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Unemployment Unexpectedly Drops to 5.8% for September: Unemployment Declines Despite Economic Slo... | The nationÛªs unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped from 6 percent in August to 5.8 percent last month, the Labor Department reported yesterday.</br></br>Most analysts had expected at least a small increase in unemployment as a result of the current slowdown in economic activity. But Û¢ the report showed 610,000 more people employed in September than in August.</br></br>Almost all of the reduction in unemployment between August and September took place among adult women, reversing jobless increases reported as occurring between July and August. This rapid down-and-up suggested to some analysts that the August increase in unemployment was overstated, and that much of the September improvement was also a statistical mirage.</br></br>Janet Norwood, commissioner of labor statistics, told CongressÛª Joint Economic Committee (JEC) that neither the survey of American households nor that of businesses ÛÏyet sho'yvs any unmistakable signs of labor market recession.Û</br></br>Nevertheless, most economic forecasters still believe the economy, if not already in a recession, will be soon. | yes | 1 |
Clear Cut Strategy Clear Cut | THE REAGAN administrationÛªs chief budget strategist, OMB director-designate David Stock-man, observes that only economic growth and inflation control can really reduce the federal budget deficit. But he has also noted the importance of linking stimulative tax cuts with a cut in federal spending deep enough to allay fears of inflationary pressure. Can he succeed in budget control where his predecessors have failed?</br></br>Budget cutting is not exactly a new preoccupation in this town. President Carter waged a three-year war with federal agencies and Congress to control federal spending. The battle was not completely in vainÛÓper capita non-defense spending has declined by about ll1 percent in the last two yearsÛÓbut the effort was thrown out of whack by an estimated $25 billion increase in spending this fiscal year caused by higher unemployment, prices and interest rates,</br></br>Mr. Stockman is aware of the practical necessity of early consultation with congressional leaders and interest groups a nicety too frequently ignored by the Carter administration. But such efforts at creating a consensus also require that budget cuts be fairly and broadly distributed. In a country this rich, the main burden of fighting inflation cannot be put on those least able to bear it: the poor and the unemployed.</br></br>A broad-bast'd cut in benefits is essential in any case to provide enough money to support a healthy tax cut. And a tax cut must be big enough to con- vince the many taxpayers who benefit directly from government programs that they are not losing out on the deal. This suggests two other important principles: tax cuts should be linked to spending cuts, and the spending cuts should be presented as a package. No dessert without the spinach.</br></br>Some things, as a practical matter, canÛªt be cut; air traffic controllers are the favorite example. But there arenÛªt many others, and a few programs probably deserve outright annihilation. The idea of an across-the-board cut for most programs shouldnÛªt be dismissed out of hand. True, it implies changing the terms of entitlement programs at least temporarily (one easy way is to defer cost-of-living adjustments briefly), but it avoids having to reorder priorities substantially, a difficult job to do in the rush of a first budget season. Some improvements might also be sought on the revenue side, such as withholding tax on interest and dividends, a big money-raiser with no effect on tax rates for the honest. | no | 0 |
Strong Data Weigh on Treasurys | Treasury prices were lower as a slew of economic reports suggested the country's economy fared better in March than expected, bolstering investor appetite for riskier assets.</br></br>Construction of new homes rose 7% in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.04 million, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, which was the highest level since June 2008. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast housing starts would rise 1.7% to a rate of 933,000. February's figures were revised sharply higher to a rate of 968,000.</br></br>"The housing market report is important, because housing remains one of the key pillars of strength for the recovery," said Millan Mulraine, director of U.S. Rate Strategy at TD Securities. "To the extent that housing continues to chug along despite the weakness around, it is encouraging."</br></br>Yields for Treasurys drifted lower from Monday late afternoon, when blasts in Boston triggered a flight to safety and drove prices higher. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note was down 5/32 to yield 1.717% at 3 p.m. EDT, according to Tradeweb. The 30-year-bond lost 14/32 to yield 2.901%. Bond prices move inversely to yields.</br></br>In addition, U.S. industrial output increased 0.4% last month, beating the consensus of a 0.2% gain, according to a Federal Reserve report. The better-than-expected figures were entirely due to robust utility production, thanks to the cold weather. | no | 0 |
Banks' Reserves Tighten; Loans Up | NEW YORK, June 19 (AP)ÛÓA tightening in the net reserve position of U.S. commercial banks in the week ended Wednesday was reported by the New York Federal Reserve Bank today.</br></br>It said the banksÛª net borrowed reserves average $1,271,-000,000 in the week, compared with a revised net borrowed reserve average of $872 million in the prior week.</br></br>Borrowings by member banks from the Federal Reserve System averaged $1,316,000,000, an increase from the $1,260,000 average the previous week.</br></br>Commercial and industrial loans at major New York City banks Increased $207 million in the week, compared with a rise of $202 million in the previous week and a gain of $528 million in the like 1968 week.</br></br>Averages of dally figures Wednes-. Wk. ended Chng.from wk. end. day, June 18, June 11, June 18, June 18, 1849 1949 1948 1949 | no | 0 |
India Rupee at One-Week Low | The Indian rupee dipped to its lowest level in a week against the U.S. dollar Wednesday, mainly because of a slide in the euro, with a late recovery in local stocks lending little support.</br></br>The dollar was at 55.48 rupees late Wednesday, compared with 55.94 on July 12 and 55.11 rupees late Tuesday in Asia.</br></br>The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex finished 0.5% higher.</br></br>The rupee opened on a positive note, mirroring strength in the euro. But the greenback gained after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave few clues to point toward a more near-term economic stimulus while speaking before a Senate committee.</br></br>Still, Mr. Bernanke's bleak assessment of the U.S. economy led investors to hope that the central bank might be forced to take monetary easing steps. | no | 0 |
A Card to Borrow Your Future; Can Access to Credit Encourage Savings? | For a quarter-century, a Boston inventor has been obsessed with a single idea: an innovation that would give millions of American workers the chance to borrow their own money from their 401(k) savings plans using a new kind of credit card.</br></br>In 1980 the inventor, an animated fellow named Francis Vitagliano, shared his concept with an MIT professor, Franco Modigliani. The Italian-born economist had been writing for 20 years about his theory of how and when people spend and save money during their lifetime, the so-called Life-Cycle Hypothesis. Modigliani's work would win him the 1985 Nobel Prize in Economics, but the call from Vitagliano would, he thought, give him a way to test his theory in real life.</br></br>The men became champions for this new financial instrument, spending untold sums for a patent on the card idea, trying to sell it to banks and credit card companies, and withstanding a barrage of criticism from members of Congress and the financial community.</br></br>Franco Modigliani died last year at age 85. But tomorrow in Washington, Francis Vitagliano, now 55, is scheduled to watch as the 401(k) card is unveiled at a financial conference. Appearing on a panel will be an official of ING, the global financial services company that has licensed Patent No. 5206803 and is preparing to introduce the new card to employers and their k-plan participants soon, after receiving final regulatory approval from the state of Connecticut.</br></br>In this time of worry about the American retirement system, the card will once again cause a flap -- but possibly not as much as it has in the past. Whatever the immediate outcome, this is not the last stop for the controversial card as it does or does not become a staple of American getting and spending. And the tale of how it came to exist is one worth telling. | yes | 1 |
Suddenly, a Markets Turnaround --- Dow Is Up Nearly 20% From a Low, Other Markets More; Is It a Tease? | Investors are ringing in the new year by taking on more risk even though the economic outlook remains grim.</br></br>From junk bonds to currencies, mortgages, stocks and commodities, the markets that were most battered in the second half of 2008 are staging rebounds, sometimes of 10% and more from their low points.</br></br>The breather comes as the U.S. government continues to push investors toward taking more risk because the returns on risk-free assets like Treasury bonds are extremely low. "No question about it, there's an improvement in risk," says Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital.</br></br>But the rallies may prove fragile if early optimism fades amid the challenges of revamping the devastated mortgage industry and stimulating a weak economy prove too daunting.</br></br>On Tuesday, the stock market continued its recovery from November's lows. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 62.21 points, or 0.69%, while the Standard & Poor's-500 stock index added 0.78%. | yes | 1 |
COG: Area Economy Isn't Recession-Proof: D.C. Vulnerable to Recession | An analysis just released by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments appears to give further credence to the theory that the regionÛªs economy is no longer recession-proof.</br></br>Although' the COG findings are based on an analysis of leading indicators in the final quarter of 1981, the conclusion is significant in that it tends to dispel a myth about the regionÛªs economy.</br></br>Indeed, the COG report concludes: ÛÏ ... It appears that the Washington region is equally experiencing the effects of national recessionary trends and has become less resilient in recent years.Û for the first quarter of this year probably wonÛªt be completed tor another two to three weeks, according to Noora Ahmed, an economist at COG.</br></br>However, since there appears to be a pattern in which regional indicators have been tracking national barometers, itÛªs possible that the economy in metropolitan Washington continues to experience a slowdown.</br></br>What emerged in the final quarter last year, COG said, is a ÛÏcombined result of slowed economic growth as well as the implementation of the economic recovery policy designed to balance the federal budget by reducing the level of federal employment and federal spending.Û | no | 0 |
Getting Inner Cities Online; For-Profit Enterprises Try to Make Money by Doing Good | The young man in baggy pants stands at a street corner with an armful of blue-and-gold fliers. "Ma'am," he says, waving one of the sheets of paper at a passerby. "Do you own a computer?"</br></br>Juan Velez continues, telling the woman about the "digital divide," the gap between the people who do and don't have access to the Internet. Many of the jobs in the next century will require computer skills, he says. Then comes the sales pitch: She can get her very own home system, monitor and all, plus unlimited Internet access for a year, for only $249.</br></br>Five other teenage volunteers are nearby, giving the same windup to other downtown visitors on a recent Saturday. They are part of an unorthodox technology-promotion campaign that began three months ago in this working-class town dotted with abandoned textile and paper mills.</br></br>The organization they represent is no charity. It's part of a growing group of for-profit enterprises trying to do well by doing good. The business models of such start-ups make some uncomfortable, and it's unclear how many will survive the current high-tech shakeout. But proponents say the companies show promise in serving markets long ignored by mainstream businesses.</br></br>Digital Mafia Entertainment Inc. (DME), based about 20 miles southeast of here in Manhattan and worth about $8.5 million in the stock market, specializes in selling discount hardware and technology services to urban minority communities. Its chief executive is Darien Dash, 29, a well-connected entrepreneur who has been traveling around the country with President Clinton for the past year encouraging people to get online. | no | 0 |
Business and Finance | CLINTON UNVEILED an industrial policy in which the government would explicitly back the development of commercially useful technology. The president's plan would shift billions of dollars from military research to civilian purposes, and also fund a variety of projects in manufacturing, next-generation automobiles and computer networks.</br></br>The president's tax package appears to give a big boost to capital-intensive companies rather than to the service sector, causing worry that the plan won't generate 500,000 new jobs. Several new Democratic members of Congress expressed concern about the absence of deeper budget cuts.</br></br>---</br></br>A sharp bond market rally sent interest rates plunging. The yield on the Treasury's 30-year bond fell to 6.93%, its lowest level in 15 years. Stocks were mixed, with the Dow Jones industrials climbing 20.81 points to 3342.99. But over-the-counter issues tumbled.</br></br>--- | yes | 1 |
Bus Services Reaching the Beach | Census figures show that the Washington metro area leads the country in household income, education and women in the work force.</br></br>One of the sad tradeoffs for living in a region with all these impressive facts and figures going for it seems to be a three- to four-hour drive to the nearest beach. And then there's the reluctant, sticky-gritty-sunbumt drive backÛÓthe soul-crushing thought of facing the inevitable car clog at the Bay Bridge.</br></br>ÛÏI like the beach, but for a long time, I wouldnÛªt go because of the traffic problem,ÛªÛª says Steve Strauss, who recently started a weekend beach-and-back bus service called the Shore Express, which for $75ÛÓjust three bucks more than a Greyhound round tripÛÓpicks up sunseekers in the the metro area and delivers them to the Delaware and Maryland, beaches in style. (Gay and lesbian beachgoers can take advantage of a luxury bus service called Shore Leave, which leaves Dupont,Circle for Rehoboth Beach each Friday.) ÛÏThree-plus hours is a long haul to drive just for a weekend,Û Strauss says. ÛÏThere are a lot of people who go down there regularly throughout the summer. I donÛªt know how they survive that drive every weekend. This makes</br></br>it a lot easier for them. ItÛªs a lot safer, comfortable, convenient. People can use their time better on the bus.Û ÛÏWhen you drive it, youÛªre never certain of how much traffic youÛªll hit at the bridge,Û says Betty Fubini of Arlington, who shuttles three grandchildren to her Bethany Beach cottage on the bus. ÛÏAnd we always had to stop someplace. When we used to come, we found very few restaurants along our route. That was always a problem.</br></br>ÛÏSo I took the bus for convenience. It lets me out within walking distance of our cottage. It meant that I didnÛªt have to drive down. I could come when I wanted to, and not be dependent on someone driving us.Û ÛÏThe concept is to provide enjoyable luxury mass transportation bus service from the D.C. area to the Maryland-Delaware beaches,Û says Strauss, who launched the first bus on the Fourth of July weekend. | no | 0 |
market averages to modest | About two-thirds of all issues traded on the New York 8&&K-Exchange advanced in price, but softness on the part</br></br>About two-thirds of all issues traded on the New York 8&&K-Exchange advanced in price, but softness on the part sumpuon of Tuesdays substantial rise, which some Wall Street analysts credited to President NixonÛªs optimistic outlook on the economy expressed Monday night.</br></br>The action of Chemical Bank of New York in following the cut in the prime lending rate to 6Vz per cent by Pennsylvania Banking & Trust Co. of Philadelphia added support to the market, analysts said. Chemical later in the trading day was joined in the cut by Morgan Guaranty Trust and First National City, both New York banks.</br></br>Among 1,664 issues traUecT on the Big Board, 1,098 a<j-L vanced, 341 declined, and 9819Jrs against 3 losers and were unchanged. There \^eW changed.</br></br>The Dow Jones averag^M^OO shares. Telex, up lVa 30 industrials closed witfo å¤cy8 0n 356,800 shares, was small gain of 2.20 at 83sfe!y& 1(j. | no | 0 |
Bill Would Apply Safeguards To Refinancing of Mortgages; House Member Says Abuses by Lenders Are Frequent | The question of the hour was whether people refinancing their mortgages are being deceived and cheated.</br></br>Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-Calif.), chairman of the House banking subcommittee on consumer affairs and coinage, thinks they are.</br></br>"Over the past few days, my phones and fax machines have been besieged with consumers experiencing difficulties in mortgage refinancing," he said this week as he opened a hearing on legislation he has introduced "to stop numerous scams by unscrupulous lenders and mortgage brokers who prey on consumers."</br></br>The bill, which Torres said he hopes to attach to a pending housing authorization bill, would apply to refinanced mortgages the kinds of consumer-protection laws that cover original mortgages, including detailed, advance estimates of loan terms and charges.</br></br>It also would require lenders to honor locked-in interest rates within the agreed-to time period (typically 60 days), and outlaw use of the Rule of 78s, a mathematical formula sometimes used to calculate the interest rebate owed to the consumer on a mortgage being refinanced. | no | 0 |
