Forex Investment

March 27, 2008 — Home sales

New home sales fell in February to the lowest level in 13 years as tighter loan restrictions and the prospect of even lower prices kept buyers away. Sales dropped 1.8 percent from the prior month to an annual pace of 590,000, the least since February 1995, according to the Com merce Department.

Deutsche falls

Deutsche Bank AG said the US subprime collapse and slowing growth will make it harder to reach its full-year profit goal. Deutsche fell 1.9 percent in Frankfurt trading.

New Century

Bankrupt mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp. used im proper accounting prac tices while making risky loans, creating “a ticking time bomb” that led to the company’s rapid downfall, a court exam iner said in a report re leased yesterday.

Reuters deal

Thomson Corp. and Reuters Group Plc share holders approved the merger of the compa nies, paving the way for the creation of the big gest financial-informa tion provider, increasing Toronto-based Thom son’s sales to $11 billion and tripling its share of the financial data market to 34 percent.

MF deal

MF Global, one of the world’s largest futures and options brokers, said it had renegotiated an exclusive clearing agree ment with a unit of Man Group PLC that will ulti mately allow it to rede ploy up to $800 million of existing liquidity.

Oracle sales

Oracle reported third- quarter sales that missed analysts’ estimates. Sales that include maintenance fees from acquired com panies climbed to $5.37 billion in the quarter end ing Feb. 29. Oracle fell $1.64 to $19.30 in ex tended Nasdaq trading after closing at $20.94.

September 1, 2007 — Consumers
Consumer spending, wages and factory orders in the U.S. rose more than forecast in July be fore the soaring cost of borrowing took a bite out of the economy. Meanwhile, consumer confidence fell in August to the lowest in a year.

Mortgage suit
A Citigroup unit and auditor Deloitte & Touche LLP were sued by an investor for help ing a mortgage company issue $92.4 million in stock 14 weeks before the lender went bank rupt. The four million shares issued by Ameri can Home Mortgage have dropped by 99 per cent since they were first offered for sale on April 30 at $23.10 through Citi group Global Markets.

Citi buy
Citigroup agreed to buy the wholesale mortgage origination and servicing busi nesses of ACC Capital Holdings, operator of Ameriquest Mortgage Company and once the nation’s biggest sub prime home lender.

Home Depot
Home Depot arranged a $10 billion loan with Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch to help pay for its planned $22.5 billion stock buyback.

Sears credit
Sears Holdings stock was downgraded by Bear Stearns a day after the retailer reported a 40 percent decline in second-quarter earn ings.

Times up
The New York Times will end TimesPoints, a rewards program that lets readers pay for home delivery with points earned by shop ping at certain retailers, in December.

Not yet
Sonia Gandhi is presi dent of India’s National Congress Party, not president of India.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

October 2, 2007 — Palm down

Palm Inc. had its first loss in more than three years after sales of its Treo e-mail phone lagged behind the BlackBerry and iPhone. The shares fell 3.8 per cent after this quarter’s forecast missed anal ysts’ estimates. The first-quarter loss was $841,000, or 1 cent a share, vs. a profit of $16.5 million, or 16 cents, a year earlier.

Bally up

Bally Total Fitness said it emerged from bankruptcy protection and was bought by hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners for $233.6 million.

P&G sales

Procter & Gamble hired Blackstone Group LP in August to manage auctions of its Duracell battery unit and Folgers coffee and Pringles po tato chip brands.

Acxiom falls

Shares in Acxiom Corp. plunged nearly 20 percent, or $3.90, to $15.89 after the data company announced the termination of a $2.25 billion buyout plan that would have taken it private. The company, which in May agreed to a buyout by Silver Lake Partners and Value Act Capital, said the private-equity funds would pay $65 million in cash to ter minate the agreement amid an increasingly tight credit market.

Cendant case

A federal appeals court upheld the con viction and sentencing of former Cendant Chairman Walter Forbes, who is serving more than 12 years in prison for directing the largest accounting fraud of the 1990s.

AT&T buy

AT&T agreed to buy Interwise Inc. for $121 million in cash to ex pand its Internet and video-conferencing services for businesses.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

October 15, 2007 — Applebee’s

Applebee’s Interna tional Inc. has agreed to settle a class-action law suit challenging the pro posed $1.9 billion sale of the restaurant operator to IHOP Corp. The New Jersey Building Laborers Pension and Annuity Funds alleged the trans action robbed Apple bee’s shareholders of benefits they might re ceive if Applebee’s stayed independent and franchised its remaining locations.

Housing report

Builders broke ground in September on the fewest houses in 12 years, government re ports this week are ex pected to show. Econo mists predict housing starts fell 3.6 percent to an annual rate of 1.285 million, said a survey ahead of a report Wednesday by the Com merce Department.

