AP Business Highlights
Wednesday January 14, 2009, 6:01 pm EST
SEATTLE (AP) -- Apple Inc.
co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs said Wednesday he is taking a medical
leave of absence until the end of June -- just a week after the cancer survivor
tried to assure investors and employees his recent weight loss was simply
caused by a treatable hormone deficiency.
Jobs, 53, said in a letter
last week that he would remain at Apple's helm despite the hormone deficiency,
and said he had already begun the "relatively simple and
straightforward" treatment for the problem. But in an e-mail to employees
Wednesday, Jobs backtracked.
Apple's chief operating
officer, Tim Cook, will take over Jobs' responsibilities while he is on leave.
Retail sales plummet 2.7
percent in December
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Retail
sales plunged far more than expected in December, ending a dismal holiday
season with a record sixth straight monthly decline, and there's no relief in
sight as consumer demand remains weak.
The Commerce Department
reported Wednesday that retail sales dropped 2.7 percent last month, more than
double the 1.2 percent decline that Wall Street expected.
The December plunge in
sales, which followed a November drop revised downward to 2.1 percent,
confirmed private sector reports that retailers had suffered their worst
holiday shopping season since at least 1969.
For the entire year, retail
sales were down 0.1 percent, a sharp turnaround after a 4.1 percent gain in
2007. It was the first time the annual retail sales figure has fallen on
government records going back to 1992.
Stocks tumble as worries
grow about banks
NEW YORK (AP) -- Volatility
is reasserting itself in the stock market.
A darkening outlook for
companies from banks to retailers to energy producers pummeled Wall Street
Wednesday, sending the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 250 points, or 2.94
percent, and giving the other major indexes a loss of 3 percent.
The plunge leaves the Dow
and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index down more than 9 percent in six
sessions. The S&P 500, the gauge tracked by professional investors, has now
given up half its gains since it closed at an 11-year low on Nov. 20.
Judge says moneyman Madoff
can remain free on bail
NEW YORK (AP) -- Bernard Madoff
won the latest round in his fight with prosecutors over his bail package
Wednesday as a judge ruled he can remain free, brushing aside arguments by the
government that the money manager needs to be in jail because he cannot be
trusted.
The judge ruled prosecutors
did not make a compelling argument that Madoff is a danger to the community or
a flight risk -- the two considerations in deciding whether to grant bail.
Authorities say Madoff has
said he ran a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, paying investors with money raised from
new clients.
Long-struggling Nortel files
for bankruptcy
TORONTO (AP) -- Nortel
Networks Corp. spent years ringing up multiple rounds of layoffs as it tried to
fix big problems in its business. But it couldn't ward off the recession.
The telecommunications
equipment maker filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada and the U.S. on
Wednesday, becoming the first major technology company to take that step in
this global downturn. The filing came a day before Nortel was due to make a
debt payment of $107 million.
Facing a sharp drop in
orders from phone companies, Nortel used the bankruptcy filings to buy time to
explore restructuring options like selling off assets. Some help already is
coming from the Canadian government.
Motorola to cut 4,000 more
jobs in 2009
NEW YORK (AP) -- Mobile
handset maker Motorola Inc. says it will cut 4,000 more jobs in 2009, in
addition to 3,000 it announced in December.
The company says the move
will save about $700 million a year starting in 2009, totaling $1.5 billion in
annual savings when combined with the previous cut.
Most of the new layoffs will
hit the mobile devices business, while about 1,000 jobs are tied to corporate
functions and other business units.
The Schaumburg, Ill.-based
company also said Wednesday it expects revenue for the fourth quarter to be
between $7 billion and $7.2 billion, as it saw continued weakness in consumer
demand and customer inventory reductions.
Economy starts '09 on weaker
footing; outlook dim
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S.
economy started the new year on weaker footing as recession-shocked Americans
retrenched further, forcing retailers to ring up fewer sales and factories to
cut back production.
The Federal Reserve's new
snapshot of business conditions nationwide, released Wednesday, suggested the
country's economic picture has darkened over the last two months. The outlook
appears equally dim.
Obama: Geithner situation an
'embarrassment'
WASHINGTON (AP) --
President-elect Barack Obama called disclosures about Treasury choice Timothy
Geithner's tax problems an embarrassment Wednesday but said Geithner's
"innocent mistake" shouldn't keep him from confirmation as the new
administration's top official in urgent efforts to revive the economy.
The revelations that
Geithner had failed to pay $34,000 in taxes several years ago derailed Senate
Democrats' plans to speed him to confirmation by Inauguration Day, but senators
in both parties said the information was unlikely to torpedo his chances in the
end.
Obama had hoped for approval
by Tuesday, but senators now have scheduled Geithner's confirmation hearing for
next Wednesday, with Senate debate and a vote sometime after that.
Deutsche Bank reports
euro4.8 billion 4Q loss
BERLIN (AP) -- Deutsche Bank
AG, Germany's biggest bank, said Wednesday it lost an estimated euro4.8 billion
($6.4 billion) in last year's fourth quarter as the global downturn weighed
heavily on its bottom line.
Deutsche Bank said the loss
after taxes, based on preliminary figures, will likely lead to a full-year loss
for 2008 of about euro3.9 billion.
Shares fell 7.6 percent to
end at euro22.14 in Frankfurt Wednesday.
Oil prices sink with US
inventories bulging
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Oil
prices fell Wednesday with a government report showing that crude inventories
continued to grow, suggesting that demand for oil and gasoline will not rebound
anytime soon.
Light, sweet crude for
February delivery fell 50 cents to settle at $37.28 a barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange after trading as high as $39.45.
Prices have fallen from as
high as $50.47 just last week with evidence growing that a weakened global
economy has eaten away at energy demand.
Seagate to cut 6 pct of
global staff
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) --
Seagate Technology is cutting thousands of jobs and slashing some employees'
salaries by as much as 25 percent, the company said Wednesday, a surprise move
coming just two days after Seagate changed chief executives and announced it
was cutting 800 U.S.-based workers.
The Scotts Valley,
Calif.-based company, which is suffering because sluggish tech spending has
reduced demand for the computers that use Seagate's hard drives, said in a
regulatory filing that 2,950 people will lose their jobs, 6 percent of its
global work force of 53,000.
Seagate said the figure
includes the 800 U.S.-based workers whose job cuts were announced earlier this
week -- which represented 10 percent of the company's U.S. work force.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrials
fell 248.42, or 2.94 percent, to 8,200.14. All 30 stocks that make up the Dow
fell.
The S&P 500 fell 29.17,
or 3.35 percent, to 842.62 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 56.82, or 3.67
percent, to 1,489.64. Both the Dow and S&P 500 hit intraday lows not seen
since early last month.
Light, sweet crude for
February delivery fell 50 cents to settle at $37.28 a barrel on the New York
Mercantile Exchange after trading as high as $39.45.
In other Nymex trading,
gasoline futures rose less than a penny to settle at $1.1677. Heating oil fell
5.1 cents to settle at $1.4631, while natural gas for February delivery fell
23.4 cents to settle at $4.631 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, February Brent
crude rose 25 cents to settle at $45.08 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
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