Euro Advances on Dollar | Author: Neil Shah</br></br>NEW YORK--The euro drifted higher against the dollar after sliding sharply in European trading, as the currency surmounted worries about the European Central Bank's inflation-fighting acumen and the region's debt woes.</br></br>German central bank chief Axel Weber's decision to no longer seek the presidency of the European Central Bank sparked fears that the ECB's next leader may lack a strong stance against rising price pressures. Central banks raise key interest rates to cool off inflation, and higher rates can push a currency's value higher.</br></br>But traders shrugged off their fears, along with comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledging the U.S. central bank might end its $600 billion bond-buying program before its expected end in June. Mr. Bernanke's comments briefly boosted the dollar against the euro.</br></br>After dipping to $1.3610, the euro climbed to a high of $1.3745 before easing off. Interest rates on U.S. Treasury bonds dipped after a strong sale of U.S. government debt, pushing the euro higher against the dollar. Investors, meanwhile, are still hoping that European leaders will map out a strategy for financing struggling euro-zone nations. | no | 0 |
The Economic Report Pg- A18 | The dominant theme of both the President's Economic Report and the annual report of his Council of Economic Advisers is succinctly summarized in the following passage: "The past five</br></br>The dominant theme of both the President's Economic Report and the annual report of his Council of Economic Advisers is succinctly summarized in the following passage: "The past five years have demonstrated that the economy can operate free of recurrent recession. Now the United States is entering a period that will test whether sustained full utilization of our human and physical resources is possible without the injustice, dislocation, and decline in competitive position that accompany inflation.Û</br></br>President Johnson asked whether the growth of plant capacity and the supply of skilled labor will accommodate the increased demand for gpods and services without a destructive wage-price spiral. His ÛÏconfidentÛ answer to each of five questions that he raised was ÛÏYES." But mere confidence is not sufficient. That is why the Council devoted a searching chapter to "The Prospects for Cost-Price Stability."</br></br>What is disquieting about the Administration's fiscal program for 1966-67 is that it proposes to raise tax revenues by only $6 billion at a time when the demand for goods and services is approaching the limit of the capacity to produce them.</br></br>In 1964-65 the Gross National Product increased by S47 billion (from $628.7 to $675.6 billion), a gain that clearly outpaced the expectations of the Council. For 1966 the Administration is basing its fiscal estimates on a $722 billion GNP. plus or minus $5 billion. But if it is assumed that tins forecast will also understate the GNP growth by a percentage of error roughly equivalent to last year's, a GNP of $730 billion for 1966 is not implausible. It would imply a $54 billion gain or an annual growth rate of 8 per cent. | no | 0 |
U.S. Warns N. Korea On Nuclear Weapons; In Seoul, Clinton Demands Treaty Compliance | President Clinton, entering a Cold War time warp today, promised to protect East Asia and warned North Korea against engaging in "endless discussions" as a way to continue a program to build nuclear weapons.</br></br>Clinton arrived this afternoon from a meeting in Tokyo with leaders of the world's seven leading industrial powers, all preoccupied with post-Cold War concerns of economic recession and competition. In South Korea, Clinton is cast in the role assigned predecessors over four decades since the close of the Korean War: the stern guardian of a lonely frontier of freedom, facing communist North Korea.</br></br>"North Korea must understand our intentions. We are seeking to prevent aggression, not initiate it," Clinton said in a speech to the South Korean Assembly. "We urge North Korea to reaffirm its commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty" and allow inspections, he said.</br></br>In March, North Korea renounced adherence to the treaty. The move came amid reports that Pyongyang had obtained the ability to produce a nuclear bomb or two. A slow process toward reunification with South Korea halted.</br></br>China, at the behest of the United States, tried but failed to dissuade North Korea. The United States opened talks last month, and North Korea did reverse its decision. But the government of Marshal Kim Il Sung still would not let international inspectors check nuclear facilities. "The key issue is inspections," a senior administration official said. | no | 0 |
Captain Ben Charts a Treacherous Course | Another day, another surge into uncharted territory.</br></br>The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced it will buy a further $600 billion of long-term Treasury securities. Coupled with existing purchases to keep its balance sheet from shrinking, it makes a total of $850-900 billion by the end of June. At about $110 billion a month, that is not that far off the huge monthly net issuance Uncle Sam is churning out to fund the deficit.</br></br>Strangely, the Fed's bold decision follows a period in which U.S. economic data have shown some improvement. Manufacturing activity rebounded in October, retail sales have shown surprising strength and even private-sector hiring is gradually picking up steam. Plus, there are clear risks that the Fed's action will create economic and market distortions.</br></br>Yet those received little acknowledgment in the Fed's statement. The central bank's justification for the move is that unemployment, at 9.7%, remains too high, that core inflation is too low, and that lackluster gross domestic product growth is unlikely to change that soon.</br></br>Also, having encouraged markets to factor in another bout of monetary experimentation, the Fed probably did not feel it had the option to disappoint. And Tuesday's electoral shifts made the chance of fiscal stimulus even less likely, leaving the Fed looking like the only institution with a lever to pull. | yes | 1 |
Indian Shares End at Over-Three-Month High | MUMBAI--Indian shares closed at their highest level in more than three months Tuesday, lifted by sustained buying by foreign funds in front-line stocks such as cigarette maker ITC and ICICI Bank.</br></br>The Bombay Stock Exchange's S&P BSE Sensex index gained 215.31 points, or 1.1%, to close at 19888.95 points -- its highest level since Jan. 31. The National Stock Exchange's Nifty index rose 72.50 points, or 1.2%, to end at 6043.55.</br></br>The gains in the stock market and strong dollar inflows, which dealers said were likely related to a corporate deal, lifted the local currency against the U.S. dollar. At 1120 GMT, the dollar was quoted at 54.12 rupees, compared with 54.18 rupees in Asia late Monday.</br></br>Dealers said the dollar inflows were most likely related to Qatar Foundation Endowment's deal announced last week to buy a 5% stake in Indian telecommunications major Bharti Airtel for $1.26 billion.</br></br>"Global liquidity is chasing emerging-market stocks and India seems to be one of the top beneficiaries," said Nilesh Karani, assistant vice president for research at Magnum Equity Broking. | no | 0 |
Gold Coin Sales May Get a Boost From U.S. Issue | Since the U.S. banned imports of the Krugerrand last October, the Canadian Maple Leaf has snared more than 65% of the gold-coin market here, overtaking the South African coin for the first time since the U.S. ban on gold sales was lifted in 1974.</br></br>But the Maple Leaf is meeting new competition on several fronts. Sales of the four-year-old decorative Chinese coin, the Panda, have surged. Luis Vigdor, senior vice president of Manfra, Tordella & Brookes Inc., the large New York foreign-exchange dealer, calls it the "hottest coin on the market." The state of California has begun offering a "California Gold" piece. And next October, the U.S. government will issue its first official gold coin in 50 years.</br></br>If the new U.S. coin is "properly defined and distributed, it could knock everything else out of the water," asserts Jeffrey Nichols, president of American Precious Metals Advisors.</br></br>Although gold coins have lost the enormous appeal they had in 1980 -- when inflation propelled gold to record high prices -- they may be ready for a modest comeback. Many gold bugs see inflation returning, and with it, coin buying. Some feel the introduction of the American gold coin will also revive the market. It will act "like an injection of vitamins" into the U.S. gold market, says Mr. Vigdor.</br></br>For prospective coin buyers, the most important consideration is a coin's liquidity. "You want to be certain that in two years or 10, you can resell it," says Mr. Nichols. Coins' purity and weight also vary; one-ounce coins are the most popular among investors. | yes | 1 |
Theory & Practice: Firms Step Up Training for Front-Line Managers; To Boost Crucial Skills, Dell and Home Depot Strengthen Programs | In January, Dell Inc. sent factory supervisor Julie Figlar for her first bout of specialized management training. For five days at a Nashville hotel, she and 17 other front-line supervisors practiced how to give feedback to workers, resolve conflicts and other skills.</br></br>It is more than many companies do for the managers who are at the front lines supervising workers. Traditionally, these supervisors learn how to manage on the job, mostly by trial and error, with little formal instruction in people skills. Big companies offer more training in information technology than in management skills, according to the American Society for Training and Development. As a result, many new managers struggle with asserting authority, communicating with workers and delegating responsibility.</br></br>Now, some companies, including Dell and Home Depot Inc., are stepping up formal manager training. The moves come as many firms seek to better motivate and engage workers in an increasingly global and fast-paced environment.</br></br>Pat Galagan, an executive at the training and development society, sees many companies gradually increasing training for front-line supervisors. She says those leadership skills are gaining importance as companies try to boost worker productivity. Front-line supervisors are "the ones who are in the best position to get more discretionary effort out of people," Ms. Galagan says. "That makes them much more critical than they've ever been."</br></br>Home Depot noticed earlier this decade that its traditional informal coaching and mentoring for first-line supervisors had become less effective as the company expanded and higher-level managers grew busier, says Leslie Joyce, chief learning officer at the retailer. "That works well when the numbers are small," she says. "As we got bigger, that methodology didn't work as well." Home Depot now has about 30,000 department supervisors, the first rung of management in its stores. | no | 0 |
For New Japan Envoy, Economics Is Key | Even before the Senate considered his nomination as U.S. ambassador to Japan, Michael H. Armacost traveled the country to talk to U.S. business executives-a visible sign of the new importance economics and trade holds in the relationship between Tokyo and Washington.</br></br>Armacost, who leaves today to take up his new post, said he told the executives that "they can count on the American government and its diplomats when they are encountering real obstacles rather than problems of their own making. They can expect the government to be helpful." "The American ambassador has to regard himself as the first commercial officer of the embassy," Armacost, 52, said during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing.</br></br>Under Armacost's predecessor in Japan during the past 12 years, Mike Mansfield, trade grew in importance. But it still was secondary in embassy affairs to more traditional diplomatic aims of maintaining the security ties between the two countries.</br></br>While giving greater emphasis to economic issues, Armacost made it plain that he means to keep a lid on trade frictions before they become serious enough to undermine what Mansfield called the most important bilateral relationship in the world.</br></br>Armacost yesterday told foreign journalists-largely Japanese reporters-that he wants to contribute to the discussion of trade differences "in a kind of low-key, cool, objective way that avoids histrionics and hyperbole and a lot of unnecessary nationalism on both sides." | no | 0 |
Futures Markets: Recent Rally in Platinum, Gold Prices Jumps the Tracks Amid Profit-Taking | The precious metals rally derailed as platinum and gold prices plummeted amid heavy profit-taking.</br></br>Platinum prices for immediate delivery, which had risen 31% in the past month alone, plunged $29.50, to $646.70 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the sharpest daily decline on the platinum market in 3 1/2 years, exchange officials said. The active October contract fell $25 an ounce, to $652.70. Gold prices followed suit, with the October contract at the Commodity Exchange in New York tumbling $11.80, to $412.50 an ounce.</br></br>Traders and analysts attributed some of the sell-off to a stronger U.S. dollar and weaker oil prices, which tend to keep a lid on inflation. Many traders hold precious metals, especially gold, as an inflation hedge. A weaker dollar and early whiffs of inflation have been cited among other factors in precious metals' recent rise.</br></br>But despite the economic factors, many analysts said a correction was simply due. "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that platinum is vulnerable" at these levels, said Gail Levey, platinum analyst for Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc., New York.</br></br>William O'Neill, research director at Elders Futures Inc., New York, added that the sharp decline indicates that the precious metals rally could soon fizzle. "Prices could turn the other way, and before you know it there could be a major sell-off," Mr. O'Neill said. | no | 0 |
Headwaters Sinks 5.9%; Bidding War Boosts 3PAR | NEW YORK -- Deal activity represented a glimmer of hope for a market struggling to show conviction during these low volume, summer trading days. But it wasn't enough to lift small-caps, which extended their losing streak to three consecutive sessions amid one of the lowest volume days of the year.</br></br>"Traders must be at the Hamptons or something," said Brett Hawkins, portfolio manager at Thompson, Siegel & Walmsley. "On really low volume days like this, it's tough to glean a lot about what's going on in the market."</br></br>Investors on Monday continued to focus on the economic recovery as tepid job growth, a fragile housing market and weak consumer spending overshadowed more acquisition offers.</br></br>The Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization stocks fell 8.11 points, or 1.3%, to 602.67. The measure has dropped 4% throughout its three-day losing skid. For the month, the index is down 7.4%. The Standard & Poor's SmallCap 600 fell 4.08 points, or 1.3%, to 322.89.</br></br>Materials were small-caps' biggest decliners, losing 1.9% on the S&P 600. Building-products firm Headwaters fell 19 cents, or 5.9%, to $3.06, and paper-products maker Neenah Paper fell 97 cents, or 6.3%, to $14.52. | yes | 1 |
Plots & Ploys: Warehouse Wager | Brookfield Asset Management is making a big bet on e-tailing.</br></br>The company's $4.4 billion global real-estate fund has agreed to acquire Industrial Developments International Inc., an owner of 27 million square feet of warehouses, distribution centers and other industrial property.</br></br>Much of that space is used to store products sold by online retailers and brick-and-mortar companies that are stepping up their Internet sales.</br></br>Brookfield is paying $1.1 billion to Kajima, a real estate and engineering company.</br></br>With this deal, Brookfield extends an industrial-property shopping spree, which includes the purchase of the real-estate investment trust Verde Realty and U.K.-based EZW Gazeley. It now owns 51 million square feet of industrial space, most of that in the U.S. | no | 0 |
Is Home Building Facing a Decline?: New Pinch Is Feared In Building | a hard-handed Federal Reserve System credit squeeze is responsible. The central bank is tightening its credit screws in a determined attempt to halt the inflationary spiral that broke loose several months ago. Home building and would-be home buyers will be hurt and will be hurt badly. They always are the first to be hit by a credit shortage.</br></br>The threatened recession would be Hie second enforced slowdown that home building has suffered in the last 24 months. It was hit a devastatingLy hard blow by the credit crunch that the Federal Reserve imposed to stop the 1966 inflationary upsurge.</br></br>The only bright spot is that the coming squeeze may not be quite as damaging as the destructive 1966 punch.</br></br>ÛÏI think the impact may be a little less severe but home building is going to be hurt Ûª a top official declared. ÛÏI donÛªt see how they can get out of it. You canÛªt get by without some bloodletting.Û</br></br>million a year clip but it wonÛªt be long before the rate skids to 1 million or less if the credit squeeze exacts its anticipated toll. The prospect of a home building recession contrasts starkly with President JohnsonÛªs ambitious call for 6 million new moderate and low-income homes in the next 10 years and the Riot CommissionÛªs dramatic demand that 6 million be built in 5 years. It takes mortgage loans to build houses and tihe money is not to be had in an anti-inflationary credit squeeze. | no | 0 |
