News money 2008-05-21 Andanh.com

Stocks take tumble on record oil price Tue, 20 May 2008 23:02:00 EST
Stocks stumbled yesterday after oil prices spiked to another record, above $129 a barrel, and a government report raised investors' concerns about inflation's impact on consumer spending.

Some Yum stores hit by quake Wed, 21 May 2008 04:14:00 EST
The massive earthquake that struck China last week hit Yum! Brands in its fastest-growing source of profit, damaging fast-food restaurants and prompting the company to donate $2.3 million to relief efforts.

Papa John's, Pizza Hut tie Wed, 21 May 2008 04:14:00 EST
Papa John's International is no longer the clear front-runner in customer satisfaction among the nation's largest pizza chains, a new survey shows.

Ford supplier taking hiatus Tue, 20 May 2008 22:41:00 EST
Hit by falling demand for Ford diesel pickup trucks built in Louisville, International Truck and Engine will temporarily stop diesel production Friday at its Indianapolis engine plant, a union official said yesterday.

Q: How much does it cost to use a Realtor? Tue, 20 May 2008 22:42:00 EST
A: Realtors typically are paid 6 percent to 7 percent of the sales price. Half goes to the agent who listed the property for the seller, and half goes to the agent who represented the buyer. The seller pays the commission.

Business People Tue, 20 May 2008 22:47:00 EST
Broadcasting/telecommunications, energy, miscellaneous and award announcements are in today's Business People. Submit new items at courier-journal.com/businesspeople Sign up for the daily Business People newsletter at courier-journal.com/newsletters.

Kentucky's jobless rate fell to 5.6 percent in April Tue, 20 May 2008 22:43:00 EST
Kentucky's unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent last month, the state Office of Employment and Training said yesterday.

Patriot says it will offer $175 million in notes Wed, 21 May 2008 10:05 EDT
Patriot Coal plans to sell $175 million worth of convertible notes to pay down debt related to its pending acquisition of rival Magnum Coal.

Patriot says it plans to allow buyers the option to purchase an additional $25 million worth of notes. Details released Tuesday by Patriot say the notes will be convertible to cash and shares of Patriot stock. The interest rate hasn't been determined yet.

Patriot says part of the proceeds will go toward general purposes as well.

St. Louis-based Patriot agreed to acquire Charleston, W.Va.-based Magnum last month. The $709 million deal is expected to close this summer, pending approval by Patriot shareholders.

Patriot owns Peabody Energy's former coal operations in West Virginia and portions of Kentucky.

2 Kroger Marketplaces in works Wed, 21 May 2008 02:05 EDT
Customers at the Kroger stores on Beaumont Centre Circle and on Richmond Road will soon be able to shop for jewelry, toys, furniture and housewares at the same time they stop in to pick up a loaf of bread or gallon of milk.

The two Lexington Kroger locations will be replaced with Kroger Marketplace stores, which should begin operating in the first quarter of next year. The stores will remain open during construction.

Kroger Marketplaces offer thousands of items -- includinng kitchenware, bed and bath items, decorative goods, office and school supplies, furniture, toys and seasonal items -- not available at typical Krogers, said spokesman Tim McGurk.

The Lexington stores will have a Fred Meyer Jewelers store inside as well.

They also will feature larger health and beauty sections, drive-through pharmacies and broader selections of perishable grocery items, such as cheeses and olives.

Plan to trim cell phone cancellation fees draws criticism Wed, 21 May 2008 18:20 EDT
A wireless industry proposal under consideration by the government that would make it easier for cell phone customers to break up with their service providers was met with withering criticism by consumer advocates on Wednesday.

The plan would give consumers a break on fees charged when they quit their service early, but would also let cell phone companies off the hook in state courts where they are being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars by angry customers.

Cell phone companies routinely charge customers $175 or more for quitting their service early. Under a proposal being reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission, the wireless industry would give consumers the opportunity to cancel service without any penalty for up to 30 days after they sign a cell phone contract or until 10 days after they receive their first bill.

The proposal would require companies to reduce fees month by month over the course of a contract based on how long customers have left, according to people familiar with the offer who spoke on condition of anonymity because the FCC has not approved it.

It would not abolish cancellation fees entirely and would not refund such fees to anyone who already paid them.

Oil prices pass $134 after report of supply drop Wed, 21 May 2008 19:15 EDT
Runaway oil prices blew past $130 a barrel for the first time Wednesday and kept going, while gasoline prices persisted in their own relentless climb, rising above $3.80 a gallon. Supply worries, rising demand and a slumping dollar are conspiring to make filling up the car - and paying for just about everything else - a growing burden for Americans.

