Thursday February 19, 2009, 6:31 pm EST
Feb. could be worst month yet for
jobless claims
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- February is shaping up to be another brutal month of job losses: The
number of laid-off workers receiving unemployment benefits hit an all-time high
of nearly 5 million, and new jobless claims are at levels not seen since the
early 1980s.
The Labor Department reported Thursday
that the number of people receiving regular unemployment benefits rose by
170,000 to 4.99 million for the week ending Feb. 7, marking the fourth straight
week continuing claims have hit a record.
The surge in joblessness has pushed
those claims far above the 2.77 million people getting benefits a year ago. The
number totals 6.54 million with the inclusion of an additional 1.5 million
people who are getting extended benefits under a program passed by Congress
last summer.
And those numbers are sure to climb
higher, based on the flood of newly laid-off workers seeking benefits.
Dow ends at lowest close in more than 6
years
The Dow broke through a bottom reached
in November, pulled down by sharp declines in key financial shares. It was the
lowest ending for the Dow since Oct. 9, 2002, when the last bear market
bottomed out.
The move below that level dashed hopes
that the doldrums of November would mark the ending point of a long slump in
the market, which is now nearly halfway below the peak levels reached in
October 2007.
The market's inability to rally also
signals that investors see no immediate end for the recession, which is already
14 months old and one of the most severe in decades. Investors also haven't
been impressed with two major economic initiatives from the Obama
administration this week, an economic stimulus package and a mortgage relief
plan.
FBI tracks down
WASHINGTON (AP) --
FBI agents, acting at the request of the
Securities and Exchange Commission, served Stanford papers in Fredericksburg,
Va., said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko.
Stanford is not under arrest and is not
in custody.
In a civil papers Tuesday, the SEC
alleged Stanford and three of his companies committed an $8 billion fraud that
lured investors with promises of improbable and unsubstantiated high returns on
certificates of deposit and other investments.
US steps up pressure on UBS in bank
secrets case
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A government lawsuit
Thursday seeks the identities of tens of thousands of possible
In the suit filed in
A deal announced Wednesday provides
access to about 250 to 300 UBS customers who used Swiss bank secrecy laws to
hide assets. To avoid prosecution, UBS agreed to pay $780 million.
But that does not mean the bank is about
to fork over information on thousands of accounts.
Nestle, Hormel benefit as consumers cut
spending
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Nestle SA, the world's
largest food company, and Hormel Foods Corp., the maker of pork-in-a-can icon
Spam, said Thursday they plan to keep pushing low-cost products as consumers
trim their budgets amid the deepening recession.
Since May, Spam sales have been growing
by double-digit percentages as consumers flock to the value they see in the
brand, said Chief Executive Jeffrey Ettinger.
Hormel's plants have boosted production and even run on weekends, he said.
Nestle, which makes Perrier water and
Jenny Craig products in addition to its namesake chocolate, said Thursday it
aimed to increase sales with low-cost products like bouillon cubes and instant
coffee during the global downturn. It also plans to offer smaller packages so
consumers can conserve their cash.
Sprint loses $1.6B but investors see
rays of hope
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Sprint Nextel
Corp., the nation's third-largest wireless carrier, said Thursday it continued
to lose customers and money in the fourth quarter and wrote down the remaining
value of Sprint's 2005 purchase of Nextel Communications Inc.
Even so, Sprint Nextel's condition has
been so poor that investors were able to seize on news that wasn't as bad as
usual. Sprint's adjusted loss beat Wall Street expectations, and the company
predicted fewer customer losses in the coming year. That sent Sprint shares
soaring 54 cents, or 20 percent, to end at $3.25.
During a conference call with analysts,
Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse said he still
wasn't happy with his company's performance but said he believed Sprint's
efforts to rebuild the company's image were gaining traction.
Embraer
slashes work force 20 pct amid crisis
Empresa
Brasileira de Aeronautica
SA did not specify the precise number of posts that will be eliminated, but
said the amount represents about 20 percent of its global work force of 21,362
people.
The company is the world's
fourth-largest plane maker after U.S.-based Boeing Co., Europe's Airbus and
Embraer
also said it was revising downward its revenue guidance for 2009 to $5.5
billion, corresponding to 242 deliveries of commercial and executive jets.
Oil prices surge on report of falling
inventories
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Oil prices jumped
Thursday as new government data showed oil inventories fell unexpectedly and
that consumption of gasoline and other petroleum products -- which have been
plummeting because of the recession -- may be starting to edge higher.
The Energy Information Administration
said crude stocks decreased 200,000 barrels to 350.6 million barrels for the
week ended Friday. Analysts had expected stocks to grow by 3.5 million barrels,
according to Platts, the energy information arm of
McGraw-Hill Cos. Inventories have risen more than 30 million barrels in the
prior six weeks.
Even with the decline, crude supplies
remain ample and
SEC names Robert Khuzami
new enforcement chief
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Securities and
Exchange Commission on Thursday named a former federal prosecutor as its new
enforcement chief to lead the embattled agency's drive to strengthen its
pursuit of financial fraud.
Robert Khuzami
has been a top legal official on Wall Street at investment firm Deutsche Bank
since 2004. Before that he worked for 11 years in
the
Khuzami,
52, replaces Linda Thomsen, the SEC enforcement director since May 2005. Her
departure was announced last week.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrials lost 89.68, or
1.2 percent, to end at 7,465.95.
Broader indexes also fell. The Standard & Poor's 500 index ended down 9.48, or 1.20
percent, to 778.94, but finished above its Nov. 20 low of 752.44.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index suffered the biggest hit
Thursday after Hewlett Packard Co. tumbled 7.9 percent after posting worrisome
results. The Nasdaq fell 25.15,
or 1.71 percent, to 1,442.82.
Light, sweet crude for April delivery
rose 7 percent, or $2.77, to settle at $40.18 per barrel on the
Benchmark crude for March delivery
surged 14 percent, or $4.86, to settle at $39.48.
In other Nymex
trading, gasoline futures rose 3.34 cents to settle at $1.0986 a gallon.
Heating oil gained 5.76 cents to settle at $1.2045 a gallon, while natural gas
for March delivery fell 13.6 cents to settle at $4.078 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In