Computer Associates' Shortfall Gives It Credibility of a Wet Pack of Firecrackers | Computer Associates International taught investors an old, but important lesson yesterday: Fourth of July firecrackers are best enjoyed when you are not holding them when they explode.</br></br>The mainframe software firm lighted a fuse when it reported very late Monday night, actually just before midnight on July 4, that it would miss analysts' estimates for its fiscal first quarter ended June 30. It didn't provide full details in the late Monday announcement.</br></br>This wasn't your ordinary, miss-the-estimates-by-a-penny-type announcement. Instead of earning the 55 cents that analysts expected, the Islandia, N.Y., company anticipated earnings of 11 to 16 cents, it later disclosed in a conference call yesterday morning.</br></br>When the post-holiday markets finally opened, investors couldn't drop the stock fast enough. It plunged 43% to $29.375, down $21.75, in heavy 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading -- the largest percentage decliner on the Big Board.</br></br>Wall Street was fuming. Indeed, the market carnage underscores the sensitive issue of trust between a company and Wall Street investors. Credibility can get a company through a rough patch, keeping investors from bailing out, limiting the damage to a stock price on bad news, and buying senior executives time from boards that look to the stock price as a report card for management. All that is blown when a company throws the Street a nasty curve. | no | 0 |
Cincinnati Bell Plans to Acquire IXC For $2.2 Billion Plus $1 Billion in Debt | Cincinnati Bell Inc. agreed to buy IXC Communications Inc. in a deal valued at $2.2 billion, plus the assumption of about $1 billion in debt.</br></br>The move will enable the company to expand its Cincinnati phone empire to include business services nationwide.</br></br>Wall Street responded to the deal by sending Cincinnati Bell down $3.75, or 16%, to $19.8125 a share in New York Stock Exchange composite trading; shares of IXC rose $3.50, or 9.7%, to $39.75 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.</br></br>IXC, an Austin, Texas, long-distance company, is building a nationwide fiber-optic network amid competition from rivals such as Qwest Communications International Inc. But it has so far failed to inspire investor enthusiasm. IXC brought in a chief executive and chief financial officer and is overhauling its strategy in the business-services market.</br></br>Cincinnati Bell said it is gaining an asset that has the potential to become a big profit center. "We see this as a tremendous marriage," said Richard Ellenberger, president and CEO. | no | 0 |
Surviving the Greatest Financial Crisis of Our Time | Dave Kansas has written "The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It: What You Need to Know About the Greatest Financial Crisis of Our Time -- And How to Survive It" (Collins Business).</br></br>For the Color of Money Book Club selection for March, I recommend you read Kansas's book, which at $15.99 is a bargain look at how we came to be in what I call the Millennium Meltdown.</br></br>Kansas is an experienced financial journalist who has covered the good, bad and ugly of the financial markets. He's editor-at-large for FiLife, an online personal finance Web site. He spent four years as editor of the Wall Street Journal's Money & Investing section and was once editor-in-chief of TheStreet.com.</br></br>"We're experiencing a moment when nothing and no one feels safe," Kansas summarizes in the book's introduction. "People are understandably frustrated and angry. . . . It is a time of high anxiety with moments of panic arguably not seen in this nation since the Great Depression, even if the present circumstances don't exactly mirror the calamity of that age."</br></br>Part of the reason we're fuming about our financial state is that we were hoodwinked. We were told not to worry because Wall Street wanted us to win. So, in good faith, we invested. We invested our money in retirement plans or college funds hoping not necessarily to become Rockefeller rich but to earn a decent return. | no | 0 |
Credit Tightened Slowly By Federal Reserve | an easy credit policy. But it is not quite so easy as it .was. The difference may presage a rise in interest rates later in the year.</br></br>How far the federal reserve plans to go remains to be seen. It seems highly unlikely that the nationÛªs central bank will get downright stingy with credit. Yet, official figures strongly indicate that it is becoming a little less generous.</br></br>Officials at the board followed their customary practice today of declining to explain subtle shifts in policy and emphasis. But they openly declined to dispute the inference that the boardÛªs own figures on bank reserves point to a shading in the direction of less credit.</br></br>As yet, the shift in emphasis has produced no noticeable upward trend in interest rates The boardÛªs own discount rate still is 3 per cent. Banks still have ample supplies of loan money. There is said to be an excess of mortgage money.</br></br>Federal Reserve officials feel there is no foreseeable danger that modifying credit ease will hinder economic expansion. | no | 0 |
The Auto Bailout: Paulson Wants Rest of TARP Funds From Congress --- Request After Auto Bailout Leads to Uncertainty Over How and When the Second $350 Billion Tranche Will Be Accessed | WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government's rescue of the auto industry drained what remained in the first half of Treasury's $700 billion bailout fund, prompting Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to call on Congress to release the rest of the money.</br></br>The move sets off a period of uncertainty for financial markets as the Bush administration and the Obama team scramble to determine how to proceed.</br></br>On Friday, Mr. Paulson said lawmakers should release the second $350 billion "to support financial market stability." He said he would discuss tapping the money "in the near future" with congressional leaders and members of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team.</br></br>Draining the current bailout fund raises the question of how the administration would handle an unexpected fiscal emergency. Mr. Paulson said in a statement Friday that Treasury, along with the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., has "the necessary resources to address a significant financial market event." While the first $350 billion has been allocated, not all of the money has been spent and Treasury could dip into the unused funds.</br></br>Mr. Paulson has not decided whether to formally request the second half of the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- known as TARP -- or leave that task to the Obama administration, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House suggested it may not make any requests before President George W. Bush leaves office, according to Deputy Chief of Staff Joel Kaplan. | no | 0 |
U.S. News: Student Debt Sparks a Fight | Republican and Democratic lawmakers agreed this week to approve new subsidies for college students but clashed on how to offset the $6 billion cost of the measure so it doesn't add to the federal deficit, setting up a potential election-year showdown over budget policy.</br></br>House Republicans plan to vote as early as Friday to freeze the interest rates on certain federal student loans at 3.4% for the year that starts July 1. The lawmakers plan to make up the unrealized revenue by tapping money that was directed by the 2010 health-care overhaul to fund investment in illness-detection procedures. Without congressional action, the rate on the loans would double on July 1 to the 6.8% level that applies to the most commonly used type of federal student loan. Loans issued before July 1wouldn't be affected.</br></br>House Democrats are proposing to find the $6 billion by removing tax breaks for oil and natural-gas companies. Senate Democrats will suggest raising the money by ending a tax provision benefiting small-business owners, aides said.</br></br>With three different proposals and no clear path to consensus, the debate could continue until the June 30 deadline for congressional action.</br></br>President Barack Obama, seeking to energize young voters, called on Congress this week to renew the measure, which enables college students who demonstrate financial need to borrow up to $5,500 a year at an interest rate of 3.4% -- much lower than typical private loans. | no | 0 |
Tales of 2 Tech Firms -- With Very Different Endings | It's time to say goodbye to a pair of Washington area companies that were pioneers in emerging technologies that have matured into major industries.</br></br>Capitol Multimedia Inc. of Bethesda, which made compact disc software for the very first CD-ROM home entertainment system, is closing its headquarters here and moving to Boston. Once a hot Washington stock, the company's shares sank to a record low last week after Capitol Multimedia reported another big write-off that left investors whimpering.</br></br>In contrast, Penril DataComm Networks Inc. of Gaithersburg, a maker of modems since the days when people asked, "What's a modem?," will go out with a bang today) after reinventing itself as a new venture called Access Beyond.</br></br>Penril shares -- which were up 25 cents to $16.75 a share Friday, the highest price in years -- are scheduled to trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market for the last time this morning. By afternoon, former Penril stockholders will own shares in Access Beyond, trading as ACCB on the Nasdaq, and Bay Networks Inc. (BAY on the New York Stock Exchange), a California company that is buying Penril's modem business.</br></br>When Penril began making modems nearly 20 years ago, executives had to explain that the word was shorthand for "modulator-demodulator" and a modem was a black box that allowed computers to communicate over telephone lines. | no | 0 |
Trade Deficit Takes Sharp Turn for Worse: Near Record March Imports Swamp Exports MER | The U.S. merchandise trade deficit took a sharp turn for the worse in March, increasing by 38.5 percent as America's seemingly insatiable appetite for foreign cars, phones and machinery for offices and factories sucked in near record levels of imports, the Commerce Department announced yesterday.</br></br>But economists saw a bright side to the trade numbers, noting that the $8.4 billion deficit for March is below the monthly average for 1989. Analysts also praised the continued strong showing of U.S. exportsÛÓ$33.3 billion in MarchÛÓwith overseas sales growing twice as fast as imports during the first three months of the year.</br></br>ÛÏThat's the kind of trend you like to see. Eventually, the two lines have to cross," said Howard Lewis, vice president for international economic affairs for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).</br></br>He said that, so far this year, the trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $90 billion, far better ÛÏthan a lot of people, including us, had expected.Û Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher also said strong export growth Ûªwill keep the 1990 trade deficit under $100 billion for the first time since 1983.</br></br>of Evans Economics, said the totals for the first three months are skewed by the February deGcit of $6.1 billion, which was viewed as an aberration. They predicted little change in the deficit from last yearÛªs $109 billion level. | no | 0 |
Obama Chides Stimulus Critics | President Barack Obama used the backdrop of Ohio's struggling Mahoning Valley Tuesday to lay out one of his strongest attacks on Republican critics of his economic policies, accusing them of "rooting for failure" and hindering the nation's recovery.</br></br>He also proposed a trust fund of more than $800 million to pay for the cleanup of nearly 90 shuttered General Motors sites in 14 states.</br></br>"If the just-say-no crowd had won out--if we had done things that way--we'd be in a deeper world of hurt," he told workers at the V&M Star steel plant in Youngstown. "The steady progress we are beginning to see across America just wouldn't exist. ... So I invite anyone who thinks we shouldn't have taken those actions or made those investments to come to places like this and tell us why."</br></br>Mr. Obama's trip to Ohio was the latest in an almost weekly effort to talk up the economic recovery outside of Washington. But this speech was notable for its sharp tone and its location, just over the border from Pennsylvania, where Sen. Arlen Specter could face defeat in Tuesday's Democratic primary, despite the president's support.</br></br>The president declined to make a last-ditch appearance in Pennsylvania to rally Democratic voters to Sen. Specter, who left the Republican Party in the face of a GOP backlash for his vote in favor of the Obama stimulus plan. Instead, the president laid out the economic argument he is likely to make a mainstay of the midterm election season. | no | 0 |
U.S. Due to Ease Jumbo Loan Aid | Author: Nick Timiraos</br></br>Government backing for many pricey home mortgages is set to expire at the end of the year, which could begin to ratchet down federal support for the housing market but also jeopardize the sector's shaky recovery.</br></br>Congress allowed government-chartered mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to back loans as high as $729,750 two years ago to help resuscitate the housing market. The new limits, which offer exceptions in some locales to the standard $417,000 limit, also applied to the Federal Housing Administration.</br></br>The fewer bank-issued mortgages that the three agencies guarantee, the harder it is for borrowers to qualify for loans and the higher their interest rates. Unless lawmakers intervene, those higher limits, which mostly affect high-cost areas such as San Francisco, New York and Washington, D.C., will fall at year end to around $625,500.</br></br>If that happens, home prices would "drop precipitously" because it would be "impossible to finance homes in most parts of Los Angeles and certain other major cities" with high prices, Rep. Brad Sherman, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said at a hearing last week. The California Democrat has introduced a bill to make the larger limits permanent and has attracted 74 co-sponsors. | no | 0 |
Rate, Profit Fears Send Stocks Down | Stymied by concerns about interest rates and earnings, investors pushed stock prices lower today, focusing again on technology issues.</br></br>The latest blow for the high-tech sector was Merrill Lynch's downgrading of the fiber-optic industry, which had been seen as the last solid performer in the industry. And investors were still shaken by the renewed prospect of higher interest rates that would further cut into corporate earnings.</br></br>Stock prices fluctuated in a narrow range for much of the day as the market sought a direction. By late afternoon, investors found a path: downward.</br></br>The Nasdaq composite index fell 133.61 points to close at 3031.88, and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was off 17.49 at 1372.32, according to preliminary calculations. Both indexes have a large representation of high-tech stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average finished down 51.57 at 10,656.03.</br></br>"You're still seeing a lack of deep conviction on the part of the bulls," said Ronald J. Hill, investment strategist for Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. "So the market seems to be driven by the news of the day." | yes | 1 |
Bank's Reporting Under Fire --- SEC, Others Examining Whether Regions Financial Improperly Classified Bad Loans | Federal agencies are examining allegations that Regions Financial Corp. improperly classified loans that went bad during the financial crisis, according to depositions filed as part of a civil lawsuit against the large southeastern U.S. bank.</br></br>The new government inquiries about Regions Financial include subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Regions Chief Financial Officer David Turner said in a July 20 deposition. Another former executive testified on Sept. 17 that the Federal Reserve had deposed him about the bank's practices, and he answered additional questions from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Alabama Banking Commission and the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or SigTarp, the federal watchdog created to oversee the government's investments in troubled financial companies.</br></br>Regions Financial, SEC, the Federal Reserve, FBI, SigTarp and the Alabama Banking Commission declined to comment. Mr. Turner declined to comment through a Regions spokeswoman.</br></br>The depositions -- unsealed by a federal judge in the company's headquarters city of Birmingham, Ala., earlier this month -- indicate widening U.S. scrutiny of the lender as regulators and federal investigators step up their surveillance of the methods banks use to classify loans or reserve for losses.</br></br>Two transcripts filed earlier this month in a separate civil lawsuit against Bank of America Corp.'s Countrywide Financial unit show the SEC asked employees about the repurchase of defective loans Countrywide sold to investors before the housing bust. Both Bank of America and the SEC declined to comment. | no | 0 |
Federal Reserve May Have to Accelerate Tapering, Says Plosser; U.S. Economic Growth Picked Up Pace in Second Half of 2013 | The Federal Reserve may have to accelerate the pace of tapering to take into account the economic pickup currently ongoing in the U.S. and the improving forecast for the near future, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said.</br></br>"We must back away from increasing the degree of policy accommodation in a manner commensurate with an improving economy," Mr. Plosser told a panel in Paris. "Reducing the pace of asset purchases in measured steps is moving in the right direction, but the pace may leave us well behind the curve if the economy continues to play out according to the FOMC forecasts."</br></br>Based on the latest gross domestic product numbers, the U.S. economy accelerated its pace of expansion in the second half of 2013 from the first half. Real output showed growth of 3.3% from 1.8% in the first half.</br></br>As the economic outlook improves, the Fed announced in January its second cut to its monthly purchase program to $65 billion. At the current pace, the FOMC will end the purchase program later this year.</br></br>But Mr. Plosser noted the pace may not be fast enough. | yes | 1 |
