Forex Investment

Rising costs have kept conditions at Northern Foods tough.

However, Northern Foods, the maker of Goodfella’s pizza and Fox’s biscuits, said it was confident it would make forecasts.

Northern Foods completed a 211m selloff of 40% of its business in November after offloading its speciality bread, chilled pastry, cakes, flour milling and distribution businesses.

“The trading environment remains very competitive,” CEO Pat O’Driscoll said.

“However, as expected, we are delivering an improved performance in the seasonally busier second half year.

“This should enable delivery in line with the board’s expectations.”

Sales of pizza and frozen foods sales slowed down in the third quarter of the year to the end of December 30, while ready meals and sandwiches & salads improved 5.6%.

The biscuit business stabilised, meanwhile, and there was a last minute surge in demand for Christmas puddings.

However, bakery sales were down, as were pies and pastries which were not being bought because the warmer weather was putting people off, Ms O’Driscoll added.

Shares in the firm dropped on the news.

BRUSSELS (AFX) - Euro zone producer prices rose 0.1 pct in January from December, and were up 2.9 pct year-on-year, EU statistics office Eurostat said.

Economists polled by AFX News had forecast a 0.1 pct increase from December and a year-on-year rise of 3.2 pct.

Excluding energy, producer prices were up 0.4 pct from December.

Energy prices fell 1.0 pct from December, while durable consumer goods posted an increase of 0.7 pct, intermediate goods were up 0.6 pct, capital goods were 0.5 pct higher, and non-durable goods edged up 0.2 pct.

victoria.main@afxnews.com

vm/cmr

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Eschewing MP3s for a Modern Music Bazaar Amoeba Records a Cathedral of Commerce By MICHAEL SMITH

Feb. 5, 2007 - With its iconic clubs and secluded party venues, Sunset Boulevard has long provided a backdrop for the colorful history of rock ‘n’ roll.

Today, it tells a new story of the music business.

On Sunset in West Hollywood, the iconic Tower Records building has been boarded up and abandoned since the company went into bankruptcy in August. Meanwhile, to the east, past the exclusive bars and clubs, the line for Amoeba Records’ parking lot stretches around the block.

As a professional touring DJ, I am always looking for new places to find music. At age 9, I purchased my first tape — New Order’s “Substance” — from Walton Records, in my hometown of Birmingham, Mich.

Twenty years later, living in California and performing music to audiences all over the world, I found myself swimming in a river of digital music and only occasionally visiting the drought-stricken record stores where I met so many friends, band mates, and fellow music geeks.

Most of us have become accustomed to clicking our way through reviews and digital previews rather than browsing aisles for our music. If the Amoeba phenomenon is any clue, the total shift away from brick-and-mortar music might not happen as fast as we thought.

Enter Amoeba

From the crowds that pack the aisles of Amoeba’s Hollywood location, you’d never know that, industrywide, album sales are down 5 percent from last year, or that sales of digital singles are up 65 percent and that 10 percent of all music is sold in digital format, according to The Associated Press.

Despite this clear trend away from the traditional commercial model, other figures indicate that digital music sales will never fully kill the CD as a format. Amoeba’s success may suggest a reason why.

The three-store chain, which started in the Bay Area of Northern California, has established a modern music bazaar that serves as a destination unto itself rather than a casual stopping point in some suburban mall.

At the Los Angeles outlet, which has concrete floors and Costco-high ceilings, fellow DJs and music lovers tear through the used CDs like vultures and argue over what Led Zeppelin record is the best. In fact, Amoeba’s inventory is so huge that it has to rotate its stock to make sure every disc sees the light of day.

As owner Marc Weinstein explains, Amoeba’s collection is so broad that just about anyone can go there to sell CDs, which drives its reputation as the central music trading post in Los Angeles.

Many of us also go there in search of something new. The store even maintains several unprofitable departments — like posters and seven-inch records — simply because no one else does.

ABC News contributor Michael Smith is an internationally recognized DJ and has a music-services business. He works with a variety of national brands http://www.smitheventmusic.com/ or info@smitheventmusic.com.

Because the music is housed under one very high roof, Amoeba acts like a magnet for die-hard music fans or even casual listeners who want some exposure to coolness.

“There’s a huge social event built in. It’s the distillation of all the music-loving people around town all in one place shopping for music,” Weinstein said. “What person from L.A. wouldn’t be proud to look out and see all the way-into-music wackos out on the floor of that store?”

“It’s like you’re in New York,” he said.

