a cliff.</br></br>Now he has another strategy that is being watched closely in the real-estate industry. Instead of returning the money -- which he would be required to do soon if he didn't spend it -- Mr. Baker wants to convert the company, named NRDC Acquisition Corp., into a public real-estate investment trust. The new company, named Retail Opportunity Investments Corp., would be geared toward buying retail properties from distressed owners.</br></br>The move is the latest sign real-estate investors are looking to the public markets for capital at a time banks are reluctant to lend and private capital is scarce. The strategy has paid off for many. Investors have bought more than $15 billion in REIT secondary stock sales so far this year.</br></br>Several companies have completed initial public offerings to raise money to invest in distressed real-estate debt, including Starwood Capital Group LLC's $810 million IPO last month. But Mr. Baker's attempt is different from these "mortgage REITs" because he would focus on buying actual properties -- specifically, supermarket-anchored strip shopping centers on the East and West coasts of the U.S. -- rather than the debt behind them.</br></br>If successful, Mr. Baker's attempt could set the stage for other companies to ask stock-market investors to fund blind pools for investing in shopping centers, warehouses, office buildings and other kinds of commercial real estate whose owners face loan defaults. | no | 0 |
GE Posts Rise Of 8.6% in Net For 3rd Quarter --- Sales Show 9.2% Gain; Drop In Taxes Cited, but Firm Labels Results `Good' | FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- General Electric Co. reported an 8.6% increase in third-quarter earnings as "longer cycle" businesses offset softness in other areas.</br></br>The electrical and consumer products, broadcasting and financial services concern said net income rose to $1.03 billion, or $1.16 a share, from $945 million, or $1.04 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 9.2% to $14.2 billion from $13 billion.</br></br>Per-share earnings were up 12%, partly reflecting purchases by the company of 12 million of its shares during the quarter. GE had 878 million shares outstanding Sept. 30, compared with 906.4 million a year earlier. GE has bought back 35 million shares since its share-purchase program began in November.</br></br>GE Chairman John F. Welch Jr. termed the performance "good" in spite of a weakening economy and the Mideast crisis, which he said slowed such lines as plastics, lighting and appliances. Those are known as GE's "shorter cycle" businesses, as contrasted to "longer cycle" lines such as aircraft engines, medical systems and power generation. The chairman also said the GE Appliance unit was able to compensate for the sales softness with productivity gains.</br></br>Mr. Welch said that despite considerable uncertainty in the U.S. economy, GE "expects 1990 to be the fourth straight year of a double-digit increase in earnings per share." | yes | 1 |
Fed Cuts Rates in Bid to Boost Economy; Banks Trim Prime but Don't See Demand: Discount Rate Falls to 4.5% as Concern Is Expressed over Crisis of Confidence | WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve made its boldest bid since February to get the economy moving again, cutting two key interest rates.</br></br>The Fed dropped its discount rate to 4.5% from 5% and cut the federal funds rate to 4.75% from 5%. Together, the moves prompted banks to cut their prime lending rates to 7.5% from 8%. Other interest rates are likely to fall as well.</br></br>The action followed a meeting Tuesday of the Fed's policy committee, during which officials talked at length about the pessimism that has gripped the U.S. economy, according to some who attended. They noted the sharp drop in consumer confidence in October, as well as the sour attitude of many business executives, including those who sit on the boards of the 12 district Federal Reserve Banks.</br></br>In response to that crisis of confidence, Fed officials decided to take more dramatic action than usual, to give a psychological kick to the economy. The effect was amplified by the fact that it came just one week after the central bank's previous credit-easing move, when it cut the federal funds rate to 5% from 5.25%.</br></br>The federal funds rate is the interest rate that banks charge on loans to each other, and broadly influences other shortterm interest rates. The discount rate is the rate the Fed charges on loans to financial institutions, and is important largely for its symbolic value. | no | 0 |
Tracking the Economy: Business Hiring Data Hint at a Slowing --- But Drop in Unemployment To 5.4% Rate Indicates Economy Is Still Healthy | WASHINGTON -- Sluggish business hiring in September suggests the economy is growing a bit more slowly, although the drop in the civilian unemployment rate to 5.4% is a reminder that the economy is still very healthy.</br></br>The Labor Department's employment report was viewed by many economists as convincing evidence that earlier fears of an overheating economy were misplaced. "The economy is slowing, not dramatically, but there is some modest slowing," said John Hagens of WEFA Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., forecasting firm.</br></br>Still, there were enough conflicting signals in the report to allow Republicans to celebrate the continued health of the economy while Wall Street concluded that growth is tapering off and, therefore, that inflation and sharply higher interest rates aren't as much of a threat.