With gas and oil prices setting new records on a daily basis, many analysts are beginning to wonder whether anything can stop prices from rising. There are technical signals in the futures market, including price differences between near-term and longer-term contracts, that crude may soon fall. But with demand for oil growing in the developing world, and little end in sight to supply problems in producing countries such as Nigeria, few analysts are willing to call an end to crude's rally.

Oil's Wednesday rally was fed in part by a report from the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, which said crude inventories fell by more than 5 million barrels last week. Analysts had expected a modest increase.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $4.19 to settle at $133.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but prices rose as high as $134.42, up $5.44, in after-hours electronic trading. It was crude's largest one-day price advance since March 26.

Investors seized on the inventory report to boost prices Wednesday, but traders interested in pushing prices higher are increasingly picking and choosing which news they wish to pay attention to, analysts say.

Key inflation indicator up sharply Wed, 21 May 2008 02:05 EDT
After a couple of months of calm, nervousness returned to financial markets Tuesday. Stocks slumped after the government reported that a key indicator of inflation jumped sharply in April and the Federal Reserve's second-in-charge signaled that inflation remains a threat, making further interest rate cuts unlikely.

Adding to the gloom, oil prices closed above $129 a barrel for the first time, ahead of this weekend's start of the summer driving season.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday reported that the core price of finished goods, excluding food and energy prices, jumped by four-tenths of 1 percent last month. That left prices 3 percent higher in April than they were a year ago, marking the highest rate of core inflation on the producer level in 16 years.

Digging deeper into the numbers shows just how tough things are for American manufacturers. Prices for crude materials such as steel and iron rose 78.7 percent since the start of the year.

Manufacturers try to transfer these costs up the production and supply chain, but the slumping economy is forcing them to eat losses.

Paper money discriminatory, court rules Wed, 21 May 2008 02:05 EDT
The United States discriminates against blind people by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish among the bills' varying values, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholds a decision by a lower court in 2006. It could force the Treasury Department to redesign its money. Suggested changes have ranged from making bills different sizes to printing them with raised markings.

The American Council for the Blind sued for such changes but the Treasury Department has been fighting the case for about six years.

"I don't think we should have to rely on people to tell us what our money is," said Mitch Pomerantz, the council's president.

The United States acknowledges the design hinders blind people but it argued that blind people have adapted. Some relied on store clerks to help them, some used credit cards and others folded certain corners to help distinguish between bills.

Ky. taxing method upheld Tue, 20 May 2008 02:03 EDT
In a move that Kentucky officials say will save the commonwealth $25 million in liability for tax refunds, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that states will be allowed to continue a 90-year-old practice of not taxing the interest on in-state bonds while taxing residents on the interest on out-of-state bonds.

In a 7-2 decision, the court agreed to reverse an earlier decision by a Kentucky appeals court, which had declared unconstitutional the traditional practice of offering preferential tax treatment on bonds used to fund highway, school and other government projects.

The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed in 2003 by George and Catherine Davis of Jefferson County, who were taxed on bonds issued by another state.

The Davises maintained and a Kentucky appeals court agreed that the state's law violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution by discriminating against interstate commerce. In overturning that decision, the Supreme Court addressed an issue that has gripped the $2.5 trillion municipal bond market; 41 states have laws similar to Kentucky's.

"For the better part of two centuries states and their political subdivisions have issued bonds for public purposes, and for nearly half that time some states have exempted interest from their state income taxes, which are imposed on bond interest from other states," Justice David Souter wrote in the majority opinion. "The question here is whether Kentucky's version of this differential tax scheme offends the commerce clause. We hold that it does not."

Court: Paper money discriminates against the blind Tue, 20 May 2008 19:10 EDT
Close your eyes, reach into your wallet and try to distinguish between a $1 bill and a $5 bill. Impossible? It's also discriminatory, a federal appeals court says.

Since all paper money feels pretty much the same, the government is denying blind people meaningful access to the currency, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday. The decision could force the Treasury Department to make bills of different sizes or print them with raised markings or other distinguishing features.

The American Council of the Blind sued for such changes, but the government has been fighting the case for about six years.

The U.S. acknowledges the current design hinders blind people, but it argues that they have adapted. Some rely on store clerks to help, some use credit cards and others fold certain corners to help distinguish between bills.

