AP Business Highlights

  • On Monday June 29, 2009, 5:55 pm EDT

Companies:

Bernard Madoff gets maximum 150 years in prison

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge rejected Bernard Madoff's plea for leniency Monday, sentencing the 71-year-old swindler to spend the rest of his life in prison for an "extraordinarily evil" fraud that took a "staggering toll" on thousands of victims.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin cited the unprecedented nature of the multibillion-dollar fraud as he sentenced Madoff to the maximum of 150 years in prison, a term comparable only to those given in the past to terrorists, traitors and the most violent criminals. There is no parole in federal prison so Madoff will most likely die there.

The massive Ponzi scheme run by Madoff since at least the early 1990s demolished the life savings of thousands of people, wrecked charities and shook confidence in the U.S. financial system.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs back at work few days a week

SEATTLE (AP) -- Apple Inc. co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs is back at his office a few days a week after taking a 5 1/2-month medical leave and getting a new liver.

Jobs, 54, will work from home on days he doesn't work from Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, company spokesman Steve Dowling said Monday. Dowling did not say exactly when Jobs returned to the office.

The state of Jobs' health and the timing of his return have been watched closely by investors and the media, as Jobs is seen as the visionary behind Apple's popular iPod music players and the iPhone, which left far more experienced mobile phone makers scrambling to catch up with similar touchscreen devices.

Rising oil, commodity prices pull stocks higher

NEW YORK (AP) -- A jump in oil sent investors rushing to put money into the stock market in the final days of the second quarter.

Energy, industrial and materials stocks pulled the market higher in light trading Monday as investors raced to keep up with the gains in oil. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.99, or 1.1 percent, to 8,529.38.

With the quarter's end coming up on Tuesday some money managers were buying stocks bolster their returns. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 16.2 percent since the start of the April-June quarter.

H&R Block reports better-than-expected 4Q profit

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- H&R Block Inc., the nation's largest tax preparer, reported better-than-expected profit for its fiscal fourth quarter on Monday as higher fees and more consumer financial services income offset a decline in the number of tax returns it prepared.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based company said it earned $706.9 million, or $2.09 per share, during the three months ended April 30. That's up from year-ago profit of $543.6 million, or $1.66 per share, and above the $2.05 per share expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue for the quarter sank 3 percent to $2.47 billion, coming in shy of Wall Street's $2.52 billion estimate.

Oil settles above $71; China to boost reserves

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Oil prices settled above $71 a barrel Monday, as China said it would boost oil reserves and Nigerian militants partly shut down an offshore oil platform belonging to Royal Dutch Shell PLC.

Benchmark crude for August delivery gained $2.33 to settle at $71.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Shell spokesman Precious Okolobo confirmed the Nigeria attack and partial shutdown. Previous militant attacks on infrastructure in the country's restive southern oil region have trimmed output in Africa's biggest crude producer by about 25 percent.

High court won't block remote storage DVR system

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Cable TV operators won a key legal battle against Hollywood studios and television networks on Monday as the Supreme Court declined to block a new digital video recording system that could make it even easier for viewers to bypass commercials.

The justices declined to hear arguments on whether Cablevision Systems Corp.'s remote-storage DVR system would violate copyright laws. That allows the Bethpage, N.Y.-based company to proceed with plans to start deploying the technology this summer.

With remote storage, TV shows are kept on the cable operator's servers instead of the DVR inside the customer's home, as systems offered by TiVo Inc. and cable operators currently do.

Judge to decide Tuesday on Stanford's bond

HOUSTON (AP) -- A federal judge says he will decide by Tuesday afternoon on whether to revoke a bond for Texas financier R. Allen Stanford that would let him be free while he awaits trial on charges he swindled investors out of $7 billion.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner heard more than four hours of arguments Monday in which prosecutors asked him to revoke an order granting Stanford a $500,000 bond. They argued his international ties make him a serious flight risk.

But Dick DeGuerin, Stanford's attorney, says his client, who is broke because all his assets have been seized, has a very strong incentive to stay: to clear his name and restore his finances.

Enterprise to buy Teppco in $3.3B all-stock deal

HOUSTON (AP) -- Enterprise Products Partners LP will acquire Teppco Partners LP in a sweetened all-stock deal worth about $3.3 billion, forming what the two pipeline operators say will be the nation's largest publicly traded energy partnership.

The new partnership, announced Monday and expected to close by year's end, will have operations throughout the U.S., on the east, west and gulf coasts.

Keeping the name Enterprise Products Partners, it will own nearly 48,000 miles of crude and natural gas pipelines; 200 million barrels of storage capacity for natural gas liquids, crude and refined products; and 27 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity.

SEC tells State Street it could face civil charges

NEW YORK (AP) -- State Street Corp. on Monday disclosed in a regulatory filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission could bring civil charges against its main subsidiary for possible securities violations tied to past investments in subprime mortgages.

State Street Bank and Trust Co. received a "Wells" notice from the SEC on Thursday tied to the ongoing investigation by the SEC into disclosures and management of the bank's fixed-income investments during 2007 and earlier periods, according to Monday's regulatory filing.

FDA says E. coli found in Nestle sample

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration said Monday a sample of raw cookie dough collected at a Nestle USA manufacturing plant last week has tested positive for E. coli.

Nestle voluntarily recalled all Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products made at the Danville, Va., factory earlier this month after the FDA told Nestle it suspected consumers may have been exposed to E. coli bacteria after eating the dough raw.

The FDA and the federal Centers for Disease Control have been investigating whether the cookie dough was the source of the E. coli outbreak which has sickened 69 people in 29 states, according to the latest CDC data. E. coli is a potentially deadly germ that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in the most severe cases, kidney failure.

By The Associated Press

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 90.99, or 1.1 percent, to 8,529.38.

The S&P 500 index rose 8.33, or 0.9 percent, to 927.23, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 5.84, or 0.3 percent, to 1,844.06. Stocks ended last week mixed.

Benchmark crude for August delivery gained $2.33 to settle at $71.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for July delivery gained 6.13 cents to settle at $1.9358 a gallon. Heating oil rose 5.32 cents to settle at $1.7835 a gallon.

In London, Brent prices rose $2.07 to settle at $70.99 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Share this page

·                     Delicious

·                     Twitter

·                     Myspace

·                     Digg

·                     Stumble Upon

·                     Facebook

Related Headlines

Related Blog Headlines

Top Stories

Related Message Boards