NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors
waiting for earnings reports to flow in traded cautiously Monday, giving up
early gains and leaving the market narrowly mixed. The Dow Jones industrials
reached a new 2009 trading high, edging closer to 10,000. The Dow closed up
20.86, or 0.2 percent, at 9,885.80. Volume was light because of
the Columbus Day holiday. Bond markets were closed and there were no economic
reports. A weaker dollar and a spike
in oil prices above $73 drove energy and materials prices higher, but weakness
in technology and industrial shares held the market back. Stocks got an early
boost from a better-than-expected profit report from Dutch company Royal
Philips Electronics. That sent Britain's leading stock indicator to its highest
level in a year. American is first woman to
win Nobel in economics WASHINGTON (AP) -- Elinor
Ostrom became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics, honored along
with fellow American Oliver Williamson on Monday for analyzing economic
governance -- the rules by which people exercise authority in companies and
economic systems. Ostrom was also the fifth
woman to win a Nobel award this year -- a record for the prestigious honors. It was an exceptionally
strong year for the United States, with 11 American citizens -- some of them
with dual nationality -- among the 13 Nobel winners, including President Barack
Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. Oil, fuel prices jump as
dollar, temperatures fall UNDATED (AP) -- Energy
prices rose Monday as an October chill across much of the U.S. sent
thermometers plummeting along with the weakening U.S. currency. Benchmark crude for November
delivery gained $1.50 to settle at $73.27 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The last time crude closed above $73 was in late August with the U.S. driving
season in full swing. Heating oil rose 4.16 cents
to settle at $1.8944 a gallon and natural gas jumped 11 cents to settle at
$4.88 per 1,000 cubic feet. Even though there are
enormous supplies of all three due to the recession and there is little chance
of a shortage in the near term, crude prices have risen 5 percent in three
trading days. Data and contacts vanish
from Sidekick phones NEW YORK (AP) -- Owners of
Sidekick phones may have lost all the personal information they put on the
device, including contact numbers, because of a failure of servers that
remotely stored the data. The incident is a huge blow
to the reputation of the Sidekick and is a reminder of the dangers of trusting
a single provider to safeguard information. The phones are made by a
Microsoft Corp. subsidiary and sold by T-Mobile USA, which says many Sidekick
owners' information is "almost certainly" gone. T-Mobile is offering
customers $20 to refund the cost of one month of data usage on the phone. FINRA fines Citigroup $600K
over tax trading plans WASHINGTON (AP) -- Citigroup
Inc. has agreed to pay a $600,000 fine and be censured to settle regulators'
charges that it failed to supervise complex stock-trading strategies aimed at
reducing the bank's potential tax bill. The Financial Industry
Regulatory Authority, the brokerage industry's self-policing organization, on
Monday announced the civil fine against the bank's division Citigroup Global
Markets Inc. Citigroup did not admit or deny FINRA's allegations. Citigroup failed to
supervise and control trading, and to prevent improper internal trades as well
as those with some of the bank's trading partners, FINRA said. The transactions
in question occurred between 2000 and 2005. Survey: Most economists see
recovery beginning NEW YORK (AP) -- More than
80 percent of economists believe the recession is over and an expansion has
begun, but they expect the recovery will be slow as worries over unemployment
and high federal debt persist. That consensus comes from leading
forecasters in a survey by the National Association for Business Economics
released Monday. The forecasters upgraded the
economic outlook for the next several quarters, but cautioned that unemployment
rates and the federal deficit are expected to remain high through the next
year. Forecasters now expect the economy, as measured by gross domestic
product, to advance at a 2.9 percent pace in the second half of the year, after
falling for four straight quarters for the first time on records dating to 1947.
They expect a 3 percent gain in 2010. Chicago Cubs file Chapter 11
to speed team's sale NEW YORK (AP) -- The Chicago
Cubs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, a step that will allow
their owner to sell the baseball team in an $845 million deal. The filing in
Wilmington, Del., was anticipated and is expected to lead to a brief stay in
Chapter 11 for the Cubs. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday in front of the
judge who has been handling the bankruptcy of the Cubs' owner, Tribune Co. The Cubs' filing is part of
the Tribune Co.'s plans to sell the team, Wrigley Field and related properties
to the family of billionaire Joe Ricketts, the founder of Omaha, Neb.-based TD
Ameritrade. Tribune, which also owns the
Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy protection in
December, but the Cubs were not covered in the filing. Philips third quarter net
profit triples to $256M AMSTERDAM (AP) -- Royal
Philips Electronics NV reported net profit of euro174 million ($256 million)
for the third quarter on Monday, three times the depressed levels of a year
ago, due to cost-cutting measures. In the same period in 2008,
the world's largest lighting manufacturer had reported profits of euro57
million, including around euro80 million in net restructuring and impairment
charges. Despite the increase in
profit, the company said sales fell 11 percent to euro5.62 billion in the third
quarter of 2009, as demand continued to lag for consumer electronics, high-end
health care equipment and many kinds of lights, notably those used in the
automobile industry. Onyx Pharma will pay up to
$851M for Proteolix NEW YORK (AP) -- Onyx
Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday it will buy cancer drug developer Proteolix
Inc. in a deal that could be worth as much as $851 million. Onyx shares advanced $1.36,
or 5 percent, to close at $28.26. Onyx will pay $276 million
upfront for the privately held South San Francisco, Calif.-based company, and
in the process it gains Proteolix's cancer drug candidate carfilzomib, which is
being tested as a treatment for multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and
solid tumors. Its drugs are designed to trigger cancer cell death with minimal
damage to the rest of the patient's body. Apple director Levinson
leaves Google's board MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP)
-- Google Inc. said Monday that Arthur Levinson has resigned from the Internet
search leader's board, averting a potential showdown with government regulators
over his overlapping job as a director for computer and gadget maker Apple Inc. The Federal Trade Commission
had been investigating whether Levinson's double duty on the boards of both
Google and Apple would lessen competition between the companies as they
increasingly collide in the same markets. The same issue had dogged
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt until he stepped down from Apple's board two
months ago. By The Associated Press The Dow closed up 20.86, or
0.2 percent, at 9,885.80. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.70, or 0.4
percent, to 1,076.19. Both indexes had their highest close in a year. The Nasdaq composite index
fell 0.14, or 0.01 percent, to 2,139.14. Benchmark crude for November
delivery gained $1.50 to settle at $73.27 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating oil rose 4.16 cents
to settle at $1.8944 a gallon and natural gas jumped 11 cents to settle at
$4.88 per 1,000 cubic feet. In other Nymex trading,
gasoline for November delivery gained 3.1 cents to finish at $1.799 a gallon.
In London, Brent crude rose $1.36 to settle at $71.36 on the ICE Futures
exchange.