"I don't think we should have to rely on people to tell us what our money is," said Mitch Pomerantz, the Council of the Blind president.

Survey: Passengers call airline service 'dismal' Tue, 20 May 2008 19:24 EDT
Passengers are more dissatisfied with airlines' customer service than they have been in years at a time when carriers are charging more and more for tickets and services.

An annual survey being released Tuesday by the University of Michigan found customers giving airlines the worst grades since 2001, with the industry's overall scores dropping for the third straight year.

United Airlines and US Airways Group Inc., which are in talks to potentially combine into a single carrier, finished next-to-last and last, respectively, in the university's American Customer Satisfaction Index.

Continental Airlines Inc. and US Airways Group Inc. registered the biggest declines from 2007, both experiencing double-digit percentage drops.

A familiar bright spot in the results was Southwest Airlines Co., which led the industry in passenger satisfaction for the 15th consecutive year.

Sustained slump in housing cuts into Home Depot 1Q Tue, 20 May 2008 16:39 EDT
The Home Depot Inc. doesn't know if stimulus checks making their way to potential customers are enough to improve its fortunes this year, the company said Tuesday as it reported a 66 percent drop in first-quarter profit.

The world's largest home improvement store chain did not give detailed guidance for the remainder of fiscal 2008, saying only that it was "more comfortable" with the low end of its previous expectations.

Its shares fell $1.50, or 5.2 percent, to $27.37.

The challenge for Home Depot, like its smaller rival Lowe's Cos., is a slumping U.S. housing market. Seventy percent of Home Depot sales come from homeowners, while the other 30 percent come from professionals such as contractors, according to the company. Eighty-nine percent of its stores are in the U.S., where home foreclosures are accelerating around the country.

Home Depot's bottom line reflects the concern of many Americans about the declining value of homes and the rising cost of filling up a gas tank.

Business notes Wed, 21 May 2008 07:45 EDT
KENTUCKY

LEXMARK TO BUY BACK MORE STOCK

The board of directors of Lexington-based Lexmark International Inc. has approved the repurchase of an additional $750 million of the company's Class A common stock. Lexmark said it will buy the stock from time to time in the open market or in private transactions, depending on price and other factors. The board had previously authorized the repurchase of $3.9 billion in shares and Tuesday's action increases the total to $4.65 billion.

KENTUCKY JOBLESS RATE FALLS SLIGHTLY

Kentucky's seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate for April 2008 fell to 5.6 percent from March 2008's revised 5.7 percent, according to the state Office of Employment and Training , an agency of the Education Cabinet . April 2007's jobless rate was 5.5 percent. The U.S. seasonally adjusted jobless rate decreased from 5.1 percent in March 2008 to 5 percent in April 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Economic indicators index unexpectedly rose in April Tue, 20 May 2008 02:03 EDT
Gas prices are high, food's more expensive and the job market's cold, but the United States may still avoid a recession.

That was the message Monday from a private business group whose index of leading economic indicators defied expectations and inched higher in April.

The New York-based Conference Board said its forecast of future economic activity rose 0.1 percent in April, matching a 0.1 percent increase in March. Economists had expected a 0.1 percent decrease in April.

The index is designed to forecast economic activity in the next three to six months based on 10 economic components, including stock prices, building permits and initial claims for unemployment benefits.

"These data certainly reflect a weak economy, but not one in recession," said Ken Goldstein, labor economist at the Conference Board. The small increases in March and April, which followed five months of decline, could be a signal the economy might not weaken further, he said.

Fear drives Microsoft, Yahoo back to table Tue, 20 May 2008 02:03 EDT
Two weeks after breaking off merger talks, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have been pulled back to the bargaining table by their fears about what might happen if they don't work out a deal.

For now, Microsoft and Yahoo are still dancing around the edges as they explore possible business arrangements without melding the two companies.

The notion of a half-baked deal didn't excite investors Monday as they got their first chance to react to Sunday's news that Microsoft and Yahoo are talking again.

Yahoo shares rose a scant 0.7 percent, or 2 cents, to close at $27.68 on Monday, while Microsoft shares fell 1.8 percent, or 53 cents, to close at $29.46.

But most analysts remain convinced the preliminary talks will culminate in Microsoft buying Yahoo for somewhere between $33 to $37 per share, a price that translates to $47.5 billion to $53 billion.

