On Wednesday September 29, 2010, 5:57 pm EDT
Fed officials clash over
efforts to aid economy
WASHINGTON (AP) --
Divisions within the Federal Reserve over how to pump up the economy and lower
unemployment came into sharper view Wednesday.
Three Fed officials squared
off in competing speeches over how much help would come from one likely next
step -- buying more government debt.
Narayana Kocherlakota,
president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, argued that such an
effort may not help the economy much. Charles Plosser, president of the Federal
Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, made a similar point.
But Eric Rosengren,
president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, said Fed policymakers must do
what they can to bring some more relief.
BP's new CEO creates unit
to enforce safety
LONDON (AP) -- BP's
incoming CEO fired the executive responsible for deep water wells like the one
that blew out in the Gulf of Mexico and announced a new unit to police safety
practices throughout the company.
Bob Dudley took the steps
Wednesday to start work on repairing the company's battered reputation, two
days before officially taking over as CEO from Tony Hayward.
Dudley said Andy Inglis,
BP's chief executive for exploration and production, would be standing down and
his divisions would be broken up into three parts.
J&J CEO says company
'let the public down'
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The
chief executive of Johnson and Johnson will tell Congress his company "let
the public down" with a string of quality problems that have resulted in
millions of recalled medicines.
William Weldon is scheduled
to testify Thursday morning before a House panel investigating the company's
unprecedented succession of recalls. The maker of trusted brands like Tylenol,
J&J has announced nine product recalls since last September, with problems
ranging from contamination with bacteria to tiny metal shards.
In prepared testimony
obtained by The Associated press, Weldon also suggests the company made a
serious mistake last year when it hired contractors to buy up bottles of
defective lots of Motrin, rather than issuing a formal recall. The pills in
question did not dissolve correctly.
Stocks slip as European
protests worsen debt fears
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks
slipped in muted trading Wednesday as traders held back ahead of corporate
earnings announcements, which start to roll in next week. Protests in Europe
against austerity measures renewed worries about the region's finances and
helped keep buyers at bay.
The dollar fell further
against other currencies as traders anticipate more action by the Federal
Reserve to push U.S. interest rates down. Gold climbed past $1,300.
Most sectors fell on the
stock market except for energy, which rose after crude oil prices gained. Schlumberger
Ltd., Occidental Petroleum Corp. and other companies rose after the price of
crude oil jumped on news that inventories fell last week. Benchmark crude for
November delivery rose $1.68 to settle at $77.86 a barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.
Jobless rates drop in
two-thirds of metro areas
WASHINGTON (AP) --
Unemployment fell in nearly two-thirds of the nation's 372 largest metro areas
last month, the broadest improvement since May.
The jobless rate dropped in
230 cities in August, the Labor Department said Wednesday. It rose in 95 cities
and was flat in 47. That's an improvement from the previous month, when rates
fell in only 152 areas.
Nationwide, unemployment
ticked up in August to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent the previous month. Businesses
added a net total of 67,000 jobs, but about twice as many temporary census jobs
ended.
Anti-austerity protests
sweep across Europe
BRUSSELS (AP) -- Tens of
thousands of workers marched Wednesday through the streets of Europe, decrying
the loss of jobs and benefits they fear will come with stinging austerity
measures seeking to contain government debt.
Police fired shots in the
air to disperse protesters at a general strike in Spain. Greek bus and trolley
drivers walked off the job, joined by doctors who staged a 24-hour strike at
state hospitals. Unions claimed a crowd of 100,000 marched on European Union
headquarters in Brussels.
From Ireland to Greece,
workers united around the theme that they are victims of a debt crisis caused
by reckless high-spending bankers undermining Europe's cherished welfare state.
They complained of higher taxes, job cuts, soaring unemployment and smaller
pensions.
WTO says US ban on Chinese
poultry is illegal
GENEVA (AP) -- The Obama
administration received its first rebuke from the World Trade Organization on
Wednesday as a three-member panel declared that an American ban on Chinese
poultry is illegal.
The ruling came as the U.S.
House of Representatives prepared a vote condemning Chinese currency
manipulation and threatening possible trade penalties. But its negative outcome
for Washington could bolster Beijing's claims that U.S. lawmakers are bending
to protectionist pressure amid high unemployment.
The WTO said the U.S. was
violating a number of its trade obligations by preventing Chinese chicken parts
from entering the U.S. market, ruling against a measure in last year's U.S.
federal spending bill.
Nintendo cuts profit, 3DS
not ready for Christmas
CHIBA, Japan (AP) --
Nintendo slashed its earnings forecast by more than half Wednesday after
announcing that its 3DS game machine, packed with glasses-free 3-D technology,
won't be ready to go on sale for Christmas.
Nintendo now expects 90
billion yen ($1 billion) in profit for the year through March 2011, down from
an initial projection of 200 billion yen ($2.4 billion) profit.
The 3DS will go on sale in
February in Japan, and March in Europe and the U.S., missing the year-end
shopping season which is a critical time for all game-makers to rake in
profits.
Kyoto-based Nintendo Co.
had promised the 3DS for sometime before April next year, and so the
announcement is not technically a delay. But its forecasts had assumed the
machine would on be on sale sooner.
China promises currency
flexibility
BEIJING (AP) -- China
repeated promises of exchange rate flexibility Wednesday but offered no new
measures that might avert a possible vote by the U.S. House of Representatives
on currency legislation.
The statement in a central
bank report on a quarterly economic meeting reflected currency policy and gave
no details of possible changes. It made no mention of demands by some American
lawmakers for Beijing to ease currency controls or face possible trade
penalties.
Beijing promised a more
flexible exchange rate in June when it broke a link between its yuan and the
dollar. But the yuan has risen by only about 2 percent since then, fueling
demands by American lawmakers for action.
China will continue reforms
to "enhance exchange rate flexibility against the backdrop of a recovering
global economy," said the report by the People's Bank of China.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial
average lost 22.86, or 0.2 percent, to close at 10,835.28
The Standard & Poor's
500 index slipped 2.97, or 0.3 percent, to 1,144.73, and the Nasdaq composite
fell 3.03, or 0.1 percent, to 2,376.56.
Benchmark crude for
November delivery gained $1.20 to settle at $77.86 a barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange.
In other Nymex trading in
October contracts, heating oil rose 6.60 cents to settle at $2.1905 a gallon
and gasoline gained 4.76 cents to settle at $1.9765 a gallon. Analysts expect
both contracts to be active since they expire Thursday. Natural gas for
November delivery added 1.1 cents to settle at $3.962 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude rose
$2.06 to settle at $80.77 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.