Aircrafts Up Late in Day | NEW YORK. Aug. 17 (.?)ÛÓA promising stock market rally fizzled into irregularity today on dwindling volume.</br></br>Sales of 1,720,003 shares were the lowest since July 2 and compared with 1,790.000 yesterday. With only 1094 issues traded it was the narrowest market since last Nov. 11.</br></br>In flurries of activity spaced throughout the early part of the session, steels, rails and coppers went ahead. At their best, pivotal issues made gains of 2 points or better.</br></br>By the close, however, the range of gains among the leaders was pared to about a point or so. Losses went about the same distance except for some special situations where they were wider.</br></br>Some aircraft issues awoke late in the session to make sizable advances as Glen L. Martin was heavily traded on the official word of big contracts it has received in the intercontinental guided missile field and other activities. This stock headed the most-active list. | no | 0 |
Rally in Treasuries Makes a Longstanding Bet Look Good; Texas's Hoisington Investment Management Has Been Wagering for More Than a Decade That Yields Will Fall | The roaring rally in government bonds has thrown Wall Street for a loop, but it comes as no surprise to a group of veteran money managers in Austin, Texas.</br></br>Van Hoisington, president of Hoisington Investment Management Co., and Lacy Hunt, its chief economist, have been wagering for more than a decade that bond yields in the U.S. will fall, thanks to rising debt that they say inhibits economic growth, retards inflation and pushes down interest rates.</br></br>In recent weeks, Hoisington, which manages $5.4 billion invested mostly in long-term U.S. Treasury securities, has looked especially prescient, as the potential for economically damaging deflation in Europe has become a serious concern for investors.</br></br>The yield on 10-year government bonds has tumbled below 1% in Germany for the first time ever and below 2% in the U.S. for the first time in more than a year, a surprisingly low level at a time of healthy employment gains in the U.S. Prices rise when yields fall.</br></br>While many fund managers and analysts have been predicting bond yields would move higher as the U.S. economy picks up steam and the Federal Reserve prepares to wind down its bond-buying stimulus program, Hoisington disagrees. Mr. Hunt says the U.S. debt burden will continue to weigh on rates for many years, pushing bond yields down, regardless of actions central bankers around the globe might take to reflate economic growth. | no | 0 |
War of Attrition: Passage of Drug Law Won't Bring Victories Soon, Experts Warn --- More Research Funds Urged; Attempts to Cut Demand Are Called Promising, Iffy --- 'Just Swatting at Symptons' | WASHINGTON -- When it comes to rushing out anti-drug legislation this election year, most lawmakers just can't say no. But the "War on Drugs" about to be launched by Congress with President Reagan's strong backing isn't likely to win any quick victories.</br></br>"Everybody is stampeding to get into the act," says Sen. Phil Gramm, because curbing illicit drugs has become the sexiest issue on the national political radarscope. But another reason "we're moving so fast," the Texas Republican says, is "we're so late" in recognizing the extent of the drug problem and in beginning the search for solutions. He supports an attack on drugs as long overdue.</br></br>Critics and even some supporters contend, however, that Washington's highly touted anti-drug "war" is long on rhetoric but skimpy on substance. Part of the new legislation focuses on expanding the enforcement strategies that haven't worked in the past. And while increased education and research efforts offer hope, experts say that so far nobody can point to reliable, long-term methods for preventing drug experimentation or addiction. Even statistics about the extent of drug abuse are uncertain.</br></br>The greatest worry of many professionals is that the rising rhetoric will unduly raise hopes for an early solution.</br></br>Congress and President Reagan "are merely swatting at the symptoms," asserts Paul Cleary, a Harvard University medical sociologist. Even one of the architects of the administration's program, Dr. Charles Schuster, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, sees potential danger "in creating a false sense of optimism that the problem can be corrected with big bucks and a quick fix." | no | 0 |
Raise the Gas Tax-Now! | Just about everything George Bernard Shaw said, or, more correctly, wrote down on a piece of paper, was memorable, if not immortal. Consider that he observed that if all economists were laid end to end, they could not reach a conclusion. Someone else modified that wisdom to note that if all economists were laid end to end, they would point in all directions.</br></br>Can any of us disagree? Take, for example, what is being said about the proposed gasoline tax. Every guy who can correctly spell "John Maynard Keynes" is now on his soapbox, making totally contradictory pronouncements about the much-discussed possibility of a gasoline tax to reduce the federal deficit. A goodly number are saying that a 15-cent-a-gallon federal tax on gasoline (added to the present 9.1 cents) would knock about$15 billion off the debt in a reasonably painless way. Another group is saying that such a tax is inflationary and unfair to low- income groups and to drivers in western states who have to run longer distances for the necessities of life. Others are in concert with George Bush, simply moving their lips in a doctrinaire opposition to taxes of any kind.</br></br>So what should be done? Regardless of what the boys in the White House think, a whole lot of folks here inside the Beltway think a tax on gasoline is inevitable, but only if the Democrats in Congress can generate enough guts to pass such a levy and then stand the heat of the sure-to-come presidential veto. That means they get saddled with the mark of Cain as the ones who jacked up the taxes-to save the nation from financial ruin-over the dead bodies of the gallant Bushies. But so what? Is it possible that just once Congress could exhibit a little political courage in the name of the national good?</br></br>We need a higher tax on gasoline. We would need it even if the national debt were zero. We would need it even if we were $176 billion in the black. Why? Because national priorities transcend simple dollars. As in keeping this planet from turning into a gaseous little hothouse. We are fouling our atmosphere at a sinful rate, and something has to be done to reduce our irrational dependence on fossil fuels of all kinds. (Yes, we need revised taxes on all sorts of energy consumption, but that is a broader question that must be addressed as part of a comprehensive energy policy.)</br></br>Advocates for a simple gasoline tax increase include conservative economists like Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker as well as liberals like Felix Rohatyn and Lester Thurow. Opposing them are heavy-duty highway-user interests and such pressure groups as Fuel Users for Equitable Levies, or FUEL for short. They claim that truckers, commercial interests, low-wage earners and folks from states like Wyoming would be unduly penalized by the tax. (Wyoming tops the list of 16 states whose residents consume more than 500 gallons of gasoline per year.) | no | 0 |
Record Exports Cut Trade Gap For 1st Quarter --- Machine Sales Helped Slice Deficit to $35.95 Billion; Imports Also Set Mark | WASHINGTON -- Strong machinery exports helped reduce the nation's merchandise trade deficit, measured on a balance of payments basis, to $35.95 billion in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said.</br></br>The level of exports and imports both set records, but exports expanded at a much faster rate. The fourth-quarter gap was revised to $41.19 billion; it was previously put at $40.17 billion.</br></br>Among exports, industrial supplies also posted a big increase in the first quarter. Farm shipments hit their highest mark since the fourth quarter of 1984, thanks partly to strong wheat shipments to the Soviet Union. Overall, exports increased 9.8% to $74.67 billion in the latest quarter from $68.01 billion in the previous period.</br></br>U.S. exports have benefited from the dollar's decline in foreign currency trading over the past three years. A lower dollar makes imports more expensive and U.S. products more competitive overseas.</br></br>Imports increased 1.3% to $110.62 billion from $109.21 billion. The figures benefited from an 11.6% drop in imports of petroleum and related products. The decline was due to lower prices, as shipments rose. Big increases came in nonelectrical machinery and passenger cars from Canada and South Korea. Auto imports from Japan and West Germany fell. | yes | 1 |
Investors Turn to Real Estate | NEW YORK (AP)ÛÓSour on a stork market that been stalled and eonvinel that inflation will pay a p: longed visit, individual inv tors, institutions and corpofgS tions are increasingly turning to real estate.</br></br>ncial Corp., lists these ex*j in I960 today sells for $150 to $700 million in real estate Investments at the end of i960, reasons whv it believes real An industrlal Slte hat reasons wny it neueves real ^ jor jq cen^g a SqUare ^oot</br></br>This was a 10 per cent increase over I960, and company officials forecast another 10 per cent Increase for 1970,</br></br>Real estate, it has been 6h^. served during the last four years of inflation, has been a true hedge against the declin-i ing value of the dollar. The stock market generally has failed to live up to its reputation as a hedge.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for example, stands far below its 1905 high. Urban land prices, however, have been rising at an average rate of 6 per cent a year, according to Chase Manhattan Bank. | yes | 1 |
Reading the Market | Steven Einhorn should be sitting atop the world. For months Einhorn-the chief investment strategist at Goldman, Sachs & Co.-has said stocks would go higher. Others might harbor doubts. Not Einhorn. He plastered his clients with facts and figures, but his message was simple: The bull market endures.</br></br>And so it has. The market has dropped sharply in the past week, but the decline has been from an all-time high. In general, the metaphor has rarely seemed so apt. The bull has rumbled over anything that might disturb its advance: Irangate, the insider-trading scandal, gyrating oil prices. The first-quarter gain of the Dow Jones industrial average (23.2 percent) was the second best since World War II. Since the summer of 1982, stock values have nearly tripled (see table). The market has made Einhorn look like a genius.</br></br>It makes me feel like a moron. The biggest bull market since World War II begs for meaning beyond the stock statistics. I wish I could supply it. Having purged inflation's excesses, are we launched into a greater prosperity? Or has the market gone mad? It's one or the other-or something in between. Don't look to Wall Street for insight. Even the sober market analyses, like Einhorn's, bristle with arcane ratios. A lot of the rest is, well, gibberish.</br></br>The market's latest guru, Robert Prechter, predicts a 3600 Dow (yesterday's finish: 2252.98). Prechter embraces the Elliott wave. It's mysticism to me. The theory, says Barron's, holds "that the stock market zigzags up in five waves, three up and two corrective moves down. It then is supposed to turn down for three waves, the middle one of which is an upside correction. This pattern . . . is repeated three times, culminating in a major three-wave correction." Got it?</br></br>Of course, lower inflation and interest rates are the basic causes of the stock and bond market rallies. A 30-year Treasury bond issued in 1981 at 15.2 percent and worth $1,000 is now worth more than $1,600 because the market interest rate has fallen to 8.3 percent. Stock prices rise for the same reason. A given stream of profits and dividends justifies a higher price. | no | 0 |
Stocks Rise on Tech News, Signs of Economic Gains; Nasdaq Up 3.4% on HP Profit Report | Major stock indexes climbed 2 percent or more yesterday, sparked by hints of a tech recovery and sustained by promising economic news.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average rose 222.14 points, or 2.6 percent, to 8845.15, and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 19.61 points, or 2.2 percent, to 933.76.</br></br>The tech-heavy Nasdaq did particularly well. Responding to better- than-expected earnings from Hewlett-Packard, the index surged 48.20 points, or 3.4 percent, to close at 1467.55, its highest level since June 19.</br></br>The hardware and software maker reported strong sales in its printer division and posted a $390 million profit for the quarter, compared with a $505 million loss a year ago. Fourth-quarter earnings of 24 cents per share, excluding charges, beat analysts' expectations by 2 cents.</br></br>That news, coming on the heels of Analog Devices' announcement of increased demand for its microchips and IBM's pledge to invest $1 billion in selling research services, signaled to investors that "things in tech land weren't as bad as previously perceived," said Ned Riley, chief investment strategist for State Street Global Advisors. | yes | 1 |
Is the Hot Economy Overheating? | Economists have all sorts of sophisticated measures of how the economy is doing, but sometimes the best indicator results from something as simple as a shopping trip.</br></br>For Cynthia Latta, principal U.S. economist for Standard & Poor's DRI, a moment of clarity came when she went to a mall recently and didn't see a single sign advertising a sale.</br></br>"I just turned around and walked out," she said, making a mental note that the lack of customer incentives was a sign that store owners had plenty of business without cutting prices, a telltale tip that the economy continues to boom.</br></br>What Latta saw at the mall was reinforced by reams of data that show that consumers, who account for fully two-thirds of the nation's economic activity, continue to spend at a pace that is remarkable eight years into an economic expansion.</br></br>Sales of cars and light trucks are booming, as are sales at chain such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Sears, Roebuck and Co. Yesterday, government figures showed that retail sales jumped a full 1 percent in May, up from just a 0.4 percent increase in April and no increase in March. | yes | 1 |
Gold Prise Rise Won't Solve Trade Problems, Martin Says: High Rates Seen Makes Key Point | FINANCIAL OUTLOOKÛÓSpeakers at the opening panel session of a financial conference sponsored in New York yesterday by the National Industrial Conference Board</br></br>FINANCIAL OUTLOOKÛÓSpeakers at the opening panel session of a financial conference sponsored in New York yesterday by the National Industrial Conference Board included Paul A. Volcker, left, vice president of the Chase Manhattan Bank and William McC. Martin, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.</br></br>! Federal Reserve chairman j William McC. Martin today threw his considerable | weight against the notion that an increaserin the S35 price of gold is either ÛÏdesirableÛªÛª or ÛÏinevitable.Û</br></br>In a dinner speech tonight before the Financial Conference of the National Industrial Conference Board Martin said that an increase in the price of gold would not solve the U.S. balance of payments problem.</br></br>A "cool-headed appraisalÛ will show, he said, "that the price of gold is not the problem.Û He advocated facing up ÛÏto the hard facts of lifeÛ on both sides of the Atlantic. | no | 0 |
U.S. News -- Election 2012: Gingrich Touts Private Plans --- Candidate Now Backs Social Security Change, Making Romney Odd Man Out | MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said on Monday that younger workers should be allowed to divert a portion of their Social Security taxes to private investment accounts, leaving Mitt Romney as the only leading GOP contender not to advocate fundamental changes to the federal retirement program.</br></br>Younger workers also could opt to remain in the current Social Security system under Mr. Gingrich's plan.</br></br>The goal of private-account plans is to allow market returns to replace taxpayer-funded benefits, saving the government money. Mr. Gingrich's proposal, which he outlined in a speech here, is similar to an unsuccessful effort by former President George W. Bush to revamp the popular retirement program for seniors.</br></br>But Mr. Gingrich said his proposal would guarantee that anyone who invested in personal savings accounts would receive as much as traditional Social Security pays out.</br></br>Some conservative supporters of private accounts for Social Security dismissed such guarantees as impractical, saying it meant the government would retain market risk. "It doesn't make any sense to do that . . . Guarantees don't work," said Thomas Saving, a conservative economist at Texas A&M University who helped design Mr. Bush's plan as a member of his Social Security commission. | no | 0 |
Today's Agenda | FDA Ruling Expected</br></br>On Avastin Indication</br></br>The FDA is expected to decide whether to add breast-cancer treatment to the approved uses of Genentech Inc.'s Avastin, an effort that has split the cancer community. An agency advisory committee voted against approval in December.</br></br>Fed's Fisher to Speak;</br></br>PG&E Reports Results | no | 0 |
