AP
Business Highlights
On Wednesday July 21, 2010, 6:07 pm
Historic financial overhaul
signed into law by Obama
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Reveling
over a new milestone in his presidency, a triumphant Barack Obama on Wednesday
signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of lending and high-finance rules
since the Great Depression, adding safeguards for millions of consumers and
aiming to restrain Wall Street excesses that could set off a new recession.
The president's signing
ceremony capped nearly two years of intense debate over how to avoid a
recurrence of the 2008 financial meltdown that buckled the U.S. economy and has
left sharp, lasting imprints on the nation's politics and in Americans' homes.
In a heated midterm
election season that has put a dent in his public support, Obama sought to put
the complex law in pocketbook terms. Emphasizing provisions that guard
borrowers from abusive lenders, he claimed "the strongest financial
protections for consumers in the nation's history."
Bernanke: Fed to hold off
on steps to aid recovery
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal
Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that even though the
economic recovery has weakened, the Fed plans no new steps for now to try to
bolster it.
Bernanke said the Fed would
consider action if matters worsened. His comments to the Senate Banking
Committee sent stocks tumbling.
Bernanke downplayed the
odds that the economy will slide back into a "double-dip" recession.
Still, he acknowledged the recovery is fragile.
Stocks drop as Bernanke
warns of uncertain economy
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks
fell sharply Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke confirmed
investors' fears that the economy has weakened. Interest rates dropped in the
Treasury market as investors sought safer places for their money.
Bernanke told a
congressional committee that the economy is "unusually uncertain." He
said the economy is fragile, but he did not forecast that it would fall back
into recession.
The Dow Jones industrial
average, which was modestly higher before Bernanke's prepared remarks, fell 109
points as investors absorbed his assessment of the economy, and his statement
that the Fed is ready to take action if the economy worsens.
Morgan Stanley profit
jumps, tops forecasts
NEW YORK (AP) -- Morgan
Stanley said Wednesday its second-quarter net income rose to $1.58 billion,
easily topping forecasts as its Smith Barney brokerage helped the bank recover
from a loss a year ago.
Morgan Stanley joined other
banks in reporting that its trading revenue fell from the first quarter, the
result of the stock market's spring plunge. But the company, which was hurt a
year ago by a conservative trading strategy and steep losses on real estate
investments, was able to beat analysts' overall revenue and profit expectations
for this latest quarter.
Morgan Stanley's net income
after payment of preferred stock dividends rose to $1.09 per share from a loss
of $1.10 per share a year earlier, when it lost $1.26 billion.
AMR posts loss, US Airways
reports big 2Q gain
US Airways joined Delta and
United in posting a big second-quarter profit. American Airlines missed the
party.
Alone so far among the
nation's biggest airlines, American reported Wednesday that it lost money this
spring, although far less than it did a year ago. American blames its troubles
on high fuel and labor costs and a competitive handicap on international
flights.
Overall the second quarter
is shaping up as the airline industry's best in three years.
Executives say business
travel is coming back after the recession.
States prep jobless
benefits as Senate nears vote
WASHINGTON (AP) -- State
unemployment agencies are gearing up to resume sending unemployment payments to
millions of people as Congress promises to ship President Barack Obama a
measure to restore lapsed benefits.
Under best-case scenarios,
unemployed people who have been denied jobless benefits because of a partisan
Senate standoff over renewing them can expect retroactive payments as early as
next week in some states. In other states, it will take longer.
With a GOP filibuster
broken on Tuesday, senators are slated to pass the measure early Wednesday
evening -- a full seven weeks after benefits first began to lapse for people
participating in a federally funded program providing checks to people who have
been out of a job for six months or more.
Coca-Cola 2Q net income up
16 pct, volume rises
NEW YORK (AP) -- Coca-Cola
Co. sold more soft drinks and juices in North America for the first time in
four years during the second quarter as soft drink sales stopped years of
decline. Shoppers snapped up smaller packages and new bottles, wooed by
discounts, but analysts said the market will likely remain stagnant and the
company will keep pushing sales overseas.
The soft drink industry's
sales have been declining for years as people focus on health and choose juices
and teas instead. That has weighed on North American performance of
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft drink maker.
But in the three-month
period ended July 2, soft drinks in the U.S. were flat and the Coca-Cola brand
grew 1 percent on the success of new 90-calorie cans and contour-shaped 2-liter
bottles. That was the first increase for the brand since 2005.
Conrad Black released from
federal prison in Fla.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Former
media mogul Conrad Black quietly left a federal prison in the blazing central
Florida heat Wednesday, free on bond after serving just two years of a 6
1/2-year sentence for defrauding investors, officials said.
Earlier in the day, U.S.
District Judge Amy St. Eve in Chicago set his bond at $2 million and ordered
him not to leave the country, pending the outcome of the appeal of his 2007
conviction. She set a Friday court hearing for the former Hollinger
International Inc. chairman to hear the conditions of his release and also was
considering a request from Black's attorneys to let him return to Canada, where
he owns a home in Toronto.
Starbucks' 3rd-qtr profit
rises 37 percent to $207.9 million
CHICAGO (AP) -- Starbucks'
efforts to rebuild itself are taking hold: The world's largest coffee chain
said Wednesday that its third-quarter profit rose 37 percent as more customers
visited its coffee shops and spent more when they did.
The company said Wednesday
that it earned $207.9 million or 27 cents per share during the quarter that
ended in late June. That's compared with $151.5 million, or 20 cents per share,
a year earlier, when it was stumbling under the weight of over-expansion.
Excluding one-time items,
it earned 29 cents per share, meeting the average forecast of analysts surveyed
by Thomson Reuters
Starbucks' revenue climbed
nearly 9 percent to $2.61 billion, topping analysts' estimate of $2.55 billion.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial
average fell 109.43, or 1.1 percent, to 10,120.53. The broader Standard &
Poor's 500 index fell 13.89, or 1.3 percent, to 1,069.59. The Nasdaq composite
index lost 35.16, or 1.6 percent, and fell to 2,187.33.
Benchmark crude for
September delivery fell $1.02 to settle at $76.56 a barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.
In other Nymex trading
heating oil fell 3.55 cents to settle at $1.9892 a gallon, gasoline lost 1.08
cents to settle at $2.0678 a gallon and natural gas dropped 7.7 cents to settle
at $4.513 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Brent crude fell 85 cents
to settle at $75.37 per barrel on the ICE futures exchange.