Quixtar sues

Direct-marketing firm Quixtar Inc., a sister com pany of Amway Corp., has sued 30 people who anonymously posted dis paraging remarks about Quixtar in blogs and on line forums and in You Tube.com videos. Quix tar believes the videos and other postings are part of an organized ef fort by former distribu tors who unsuccessfully sued Alticor.

China reserves

China ordered banks to set aside more money as reserves for the eighth time this year to cool speculation in stocks and real estate and curb the fastest inflation in 10 years. Lenders must park 13 percent of deposits as reserves from Oct. 25, up from 12.5 percent, the People’s Bank of China said yesterday.

MTV sale

MTV is trying to sell Tempo, its Caribbean music and culture net work, or make a deal with investors to run it under a licensing agree ment, according to a re port in Broadcasting & Cable.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

September 27, 2007 — Goods orders

Orders for American- made durable goods fell in August by the most in seven months - 4.9 per cent, the Commerce De partment said - raising concern that businesses are losing confidence in the economy.

Oil up

Oil prices rose as much as a dollar in a vol atile session. U.S. crude settled up 77 cents to $80.30 a barrel after see sawing between $78.44 and $80.82.

Merrill warning

Merrill Lynch may re cord losses of as much as $4 billion on fixed-in come assets, resulting in the lowest quarterly earnings in almost six years, Goldman Sachs analyst William Tanona said. Tanona cut his third-quarter earnings estimate to 15 cents a share from $1.95. For the full year, he expects earnings of $6.75 a share, or 25 percent less than his previous prediction.

Moody’s sued

Moody’s was sued by shareholders who ac cused it of not revealing it gave inflated credit ratings to subprime- mortgage securities. Moody’s Chief Credit Officer Nicolas Weill told the Senate Banking Committee that it will give lower assessments to subprime mortgage bonds containing loans that haven’t been veri fied by an outside party.

Halo sale-er

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, said its “Halo 3″ Xbox 360 video game brought in $170 million in sales on its first day in U.S. stores.

Abu deal

Time Warner will de velop a theme park, hotel, cinemas and a movie studio business in Abu Dhabi with local de veloper Aldar Properties PJSC. Investments will total billions of dollars, Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer said.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

May 24, 2007 — H-P violation

Hewlett-Packard broke federal laws when it didn’t tell investors why a director abruptly re signed amid a probe into boardroom leaks last year, the SEC said. The agency issued a cease- and-desist order against the company, requiring it to refrain from violat ing disclosure laws.

Foot Locker

Foot Locker said its quarterly net profit fell sharply to $17 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with $59 mil lion, or 38 cents per share, a year earlier. Net sales slipped 3.6 percent to about $1.32 billion from about $1.4 billion a year earlier.

Net ads

Internet advertising sales soared 35 percent to $16.9 billion in the U.S. last year, and ac counted for 5.9 percent of all U.S. ad spending, up from 4.7 percent in 2005. Fourth-quarter In ternet ad spending reached a record $4.8 billion, a 33 percent gain, the Interactive Ad vertising Bureau said, citing a survey con ducted with the ac counting firm Pricewa terhouseCoopers LLP.

MGM move

MGM Mirage formed a committee of inde pendent directors to study options after bil lionaire Kirk Kerkorian said he was considering alternatives for his 56 percent stake in the world’s second-biggest casino company.

Qwest vote

Qwest Communica tions shareholders re jected measures that would give them a big ger say in determining executive pay and more closely link salaries to the phone company’s performance.

Amazon

Amazon.com said it bought Brilliance Audio, the largest U.S. independent publisher of audio books, for an undisclosed price.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

November 14, 2007 — Citi reorg

Citigroup will combine debt and equity under writing into one division and merge its stock and bond sales units, in the wake of a management shakeup last month. The underwriting group will be led by Tyler Dickson, 40, while the new sales group will be co-led by Antonio Cacorino and James O’Donnell, 46.

Sirius-XM

Sirius Satellite Radio shareholders approved the proposed $4.93 bil lion acquisition of larger rival XM Satel lite Radio Holdings.

Wendy’s

Wendy’s Interna tional received a re vised takeover bid from Nelson Peltz’s Triarc Cos. that was less than the $3.2 billion he said he might pay in July.

Subprime loss

Subprime mortgage foreclosures will cut U.S. home values by $223 billion in sur rounding communities, the Center for Respon sible Lending said.

Fortress

Fortress Investment Group LLC, the private- equity and hedge-fund manager overseeing $40 billion, reported a 66 per cent increase in third- quarter profit to $111 mil lion, or 26 cents per share.

Biondi

Michael Biondi, 50, a veteran corporate take over adviser who most recently served as Laz ard Ltd.’s co-chairman of investment banking, died Monday night.