Vanguard Plans Funds to Trade Like Stock | In a significant concession to the growing number of investors buying and selling at lightning speed, asset-management giant Vanguard Group said it will add new mutual-fund products that trade throughout the day like a stock.</br></br>The decision to seek Securities and Exchange Commission approval for the new investment vehicles comes after months of hand wringing at the nation's second-largest mutual-fund firm. During the past year or so, low-cost exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, have surged in popularity on the American Stock Exchange, threatening to steal business from Vanguard's franchise index funds. ETFs are a hybrid version of index mutual funds that can be bought or sold during the day at market prices instead of at the once-daily 4 p.m. price used by traditional mutual funds.</br></br>The new Vanguard ETFs will compete with upstart ETFs offered by State Street Corp.'s State Street Global Advisors and Barclays PLC's Barclays Global Investors, among others. Vanguard, based in Malvern, Pa., studied the easily traded products for years, and began seriously considering them as an add-on to their traditional index mutual funds about a year ago.</br></br>Industry observers said Vanguard's entry could prompt other fund companies to add ETFs to their traditional index funds. "It's really a case of Vanguard's premier brand name putting the Good Housekeeping seal of approval on exchange-traded funds," said Burt Greenwald, a mutual-fund consultant in Philadelphia.</br></br>The new products, to be called Viper shares and listed on the American exchange, will be added as a new share class to five of the company's most prominent index funds: the $105 billion-in-assets Vanguard 500 Index Fund, the $19 billion Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund, the $16 billion Vanguard Growth Index Fund, the $4 billion Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund and the $3 billion Vanguard Value Index Fund. Pending regulatory approval by the SEC, the new share class will be introduced during the third quarter, a Vanguard spokesman said. | no | 0 |
World Business (A Special Report): So Far to Go --- Gordian Knot: To achieve real competitiveness, the EU Will first have to win concessions from its Most comfortable citizens | Can Europe compete? For nearly a decade, Western European nations have pinned their hopes for economic prosperity on unification -- the merging of their varied economies into the world's biggest single market. But to date, the pace of unification has been slower than anticipated, thanks in part to a vicious, lengthy recession from which the Continent is just now emerging.</br></br>Meanwhile, a streamlined and revitalized U.S. industrial sector has</br></br>formed its own economic bloc with Canada and Mexico, a union that</br></br>eventually could spread to Latin America or across the Pacific. And</br></br>China has joined Japan as an Asian economic colossus, with smaller, | no | 0 |
ON THE JOB | Complaining about the actions of senior management, even when it seems you have a solid right to vent, can be a dicey proposition.</br></br>QI was working on a team project where various peers and senior personnel were supposed to contribute pieces of the final product. A senior-level manager assigned a segment of the work by the project manager sent a rude e-mail to me (a mid-level employee) and several of my colleagues, nastily stating that the work she was responsible for was not 'real work' and that she was too busy to do it. After missing a deadline by 11 days and refusing to delegate the work, she sent a very shabby product and denigrated the type of work that we subordinates do.</br></br>I'm over feeling annoyed and offended but am now wondering if anyone, perhaps the project manager, should confront her about her lack of respect for her teammates and the jobs we do. I expect better from my bosses, but is it wise to voice my thoughts? What's the protocol here?</br></br>AKaren Usher, chief executive of TPO Inc., a Tysons Corner human resources outsourcing firm, said the corporate phenomenon of "people in high positions belittling little people is moderately prevalent" and that sometimes "management doesn't do enough to intervene. Most managers are under-trained."</br></br>In this case, she said the first thing is to "seriously consider saying something to the person that sent you that note. If you go over their head, it can make the situation worse. | no | 0 |
Brimmer Urges New Controls On Multinational Bank Activity | . g^QNTX), Dec. 28ÛÓA small number of very large American banks has become sa.heavily involved in international finance that traditional controls over the U.S. economy are no longer adequate, a Federal Reserve Board governor /warned today.</br></br>Evolution of the commercial banking system in the last decade, said Andrew F. Brimmer, has altered the flow of funds, changed the impact, of monetary policy and placed strains on instruments of central banking.</br></br>At the core of the problem, he continued, are U.S.-based multinational banks that constitute the base of the domestic money markets but also are heavily involved in international finance.</br></br>The end result of their ventures abroad, Brimmer Ûª told the combined conventions of the American Economic Association and American Finance Association, is that the U.S. financial system ÛÏhas become much more open to the influence of foreign financial developments than was the case a decade ago.Û</br></br>Brimmer said efforts to ÛÏrectify this situation should not be delayed much longer,Û and he suggested two possible paths of action: Û¢ More flexible use of reserve requirements for commercial banks ÛÓ money that must be set aside for various contingencies and not loanedÛÓbased on total assets and involving a broad range of liabilities. | no | 0 |
Tea-Party Activists Complicate Republican Comeback Strategy | PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- The rise of conservative "tea party" activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party's quest to regain power. But they're also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win.</br></br>In upstate New York, Dede Scozzafava, 49 years old, is the choice of local party leaders to defend a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, an abortion-rights candidate who could appeal to independents. Doug Hoffman, 59, is a local accountant backed by tea-party activists who has jumped into the race declaring himself the real conservative.</br></br>Mr. Hoffman has siphoned so much support from Ms. Scozzafava that their Democratic rival has vaulted into the lead, according to a poll released Thursday. The election is Nov. 3.</br></br>"I am not your run-of-the-mill politician, and maybe that's why the Republican bosses didn't like me," Mr. Hoffman told a recent health-care forum sponsored by the Upstate New York Tea Party. In an interview, Ms. Scozzafava acknowledged her discomfort at the event. "I knew it wasn't going to be an easy audience for me," she said.</br></br>Republicans are poised to pick up a number of seats in next year's congressional elections, pollsters estimate, on the back of a deep recession, public unease about the growth of government and the size of the nation's deficit. Anti-Obama activism manifested in rallies and town-hall meetings has galvanized conservatives, injecting enthusiasm into the Republican base. | no | 0 |
Investors Rush to Bond Funds | Investors put an estimated $3.76 billion into long-term mutual funds in the latest week as bond funds received $5.14 billion and more than offset outflows at other funds, according to the Investment Company Institute.</br></br>Increased investor interest in bond funds comes as Treasury yields continue to rebound from historical lows at the end of 2008 and as the stock market remains rangebound.</br></br>Outflows in stock funds totaled $739 million for the week ended Wednesday, as U.S. funds had outflows of $8 million and $731 million was pulled from foreign funds.</br></br>Investors withdrew $638 million from hybrid funds, the third consecutive week of outflows, the institute said. Such funds can invest in both stocks and fixed-income assets.</br></br>For the bond funds, taxable ones took in $3.68 billion while municipal ones had inflows of $1.46 billion. | no | 0 |
Uncertainty Pushes Volatility Index Up 30% | NEW YORK--The stock market's "fear gauge" jumped a whopping 30%, reflecting a high level of uncertainty among investors as stocks took a dive.</br></br>After closing on Wednesday at 35.32, the Chicago Board Options Exchange's volatility index ripped to an intraday high of 46.37 before closing just below that point. Finishing at 45.79, the VIX gained 29.6% on the day and has nearly tripled in the last month alone.</br></br>It was the index's highest close since March 2009, the month that stocks fell to multiyear lows.</br></br>Thursday's move in the VIX coincided with a steep drop in stocks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 3.6%. Weighing on the market were continuing concerns about Europe's debt problems, unemployment in the U.S. and structural problems in the stock market.</br></br>"It's easy for investors to talk themselves into buying protection in times like this," said Todd Salamone, senior vice president of research at Schaeffer's Investment Research. | no | 0 |
Fed's Yellen Remains Mum on Timing of Rate Change; Chairwoman Unwilling to Signal Any Shift in Bank's Plans at Conference | JACKSON HOLE, Wyo.--Janet Yellen delivered a cliffhanger in the mountains of Wyoming.</br></br>Encouraged by progress in the U.S. labor market, but uncertain if it is enough, the Federal Reserve Board chairwoman and other officials who gathered here for a central-bank conference left the public guessing about when they will start raising short-term interest rates.</br></br>The annual economic symposium, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, marked an important bookend to a speech Ms. Yellen had delivered five months earlier to a conference of community organizers in Chicago.</br></br>Back then, Ms. Yellen argued with conviction that the U.S. economy was still far from what Fed officials call full employment--the highest level of hiring that can be reached without causing the economy to overheat and spark inflation.</br></br>The jobless rate was 6.7%, while 3.8 million Americans were out of work for six months or longer and 7.2 million more had part-time work but wanted full-time jobs. Wages were creeping up at a glacial pace. Ms. Yellen saw this as evidence that the economy was burdened with slack, which would allow her to keep short-term interest rates low far into the future. | no | 0 |
Stocks Can't Sustain A Fed-Fueled Surge | They bought like crazy. They sold like crazy. And for a tense 15 minutes leading up to the Federal Reserve's latest interest rate cut, investors froze. Then they bought again, sold off again and called it a day.</br></br>"I can't take the stress anymore," barked Bob Basel, chief trader at Salomon Smith Barney, after the Dow Jones industrial average rode a roller coaster to an 8986.28 close -- down 24.97 points, or 0.3 percent.</br></br>The average of 30 blue-chip firms had been frozen -- down about 60 points -- until shortly after 2:15 p.m., when the Fed announcement came. "There was this sort of jump ball as to whether the rate cut would come or not," said Ed McMahon, head of U.S. trading for Merrill Lynch.</br></br>The Fed said it would cut two key interest rates -- and within 15 minutes the Dow jumped nearly 100 points, but it then bobbed up and down for the remainder of the afternoon. Day traders seeking a quick profit were out in full force, traders said, and some large computerized sell-offs kicked in during the final minutes of trading, plunging the Dow into negative territory.</br></br>"The cut was significant because it confirms that the Fed is prepared to do whatever it has to do to maintain liquidity and keep the market's momentum going," said Mary Farrell, an equity strategist at Paine Webber. "They have restored rationality in the market." | no | 0 |
Philippines Sees Room for Interest-Rate Cut | TOKYO--The head of the Philippine central bank said he sees room to cut interest rates further as inflation is mild, while expressing concern over falling exports and potentially destabilizing capital inflows.</br></br>His concerns mirror those of other export-oriented economies in Asia, which face weakening demand in Europe and the U.S. as well as inflows of speculative investment driven by easy monetary policy in major economies.</br></br>"Right now if you look at the inflation picture, the forecast is quite benign," Bangko Sentral ng Philipinas Gov. Amando Tetangco said in an interview. "The average for this year is likely going to fall closer to the low end of the inflation target."</br></br>Mr. Tetangco, speaking on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund annual fall meetings in Tokyo, said he sees the same trend for next year.</br></br>Philippine on-year consumer-price inflation slowed to 3.6% in September from 3.8% in August. The central bank's full-year target is between 3% and 5%. | no | 0 |
Nasdaq spreads are narrowing for bigger issues | NEW YORK -- Under the glare of a Justice Department antitrust investigation, Nasdaq Stock Market traders have been quietly tightening up their pricing -- at least for big, high-profile Nasdaq stocks.</br></br>Price "spreads" on many such stocks have narrowed, or certainly are more negotiable, since the Justice Department's inquiry into alleged price fixing was disclosed last month, say traders at several Wall Street securities firms that are part of the Nasdaq system. Spreads -- the difference between the "ask" price at which dealers will sell a stock and the "bid" price at which they will buy stock -- indicate how much brokers stand to profit from trading a given stock.</br></br>According to the traders, Microsoft Corp.'s trading spread currently is consistently 1/8 of a point, or 12.5 cents, whereas it used to trade often at 1/4 point, or 25 cents. Intel Corp. has also been tightened up to trade consistently with a 12.5-cent spread, as have Oracle Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. Microsoft, Intel and Oracle are Nasdaq's biggest stocks, and Cisco is the sixth-biggest. Any spread above 12.5 cents tends to raise eyebrows given that on the New York Stock Exchange, big issues typically trade at 1/8-point spreads.</br></br>But spreads haven't changed much -- actually, they've widened in individual cases -- on some of the least-active stocks among Nasdaq's 5,700 issues, traders say. Spreads are typically wider on smaller stocks, even those listed on markets other than Nasdaq, because they tend to be riskier for dealers to hold in inventory and more difficult to trade than big stocks.</br></br>Nasdaq's pricing practices have become a hot topic since an academic study in May suggested that Nasdaq dealers "implicitly collude" to maintain wide spreads of 25 cents or more on the 100 most-active Nasdaq stocks. | no | 0 |
Year-End Economy Appears Resilient; Figures Strong Despite Housing, Inflation Worries | The U.S. economy is ending the year with a flurry of good news, including signs that inflation has receded, consumers are spending money briskly and growth is likely to continue well into 2007.</br></br>"Here comes Santa Claus!" Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wachovia, wrote to clients after a new batch of favorable statistics was released yesterday. "All we wanted this holiday season was a little more growth and a little less inflation. Boy oh boy, has Santa delivered."</br></br>Nearly gone is the inflation scare of the spring and summer, as are investors' doubts about whether a new Federal Reserve chairman would be tough enough to beat back price increases. And almost gone are analysts' worries that the slumping housing market would curb consumer spending and trigger a recession.</br></br>On the contrary, Wall Street loosened the corks in the champagne bottles all week as each unexpectedly rosy economic figure rolled in.</br></br>Inflation, for the moment, is at 0 percent: The consumer price index was unchanged in November, as falling fuel prices and discounts on such items as clothing, electronics, airfares and hotel rooms offset increased prices for many other goods and services, the Labor Department said yesterday. | no | 0 |
Stock Market Mixed With Light Turnover: Mixed Indicators | NEW YORK, Sept. 2 (AP) The stock market, which carved out a solid gain in its last trading session, made a lackluster showing today as: an early advance lost some of its sparkle in late trading.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial averageÛÓwhich gained 8.31 points FridayÛÓwas up to 1.45 by the end of the first half-hour of trading, and by 1 p.m. it had extended that to 3.04. But then it began to retreat, and at the close it was up 1.06 at 837.78. !</br></br>Steels, motors and chemicals were mixed. Aircrafts mostly were higher, with United Aircraft up 1 Va at i48',2.</br></br>Among the glamors, Control Data was off 214 at 149%; IBM off 1V4 at 34214; Polaroid, off IV2 at 128; Sperry Rand, off Vi at 4414; and Xerox, off 14 at 95%.</br></br>Some analysts regarded the marketÛªs ability to stay above the 830 level on the Dow industrial as encouraging, not- | no | 0 |
ROUNDUP | Corn and soybean prices fell sharply on futures markets in response to Friday's Department of Agriculture crop report, which indicated much larger than expected 1988 U.S. corn and soybean harvests. ECONOMY</br></br>A rising dollar and a falling deutschemark are not desirable, Deutsche Bundesbank Director Claus Koehler said in an interview. Koehler told Die Welt that the strength of the dollar could threaten the stability of the European monetary system and cause inflation in West Germany.</br></br>Steel-producing capacity will rise this year after falling for seven consecutive years, the American Iron and Steel Institute said. Based on a survey of mills and furnaces, the industry's raw steel production capability is expected to reach 115.9 million tons, up from 112 million tons in 1988, the AISI said.</br></br>Mitsubishi Metal will build a $250 million copper smelter in Texas City, Tex., creating about 250 jobs generating an estimated $5 million annual payroll. The announcement capped a two-year effort to lure the plant to Texas City, about 40 miles southeast of Houston.</br></br>MCI Communications and American Airlines announced a deal under which members of American's AAdvantage travel awards program will receive bonus miles for using MCI's long-distance service. | no | 0 |
