After a customer backlash, Verizon Wireless on Friday dropped a plan to start charging $2 for every payment subscribers make over the phone or online with their credit or debit cards.
In a statement on its website Friday, the company said “customer feedback” prompted the decision to drop the “convenience fee” it wanted to introduce on Jan. 15.
Verizon wanted to steer people to electronic check payments, which are cheaper, and automatic credit card payments, which are more reliable.
A petition on Change.org against the fees had gathered more than 95,000 names by Friday afternoon, a day after Verizon, the country’s largest cellphone company, announced the fees. The petition was set up by Molly Katchpole, who earlier this year started a successful campaign to make Bank of America drop a $5-per-month fee for debit card use electronic check payday advance.
Payment processors for power companies usually charge “convenience fees” of up to $5 for every payment made by phone or online, but cellphone companies haven’t taken the step yet. The furor against Verizon hints that they may have to wait further.
Verizon Wireless serves 91 million phones and other devices on accounts that pay the company directly, and more who pay indirectly through other companies. It’s a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.
Wall Street dealers made it tougher for hedge funds to finance trading of securities and derivatives in the three months through November, a Federal Reserve survey showed today.
Responses
The Google+ social network has topped 60 million users, according to Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen, who also made the bold prediction late Tuesday that Google+ would reach 400 million users by the end of 2012.
Allen, who calls himself the "unofficial statistician" of Google+, runs hundreds of queries on various surnames on the social network each week. He has been tracking those names since Google first announced that Google+ had reached 10 million users in July.
Google+, the company’s answer to Facebook, got off to a roaring start, hitting the 10 million mark in just two weeks — and that was even before the site was open to the public.
But growth had tapered off, taking three months to reach 40 million users, according to Google’s numbers.
Google’s hasn’t given a more recent count. But Allen has seen a rapid resurgence, estimating that the service hit 62 million late Tuesday.
"It may be the holidays, the TV commercials, celebrity and brand appeal, or positive word of mouth, or a combination of all these factors, but there is no question that the number of new users signing up for Google+ each day has accelerated markedly in the past several weeks," Allen wrote on his Google+ page.
Google’s (, Fortune 500) social network is now adding 625,000 users each day, Allen said.
At that pace, Google+ would reach nearly 300 million users by the end of 2012. But Allen believes that growth will accelerate, enabling it to hit 400 million.
There’s one crucial missing piece in Allen’s analysis: He only cites the total number of people who have signed up for the network, not the number of people who actually use it. People may sign into the service to check it out and never use it again.
Facebook, by contrast, reports that it has 800 million "active users," which are those users that have viewed a Facebook page or have used an application. Half of all Facebook active users log onto the social network in any given day, the social network says.
Google entices users to sign up in its newly redesigned home page, by making Google+ the first option in an ever-present pull-down menu — an option that sits right above search. It’s unclear how many sign up but then never actually use Google+.
The technology and advertising industries alike are watching Google+ very closely, which could yet prove to be a sizable alternative to Facebook. The project is very important to Google, which is trying to overcome its past miscues in the social networking space.
More people visit Google’s network of websites than Facebook each month, but Facebook is killing Google in categories that advertisers care most about: Time spent and pages viewed.