Yahoo!

Yahoo! agreed to pro vide legal and financial support to the families of two jailed Chinese dissi dents to settle claims it committed human rights abuses when it gave China information that led to the men’s arrests. Yahoo! will also create a humanitarian relief fund for other political dissi dents and their families, the company said.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

June 6, 2007 — Citi worth

Citigroup could be worth as much as $100 billion more broken into four separate companies - investment banking, brokerage, and U.S. and foreign consumer banking - and could boost its market value as much as 37 percent, to about $368 billion over three years, CreditSights analyst David Hendler said.

EBay radio

EBay said it is ready to begin auctioning advertising airtime on 2,300 participating U.S. radio stations, expanding on an existing plan to sell cable television ads.

GM plan

GM has awarded two contracts to companies that will help speed up development of its plug-in electric car called the Chevrolet Volt, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said. Wagoner said GM would introduce four new hybrid models this year. Meanwhile, Honda said it will discontinue the hybrid version of its Accord sedan, conceding Toyota’s dominance with the hit Prius hybrid.

Trump falls

Shares of Trump Entertainment Resorts, which is exploring a possible sale, fell 7 percent, $1.12 to $14.94 after Bear Stearns downgraded the stock on skepticism that a bid will emerge at a premium to the current stock price.

Mets deal

The New York Mets signed Aramark Corp., which runs concessions at Shea Stadium and 12 other Major League Baseball parks, to a 30-year contract as concessionaire at the team’s new home field, Citi Field, scheduled to open for the 2009 season.

Wrong jeans

The jeans pictured in the June 5 story, “It’s all in the jeans,” were incorrectly identified as being from Citizen of Humanity. They are actually from Hudson.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

April 24, 2007 — Google sale

Google has enlisted Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group and UBS AG for a program that lets its employees sell their stock options through an online auc tion. Morgan Stanley will run the auction and also be able to bid for the options, the Moun tain View, Calif.-based company said in a regu latory filing.

Vonage freeze

Vonage Holdings Corp., ordered to stop adding customers after it lost a patent ruling, will ask a court in Washington today to ex tend a temporary freeze of a lower court order that bars it from win ning new business dur ing the appeal.

Sirius pay

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. paid CEO Mel Kar mazin $31.2 million in salary, bonus and stock last year. Karmazin re ceived a salary of $1.25 million, a $3 million bonus, $2.83 million in stock awards and op tions valued at $24.1 mil lion, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Tribune sale

The FTC approved the first step of real es tate billionaire Sam Zell’s $8.2 billion buyout of Tribune Co., owner of the Los An geles Times and the Chicago Cubs. Mean while, Moody’s cut Tribune’s corporate family rating two notches to “Ba3,” three levels below invest ment grade, from “Ba1,” and cut its senior unse cured debt four notches to “B2,” five levels below investment grade, from “Ba1.”

BlackRock

BlackRock, the largest publicly traded U.S. fund manager by assets, sued Schroders Plc, London’s biggest pub licly traded money manager, for luring away the head of its German office and other “key” employees.

June 9, 2007 — FCC review

The FCC began a re view of Sirius Satellite Radio’s proposed $4 billion purchase of XM Satellite Radio Holdings after a delay of more than one month.

Trump jump

Shares of Trump Entertainment Resorts rose as much as 11 percent on reports of at least two possible bidders for the company and its three casinos in Atlantic City. The stock climbed $1.24 to $15.60 in composite Nasdaq trading. Dune Capital Management LP, a buyout firm run by ex-Goldman, Sachs execs, is one of the bidders, the Newark Star-Ledger said. Dennis Gomes, former general manager of the Trump Taj Mahal, and New York-based JEMP Realty Inc. also are teaming to make an offer, Dow Jones said.

Card suit

MasterCard won a court ruling that forces Visa International to stop charging a fee that penalized issuers for switching to Master Card’s debit-card network. Visa levied the fee on banks that left its debit-card network because it said they should cover part of the $2 billion cost of a 2003 antitrust settlement. MasterCard said the fee illegally restrained competition.

NYC rents

Manhattan landlords raised rents last month for studio and one-bedroom apartments by an average of 4 percent. Prices climbed 1 percent for two-bedroom apartments and 2 percent for three-bedroom units from April, according to data collected by New York real estate broker Citi Habitats.

May it ain’t so

The artwork accompanying a June 7 article on Macy’s should have listed Filene’s as a May Co. brand, not Filene’s Basement, which is a separate retailer not af filiated with May Co.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

March 3, 2007 — Citi poop

David Becker, a for mer Citigroup commod ities trading head who pleaded guilty to fraud, told prosecutors last year about alleged “widespread” wrong doing at his and rival banks in a bid to win le niency, his lawyer said. Becker, 40, admitted in September that he con spired to inflate trading profits by $20 million at the Citibank unit of Citi group, in hopes of win ning a bigger bonus. He is to be sentenced March 19 in Manhattan federal court.