Deficit fears don't appear to bother bond market | The U.S. government debt is rising inexorably, according to the conventional wisdom in Washington, and the political system is too paralyzed to take unpopular actions to rein it in. Privately, many policymakers take it as a given that the situation will change only when the nation faces a Greek-style fiscal crisis.</br></br>But apparently nobody told the people who lend the U.S. government money. On Friday, they were willing to hand over their cash to the Treasury for 10 years for 3.3 percent interest, a level so low it implies they consider the United States among the safest investments in the world. Collectively, those investors -- think mutual funds, pension funds and foreign central banks -- could lose hundreds of billions of dollars if they're mistaken and the United States has a debt crisis.</br></br>Perceptions inside the Beltway rest on this idea: Although the current large budget deficit is caused mainly by the weak economy and a short-term economic stimulus that will soon expire, in the longer run the government faces a vast unfunded burden, particularly tied to Medicare and Medicaid.</br></br>The mix of spending cuts and tax increases that could close the gap are wildly unpopular. With the threat of a filibuster in the Senate hanging over anything remotely controversial, a bipartisan budget accord seems unlikely. And many Republicans have declared they will not vote for a package that includes a tax increase under any circumstance.</br></br>This situation led Moody's, the debt-rating firm, to state in March that the U.S. government is nearer to being at risk of losing its Aaa credit rating and that maintaining the rating might require adjustments to tax and spending policy "of a magnitude that, in some cases, will test social cohesion." | no | 0 |
TD Ameritrade Quarterly Earnings Rise 5.2% | Author: Brett Philbin</br></br>NEW YORK--TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.'s fiscal third-quarter profit climbed 5.2%, as the online brokerage benefited from the stock market's May 6 "flash crash," posting its highest quarter of trading volume to date.</br></br>However, during a conference call, TD Ameritrade Chief Executive Fred Tomczyk warned analysts that investors are "taking a breather" from trading and said he has seen signs that "a summer slowdown appears to be in progress."</br></br>Shares of TD Ameritrade recently traded down 48 cents, or 3%, at $15.34. The company's stock is down almost 14% over the past year.</br></br>The Omaha, Neb. online brokerage and rivals experienced a burst of trading during the quarter. Volatility has remained the prevailing market theme amid concern about European economies and fears that the U.S. economic recovery might be stalling. | no | 0 |
Today's Overpriced Internet Stocks Won't Bring Hefty Long-Term Profits | You can't escape Internet Insanity these days. Scarcely a week passes, it seems, without us reading, hearing or seeing a story about how some company most of us never heard of will make a gazillion dollars from the Internet, the international network that lets computers communicate with one another. The world is full of people buying Internet stocks in search of the next Microsoft Corp. But you don't need to know much about Web browsers or servers or other high-technology stuff to see that it's almost impossible for any of today's Internet stocks to be the next Microsoft.</br></br>It's a question of math, not technology. Even with the sharp drops of the past three trading days, stocks of Internet companies are trading at levels I consider insanely high. If you overpay for the stock of even a very good company, it's almost impossible to make a superior long-term profit. And long-term profit is what we small nonprofessional investors should worry about. You short-term types, find a different article to read.</br></br>The simplest illustration is Netscape Communications Corp., which sold stock in August at $28 a share and currently sells for almost five times as much. Netscape's backers says the company will use its World Wide Web browser technology (which lets you find things on the Internet) to dominate the Internet the way that Microsoft parlayed its operating system technology into domination of large parts of the PC software business. But even if Netscape ends up wildly successful, it's virtually impossible for anyone buying Netscape stock at today's prices to get a Microsoft-like return. Here's why. If you bought 100 shares of Microsoft at its initial public offering in 1986 for $2,100, you now own 1,800 shares worth $158,400 at yesterday's closing price. Call it a 75-to-1 return in just under 10 years.</br></br>Netscape closed yesterday at $130.25 a share. For you to make a 75-to-1 return in less than 10 years, Netscape stock has to rise to almost $9,800 a share by the year-end of 2004. Its 40.8 million shares (including stock under option, as do all the valuations in this article) are valued in the stock market at around $5.3 billion. For you to buy now and make a Microsoft return, Netscape shares have to be worth almost $400 billion in less than 10 years.</br></br>How much is $400 billion? It's more than seven times the current value of all the shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. or Microsoft. About 13 Walt Disney Cos. Almost as much as General Electric Co., Exxon Corp., AT&T Corp. and Coca-Cola Co. combined. You don't need a doctorate in higher mathematics to see that's sort of unlikely. | no | 0 |
The Tech World Gets Zapped; Local Innovators Are Paying Dearly For the Stock Market's Slump | Tom Blair, founder and chairman of United Payers and United Providers, a Rockville-based health care financing company, was just one day away from the company's initial public stock offering when his investment bankers delivered the bad news on July 1.</br></br>With the market in a skid, you're not going to get as much as you want for your stock, the bankers bluntly told Blair and his partners. They gave them a choice: Postpone the offering for several months or cut the price.</br></br>Instead of asking $13 a share for the stock as planned, the company cut the price to $11 and on July 2 sold 2.4 million shares. The offering raised $26 million in capital for the company, known as Up and Up, which helps insurance companies provide medical services at lower costs by prepaying hospitals. If the same number of shares had been sold at $13, Up and Up would have raised an additional $5 million, and could have raised even more if the stock had been issued for the $15 to $17 price projected when the issue was planned during the spring stock market boom.</br></br>Whether it's called a correction, a sell-off or the beginning of the end of the longest bull market in history, this summer's stock market slump, which is hitting tech stocks particularly hard, is costing entrepreneurial Washington companies -- even if, like Up and Up, they are not in technology sectors -- millions of dollars.</br></br>The Nasdaq Composite Index -- which consists of the stocks of many of the area's and the nation's fastest-growing companies -- closed at 1,096.68 Friday, down 12.2 percent from its peak this year of 1,249.14 on June 5. The Washington Business High-Technology Index, which includes the stocks of 56 publicly traded tech companies in the region, closed Friday at 23.2, compared with 28.7 on May 1. | no | 0 |
The Magnitude of the Mess We're In | Sometimes a few facts tell important stories. The American economy now is full of facts that tell stories that you really don't want, but need, to hear.</br></br>Where are we now?</br></br>Did you know that annual spending by the federal government now exceeds the 2007 level by about $1 trillion? With a slow economy, revenues are little changed. The result is an unprecedented string of federal budget deficits, $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010, $1.3 trillion in 2011, and another $1.2 trillion on the way this year. The four-year increase in borrowing amounts to $55,000 per U.S. household.</br></br>The amount of debt is one thing. The burden of interest payments is another. The Treasury now has a preponderance of its debt issued in very short-term durations, to take advantage of low short-term interest rates. It must frequently refinance this debt which, when added to the current deficit, means Treasury must raise $4 trillion this year alone. So the debt burden will explode when interest rates go up.</br></br>The government has to get the money to finance its spending by taxing or borrowing. While it might be tempting to conclude that we can just tax upper-income people, did you know that the U.S. income tax system is already very progressive? The top 1% pay 37% of all income taxes and 50% pay none. | no | 0 |
Ebay Puts Are Popular on Concern About Stock Value, U.S. Probe | NEW YORK -- Defensive puts traded actively across many sectors as investors worried about the economic consequences of a prolonged war and the impact on corporate earnings.</br></br>Stocks slipped as investors found few reasons to buy. The Chicago Board Options Exchange market volatility index, or VIX, rose 1.19 to 33.37. This fear gauge had eased when the war in Iraq began, although the decline slowed last week as investors confronted the prospects of a longer-than-anticipated war.</br></br>Puts traded briskly in eBay Inc. The online retailer had risen to a 52-week high of $90.44 last week, prompting some market watchers to question whether the stock is overvalued. The jitters were exacerbated when the company said its PayPal operation is under investigation by the Justice Department for possible violation of the Patriot Act.</br></br>The stock fell $3.98 to $85.31 in 4 p.m. Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Its April 85 puts traded 11,319 contracts, compared with open interest of 10,197 contracts, and gained $1.40 to $2.75 at the CBOE.</br></br>Altria Group's options were among the most heavily traded, with some nervous investors buying puts and selling calls after its Philip Morris USA division said it can't afford a $12 billion court-ordered bond to appeal a tobacco judgment in Illinois. | no | 0 |
Investors Corner Fed; Expectations for Action Drive Rally, but Upside Is Unclear | For some investors, bad news is good news.</br></br>The U.S. economy added 96,000 jobs last month, the government said on Friday. That is fewer than Wall Street analysts were expecting and the latest sign of a sluggish recovery, some economists said.</br></br>Yet the prices of everything from stocks and gold to Treasury and mortgage debt rose. The rallies reflect near certainty among investors that the Fed will announce additional monetary easing as soon as Thursday, when a scheduled two-day policy meeting ends.</br></br>The reaction shows how markets have come to depend on central bank stimulus since the financial crisis, and underscores the high stakes for the Fed and its chairman, Ben Bernanke.</br></br>Some analysts and investors say the Fed must announce a big stimulus plan quickly or risk disappointing the market, potentially setting the stage for a broad selloff. The European Central Bank last week spurred a sharp stock-market rally by announcing a bond-buying program that will make it easier for troubled countries to issue new bonds. | yes | 1 |
Finance Heads Agree To Stop Dollar's Fall; Leading Industrial Nations Vow Cooperation | The United States today called off its effort to drive down the value of the dollar against other currencies in return for an agreement by Japan and West Germany to stimulate their economies to help relieve the huge U.S. trade deficit.</br></br>The finance ministers of the three nations, along with those from France, Britain and Canada, said after meeting here that the dollar had declined enough, and pledged "to cooperate closely to foster stability of exchange rates around current levels."</br></br>Although Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III and other officials refused to say whether governments would intervene to keep exchange rates steady, the pledge to "cooperate closely" is likely to be seen by financial markets as an ever-present threat of that possibility.</br></br>Officials of the six nations met here over the past two days, after long preliminary discussions, in an effort to reduce the large global trade imbalances without a further sharp depreciation of the dollar, which might trigger a recession in Japan and Europe. The United States had a merchandise trade deficit last year of $170 billion, while Japan and West Germany enjoyed substantial surpluses.</br></br>Japan and West Germany promised to increase spending or cut taxes in order to stimulate demand for imports. The United States also pledged to pursue its budget deficit reduction targets. | no | 0 |
Investing Without Heroes: Money Managers Moving Slowly in Today's Markets | NEW YORKÛÓIf thereÛªs one thing the average investor and the managers of big money agree on these days, it is that the stock market is a tricky and potentially dangerous place to play.1</br></br>For the investor, the answer is simpleÛÓstay away. But what about the money managers, the people -who run pension funds, insurance company portfolios, university endowments and other huge pools of money? How do they survive in the current markets when their clients are constantly churning out dollars that demand investment somewhere? ÛÏWeÛªre moving slowly,Û says Samuel B. Callaway, executive vice president of Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. Callaway runs the biggest trust department at any bank in the country. At the end of 1973, money under the bankÛªs supervision came toÛª $23.4 billion. Although the final total for 1974 hasnÛªt been revealed, Callaway concedes that ÛÏlike everybody else, itÛªs down significantly.Û</br></br>Like most professionals, Callaway thinks stock prices have been pounded down to where they seem very reasonable. But, like most managers, heÛªs not yet ready to pile money into Ûªany market.</br></br>In the rampaging markets of the late 19fi0s, most money managers poured dollars into the stock market almost as soon as they were received. A small percentage was kept in cash to allow some mobility but the idea basically was to cash in on soaring prices. Now the picture has changed sharply.</br></br>ÛÏIt all depends on the customer,Û Callaway says. ÛÏIf itÛªs a strong company in a good cash position, we like to see about 50 to GO per cent in stocks. WeÛªve been dollar averaging but we do it over a period of time, maybe three to six months. We look for strong situations just as we always have, but thereÛªs no hurry. About 25 per cent goes into intermediate-term bonds, always new issues, and the rest is in cash or short-term investments of some kind Û | no | 0 |
Borrowing Binge: Takeover Trend Helps Push Corporate Debt And Defaults Upward --- Analysts Worry That Load Will Worsen Downturn In the Next U.S. Recession --- Reaping the Reagan Harvest? | Corporate restructuring left many American companies leaner in their operations but more heavily in debt. And now, a wave of stock buy-backs, corporate takeovers and sales of companies to their managements is pushing them even further -- perhaps dangerously -- into hock.</br></br>Already, the corporate debt in default is climbing rapidly. The 1981-82 recession raised it, just as you would expect: Annual corporate defaults climbed to more than $840 million from $60 million. But now, despite an economic rebound for more than five years, defaults have, perversely, soared. Last year alone, they reached a towering sum of nearly $9 billion.</br></br>To many analysts' surprise, even the Oct. 19 stock-market crash hasn't discouraged companies from increasing their borrowings. Right after the crash, many companies, despite fears of an impending recession, launched extensive programs to borrow funds and buy back their shares to try to shore up stock prices.</br></br>And in recent months, the merger-and-acquisition mania has broken out again; on Feb. 29 alone, more than $12 billion of takeover plans, mostly involving debt, were announced. Companies may be rushing to buy while the Reagan administration still keeps the antitrust watchdogs on a short leash.</br></br>The borrowing binge has many economists worrying about what may happen in the next recession, which most analysts surveyed by Blue Chip Economic Indicators, a newsletter, expect next year. | no | 0 |