The European Central Bank
South Korean consumer confidence fell to a three-month low in December, as concern the political outlook in the North will worsen in the wake of Kim Jong Il
+%3Cp%3E+As+expected%2C+BlackBerry+maker+Research+In+Motion+said+Thursday+that+it+had+a+miserable+past+three+months%2C+reporting+a+quarterly+profit+that+got+squeezed+by+slumping+sales+and+service+outages.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EWhat+wasn%27t+expected+was+such+a+miserable+outlook+for+the+current+quarter.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+company+said+it+expects+to+earn+between+80+cents+and+95+cents+a+share+on+revenue+of+between+%244.6+billion+and+%244.9+billion.+That%27s+way%2C+way+below+analysts%27+profit+forecasts+of+%241.16+per+share+on+sales+of+%245.1+billion.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM+also+said+it+expects+to+ship+just+11+million+to+12+million+BlackBerry+phones%2C+a+truly+disappointing+forecast+that+is+just+barely+higher+than+the+company%27s+smartphone+shipments+from+a+year+earlier.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EMaking+matters+worse%2C+the+company+also+said+that+its+future+platform%2C+BlackBerry+OS+10+–+the+cornerstone+of+RIM%27s+turnaround+plans+–+will+be+delayed+until+late+2012.+The+company+says+it+is+waiting+on+the+development+of+a+special+chipset+for+its+new+devices.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EShares+fell+by+8%25+after+hours%2C+even+though+RIM+%28%29+had+already+warned+investors+two+weeks+ago+that+its+financial+results+would+fall+short+of+the+company%27s+earlier+expectations.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+company+blamed+its+bad+third+quarter+on+lackluster+demand+for+its+new+PlayBook+tablet%2C+on+consumers+opting+for+cheaper+BlackBerry+smartphones%2C+and+on+its+three-day+service+outage.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%26quot%3BThe+last+few+quarters+have+been+some+of+the+most+trying+in+the+history+of+this+company%2C%26quot%3B+said+Jim+Balsillie%2C+RIM%27s+co-CEO%2C+on+a+conference+call+with+analysts.+%26quot%3BWe+understand+shareholders+may+feel+like+we+let+them+down.+%5BCo-CEO%5D+Mike+%5BLazaridis%5D+and+I%2C+as+two+of+RIM%27s+largest+shareholders%2C+understand+that+sentiment.%26quot%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EBalsillie+said+that+he+and+Lazaridis+have+decided+to+take+a+salary+of+just+%241+a+year%2C+effective+immediately.+Last+year%2C+both+made+%241.2+million+Canadian%2C+which+was+around+%241.15+million+U.S.+at+the+time.+They+also+each+took+home+a+%241.2+million+cash+performance+bonus.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EDespite+the+terrible+results%2C+RIM%27s+co-CEOs+remained+upbeat+in+their+discussion+with+analysts.+BlackBerry%27s+user+base+grew+to+75+million%2C+up+35%25+from+a+year+ago%2C+they+pointed+out.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThey+also+said+that+the+company+is+%26quot%3Bmore+determined+than+ever%26quot%3B+to+overcome+its+execution+challenges.+They+preached+continued+patience+and+said+that+RIM%27s+transition+to+new%2C+improved+BlackBerry+OS+software+will+slowly+gain+traction+–+once+it+finally+releases.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3E%26quot%3BWe+ask+for+your+patience+and+confidence%2C%26quot%3B+said+Lazaridis+on+the+call.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EBy+the+numbers%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3EThe+Waterloo%2C+Ontario-based+company+said+net+income+for+the+third+quarter%2C+which+ended+last+month%2C+fell+to+%24265+million.+That%27s+down+19%25+from+a+year+earlier.+%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM%27s+results+included+a+one-time+charge+of+%24485+million+write-down+due+to+underperforming+PlayBook+sales+and+a+%2454+million+charge+for+the+outage.+Without+the+charges%2C+RIM+said+it+earned+%241.27+per+share.+Analysts+polled+by+Thomson+Reuters%2C+who+typically+exclude+one-time+items+from+their+estimates%2C+had+forecast+earnings+of+%241.19+cents+per+share.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM%27s+sales+in+the+quarter+rose+24%25+to+%245.2+billion%2C+missing+analysts%27+reduced+forecasts+of+%245.3+billion.%3C%2Fp%3E%3Cp%3ERIM+said+that+it+shipped+14.1+million+BlackBerry+phones+last+quarter.+While+RIM%27s+third-quarter+smartphones+shipments+were+in+line+with+the+company%27s+forecast+of+between+13.5+million+and+14.5+million%2C+RIM+said+phones+were+sitting+on+store+shelves%2C+as+it+sold+fewer+devices+to+end-users+than+it+had+expected.%26nbsp%3B+%3C%2Fp%3E++%3Cp%3E%3Ca+href%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fmoney.cnn.com%2F2011%2F12%2F15%2Ftechnology%2Frim_earnings%2Findex.htm%27+rel%3D%27nofollow%27%3ESource%3C%2Fa%3E%3C%2Fp%3E+
The Sappington Farmers Market, which filed for bankruptcy Friday, will remain open despite its troubles.
