AP Business Highlights

 

On Thursday July 15, 2010, 5:52 pm EDT

Wall Street crackdown, consumer guards, are passed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress on Thursday passed the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression, clamping down on lending practices and expanding consumer protections to prevent a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that knocked the economy to its knees.

A year in the making and 22 months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a worldwide panic in credit and other markets, the bill cleared its final hurdle with a 60-39 Senate vote. It now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature, expected as early as Wednesday.

Goldman to pay $550M to settle civil fraud charges

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay $550 million to settle civil fraud charges that accused the Wall Street giant of misleading buyers of mortgage-related investments.

The settlement came on the same day that the Senate passed the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression.

The deal calls for Goldman to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission fines of $300 million. The rest of the money will go to compensate those who lost money on their investments.

Late stock rally ahead of Goldman settlement news

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks had a late-day turnaround and closed mixed Thursday as traders awaited news that Goldman Sachs settled the government's civil fraud charges.

As word spread that the Securities and Exchange Commission had scheduled a late-afternoon announcement, investors began buying on the belief that the government and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. had settled the charges that grew out of the sale of securities based on risky mortgages.

Losing stocks were slightly ahead of gainers on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.1 billion shares.

JPMorgan earns $4.8 billion in 2nd quarter

NEW YORK (AP) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Thursday its second-quarter net income soared 77 percent to $4.8 billion as a slowdown in losses from failed loans helped offset a difficult spring in trading and investment banking.

The strong results offered hope that loan losses at the nation's big banks may have peaked in the first half of 2010, a critical step before banks can become stronger and boost lending to consumers and small businesses.

JPMorgan Chase, the first of the big banks to report earnings for the April-June period, easily surpassed analysts' expectations as it earned $1.09 a share, up 28 cents a share from a year earlier. Analysts had forecast a profit of 67 cents per share in the just-ended quarter. Net revenue, however, fell nearly 8 percent from a year ago to $25.6 billion.

Manufacturing cools in June as recovery slows

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New evidence of a slowing economic rebound emerged Thursday in reports that manufacturing activity is slowing after helping drive the early stages of the recovery.

Factory output fell in June, according to a government report on industrial production. It was the sharpest monthly drop in a year. And two regional manufacturing indexes sank this month.

Production of automobiles, home-building materials and processed food all fell in June. The data sent stocks falling.

Federal Reserve officials took note of the weakening recovery when they met last month and lowered their forecast for economic growth, according to minutes released Wednesday.

Google's 2Q earnings rise 24 pct, but miss target

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc.'s second-quarter earnings missed analysts' target as higher expenses and the fallout from the European debt crisis dragged down the Internet search leader.

The letdown announced Thursday stemmed from Google's expanding payroll and a run-up in the U.S. dollar that has been driven by fears that the euro will crumble if governments in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy default on their perilously high debts.

The worries hurt Google because about one-third of the company's revenue comes from Europe, and customer payments made with the euro translated into fewer dollars than a year ago.

BP shares surge after cap stops oil flow

NEW YORK (AP) -- BP shares rose about 8 percent as the company said it succeeded in stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since April.

Shares rose $2.74, or 7.6 percent, to close at $38.92 Thursday, They were up about 3 percent as BP began testing a cap atop the gushing oil well. The shares shot higher in the last hour of trading after BP announced the oil had been stopped when all valves on the cap were shut, as part of the test.

The shares have gained about 46 percent since hitting a 14-year low of $27.02. But they're still well below the $60.48 they fetched on April 20 when a BP-operated rig exploded and set off the oil spill that lasted 85 days.

AMD whittles 2Q loss as chip sales rebound

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Advanced Micro Devices Inc. shrank its second-quarter loss on reviving sales of computers that use its chips and a wrenching effort to shed costs that's lasted years.

The results were better than analysts had expected, and AMD's stock rose 4.7 percent, or 35 cents, to $7.76 in extended trading.

AMD would have made money were it not for a loss related to its investment in factories it used to own but were spun off into a separate company a year ago.

Boeing exec: 787 delivery may slip to early 2011

SEATTLE (AP) -- The first delivery of Boeing's new 787 jetliner may slip into early 2011 because of inspections and instrument changes on the flight test aircraft, the head of the program said Thursday.

Scott Fancher, general manager of the program for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, told reporters in a teleconference that Boeing still intends to deliver its first 787 to Japan's ANA by the end of the year. He said that "as a cautionary note," Boeing is warning that the delivery might be extended a few weeks into 2011.

Boeing has not specified when it expected the 787 testing program to end. While it aims for the first deliveries at the end of the year, testing on some components will continue beyond that.

Private equity firm acquiring vitamin maker NBTY

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Carlyle Group has agreed to buy vitamin maker NBTY Inc. for $3.8 billion in cash in one of the largest private equity deals so far this year.

NBTY makes nutritional supplements and vitamins under the brands Nature's Bounty, Vitamin World and others. Its board has approved the deal.

Carlyle, whose two largest partners are a major California retirement system and an investment company from Abu Dhabi, plans to pay $55 for each NBTY share. That's 47 percent above the stock's closing price on Wednesday.

By The Associated Press

The Dow fell 7.41, or 0.07 percent, to 10,359.31.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.31, or 0.1 percent, to 1,096.48, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.76, or 0.03 percent, to 2,249.08.

Benchmark crude lost 42 cents to settle at $76.62 a barrel.

In other Nymex trading heating oil fell 1.78 cents to settle at $2.0183 a gallon, and gasoline lost 0.58 cent to settle at $2.0347 a gallon.

Brent crude fell 58 cents to settle at $76.19 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.