Vioxx verdict

Merck & Co. de frauded consumers and failed to warn doctors of the risks of Vioxx be fore an Idaho user had a heart attack, a New Jersey jury ruled in a split verdict in a trial of the cases of two men.

Sun-Times

Sun-Times Media Group, the newspaper publisher once run by Conrad Black, said its operating loss expanded fourfold last year 39.2 million from $10.3 mil lion in 2005, as sales de clined. The results are preliminary because the company plans to re state results to reflect backdated options.

Saks CFO

Saks said the CFO of its Saks Fifth Avenue unit, Michael Archbold, will assume that role at the parent company in May. Ernest LaPorte, principal accounting of ficer at Movado Group, will first become senior vice president and con troller at the Saks Fifth Avenue unit and then will take on the roles at the parent in August.

Airbust

UPS, the last remain ing customer for the troubled Airbus SAS A380 freighter, said it will scrap its $2.8 billion order for 10 of the su perjumbo jets later this year. UPS concluded that Airbus couldn’t meet a new delivery schedule.

June 14, 2007 — Tribune sale

Tribune Co.’s pro posed $8.2 billion sale should be blocked unless the company sells off ei ther a newspaper or a television station in five markets where it owns both, Media Access Proj ect, a Washington-based public interest law firm that opposes media con centration, told the FCC.

CA CEO

CA Inc. said William McCracken will replace Lewis Ranieri as chair man. McCracken, 64, worked at IBM for 36 years, retiring in 2001.

Naked rule

The SEC increased restrictions on naked short selling after com panies accused traders of using the tactic to manipulate share prices. The SEC voted 5-0 to limit the ability of investors to short sell shares they haven’t borrowed, removing an exemption that allowed traders to place sell or ders but never deliver the shares to buyers.

Bail denied

BetonSports PLC founder Gary Kaplan, in dicted with the company for violating U.S. laws barring Internet betting across state lines, was denied bail.

Hank loss

AIG’s former CEO Maurice “Hank” Green berg lost a bid to file claims against past and present company offi cials as part of a lawsuit originally filed against him, a judge ruled.

Ihop bid

Ihop Corp. offered to buy Applebee’s Interna tional Inc. for more than $2 billion, people famil iar with the matter said.

Usana sale A story in yesterday’s Post misstated the amount of stock that Usana Corp. CEO Myron Wentz sold on Feb. 12, as well as the proceeds. He sold 85,000 shares, netting about $5.18 million.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

December 15, 2007 — Bad week

Stocks fell, completing the steepest weekly drop in a month. The Dow Jones industrial average slid 178.11 to 13,339.85. The Nasdaq composite index lost 32.75 to 2,635.74. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index de clined 20.46 to 1,467.95.

DJ debt

Dow Jones & Co.’s debt rating was raised one level to BBB+ by Standard & Poor’s fol lowing the sale of The Wall Street Journal publisher to News Corp. The change af fects Dow Jones’ $225 million 3.875 percent senior notes due Febru ary 2008. The action follows shareholder ap proval of the sale and the assumption of the notes by News Corp., owner of The Post, S&P said.

Morgan trades

Two Morgan Stanley advisers concealed $4.8 billion in market-timed trades by two of their hedge fund customers in 2002 and 2003, the SEC said in a lawsuit.

Sallie moves

Student lender Sallie Mae said that its execu tive chairman Albert Lord will take on the extra role of CEO. C.E. Andrews, the previous CEO, will assume the role of president.

Not a-loan

The Senate passed leg islation, 93-1, to allow the Federal Housing Admin istration to back refin anced loans for borrow ers who are delinquent on payments because their mortgages are re setting to sharply higher rates from low initial “teaser” levels.

Sun-Times

Sun-Times Media Group plans to cut op erating costs by $50 million next year. The plan will include $10 million of savings pre viously announced as part of a distribution agreement with Trib une Co.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

March 23, 2007 — Citi freeze

Citigroup won’t re place employees when they leave, as the world’s biggest bank re duces expenses, curtail ing hiring for as long as 18 months, a member of the company’s manage ment committee said yesterday. Citi has about 327,000 employ ees and annual turn over of 10 percent to 15 percent. Merrill move

Merrill Lynch & Co. is restricting access to its research reports after some stock picks ap peared on outside Web sites within seconds of their release, the compa ny’s head of research wrote in a memo to cli ents yesterday. Blockbuster