“The reorganization of Sappington Farmers Market will allow the store to remain open and viable,” said Nancy Smith, the market’s manager, in a written statement. “We feel this will position us to be successful in the future.”
Smith didn’t provide an interview.
The store, on Watson Road in Marlborough, has roots going back to the early 1980s and has been at its present location since 1995, where it has gained a loyal following of bargain hunters and proponents of local farming.
The store’s mission has long been to support area farmers by featuring their products.
In her statement released Saturday, Smith said the store would continue to feature local farmers and would continue distributing their products not only through the store but through schools, restaurants and a “mobile market.”
The store’s founder, Tessa Greenspan, sold it in 2008 to a cooperative of small-scale farmers known as the Missouri Farmers Union, which formed a company called Farm to Family Naturally LLC to buy the business.
Farm to Family Naturally, which does business as Sappington Farmers Market, was the organization that filed for bankruptcy on Friday.
Members of the original cooperative who purchased the store have since left, according to employees.
A slew of bad news on European banks has fueled fears about their ability to survive the debt crisis and raised the prospect of a new global credit crunch.
Five large lenders saw their credit ratings downgraded this week, and a sixth, Commerzbank, saw its stock plunge on speculation it might need more government support. As uncertainty grows that a fellow lender might collapse, banks are cutting back on lending to each other for fear of not getting their money back.
When that credit between banks dries up, loans soon stop flowing to businesses and households, stunting economic growth. On Thursday, the rates banks charge to lend dollar to one another remained at their highest level since September.
The heart of Europe’s problem is bad government debt _ a phrase that until recently was nearly an oxymoron. Government bonds of wealthy countries were long considered the safest of safe assets.
But as the debt loads of European countries soared, investors began to wonder if their governments could pay back the loans, so they began charging more to extend those loans. That only fed a vicious circle: The more governments had to pay to borrow money, the more trouble they had paying it back. Eventually, Greece had to admit it wouldn’t repay all of its loans _ and that shattered confidence in other eurozone countries. Would Italy renege? Would Spain? France?
European leaders have been struggling to reassure investors that they will pay back their debts and to work out a way to make sure they never again grow so large. But in the meantime, the bonds are all still out there, their value has plunged, and much of them sit in Europe’s banks.
In addition, banks are struggling to raise more cash for their rainy-day funds, their stocks are plunging and they’re facing higher borrowing rates.
“European banks remain the nexus of most European problems,” analyst Huw Van Steenis wrote in a Morgan Stanley research note.
It’s the banks that “transmit” the debt crisis to businesses and consumers, he argues. Because what were traditionally their safest assets _ government bonds _ are now among some of their most suspect, banks are struggling to secure the loans they need to fund their day-to-day operations. Until the debt crisis erupted, those government bonds typically served as collateral for loans from other banks.
When banks stop lending to one another, they also stop lending to the “real economy”: homeowners, consumers, businesses. The European Central Bank’s lending survey in October, the latest available, showed that standards for lending to businesses tightened significantly, and that banks expected them to tighten even further through the end of the year.
The banks also told the ECB that they were finding it increasingly hard to get their hands on loans. The percentage of banks saying their access to markets was tightening skyrocketed in the October report. They expected that situation to improve a bit toward the end of the year but to remain difficult.