DIGEST | Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) will review the Federal Reserve Bank's role in overseeing a small California bank suspected of being a possible conduit in the mid-1990s for illegal Chinese political contributions. Shelby, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, already has said he will review if another federal bank regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, was negligent in its oversight of the bank, the Far East National Bank of Los Angeles. The Fed approved the sale of the bank to a foreign bank in Taiwan in June 1997, the same month the Fed knew the OCC was notifying the Justice Department and other criminal investigators of the bank's activities.</br></br>Cox Communications agreed to buy TCA Cable TV for about $4 billion in stock, cash and assumed debt, moving to become the fourth-largest company in the rapidly consolidating U.S. cable television industry. TCA has 883,000 subscribers, mainly in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Cox -- which last month agreed to buy Media General's cable systems for $1.4 billion -- and many of its competitors have been on an acquisition spree in the past year, seeking to build larger regional groups of subscribers to spread out the cost of new programming and digital services such as high-speed Internet access and local telephone service.</br></br>Bank fraud charges were filed against 33 people in federal court in Manhattan for using false papers to apply for more than $35 million in loans from Citibank, Chase Manhattan and five other banks. The defendants, mostly small-business owners, got the bogus documents from a former NatWest Bank loan officer who has already pleaded guilty. U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said the banks actually lent out about $20 million based on the papers and lost $10 million to $15 million.</br></br>Avondale Industries said its board has authorized management to begin talks with Litton Industries over Litton's $500 million cash offer to purchase the New Orleans shipyard. Litton has made twin, unsolicited offers for Avondale and Newport News Shipbuilding, which also has an offer pending for Avondale. While Litton is offering cash for Avondale, Newport News has offered its stock in a bid valued at about $470 million. Newport News has not publicly responded to the bid from Litton.</br></br>Insight Communications said it plans to raise more than $500 million through an initial public offering of Class A common stock. The cable TV system operator did not disclose the number of shares or estimated price range in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It plans to use proceeds from the IPO to acquire systems in Kentucky, introduce new and enhanced products and services and invest in a telephone venture with AT&T. | no | 0 |
å£ljc tDasJjmgton JJost | Giant FoodÛªs recently expanded automated warehouse in Jessup, where yesterdayÛªs stockholders meeting was held.</br></br>So-called ÛÏno-frillsÛ or ÛÏno-nameÛ food products are no bargain for consumers, the vice president in charge of groceries at Giant Food charged yesterday.</br></br>Directly criticizing the plain-wrapper products recently introduced by rivals Safeway and A&P, Giant executive Gerson Barnett called promotion of the economy products ÛÏmisleading.Û</br></br>In some cases, the quality of the noname products is ÛÏreduced to the point where the consumer is actually paying moreÛ than for other products,</br></br>He also attacked one of the food industryÛªs favorite promotional tools, cents-off coupons, saying they cost food makers far more than they save consumers. | no | 0 |
Business and Finance | STOCKS SLUMPED as investors resigned themselves to the probability of another interest-rate increase. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 46.77 to 3882.21. Worries about interest rates and inflation also drove bond prices lower. Helping to depress markets was concern that political opposition in Congress could stall a planned rescue package for Mexico.</br></br>Mexican stock prices sank 4.8% and the peso fell 2.7% against the dollar on nervousness about U.S. approval of the rescue package.</br></br>---</br></br>Tele-Communications and Comcast notified regulators that they plan to complete their $1.42 billion acquisition of QVC as early as next month despite possible antitrust objections.</br></br>--- | yes | 1 |
It's a Mall World After All; In Harvard 'Guide to Shopping,' Some Real Finds | An 800-page compendium of charts, factoids, images and essays, it was produced by Harvard graduate students under the wing of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. The academics sought to document how shopping became the engine of 20th-century urban growth.</br></br>They contend shopping is now "the defining activity of public life." We shop at the airport, we shop at church. The train station is now a mall. McDonald's is also a toy store. Former military bases are being reconditioned as theme parks with shopping malls. We can buy embryos at the hospital. Museums make more money from their shops than from any other single source. And we are happy to treat ourselves to cultured gift wrap. Urbanization is commerce.</br></br>Few consumers would deny that their lives -- and the local landscape -- have been affected by mall sprawl, Big Box empires, entertainment zones and outlet villages. The real-life mystery is why so many serious architects didn't involve themselves at every step in their creation.</br></br>Koolhaas, of course, is the Pritzker Prize-winning creator of such high-profile design ventures as the Guggenheim Las Vegas and Prada's SoHo boutique. As an architect and thinker, he has long sought to meld high and low culture. The shopping project met that test: Koolhaas turned Harvard's elite into mall rats.</br></br>More than a dozen master's degree candidates fanned out over three continents to conduct field research, gather statistics and compile histories and anecdotal evidence. Their data, gathered during the 1997-1998 school year, have been reproduced on hefty stock and published by Taschen. The launch itself was an adventure in high-low culture: The guide was introduced in Europe with a tony event at London's Tate Modern. Last week New Yorkers were invited to a Chinatown restaurant. | no | 0 |
Easier Credit Lowers Odds Of Rate Cut --- But Many Bets Are On For Fed to Ease More | Things are better in the bond markets, but maybe not good enough for the Federal Reserve, which meets tomorrow to set the future of interest rates.</br></br>Traders and investors in various parts of the bond market have had much to cheer in recent days. Liquidity, or the ease of trading, has substantially improved in many sectors since the Fed cut interest rates Oct. 15. And the difference in yields between risky bonds and safer Treasurys has narrowed, indicating investors feel more comfortable with riskier assets, helping to avert what seemed like a looming credit crunch.</br></br>Issuance of corporate bonds is suddenly back on track, highlighted by Sprint Corp.'s sale of $5 billion in bonds last week, the second-biggest corporate-bond deal on record. The issuance followed the successful sale of $4.8 billion of bonds by Associates Corp. of North America, a unit of Associates First Capital Corp., on Oct. 27.</br></br>Meanwhile, money began to flow in the past two weeks into high-yield and emerging-market bond funds, which could lead to higher bond prices -- and thus, lower yields -- in the months ahead.</br></br>In addition to the vast improvements in the credit markets, Friday's reports of stronger-than-expected increases in retail sales and producer prices make it less likely the Fed will cut interest rates when it meets tomorrow. | no | 0 |
Key Interest Rates | Annualized interest rates on certain investments as reported by the Federal</br></br>Reserve Board on a weekly-average basis:</br></br>WEEK ENDED:</br></br>Jan. 07, Dec. 31,</br></br>2005 2004 | no | 0 |
Nonprofit Groups Join Building Boom | The insider trading case against Paul Thayer is stunning evidence of what government regulators are up against in their drive to stop corporate executives from ripping off corporations and corrupting the stock market.</br></br>When Thayer resigned as deputy secretary of Defense 15 months ago, he denounced the charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission as ÛÏutterly without meritÛ and predicted that he would ÛÏultimately be exonerated.Û</br></br>But as the facts unfold in three civil and criminal proceedings, the only problem with the original SEC complaint turns out to be that it did not go far enough in detailing ThayerÛªs misdeeds. Rather than exoneration, Thayer is facing jail for obstruction of justice.</br></br>If he doesnÛªt serve time, no one accused of insider trading should ever go to jail. Of course, almost no one goes to jail for insider trading now. It is the obstruction charge that could put Thayer behind bars, not his * multimillion-dollar white collar crime. Federal prosecutors are urging U.S. District Judge Charles R. Richey to throw the book at Thayer for what may be WashingtonÛªs worst coverup since Watergate.</br></br>Thayer lied to the FBI, the SEC and a grand jury, betrayed three corporations with which he was associated, made up phoney documents, urged his friends to help him cover his tracks and commit perjury, and used front men to hide his illegal investments, investigators said in recommending a prison sentence. | no | 0 |
Fed Chairman Plans To Modify Testimony To House Committee | Corrections & Amplifications</br></br>FEDERAL RESERVE BANK of Dallas president Robert McTeer was interviewed by "Nightly Business Report" on a program that aired Monday on PBS. An article on the Politics & Policy page yesterday incorrectly said the interview was with PBS-TV. (WSJ Feb. 28, 2001)</br></br>WASHINGTON -- In a break with tradition, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan will modify his testimony on the economy to a House panel tomorrow from what he gave to its Senate counterpart two weeks earlier.</br></br>"Some time has passed since the last testimony so he's updating the text," a Fed spokesman said.</br></br>Stocks rallied in part on hopes that the changed testimony somehow increases the chances that rates will be cut before the Federal Open Market Committee, the central bank's decision-making body, meets March 20 -- and that Mr. Greenspan will signal that this week. | no | 0 |
Stock Prices Decline Again: Profit Taking Sends Market Down Again | NEW YORK, March 30 (AP)ÛÓThe stock market posted its second decline in a row today in another session given over to profit taking.</br></br>Big Board volume remained sluggish at 17.93 million shares, up just a bit from MondayÛªs 12-week low of 16.10 million.</br></br>Nationwide volume in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, came to 20.91 million shares.</br></br>The Dow was down nearly 10 points early in the afternoon, and then made a brief recovery to stand at minus 3 before slipping back again in the last half hour. ...</br></br>There was little agreement among brokers over any specific reasons in the economic news for the marketÛªs twists and turns. | yes | 1 |
Conseco Ends Efforts to Buy Kemper Corp. --- Buyout's Financing Began To Unravel; Big Insurer Still Remains for Sale | Conseco Inc. ended its efforts to acquire Kemper Corp. after the financing for the buyout began to unravel.</br></br>Kemper, a big mutual fund, life insurance and brokerage company, said it is still for sale. But investment bankers say Kemper is now a less attractive property, because of the collapse of Conseco's offer and because higher interest rates have hurt Kemper's earnings prospects.</br></br>Analysts predict that any buyer that surfaces now would bid far less than Conseco's original $67-a-share, $2.7 billion, offer, or its recent proposal to lower its bid to $60 a share, or $2.4 billion.</br></br>"When Conseco does a deal, they are very, very thorough," said Joanne Morrissey, president of Firemark Group, a Parsippany, N.J., insurance-research firm. "This doesn't bode well for Kemper." Conseco and Kemper consented to cancelling the original takeover agreement, a step that frees the two sides from any legal obligations. "It became clear to both parties that the proposed merger, even under Conseco's revised terms, could not be completed," said David Mathis, Kemper chairman. "Our board remains committed to the goal of maximizing value for our stockholders."</br></br>General Electric Capital Corp., which once bid $60 a share for Kemper, is exploring another run at Kemper. But the General Electric Co. unit has yet to notify Kemper of its plans, if any. SunAmerica Inc., a Los Angeles-based insurer, also would be interested at the right price, according to a person close to the company. Dean Witter, Discover & Co. and Chubb Corp. have previously shown various degrees of interest. Yesterday, none of the companies had any comment. | no | 0 |
Mundell: Deflation Risk for the Dollar; The Nobel winner says a stable dollar-euro rate is the best economic medicine. | Conservative economists have been raising alarms for months about the Federal Reserve's second quantitative-easing program, QE2. They argue it has lowered the dollar's value, leading to higher oil and commodity prices--a precursor to broader, more damaging inflation.</br></br>Yet the man many of them regard as their monetary guru--supply-side economics pioneer and Nobel Laureate Robert Mundell--says dollar weakness is not his main concern. Instead, he fears a return to recession later this year when QE2 ends and the dollar begins its inevitable rise. Deflation, not inflation, should be the greater concern. Avoiding the recession is simplicity itself: Just have the U.S. Treasury fix the exchange rate between the dollar and the euro.</br></br>Mr. Mundell's surprising statement came at a March 22 conference in New York sponsored by the Manhattan Institute, The Wall Street Journal and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. His economic predictions carry great weight because, unlike most economists of his generation, he is often right. His analysis of international economics has revolutionized the field, making him the euro's intellectual father and a primary adviser to China's economic policy makers.</br></br>Nevertheless, with gold around $1,500 and oil above $100 a barrel, supply-siders are scratching their heads: How can he possibly see deflation ahead? How can dollar weakness not be the problem?</br></br>The key to Mr. Mundell's view is that exchange rates transmit inflation or deflation into economies by raising or lowering prices for imported items and commodities. For example, when the dollar declines significantly against the world's second-leading currency, the euro, commodity prices rise. This creates U.S. inflationary pressure. Conversely, when the dollar appreciates significantly against the euro, commodity prices fall, which leads to deflationary pressure. | no | 0 |
Stocks Mixed Day Before Fed Meeting: Dow Up 17; Analysts See Potential for a 'Bounce' After FOMC | NEW YORK, Sept. 26ÛÓStock prices were mixed today as investors waited for TuesdayÛªs meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, which may decide to boost interest rates for the sixth time this year.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 17.49 points to 3849.24. But declining issues outnumbered advancing ones by about 7 to 6 on the New York Stock Exchange, where trading volume fell to 270.8 million shares from 297.6 million shares Friday.</br></br>Other market indicators heavily weighted with NYSE listings advanced: The NYSE composite index rose 0.58 points to 254.39, and the Standard & PoorÛªs 500-stock index gained 1.15 to 460,82. But the Nasdaq index ended down 1.83 to 755.63, and the American Stock Exchange index declined 1.45 to 453.78.</br></br>Blue-chip stocks were boosted by speculation that the market would rally on Tuesday, whether or not the Fed raises short-term interest rates.</br></br>Analysts said the consensus on Wall Street was that the central bank would not raise rates Tuesday but rather would wait for further data on inflation and the strength of the economy. | no | 0 |
Sorry, I Don't Do Windows | I finally did it. I went out and bought a home computer. It's absolutely fabulous. You won't believe all the things it can do. It can do budgets and banking. It can make maps. It can do my taxes. It can play CDs. It can speak Creole. It can make malteds.</br></br>I've had it for a month. I can plug it in. I can turn it on. After that I'm lost. I sit there staring at a blank screen, waiting for it to do something magical on its own, like it's the Oracle at Delphi. The only thing I can do on that screen is Windex it.</br></br>That's it. That's as far as I've gotten. The colon, I sense, is telling me I am expected to do something.</br></br>Oop. I am not good at this. I get nervous and make mistakes. So I correct my spelling, and hit Enter.</br></br>I want to abort. God, I want to abort. I want to abort this whole mission. I am unworthy. I am a squashed skunk on the information superhighway. | no | 0 |
National Output Data Show Drop: Statistics Are Gloomy | 2 - billion - dollar drop in | gross national" product for the! third quarter* was announced Nossiter</br></br>The decline itself was small. Total output of goods and services was estimated by the PresidentÛªs Council of Economic Advisers at a yearly rate of $503 billion compared to $505 billion in the April-June period.</br></br>But a closer look at the figuresÛÓwhich added up to the first output slump in two and a half years that couldnÛªt be traced to a strikeÛÓincreased the gloom.</br></br>After the long line of weaker business reports in September, virtually the last of the optimists are now found in the AdministrationÛªs inner circle.</br></br>Raymond J. Saulnier, chairman of the PresidentÛªs Council, told a reporter yesterday, ÛÏI do not see a basis in these figures for the recession talk that has become so widespread recently and which is, I fear, having some retarding effect on our economy.Û Û¢ Real output of goods and servicesÛÓgross national product stripped of price inflation ÛÓwas lower in the third quarter than in the first or second. The yearly pace, expressed in constant, 1959 dollars went from $495.9 billion in the Jan-uary-March period to $497.4 | no | 0 |
Economy's Strength Seen Lasting Most of Year --- Analysts' New Optimism Follows Spate of Favorable Reports | The economy is off to an unexpectedly fast start this year, and many economists now see the momentum being maintained through most of 1986. Only late this year or early next year do they see any signs of slowdown.</br></br>Bolstering their optimism are a spate of favorable statistical reports in recent weeks, the sharp slide in oil prices, the seeming pressure toward a cut in the federal budget deficit and a generally easy Federal Reserve credit policy, which many analysts expect to continue.</br></br>"First-quarter real GNP will be solid indeed -- a surprisingly strong 4.5% to 5.0%," says Donald H. Straszheim, chief economist at the brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith. For the year as a whole, Merrill Lynch now expects real gross national product, or the value of the nation's output of goods and services adjusted for inflation, to rise by 3.5%, up from a forecast of 3.1% a month ago.</br></br>Lacy H. Hunt, chief economist at CM&M Group, an investment firm, is now looking for real growth of 5.5% this quarter, up from 5.2% a month ago. For the full year, he expects real GNP to rise by 4.5%, compared with a forecast of 3.9% a month ago. "Among other things," Mr. Hunt says, "the drop in oil prices will keep the trade deficit from rising the way it did last year."</br></br>Blue Chip Economic Indicators, a Sedona, Ariz., newsletter, polls four dozen leading economists each month on the outlook. Last month the analysts on the average expected 3.0% real growth this year. The latest report, released today, moved up the average to 3.1%. Two-thirds of the economists who changed their forecasts moved them higher. Most of those who trimmed their predictions already had been quite optimistic: David Bostian, a New York consultant, cut his forecast to 5.0% from 5.1%. | yes | 1 |