Blockbuster Inc.’s soon-to-leave CEO John Antioco was paid $16.3 million last year, including salary of $2.55 million, a $3.05 million bonus and $10.7 million in stock and stock- op tion awards, the Dallas- based company said yesterday. Oracle sues

Oracle Corp., Red wood Shores, Calif., sued Germany’s SAP AG for “corporate theft on a grand scale,” claiming its business software rival used cus tomers’ online access codes to steal copy righted software. Borders line

Borders Group Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich., reporting a fourth- quarter loss and said it will close almost half of its Waldenbooks stores, possibly sell the major ity of its international division and sever its contract with Ama zon.com Inc., which has handled its online sales for six years. Thain pay

NYSE Group Inc., op erator of the New York Stock Exchange, paid CEO John Thain $9.36 million in 2006 after cutting his base salary to $750,000 in April.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

September 11, 2007 — Kobi loss

Fugitive former Com verse Technology CEO Jacob “Kobi” Alexander lost a bid to stop U.S. prosecutors from seiz ing about $50 million in two of his bank ac counts. The judge said there was nothing pre venting Alexander from returning to the U.S. from his new home in Namibia to fight crimi nal charges.

Low Jones

Jones Apparel Group had its debt rating low ered to non-investment grade by Standard & Poor’s on a “weaker” risk profile after the sale of its Barneys stores.

Oil up

U.S. crude oil settled up 79 cents at $77.49 a barrel, near the record $78.77 a barrel struck on Aug. 1, ahead of an OPEC meeting to de cide on output policy.

Burberry

Burberry Group PLC settled a lawsuit accus ing Iconix Brand Group Inc. of copying its trademark look for use in a line of London Fog overcoats. Neither party released details of the agreement, in cluding whether Iconix can continue to make and sell the allegedly infringing products.

WPP gets

WPP Group PLC, the world’s second-biggest advertising company, ac quired U.S. company Schematic. Schematic, founded in 1999, designs and develops products for the Web, interactive television, mobile de vices and other “digital environments,” London- based WPP said.

WSJ protest

About 100 Wall Street Journal reporters held a noon rally outside the newspaper’s headquar ters to protest a con tract offer from Dow Jones & Co., the pub lisher being acquired by News Corp., which also owns The Post.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

December 13, 2007 — Oil rise

Oil jumped nearly 5 percent, $4.37, to $94.39 a barrel. US crude stocks fell to the lowest point since early 2005.

AMT OK

Hedge fund executives won’t be allowed to defer taxes on unlimited funds in offshore ac counts under a bill ap proved by the House of Representatives that also shields millions of tax payers from the alterna tive minimum tax.

Bankruptcy

The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation to help keep bankrupt borrowers from losing their homes, letting bankruptcy courts change mortgage terms to protect borrowers. It amend Congress’s 2005 overhaul of the nation’s bankruptcy code, which made it tougher for con sumers to wipe out debts through the courts.

Google glitch

Two consumer groups filed a complaint with the FTC, urging that its chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, be removed from the review of the Google- DoubleClick merger because her hus band is a top antitrust at torney at the law firm advising DoubleClick on the deal. The groups said Majoras is also a former partner in the same firm.

Classmates IPO

Classmates Media Corp. scrapped plans for an IPO due to current market conditions.

Correction

In an article published yesterday, Marc Kaso witz, an attorney with the law firm of Kaso witz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, was in correctly described as “fighting accusations in federal court that he mishandled evidence.” In fact, the proceeding to which we referred was dismissed with re spect to the Kaso witz firm in September 2007. The Post regrets the error.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

August 25, 2007 — Oil rise
Crude oil rose more than $1 a barrel in New York, the biggest gain this month. Crude oil for October delivery rose $1.26, or 1.8 percent, to settle at $71.09 a barrel on the New York Mer cantile Exchange.

Dillard’s
Dillard’s rallied as much as 11 percent on re vived speculation it will be sold in a leveraged buyout, traders said. Dil lard’s Class A shares gained $2, or 8.2 percent, to $26.40 and earlier rose as high as $27.20. The shares have fallen 30 percent since July 19, when the S&P 500 index reached a record.

Whole Foods
Whole Foods Market rose $1.20, or 2.7 percent, to $44.54 - the most in a week - after a federal appeals court rejected the government’s at tempt to stop its acquisi tion of Wild Oats Mar kets. Wild Oats increased 39 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $18.46.

Subprime
The default rate on subprime mortgages packaged into securities almost doubled to a re cord 13.43 percent in June from a year earlier, according to Friedman Billings Ramsey Group. The share of loans that were at least 90 days late, in foreclosure or had been turned into seized property rose from 6.88 percent in June 2006 and is up from 12.4 percent in May 2007.