Even that grim assessment may have been overly rosy: The rates banks charge each other to borrow dollars overnight has been steadily increasing in recent weeks. On Thursday, the rate known as LIBOR was 0.1505 percent _ a high matched once last week but not surpassed since late September.
The ECB has stepped in to lend to banks when no one else will. As a measure of how bad things have gotten, the ECB supplied banks with a total average of euro615.3 billion ($801 billion) in ready money to operate their businesses over the three months to Nov. 8. That’s up euro99.1 billion ($129 billion) from what banks needed in the previous three months.
World stocks were mostly lower Wednesday after the Federal Reserve refrained from offering new initiatives to help a slowly recovering U.S. economy.
Benchmark oil hovered below $100 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.
European stocks were mixed in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent to 5,447.88. But Germany’s DAX lost 0.9 percent to 5,719.42 and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.1 percent to 3,043.60. Wall Street appeared headed higher, with Dow Jones industrial futures up 0.3 percent to 11,938 and S&P 500 futures rising 0.5 percent to 1,225.80.
Asian shares closed lower. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.4 percent to end at 8,519.13, its lowest close in two weeks. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.3 percent at 1,857.75 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.5 percent to 18,354.43. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was flat at 4,190.50.
On mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.9 percent to 2,228.53, the lowest closing since March 2009. Benchmarks in Singapore, India and Indonesia fell while Taiwan and the Philippines rose.
The Fed on Tuesday said that the U.S. economy, while improving, is still weak. Unemployment remains high, and it remains vulnerable to the European debt crisis, which could push the continent into a recession and slow U.S. growth.
Analysts said markets were disappointed that the Fed refrained from a third round of large-scale purchases of Treasury securities, dubbed quantitative easing III or QE3.
“I think QE3 would be a welcome change to the status quo. I think the market was disappointed,” said Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean Holdings in Hong Kong.
Sentiment also remained fragile amid threats by Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the credit ratings of 15 countries that use the euro because of the region’s debt crisis.
“We are likely to continue seeing some cautious trading as the threat of S&P coming out to issue some downgrades at some stage this week looms,” said Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia payday loan lenders.
“Some would argue that this is already priced in, but it will still likely rock the boat should it happen.”
Export shares in Japan were under pressure as the yen strengthened against a shaky euro. Sharp Corp. dropped 2.9 percent while Toshiba Corp. lost 1.2 percent. Honda Motor Corp. slid 2.2 percent.
Chinese property shares dropped after the government signaled that it would maintain price curbs on real estate.
“The government has set a clear tone for reining in runaway housing prices next year,” Wang Yulin of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
Hong Kong-listed China Vanke Co. fell 0.6 percent and Evergrande Real Estate Group dived 3.9 percent.
Mainland Chinese shares slumped due to fears over slower economic growth and inflation, which “will make the market unstable in the short term,” said Li Jianfeng, an analyst at Caida Securities, based in Shanghai.
Shanghai Xinhua Media Co. lost 4 percent while Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing & Media Corp. 5.9 percent.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.6 percent to close at 11,954.94. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 0.9 percent to 1,225.73. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.3 percent to 2,579.27.
Benchmark oil for January delivery was down 16 cents to $99.98 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.37 to finish at $100.14 an ounce on the Nymex on Tuesday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3047 from $1.3043 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 77.95 yen from 77.97 yen.
___
AP researcher Fu Ting contributed from Shanghai.
LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - A European summit deal to strengthen budget discipline in the euro zone failed to restore financial market confidence on Monday, forcing the European Central Bank to step in again gingerly.
The euro fell, stocks slid and borrowing costs for Italy and Spain rose as investors weighed the outcome of last week’s summit that split the European Union, with Britain blocking treaty change and forcing euro zone countries to negotiate a fiscal accord outside the Union.