Idle Count Drops, Rate Stays Same | Adjusted for seasonal variation. the rate of joblessness remained at the August level of 5.S per cent of the labor force, the highest rate since last .lamtarv.</br></br>Û¢ Hard-core uiioti'plo.v mold ÛÓthose looking for w>rk more than six monthsÛÓfell 100.000 to 477.000. This was the tirst time in two years that the total had fallen below the half-million mark.</br></br>Û¢ The seasonally adjusted unemployed rate for adult men. most of whom tire heads of families, fell from 49 to 4.(3 per rent, 1.1 tier rent less than a year a so and the same level that prevailed before model changeover* in the automobile industry.</br></br>The adult-male figure, to .pother with breakdowns for women and teen-agers, appeared in the Department's monthly report for the first time. They were a reflection of r e e o in in e n d a t i o n s for strengthening unemplov men! reporting teehnirpios made by a special presidential committee last week.</br></br>Adjusted jobless rates for women rose from 5.3 to ti l per cent in September: for teen-agers (14-19 years), from | no | 0 |
Interest Rates Continue Their Decline Amid New Evidence of Slower Economy | NEW YORK -- Interest rates continued to tumble yesterday amid fresh evidence that the economy is losing steam.</br></br>The average yield at the Treasury's $4 billion sale of new 20-year, one-month bonds yesterday dropped to 11.69%, the lowest since a similar auction in June 1983. That was down from an average return of 13.76% at the previous sale of similar bonds on July 5.</br></br>Another reduction in the banking industry's prime lending rate appears likely soon, analysts say. Yesterday, First Bank Minneapolis trimmed its base rate on corporate loans to 12 1/4% from 12 1/2%. A smaller bank, National City Bank of Minneapolis, went a step further, cutting its rate to 12%. Most major banks currently are quoting a 12 1/2% rate.</br></br>"We're going to have a 12% prime rate before the month is over and further declines in November to 11 1/2%," predicted Joseph Bench, a vice president and economist at Shearson Lehman/American Express Inc. He said the Federal Reserve System has eased credit conditions in an attempt to bolster the economy.</br></br>"The Fed is troubled by the abrupt downshift in economic growth, and it doesn't want it to snowball into a recession," he added. | yes | 1 |
THE DISTRICT LINE: One Weapon Hasn't Been Used Yet | They didnÛªt want to see a big increase In the unem-eapOTl payment figures, but just a modest rise. This is what is known among planners as a calculated risk, which really means that there is always the possibility it will r j x/ turn out to have been a misled I Calculated risk.</br></br>Is the best way to fight n|iwnturn at precisely the tion, here are at least *t do^t moment * make sure schools of thought and wbat was desiened t0</br></br>At the moment, it is nuto-headed monster that yet clear which school wtiftathes fire from both sets turn out to be correct, Û¢frnostrils. most nearly correct. Checl^yj that a confused layman back with me in about about all this Js that hundred years and IÛªll gifiå¤ sure hopes the experts you my studied opinion, know what theyÛªre doing For the present, I can somehow weÛªll muddle you only that I have readtlftugh. To one who is ur-the things an earnest layipffiboled in these matters it reads on such subjects, grabs very strange that the have even managed to rel&ijy way to achieve a sound some of it. economy is to put a lot of</br></br>I gather that our prosperpasple out of work, but thatÛªs economy began to accelertiteprevailing view and thereÛªs too rapidly because there wots much we can do about it too much cash in circulathwept fasten our seat belts The public began bidding and hope for the best, prices; entrepreneurs yieldecfcfeantime, however, I more readily to laborÛªs dcpuld like to suggest that mand for higher wages. Ahfere Is one weapon avail-inflationary spiral resultedable to us in the fight The expert view of all thagainst inflation that we as I get it, is that when tbmlen't used yet. If we had much prosperity leads to inmind to, we could begin flation, the remedy must teercising some individual less prosperity. intelligence and restraint in</br></br>So tight money and high Imping, terest rates gradually begaJiJ times of zooming prices producing the desired resits(labor costs, quality tends The government began h*å©kbecome spotty, both as to ing at its payroll with (gafeds and services, siderable vigor, auto factoriåÇWhen the public clamors to began cutting back producffiop, production standards beard laying off workers, ghd to deteriorate. And why economists began looking JbwildnÛªt they? However un- | no | 0 |
Toll Brothers Posts 47% Order Decline, Sets Bleak Outlook | Luxury-home builder Toll Brothers Inc. said orders in its fiscal third quarter fell 47%, with no signs of a rebound in sight.</br></br>The Horsham, Pa., company said orders in the quarter ended July 31 totaled 1,443 units, compared with 2,746 units a year earlier. The decline was bigger than the 33% to 40% decrease Wall Street had expected and worse than its 32% order decline in the previous quarter.</br></br>Chief Executive Robert Toll blamed an inventory glut and waning home-buyer confidence. "It is the first downturn in the 40 years since we entered the business that was not precipitated by high interest rates, a weak economy, job losses or other macroeconomic factors," he said.</br></br>Toll Brothers shares were down $1.70, or 6.4%, to $24.88 in 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of other home builders also fell as the news appeared to spook investors across the sector.</br></br>Toll Brothers said cancellations increased in a number of markets, like Orlando, Fla.; Northern California; Palm Springs, Calif.; Las Vegas and Phoenix. The home builder said it has opted not to slash home prices in order to move sales. | yes | 1 |
Chinese Data Weigh on European Stocks | European stocks closed lower Thursday as investors fretted about potential tightening of monetary policy in China, the country which has been the main driver of global growth, while lackluster U.S. economic data weighed on Wall Street.</br></br>The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.3% to 257.55, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell 0.4% to 5617.26, France's CAC-40 Index declined 0.4% to 3928.98, and Germany's DAX eased 0.1% to 5928.63. Late in Europe, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.12% at 10,556.07. Asian stocks were mixed coming into Europe's trading day.</br></br>At the same time, the dollar strengthened against the euro, but slipped slightly against the yen, as U.S. trade data showed a shrinking trade deficit, mainly due to slowing imports, prompting concern about the pace of the U.S. recovery. In addition, weekly jobless claims data showed a smaller-than-expected drop.</br></br>On Friday, investors will look out for the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment measure in the U.S. as well as European industrial production figures.</br></br>Early Thursday, strong economic readings out of China reignited concerns that Beijing may try to curb growth in order to damp potential excesses. China's consumer price index rose a higher-than-expected 2.7% in February and industrial production surged 20.7% in the first two months of the year compared with the year-earlier period. | no | 0 |
London Bank Rate Fades as Bench Mark For World Markets | LONDON -- Libor, or the London interbank offered rate for Eurodollar deposits, is rapidly fading as a bench mark for lending money in the international credit markets.</br></br>In a trend that shows no signs of abating, a growing number of credit-worthy borrowers, including Denmark, Sweden, several major corporations and some banks, are obtaining financing in Europe's capital markets at interest rates well below libor -- or the nominal rate banks in London charge for lending Eurodollars. Closer ties between the U.S. domestic and Eurodollar capital markets are also supplanting libor with lower U.S. money market rates as the bench-mark for global dollar lending.</br></br>"Some of the sovereign borrowers must be considered a better risk than banks," says Niels Erik Sorensen, a director in the Danish Finance Ministry's secretariat for foreign debt. "Fundamentally, banks don't look as good as they once looked," adds a senior official at Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. of New York's London merchant bank unit.</br></br>While many international borrowers continue to pay a premium for money above the rate banks themselves pay to obtain funds, that rate is frequently below libor and the premium is shrinking. As many international bank loans soured in the early 1980s, banks lost much of their luster with their own investors. As a result, banks' ability to impose themselves as the credit yardstick by which all other international borrowers are measured has faltered drastically.</br></br>Yet, even Mr. Sorensen is "at a loss to explain" why Denmark can obtain Eurodollars at a floating-rate of interest as much as 0.5 percentage point below libor. Only two years ago, the country raised $500 million in the Euromarket at a cost over five years of slightly less than 0.5 percentage point above libor, "and we felt that rate represented a reduction from what was possible at the time," recalls Mr. Sorensen. | no | 0 |
Profit-Taking Clips Market: Reaction Not Drastic Auto Stocks Mixed Aircrafts Under Pressure | , NEW YORK, June 14ÛÓThe stock market snapped its string of winners at six today. Profit-taking moved in just after the opening and pushed prices lower. A rally started before the close but it was cut short by</br></br>, NEW YORK, June 14ÛÓThe stock market snapped its string of winners at six today. Profit-taking moved in just after the opening and pushed prices lower. A rally started before the close but it was cut short by renewed selling at the bell.1 Û÷ The Dow Jones industrial average lost 5.54 points to ([lose at 880.61. Its lowest hourly reading of the day. standard & PoorÛªs 500-stock oomposite closed off 0.22 point at 92.40 and the New York Stock Exchange index was shown 0.09 point to 51.06.</br></br>Analysts wrote off the day, noting that the Dow had climbed nearly 40 points in six sessions since the big sell-off that greeted the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli war. They said the market was due for a pause and added that, with the war threat gone from the Mideast, the market should now begin to move more in tune with expectations on the! domestic business front. I</br></br>Technicians noted that the reaction was not drastic, as losers outnumbered gainers by only 653 to 565, compared with 735 up and 512 down on Tuesday. New highs slipped to 124 from 163 and there were</br></br>Blue chips were the leaders on the downside after leading the market up for the past few days. Losses in the quality stocks were larger than for the usually more volatile glamor issues. | no | 0 |
Fed Official Picked for Post With Treasury | WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has tapped Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's financial-market troubleshooter as the administration's emissary to a jittery Wall Street.</br></br>Peter Fisher is no stranger to the kind of turmoil he would likely face as the Treasury Department's undersecretary for domestic finance. In his current job as executive vice president in charge of markets for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the 44-year-old Mr. Fisher watches global credit and currency markets for potential signs of trouble.</br></br>Associates describe the red-haired, cherubic Mr. Fisher as an activist willing to use the government's powers to pre-empt or snuff out financial trouble. In 1998, he engineered the controversial Fed-brokered bailout of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund, persuading skeptical regulators that the alternative could have been an international financial meltdown. Mr. Fisher would join a Treasury team that is facing its first potential financial crisis in Turkey's emergency devaluation of its currency.</br></br>Though Mr. Fisher has yet to get formal White House clearance, Mr. O'Neill has settled on him as his choice, according to people familiar with the nomination. His appointment would require confirmation by the Senate. Neither Mr. Fisher nor a Treasury spokeswoman would comment.</br></br>The Fisher choice underscores the tremendous influence that Mr. Greenspan seems to be building in the new administration. The Fed chairman worked with the new Treasury secretary during the Ford administration, and Mr. O'Neill has frequently turned to his longtime friend for advice on economic policy. Mr. Greenspan also appears to have succeeded in persuading the Bush administration to reappoint Roger Ferguson as Fed vice chairman. | no | 0 |
ÐÊaw/mji i ÛÓ*ÐÊÐÊÐÊ å£tjc lUasIjington JJost | $ få¤;The ÛÏWhoopsÛ drama dragged on yesterday as proponents of federal | aid for the embattled Washington i. public Power Supply System tried % toTseparate the default on bonds for rj t^o abandoned nuclear power plants 1* from, bonds to finance completion of I' twfp other plants.</br></br>å¤,_r* Opponents of federal aid to Kv^PPSS briefly filibustered in the %innate against efforts by Sen. James N^cCiure (R-Idaho) to force through rescue effort as a rider on an ap-|åÇ .propriations bill.</br></br>$ ^ McClure is expected to try again v today to pass legislation creating a ^^organization to finance con-| sjrcfjftion of two partially completed WPPSS plants.</br></br>^ Meanwhile yesterday, Chemical 5 Bank, trustee for the bondholders ^ who 'financed the canceled projects ft Nos. 4 and 5, filed a long-expected Û¢ lik'l^wsuit in y.S. District Court in Seattle in an attempt to recover funds for investors. The people $>whb;bought the bonds stand to lose . billion in the largest municipal i-jBbnd default in -history. -The suit ;%Û¢;Recuses WPPSS, its 23 members, the ^participating utilities in the two : fefprojects, ,the Bonneville Power Ad-ministration and various advisers of ÐÊjCfipaud and mismanagement, vfThe proposed legislation would traJlbW BI^A, a federal government %ageiicy, to create a new entity sep-å£-'arate from WPPSS to raise approximately $1 Billion to finish plants Nos;,1.2 and 3. WPPSS unit 2 is 98 |k percent completed and number 3 is å¤ ÐÊ 7& percent completed.</br></br>å£ | Revenues from power produced by the two plants would pay back investors and would be legally out of | t|ie reach of creditors who hold the defaulted bonds on projects 4 and 5. | yes | 1 |
Blue-Chip Stocks Decline a Bit; Firstar, IBM, J.P. Morgan Shine | NEW YORK -- Blue-chip stocks were moderately lower on Wednesday, while the broad market edged higher in choppy preholiday trading.</br></br>While trading activity was lighter than usual, "it was good volume for the day before Thanksgiving," said James Herrick, managing director of trading at Robert W. Baird. After being closed yesterday for Thanksgiving, the stock market will shut early today, at 1 p.m. EST.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 14.17, or 0.18%, to 7794.78. Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 0.82, or 0.09%, to 951.64.</br></br>Banks were among the day's biggest winners. Bank of New York rose 1 1/8 to 53 1/8, BankBoston gained 1 13/16 to 88 3/4, and Firstar jumped 2 3/16 to 39 9/16.</br></br>However, First Chicago NBD, which Tuesday was sharply higher on takeover speculation, said it isn't in talks with Banc One, which was named as its suitor, and its stock slid 15/16 to 78 1/8. Banc One was down 3/16 to 51 5/16. | yes | 1 |
Jobless rate rises again in D.C. area as labor force grows; Employment gains benefit newcomers most, experts say | Unemployment in the Washington region rose to 6.4 percent in June from 6 percent the previous month, according to federal government data released Wednesday, highlighting the fragility of the recovery in the local labor market.</br></br>The Bureau of Labor Statistics data contrasted with numbers it released last week on the District, Maryland and Virginia that showed their unemployment rates had dropped in June. The difference is attributable in part to Wednesday's data not taking in the entire states of Maryland and Virginia.</br></br>At the same time, experts say the Washington area's relatively positive labor market has been drawing job seekers from outside the region faster than it has been adding jobs.</br></br>Experts also say that June is typically the month with the highest unemployment. That is when college and high school students flood the labor force looking for summer jobs. The BLS defines the labor force as working-age people who are either employed or unemployed and looking for work. A surge of job seekers can push the unemployment rate up, and a surge of long-term unemployed people who stop looking can push it down.</br></br>Unemployment had been dropping steadily in the region until May. But, experts say, most of the jobs are going to newcomers to the labor force -- recent college graduates and recently transplanted residents -- and not to long-term unemployed people. | no | 0 |
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