Save on cleaning clothes and dishes Tue, 20 May 2008 08:48 EDT
If rising gas and food prices and job uncertainty have you wishing you had stashed some cash away for a rainy day -- it's not too late.

Here are some ways to pocket some change on the home cleaning front that doesn't include finding it in the dryer:

.. Use as directed. Many people use more detergent and cleaning supplies than they need. Measure out the amount suggested by the manufacturer so products last longer.

.. Try dry cleaning at home with an in-home dry cleaning product to save money on your dry cleaning bill.

.. Get a membership at a discount warehouse store. Cleaning supplies have a long shelf life, making them a great item to buy in bulk.

Stocks tumble on $134 oil, Fed meeting minutes Wed, 21 May 2008 19:53 EDT
Wall Street pitched lower for the second straight session Wednesday as record-high oil prices and a bleak economic assessment from the Federal Reserve deepened investors' worry about rising costs and a shaky employment picture. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 227 points, logging its widest two-day loss since late February.

Early in the day, stocks began falling on the surging price of oil, which shot up more than $4 and breached $134 a barrel for the first time on the futures market Wednesday.

The stock market slumped further after minutes from last month's Fed meeting revealed that while policymakers expected sharply lower economic growth and higher unemployment later this year, inflationary risks are likely to keep the central bank from cutting rates again. Lower interest rates spur economic growth, but they also tend to accelerate inflation.

High commodities prices have been a big source of anxiety for investors, as many retailers and credit card companies have noticed consumers paring back spending on discretionary items, including clothing and jewelry, to be able to afford necessities such as gasoline and groceries.

Meanwhile, the Fed's minutes suggest the central bank's two main priorities - making sure the economy is growing, and keeping inflation in check - are both going to be tough to achieve through monetary policy. That is a troubling prospect for investors hoping that the economy will bounce back in the second half of the year and that the central bank will be able to concentrate on controlling inflation.

American to charge $15 for 1st checked bag Wed, 21 May 2008 20:03 EDT
American Airlines will start charging $15 for the first checked bag, cut domestic flights and lay off workers - probably in the thousands - as the nation's largest carrier grapples with record-high fuel prices.

American plans to cut domestic flight capacity by 11 percent to 12 percent in the fourth quarter, after the peak summer season is over. The carrier was previously planning a 4.6 percent cut.

Shares of American parent AMR Corp. tumbled 24 percent, down $1.98 to $6.22, as oil prices shot past $130 per barrel for the first time, signaling even more trouble for the nation's airlines.

American said rising oil prices have increased its expected annual fuel costs by nearly $3 billion since the start of the year.

In a further sign of the problems facing the industry, Southwest Airlines Co., the only major U.S. carrier to post a profit in the first quarter, won't earn as much for the rest of 2008 as it did a year earlier, its chief executive warned.

American Airlines to charge for first checked bag Wed, 21 May 2008 20:03 EDT
Never mind the free lunch. Almost nothing is complimentary on airlines anymore, not even what many passengers consider a simple necessity: a single checked bag.

Under a plan announced Wednesday by American Airlines, passengers already forced to pay extra for amenities like earphones, meals and even snacks will have to pay $15 to check a basic piece of baggage.

Some other carriers are already charging for extra legroom in exit rows. What's next?

"Pay toilets in the coach cabin maybe," joked longtime airline consultant Mike Boyd.

But airline executives aren't laughing, and other carriers refused to rule out similar fees to stow luggage in the cargo hold.

Big Oil defends profits before irate senators Wed, 21 May 2008 19:30 EDT
On a day oil prices leaped to unheard-of highs, senators lined up Big Oil's biggest executives and pummeled them with complaints that they're pretending to be "hapless victims" while raking in record profits.

"Where is the corporate conscience?" Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked the top executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies.

It's all about economics, came the reply. Supply and demand. The company leaders tried to shift attention from motorists' anger over $4-a-gallon gasoline to a debate over new areas for drilling.

But senators at the Judiciary Committee hearing weren't having any of that. They wanted to press the executives about public anguish over paying $60 or more to fill up a car's gas tank.

"People we represent are hurting, the companies you represent are profiting," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the executives. He said there's a "disconnect" between legitimate supply issues and the oil and gasoline prices motorists are seeing.

BUSINESS BRIEFS
Nurses complete COS-C examDavis joins Lee Ann’s beauty crewGary Force Toyota wins award

Senators cry foul over fishery schedule
By making new restrictions based on old data, the senators said, the federal government was placing the industry in a state of double jeopardy.

Chinese Dir