Tribune ads
Tribune Co. said ad sales declined 5.9 per cent in July, led by a drop in classified adver tising. Sales fell to $466.7 million from $496.1 mil lion a year earlier.

On a Jag?
Ratan Tata, chairman of India’s Tata Group, confirmed that the steel- to-software conglomer ate is interested in ac quiring Ford’s Land Rover and Jaguar luxury brands.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

September 28, 2007 — No Jones-in’
Jones Apparel Group, maker of Jones New York clothing and Nine West shoes, had its debt rating lowered to non-invest ment grade by Moody’s Investors Service.
Freddie fine
Freddie Mac, the mort gage financing company recovering from a $5 bil lion accounting scandal, will pay $50 million to settle regulators’ claims that it defrauded investors by concealing swings in earnings from 1998 to 2002. Former President David Glenn, ex-CFO Vaughn Clarke and two former senior vice presidents also settled related claims, the SEC said.
EchoStar
EchoStar Communi cations rose $2.51 to $45.98, or 5.8 percent, after TheStreet.com re ported AT&T is offer ing to buy it for $55 a share, or $24.6 billion.
Merrill peril
Merrill Lynch & Co. may have to record losses of $2.2 billion on corporate loans, mort gages and other bonds, analyst David Trone said, becoming at least the third Wall Street forecaster in two days to slash estimated earnings.
Weighing in
Former President Bill Clinton, his Treasury Secretary Larry Sum mers, and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron said the U.S. may be facing a recession because of a collapse in the home mortgage market and flat wages.
Frank bill
House Financial Serv ices Committee Chair man Barney Frank (D-Mass.), drafting legisla tion in an attempt to stem future subprime-mortgage foreclosures, is considering a ban on mortgages for people who can’t reasonably be expected to repay. The tentative proposal also puts new restrictions on mortgage brokers.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

July 9, 2007 — UBS in U.S. UBS is preparing a new growth initiative in the U.S. that may in clude acquisitions as it seeks to bolster its in vestment banking and wealth management business, the Swiss group’s chairman said yesterday. Marcel Ospel ruled out splitting the group into investment banking and wealth management divisions. Retail fails Sales at U.S. retailers are forecast to stall in June following the big gest gain in more than a year as the housing re cession led consumers to tighten their belts. Retail sales were probably un changed last month after a 1.4 percent gain in May, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of a Friday report. Comply fry Complying with anti- money-laundering laws has been much more ex pensive than banks antic ipated, and some still aren’t meeting all re quirements, a new sur vey says. Banks around the world saw compli ance costs jump an aver age of 58 percent over the past three years, said a KPMG International survey. North American banks saw the highest percentage cost increase, with costs rising 71 per cent over the last three years. Iran oil Iran’s oil production capacity will fall by five percent a year without new investment, a senior oil official was quoted as saying yesterday. Indus try experts say sanctions imposed by the U.S. and U.N. in a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambi tions are deterring for eign investors. China cars Nissan Motor Co., Ja pan’s third-largest auto maker, plans to sell 300,000 cars in China this year, after introduc ing its Infiniti luxury brand to gain from the country’s growing num ber of wealthy buyers.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

August 29, 2007 — Blackstone
Blackstone Group LP dropped 3.2 percent to its lowest close since its June 21 IPO, on con cern credit-market tur moil will hamper lever aged buyouts. The manager of the world’s largest buyout fund fell 76 cents to $23.04 in New York Stock Ex change trading. The stock has dropped 26 percent since its IPO.
CIT jobs
CIT Group Inc., the consumer and commer cial finance company, said it has closed its mortgage lending opera tions, resulting in the loss of 550 jobs across 25 offices. CIT said it will take a $35 million pretax charge in the third quar ter for severance and exit costs. It said its loan collection and customer service activities are un affected.
Carlyle
Carlyle Group propped up its Guern sey, U.K.-based credit- investment affiliate by buying some of its as sets and extending a second $100 million loan in case the market volatility of the past five weeks persists.
EarthLink
EarthLink plans to cut 900 employees, almost half its workers, after subscribers fled the un profitable U.S. Internet service provider. The company’s shares rose the most in two years. The firings will cost as much as $70 million in the next two quarters. EarthLink also trimmed its sales forecast for the year. The net loss will be as much as $174 mil lion, up from $140 mil lion predicted earlier.
Oil down
Crude oil for October delivery fell 24 cents, or 0.3 percent, to settle at $71.73 a barrel on the Nymex.
Google CFO
Google said CFO George Reyes plans to retire.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

June 26, 2007 — KPMG case

Federal prosecutors have asked a court to toss out indictments against 12 former KPMG executives accused of creating illegal tax shelters. The unusual move is viewed as an attempt to try to save a case stalled after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that the government violated the constitutional rights of the defendants by pressing the global accounting firm to stop paying legal fees for the indicted employees.