</br></br>Investors displayed their relief by pushing up stock and bond prices sharply, allowing interest rates on long-term Treasury bonds to fall to the lowest level in nearly six months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 42.50 points, closing at 2150.25. "The market read it correctly," said Milton Hudson, economist for Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. of New York. "I think we're headed for a soft landing. This gives us a glimmer of hope."</br></br>The Labor Department said non-farm payrolls grew by 255,000 in September. Ordinarily, that would be considered strong growth, but much of the September increase reflects greater-than-usual hiring by public schools at the beginning of the school year. Businesses added only 140,000 jobs, and factory payrolls fell for the second month in a row. In the past three months, the economy has added 638,000 new jobs compared with more than one million in each of the three preceding quarters. | no | 0 |
Consumer Spending Up 0.7 Percent: November Gain, Aided by Higher Incomes, Is Steepesi | ÐÊ Consumer spending rebounded 0.7 percent in November from its sharp fall a month earlier, the government reported yesterday, and analysts said itÛªs one of the bright spots in a slowing economy.</br></br>ÛÏIt suggests that while we have some weak areas in the economy, particularly in the manufacturing sector, that the consumer has not turned off completely,Û said David Jones, an economist with Aubrey G. Lanston & Co. in New York.</br></br>Consumer spending, which has been a major factor in the economic growth during the first nine months of the year, is watched closely as a barometer of economic health because it accounts for about two-thirds of the nationÛªs economic activity.</br></br>The Commerce Department also reported an 0.8 percent increase in personal incomes in November, but some analysts questioned whether income growth will soon begin to weaken and thus cause a decline in spending.</br></br>The report said consumer spending rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate to $3.54 trillion, the steepest gain since a 1 percent jump last April. | no | 0 |
Claimsnet.com IPO Soars, Outshining Debut by PLX | NEW YORK -- Two high-tech initial public offerings presented more evidence of investors' preference for anything related to the Internet.</br></br>Shares of Claimsnet.com Inc., an electronic-commerce company that helps health-care companies process transactions on the Internet, doubled in their first trading day on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Meanwhile, PLX Technology Inc., which makes semiconductor devices and software and has a solid history of earnings and revenue growth, made a less impressive debut on the Nasdaq.</br></br>Investors appeared willing to overlook the fact that Claimsnet.com is losing significant sums of money and is barely generating revenue. "It's distressing," said David Menlow, president of the IPO Financial Network in Millburn, N.J.</br></br>Analysts said the latest trend appears to be successful offerings from Internet companies that not only are posting losses, but hardly have revenues.</br></br>PLX priced 3.3 million shares at $9 apiece, $1 above the projected sale price. The stock closed at $12.125. Claimsnet.com priced 2.5 million shares at $8, the midrange of the estimated spread of $7 to $9. The shares closed at $16.50. | no | 0 |
Market Retreats as Rumors Spur Trading | NEW YORK, April 18-The stock market retreated in active trading today in a session punctuated by unfounded rumors.</br></br>The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials, seldom ahead throughout the day, lost 8.06 to 1,156.51, offsetting its 4.29-point gain on Tuesday.</br></br>Prices of some long-term Treasury bonds tumbled nearly a point, or $10 for each $1,000 in face value, and short-term interest rates rose.</br></br>But many Wall Streeters are said to remain skeptical that the economy will soon slow to the point where rates actually fall, especially if the U.S. budget deficit remains unchecked.</br></br>ÛÏThe major overhang is the question of whether rates have peaked; if the bond market says Û÷no,Ûª the stock market canÛªt attack 1,200 [in the Dow Jones industrial average], which is the big resistance level,Û said Larry Wachtel, first vice president of Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. | no | 0 |
to Block Oxy ÐÊ -ÐÊ* | The Justice Department yesterday filed a civil antitrust suit against Occidental Petroleum Corp., in an effort to block the $1 billion takeover of the Mead Corp.</br></br>The government claims that if Occidental is allowed to take over Mead, the company could monopolize the markets for several products.</br></br>ÛÏThe two companies are multi-bil-lion-dollar diversified companies with overlapping interests in sodium chlorate, coal and carbonless copy paper,Û the Justice Department said in announcing the suit</br></br>West Virginfe entered the railroad business yesterday, formally taking deed to a 52-mile stretch of track that has been unprofitable for the Chessie System.</br></br>In an unusual procedure that may set a precedent for maintaining railroad service along routes with a relatively small amount of freight shipments, Chessie donated the branch line and associated real estate to the state. | no | 0 |
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