Friday’s initial market rally petered out in less than 24 trading hours due to legal uncertainty surrounding the new pact and the absence of an unlimited financial backstop for the single currency.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the legal basis of a new accord to enforce debt and deficit rules in the 17-nation euro area with quasi-automatic sanctions and intrusive powers to reject national budgets would be worked out before Christmas.
“In the next fortnight, we will put together the legal content of our agreement. The aim is to have a treaty by March,” Sarkozy told newspaper Le Monde in an interview.
“You have to understand this is the birth of a different Europe — the Europe of the euro zone, in which the watchwords will be the convergence of economies, budget rules and fiscal policy. A Europe where we are going to work together on reforms enabling all our countries to be more competitive without renouncing our social model,” he said.
Traders said the ECB intervened to buy short-term Italian debt after yields on Italian and Spanish debt spiked. But ECB sources told Reuters last week that purchases would remain limited with a maximum ceiling of 20 billion euros a week.
There is no prospect of a “big bazooka” to shock the markets.
Despite the central bank dabbling, Italian 5-year bond yields shot up above 7 percent, widely seen as a danger level while 10-year yields spiked above 6.8 percent and Spanish 10-year yields topped 6 percent.
Investors’ appetite for short-term paper drove Italian one-year borrowing costs down just below 6 percent at an auction but yields remain uncomfortably high.
“Let’s not raise expectations too high, there will be more summits,” credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s chief European economist Jean-Michel Six said.
“Time is running out and action is needed on both sides of the equation, on the fiscal and monetary side,” he told a business conference in Tel Aviv.
S&P has put 14 euro zone governments on watch for a possible rating downgrade in the coming weeks, arguing that the deepening debt crisis and looming recession will increase their potential liabilities and reduce their ability to cope with them.
If some of the euro zone’s ‘AAA’-rated members are downgraded, it would call into question the solidity of the euro zone’s rescue fund, which would likely suffer a similar fate fast cash loans.
“There is probably yet another shock required before everyone in Europe reads from the same page, for instance a major German bank experiencing difficulties in the market,” Six said. “Then there would be a recognition that everyone is on the same boat and even German institutions can be affected by this contagion.”
Interbank lending rates in the euro zone fell to their lowest level since May after the ECB threw cash-starved banks a lifeline last week by offering unlimited three-year liquidity to counter a credit crunch.
Political aftershocks from Friday’s historic rift between Britain and the rest of the 27-nation bloc continued to shake Europe on Monday with Prime Minister David Cameron facing tension in his coalition and doubts in the business community.
Cameron was assured of a hero’s welcome from Eurosceptics in his Conservative party in parliament but faced a backlash from his Liberal Democrat coalition allies when he explains a veto that has cast Britain adrift from its continental partners.
LibDem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Sunday he was “bitterly disappointed” with an outcome that would diminish Britain’s global influence and was bad for jobs and business.
In business, the chief executive of the world’s largest advertising group, Martin Sorrell of London-based WPP, told Reuters that Britain’s interests would be better serviced “inside the EU tent” than on the sidelines.
In Brussels, officials were groping for a strong legal basis for the planned fiscal compact, with Britain arguing that the euro zone cannot use the EU treaty institutions — the European Commission and the European Court of Justice.
European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters most of the practical measures to strengthen budget enforcement could be implemented immediately under a set of rules known as the “six-pack” agreed in October.
Euro zone finance ministers may hold an extra meeting before the end of the year to try to nail down details of the agreement before their winter break, diplomats said.
The euro area faces the next potential crunch point in mid-January when Italy, which has a debt mountain of 1.9 billion euros or 120 percent of its annual output, has to start issuing tends of billions of euros in bonds towards a 2012 total of 340 billion euros needed to roll over maturing debt.
Michael Leister, rate strategist with German bank WestLB in Duesseldorf, said the summit outcome had done little to restore confidence in the absence of stronger central bank action.
“The question is will this help to stabilise sentiment? I don’t believe so, given that those comments from
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