Offline Social Networking

What draws people to the store is a kind of network effect. That is, the more people use a certain service, the more useful that service becomes to others. Being around other Amoeba shoppers is desirable on its own.

While online retailers like Amazon can provide infinite inventories and convenient shipping, their personalized recommendation systems will never be a substitute for the people-watching that follows part-and-parcel with our interaction with music.

While you could learn, with a click or two, that users who bought the Lily Allen album also (surprisingly) liked The Decemberists, there is something qualitatively more meaningful about seeing hipsters in leg warmers, dads in cotton T-shirts, and teenage girls in low-rise jeans all shopping within five feet of each other.

Sometimes bands are shopping in the aisles, too. In addition to its slate of nearly weekly in-store performances from bands as big as The Shins, artists like Beck and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers are Amoeba fans. I once bumped into the artist Dangermouse from Gnarls Barkley who recommended a CD by an incredible group named Grand National.

The lesson from Amoeba’s success is that divorcing music as a product from the experience of purchasing it may be more difficult than Internet prognosticators could have predicted.

Just as DVDs have failed to stomp out all demand for going to the multiplex, MP3 distribution of singles and albums have not yet made the record-store experience irrelevant.

ABC News contributor Michael Smith is an internationally recognized DJ and has a music-services business. He works with a variety of national brands http://www.smitheventmusic.com/ or info@smitheventmusic.com.

Indeed, just down the street from Amoeba, the giant ArcLight Cinemas complex provides a telling analogy.

ArcLight celebrates and enhances the moviegoing experience by allowing viewers to choose their own seats, focusing on quality control in the presentation of the film, and hosting film events for industry insiders.

Similarly, Amoeba has capitalized on what the die-hards demand as a way of attracting the casual consumer who occasionally wants to feel like an insider.

“Anyone who believes in music sees us as kind of a mecca. It reinforces a lot of people’s belief systems to go into the store,” owner Weinstein said. “It’s hard for people to quantify what they experience when they come in. There’s a feeling of togetherness and community that is unparalleled in the retail world.”

Even if physical media like CDs are becoming obsolete, and even if real estate prices prevent new music stores from opening in major cities, consumers may find the digitally mediated musical experience cold, isolating and transitory.

Until Amazon and iTunes figure out how to create a virtual space like Amoeba’s cathedral of commerce, one that doesn’t collapse when its servers crash, there may be room left for the brick-and-mortar stores — even if they aren’t the smaller, more intimate stores like the Walden Records of my youth, which closed five years ago.

Though it has no plans to expand to new locations, Amoeba is aware of the service it provides to its home cities.

“Metropolitan museums teach people about art or history, and there are no such equivalent institutions devoted to music,” Weinstein said. “To that extent, we are such a huge presence.”

ABC News contributor Michael Smith is an internationally recognized DJ and has a music-services business. He works with a variety of national brands http://www.smitheventmusic.com/ or info@smitheventmusic.com.

To see the full “Mad Money” Recap, please click here.

Here’s what Jim Cramer had to say about some of the stocks that callers offered up during the “Mad Money Lightning Round” Friday evening:

TD Ameritrade (AMTD) : “Is it my favorite broker? No.” That would be Goldman Sachs (GS) , which Cramer owns for his Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust. But Cramer said some people don’t want a stock that pricey. He said he will sanction buying Ameritrade at 14.

Virgin Media (VMED) : “This company’s in transition. … This looks a lot like what happened with Comcast (CMCSA) before its run” and with Charter (CHTR) . I am sticking with Virgin Media.”

GlobalSantaFe (GSF) : “As each contract rolls over, they get a higher price. … All the rigs are spoken for.” Cramer said the stock is “too cheap. I want to buy it here.”

Qualcomm (QCOM) : “Was worried they were being too litigious. … If that stock gets back to 37, all the risk will be in, and I’ll pull the trigger.”

“Six Flags (SIX) is a good stock.” Cramer said it’s a company that does well when interest rates go lower.

Aqua America (WTR) : “I’ve not liked this stock … I used to like it for its safety. … If it got to 18, I would probably look at it.”

Exxon Mobil (XOM) : “Way overdone … down 9 straight points, fantastic balance sheet, can raise the dividend, buying back stocks. Pull the trigger at Exxon.”

Rite Aid (RAD) : “They could also refinance their balance sheet. Mary Sammons [CEO] … doing a fabulous job. … I want to buy more Rite Aid right here. … That’s also recession-proof.”