Home sales

Sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. fell in May to the lowest level in almost four years, reinforcing concerns about a protracted housing slump. Purchases declined 0.3 percent to an annual rate of 5.99 million, from a revised 6.01 million the prior month, the National Association of Realtors said.

Diller says

Billionaire Barry Diller, the chairman of Expedia Inc., said he won’t transfer control of the Internet travel agent to John Malone’s Liberty Media.

Buffett lunch

A chance to have a “power lunch” with billionaire investor Warren Buffett drew a high bid of $107,400 in the first stretch of an annual five-day charity auction on eBay. Last year, the opportunity ultimately fetched $620,100.

Cravath lease

Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP renewed its lease in midtown Manhattan with Macklowe Properties for about $900 million over 15 years, said a person involved in the transaction. Cravath will pay almost $100 a square foot starting in 2009 when its current lease expires for about 600,000 square feet at Worldwide Plaza.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

September 13, 2007 — WaMu layoffs

Washington Mutual Inc. plans to shutter two mortgage divisions and fire 1,000 people, a spokesman said yester day. It is closing a divi sion that bought loans and another that fi nanced mortgage com panies. WaMu closed up 31 cents at $35.23. First Horizon National Corp., Tennessee’s big gest bank, said it’s cut ting 1,500 jobs to re duce exposure to the housing market.

GMAC loan

GMAC LLC’s bonds rallied after Citigroup Inc. agreed to lend $21.4 billion to the auto and home lender owned by General Motors Corp. and Cerberus Capital Management LP. GMAC said it can borrow $14.4 billion from Citigroup, and may be able to get another $7 billion. The support enables Detroit- based GMAC to finance new loans.

Sirius, XM

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. ad vanced in Nasdaq trad ing after a Cowen & Co. analyst said their proposed merger may get U.S. federal regula tory approval as soon as next month. Sirius shares gained 11 cents to $3.42 and XM rose 59 cents to $14.21.

Target sale

Target Corp., the dis count retailer pres sured by investors to boost its shares, may sell its $7 billion credit- card portfolio and in crease share buybacks. Target hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to help evaluate a potential sale, the Minneapolis- based company said.

New job

Brian Hunter, the en ergy trader behind the collapse of $9 billion hedge fund manager Amaranth Advisors, has become a consultant to a new commodities hedge fund run by Peak Ridge Capital.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

August 15, 2007 — Thornburg
Thornburg Mortgage postponed its dividend and said it is exploring the sale of mortgage as sets, capping a day in which the shares lost nearly half their value after five brokerages downgraded the stock. The shares were halted about 30 minutes before the close of trading on the New York Stock Ex change. Thornburg shares fell $6.63, or 46 percent, to $7.65.
Lampert-Citi
Edward Lampert’s hedge fund group in creased its stake in Citi group by more than 60 percent, buying almost 9.6 million shares for a total of 24.8 million dur ing the second quarter.
CEOs bearish
Confidence among CEOs has slumped to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2002, The Financial Times reported on its Web site. The Goldman Sachs Confidence Index was conducted in the last week of July and the first one of Au gust.
Icahn stake
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn reported holding 2.7 million shares, or more than 9 percent, of the drug maker Biogen. Icahn also acquired 3.92 mil lion shares of Kraft Foods.
Beazer falls
Beazer Homes USA Inc., a builder of new homes for first-time buy ers, fell 8 percent after Fitch Ratings down graded the company’s debt and Moody’s Inves tors Service said it may lower the builder’s rat ings. Beazer shares fell $1.01 to $11.33 in Big Board trading.
Oats close
Federal regulators said that Whole Foods Mar ket Inc. plans to close 30 Wild Oats stores that compete with its own lo cations if it acquires the smaller rival. >

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

October 13, 2007 — Paper plan
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson brought together officials from Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and other big banks to discuss a plan to support structured investment vehicles, in cluding asset-backed commercial paper, se curities linked to sub prime mortgages and collateralized debt obli gations. The talks are the latest effort by poli cymakers to help re store liquidity to credit markets, which have been in turmoil since July. Under one plan being considered, lend ers would establish a fund of as much as $100 billion to buy assets from the SIVs.

Oil record
Oil hit a record intra day $84 a barrel on mounting tensions be tween Turkey and north ern Iraq and lingering supply concerns ahead of the Northern Hemi sphere winter. U.S. crude oil settled up 61 cents at $83.69 a barrel.

Retail sales
September retail sales rose 0.6 percent, double the rate in August, the Commerce Department said.

X-ed out
Ford is killing pro duction of its struggling Jaguar X-Type model for North America by year-end. Overseas sales will continue.

