On Thursday September 30, 2010, 6:04 pm EDT
AIG reaches deal to repay
government
NEW YORK (AP) -- AIG, which
became a lightning rod for criticism over government bailouts, said it reached
a deal to repay billions of dollars it received during the credit crisis.
The plan announced Thursday
could return a profit to taxpayers who footed the bill for AIG's near collapse
in September 2008.
The announcement provides a
clearer strategy to repay AIG's debt to the government. Until this point, AIG
was primarily repaying the government as it took in money from asset sales, but
there was no timeline for repayment.
HP picks ex-software exec
Leo Apotheker as new CEO
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --
Hewlett-Packard Co. has hired recently discarded software executive Leo
Apotheker to steer the world's largest technology company as it tries to prove
it can thrive without its previous leader, Mark Hurd.
Thursday's announcement
ends HP's nearly two-month search to fill the void created when its board ended
Hurd's five-year reign as CEO amid allegations of sexual harassment and
deceptive expense reports.
Hurd's ouster wasn't
well-received on Wall Street, causing the company's stock to plunge more than
15 percent in the weeks after his departure. The backlash intensified the
pressure to find a CEO that would inspire investor confidence.
Europe debt crisis rolls on
as Irish bailouts grow
DUBLIN (AP) -- Ireland will
have to pump euro12 billion ($16 billion) more into the country's crippled
banking system, dealing more grief to shellshocked Irish taxpayers.
Coupled with the downgrade
of Spain's bonds by a third ratings agency, the news Thursday from Dublin
provided more evidence that Europe has not shed the debt troubles that shook
the continent this spring as Greece teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.
Irish government leaders
described the total bill to fix their banks, about euro45 billion ($60
billion), as "horrible" -- but manageable. The bailout will swell
Ireland's deficit this year to a staggering 32 percent of economic output, the
biggest in post-World War II Europe.
Stocks end bullish month on
weak note; Dow off 47
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks
ended a monthlong rally on a weak note, but still chalked up the best September
in 71 years.
Indexes rose sharply at the
open Thursday following some better news on the economy, but stumbled at
midmorning and stayed lower the rest of the day as traders pulled out profits
following a spectacular run for the market in September. The Dow Jones
industrial average closed down 47 points, having been up as many as 113 earlier
in the day.
The Dow gained 7.7 percent
in the month, making it the strongest September since 1939, at the dawn of
World War II. However that run-up followed a dismal August, and the Dow is still
only up 3.5 percent for the year and is 3.7 percent below its closing high for
2010 reached on April 26.
Jobless benefit
applications drop to 453K
WASHINGTON (AP) --
Applications for jobless benefits dropped last week for the third time in four
weeks, a sign that employers are cutting fewer jobs.
New claims for jobless
benefits fell by 16,000 to a seasonally adjusted 453,000, the Labor Department
said Thursday. Still, they are higher than they would be in a healthy economy
and not low enough to signal rapid job growth.
Claims need to fall to
between 400,000 and 425,000 to indicate that hiring is picking up, said Michael
Gapen, senior U.S. economist at Barclays Capital.
In a separate report, the
Commerce Department said that economic growth slowed in the second quarter, to
a 1.7 percent annual rate from 3.7 percent in the January-March quarter.
Dollar Thrifty shareholders
reject Hertz deal
NEW YORK (AP) -- Dollar
Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. shareholders rejected a buyout offer from Hertz
on Thursday against the recommendation of the company's board.
The rejection likely takes
Hertz out of the bidding for the car-rental chain and offers an opening for
rival bidder Avis Budget Group.
Dollar Thrifty said 11.8
million votes were cast for the Hertz offer at a special shareholder meeting
Thursday in Chicago, while 13.8 million shares were cast against the deal.
There were 4,735 abstentions.
Dollar Thrifty's board had
said it preferred Hertz's offer to one by Avis throughout much of the monthslong
bidding war. Dollar Thrifty CEO Scott Thompson said the company respects the
vote of its shareholders. He did not mention Avis specifically but hinted the
company is still open to deals.
Health care law may hamper
limited insurance plans
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The
new health care law could make it difficult for companies like McDonald's to
continue offering limited insurance coverage to their low-wage workers.
The world's largest
hamburger chain provides its hourly workers with low-cost plans known as
"mini-meds" or limited benefits plans. These plans typically cover
things like doctor's office visits and prescription drugs. But they don't
provide comprehensive coverage, and they often come with a cap on how much the
insurer pays in annual benefits that is much lower than a major medical
insurance plan.
Next year, the health care
law passed by Congress will require insurers to pay minimum percentages of 80
percent and 85 percent of the premiums they collect toward medical care,
figures that may be hard to meet for some of these limited plans.
On Thursday, McDonald's
denied a report that it's considering dropping health care coverage for some
employees because they won't meet those limits.
Novartis fined $422.5M in
marketing, kickback case
PHILADELPHIA (AP) --
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. will pay $422.5 million in penalties for
marketing an epilepsy medicine for unapproved uses and for paying kickbacks to
doctors to prescribe it and five other drugs, federal officials announced
Thursday.
The company agreed to plead
guilty to distribution of a misbranded drug and pay a criminal fine and
forfeiture totaling $185 million in the case involving Trileptal, U.S. Attorney
Zane Memeger said at news conference in Philadelphia.
Novartis will also pay
$237.5 million to resolve civil liabilities over kickbacks and off-label
marketing of Trileptal, an anti-epileptic medicine, according to a settlement
agreement.
J&J, FDA leaders take
heat for 'phantom' recall
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Johnson
& Johnson executives and the Food and Drug Administration both shouldered
the blame Thursday for a secret recall in which hired contractors quietly
bought up defective painkillers to clear them from store shelves.
J&J Chief Executive
William Weldon told House lawmakers the company "made a mistake" in
conducting the so-called "phantom recall," which is one of a string
of problems that have drawn congressional scrutiny
In the same committee
hearing, the FDA's deputy commissioner, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, said his agency
should have acted sooner to halt J&J's plan. At the same time, though, he
stressed that regulators were not aware of the deceptive nature of the recall.
Dozens charged in NY in
global computer virus scam
NEW YORK (AP) -- Hackers in
eastern Europe who used computer viruses to steal usernames and passwords
teamed up with foreign students who opened bank accounts in the U.S. to snatch
at least $3 million from American bank accounts, authorities said Thursday in
announcing charges against more than 80 people.
Thirty-seven people were
charged in court papers unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan with
conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering, false identification use and
passport fraud for their roles invasion of dozens of victims' accounts, U.S.
Attorney Preet Bharara said. Fifty-five have been charged in state court in
Manhattan.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial
average fell 47.23, or 0.4 percent, to 10,788.05. The Dow had risen 113 in the
opening minutes of trading on improved economic news before pulling back.
The Standard & Poor's
500 index fell 3.53, or 0.3 percent, to 1,141.20, while the Nasdaq composite
fell 7.94, or 0.3 percent, to 2,368.62.