Syntax-Brillian (BRLC) : “Downer. Liquid crystal displays. … What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna buy Corning (GLW) .”

*For all you home-gamers, a ‘mon-back opportunity means Cramer would back up the figurative truck and load up on a stock.

Want more Cramer? Check out Jim’s rules and commandments for investing from his latest book by http://www.thestreet.com/tsc/cramerbook.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - When Bank of America Corp. said it was testing a new credit card available to customers who may be illegal immigrants, the reaction was predictably harsh.

Outspoken critics of illegal immigration called for a boycott and said the bank could be supporting terrorists and drug traffickers. Some outraged customers closed accounts and sent back their cards, chopped into little pieces. The bank’s chief executive, Ken Lewis, admitted that “finding oneself in the middle of a heated national debate is never pleasant.”

But Bank of America isn’t the first to offer such a card: Citigroup Inc. said it has done so for years, and Wells Fargo & Co. says it’s thinking about it. The cards are merely the latest progression for an industry that has spent millions to attract customers in the country’s growing Latino community — and among the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

They also reflect a fact faced by every retail business in the United States. While they can’t legally employ undocumented workers, they are few, if any, restrictions on welcoming them as customers.

“As a business owner, you sell to whomever comes into your store. You sell to whomever buys from you online. It’s easy, normally,” said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. “Just in some cases where specific identification is needed, like in financial services, it’s more complicated.”

But getting less so. Last month, Bank of America said it had started a pilot program in the Los Angeles area late last year that didn’t require a Social Security number to sign up for a credit card. The Charlotte-based bank insists the card isn’t specifically designed to attract illegal immigrants, and says that so far, it has not.

The bank hasn’t decided if it will offer the card elsewhere, but it would likely be popular with a population that generally lacks access to something as common in most American wallets as the dollar bill and a driver’s license.

“It’s a no brainer. It’s a very large market,” said Jim Johnson, director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “The bank is just the latest example of a major corporation recognizing the impact of doing business with Hispanics.”

In 2005, the nation’s 6.6 million illegal immigrant families had an average annual income of $29,500 and accounted for nearly $200 billion in purchasing power, a figure that’s only expected to grow, said Pew Hispanic Center demographer Jeff Passel.

“They are impacting the economy,” Passel said. “The unauthorized are explicitly coming for an economic basis.”

While credit card use among the nation’s 42 million Hispanics is on the rise, a substantial number of Latino households don’t have access to credit, according a survey conducted by the National Council of La Raza, which found that 80 percent of American households use credit cards compared with only 56 percent of Hispanic households.

For years, U.S. banks have made attracting immigrants a major focus of their business strategy, working to sell services that include everything from traditional checking accounts to wire transfers used to send money to relatives back home.

Customers don’t typically need a Social Security number to open a standard banking account. Instead, they can identify themselves by using an ID card provided by the Mexican Consulate to its citizens, known as a matricula consular, or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) issued by the Internal Revenue Service.

At Bank of America, the pilot program in Los Angeles allows customers to use such forms of identification to also sign up for a credit card. The card is similar to secured cards offered to those with poor credit: it requires customers to have an account with the bank that’s been in good standing for at least three months and comes with a reimbursable upfront fee of $99.

“This initiative lets customers build a solid credit history with a leading bank,” Bank of America spokeswoman Betsy Weinberger said.

Still, Camarota said most Americans don’t think businesses should go out of their way to cater to illegal immigrants. “Some say it’s bad corporate citizenship,” he said.

Critics of illegal immigration have said providing credit to illegal immigrants further embeds the population into American society. Many worry that without a Social Security number, the bank can’t be sure the card’s customers won’t use the credit for criminal activity, such as terrorism or drug trafficking.

“We just see this as another step to put our country at risk so they can make a few extra dollars,” said Rod Woodard, director of NC Listen, an immigration reform organization based in Cary, N.C.

The attention has rattled America’s largest retail bank. Lewis responded to the controversy in a column in The Wall Street Journal, writing the bank is complying with the provisions of the USA Patriot Act, which set up the guidelines that allows the bank to accept official identification sources issued by foreign governments — including the matricula consular.

“And I observe no shortage of irony in the efforts of those whose first concern is national security, but who seek to undermine a regulatory structure that was designed in large part to thwart terrorism,” Lewis wrote. He said only 16 percent of customers to sign up for the card so far lack a Social Security number.

“We believe we have an obligation to serve all those in our country who are legally eligible to receive services,” Lewis wrote. “To do less would be discriminatory and unfair.”

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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