Weiss plea
Milberg Weiss co- founder Mel Weiss won’t plead guilty to charges he paid kick backs to clients so they would file shareholder suits, his lawyer said prior to his client’s first court appearance since his Sept. 20 indictment.

Gabelli vote
Mario Gabelli plans to vote against Cablevision’s plan to go private in a $10.6 billion buyout led by its founding Dolan family. Gabelli’s Gamco holds an 8.3 percent stake in Cablevision.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

March 2, 2007 — Blockbuster Blockbuster is in advanced talks to buy Movielink LLC as a way to speed its entry into the online movie-down loading business, souces said. Blockbus ter would pay less than $50 million in cash and stock for Movielink, which is owned by five major studios. The companies declined to make official comment. Citi cards Citigroup Inc., the third-largest U.S. credit card issuer, said it will no longer automatically raise interest rates for cardholders who de fault somewhere else. Citi also said that it will no longer raise borrow ing rates and fees for consumers before their cards expire, which is typically two years after they are issued. Credit card issuers have traditionally been allowed to boost rates and fees at any time, for any reason. Sears earns Sears Holding said fourth-quarter profit climbed 27 percent to $820 million, or $5.33 a share, from $648 mil lion, or $4.03 a share, a year earlier. UAL delay United Airlines par ent UAL Corp. said it will delay filing its an nual report from yes terday until as late as March 16 because of complications related to its bankruptcy exit. The 2006 report will be UAL’s first since leav ing more than three years under court su pervision last February. Oracle buy Oracle Corp. will buy Hyperion Solutions Corp. for $3.3 billion in cash - $52 per share - renewing a shopping spree aimed at toppling rival SAP AG. Santa Clara-based Hyperion represents the largest prey to be devoured by Oracle since it gobbled up Siebel Systems Inc. for $6.1 billion a little over a year ago.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

November 1, 2007 — Auto sales

GM sales may have risen 2.1 percent in Oc tober, marking three straight months of gains for the first time since 2004, while Ford’s could fall 16 percent and Chrysler might slide 7.9 percent, based on a Bloomberg survey. The automakers report re sults today.

Jones keeps up

Jones Apparel Group said third-quarter profit increased sixfold to $400.1 million, or $3.97 a share, after it sold Barn eys New York for $942.3 million in cash.

Wal-Mart

A federal appeals court refused to recon sider a decision that may lead to prison for Thomas Coughlin, the former Wal-Mart vice chairman who pleaded guilty in 2006 to steal ing from the company.

Jag bids

Ford expects to re ceive at least five sec ond- round bids for Jag uar and Land Rover this week, sources said. In dian carmaker Tata Mo tors and buyout firms One Equity, Ripple wood, and TPG are all expected to have made offers by tomorrow, said the sources.

Aon gone

Aon Corp., the world’s second-largest insurance broker, said it would cut 2,700 jobs in a restruc turing plan that will cost the company $360 mil lion before taxes.

Regal Rigas

The headquarters John Rigas built for Adelphia Communica tions as the company slid into bankruptcy drew a winning bid of $3.4 million after a three-week Internet auction. The 72,056 square- foot, three- story office building in Coudersport, Pa., boasts polished granite interi ors and space for 2,000 employees and is worth $30 million, said LFC Group of Cos.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

September 6, 2007 — Penney sales

J.C. Penney said Au gust sales at stores open more than a year declined 4 percent, less than analysts estimated, following a jump in July back-to-school revenue. J.C. Penney rose $1.27, or 1.9 percent, to $66.85 after the results were released.

Refco bills

Former Refco CEO Phillip Bennett and two other former top execu tives of the now-de funct commodities bro kerage, filed papers with the U.S. Bank ruptcy Court in Man hattan saying their in surance company is refusing to pay their legal costs, “straining” their ability to defend themselves against fraud allegations.

New Bet

Gary Kaplan, the Be tonSports PLC founder captured 10 months after the U.S. govern ment indicted him on Internet betting charges, renewed his bail request in court.

Tiffany

Tiffany & Co. may sell the chain’s main London store after di vesting its principal lo cation in Tokyo.

Sun split

Sun Microsystems will hold a shareholder vote on a 1-for-4 reverse stock split at its Nov. 8 meeting , its top two ex ecutives told analysts. Sun shares fell 13 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $5.37.

Oil rise

Oil rose on concerns that refinery problems and hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico drained U.S. invento ries. U.S. crude settled up 65 cents at $75.73 a barrel, while London Brent crude rose 42 cents to $74.34 a barrel.

No joke

Michele Ganeless was promoted to president of Viacom Inc.’s Com edy Central.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. Click For Restrictions

July 19, 2007 — NYC rating

Moody’s Investors Service boosted New York City’s rating on $36