Scotiabank (TSX: BNS) reported Tuesday that its third-quarter profits rose 18 per cent to $1.29 billion, helped by recent acquisitions and strength in its international division.
Canada
JACKSON HOLE, WYO.
Stocks are opening sharply higher, breaking a four-week losing streak.
Many traders are looking ahead to a speech by Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, at an annual meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyo. on Friday. Some analysts believe the Fed may make another move to help the flagging economy.
Lowe’s Cos. rose 1 percent in early trading Monday. The home improvement retailer said it will buy back up to $5 billion stock.
Stocks fell sharply over the past four weeks as traders worried the U saving account payday loan.S. might enter another recession.
Shortly after the opening of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 188 points, or 1.7 percent, to 11,005. The S&P 500 index rose 20 points, or 1.8 percent, to 1,144. The Nasdaq rose 50 points, or 2.1 percent, to 2,390.
In what is often called the best baseball town in the U.S., it’s not surprising that many young men grow up here dreaming of making it to the big leagues.
A whole mini-industry has developed to help aspiring high school baseball players on their way. During the off-season, they play on competitive teams and participate at showcases attended by college coaches in the hopes of being recruited.
But a group of parents who paid one local man thousands of dollars to run one of these teams said he didn’t provide the services he sold them on. So now they want their money back.
Last week, the Better Business Bureau issued a warning urging folks to be cautious when dealing with Eric Schifferdecker of Chesterfield. He runs Midwest Baseball Academy. He’s also used other names for his businesses in the past including A Game Sports, Play Ball USA and Gateway America Sports.
The BBB has received at least eight complaints against Schifferdecker within the last month, said Bill Smith, a BBB investigator.
About 40 to 45 families from Missouri and Illinois paid Schifferdecker between $400 and $1,700 to have their children play on his teams in the last year. But the parents say Schifferdecker did not provide all the practices, games, tournaments and coaching he promised.
Schifferdecker could not be reached by phone and didn’t respond to emails.
Pat Dockler of Wentzville said her son, who had been laid off, scraped $950 together so her grandson, Brad, 16, could play on the team.
He got a uniform. And they had a couple of practices, but far fewer than they were supposed to have. And often times, they would be in the car on the way to a game when they would get a call from another parent saying that the game had been canceled because Schifferdecker hadn’t paid the tournament fees, she said.
“He needs to stop before he does it to another team,” she said.
Peggy Hassler of Oakville paid Schifferdecker $1,200 for her son to play. The team was supposed to have professional coaches, but the coach quit because Schifferdecker never paid him, she said. So parents ended up leading practices themselves.
The parents wondered, too, if Schifferdecker had received the proper permission to use the fields because they were often locked when they arrived, so the kids had to climb over the fence to play, Hassler said.
“He made some big promises to these people,” she said. “But it was just one line of baloney after another.”
Schifferdecker wrote a bad check for the one tournament he successfully signed the teams up for. Herb Forkenbrock, who organized the T.R. Hughes Stadium Tournament this June, said Schifferdecker gave him a $500 check the day before the tournament. But when he tried to cash it about a week later, the check bounced.
“He stuck it to me,” Forkenbrock said. “I’ve talked to him several times since. He gives the same song and dance, saying he’ll send me a certified check.”
But two months later, that check has still not arrived.
It’s the same with Southside Sports on Lemay Ferry Road where Schifferdecker bought uniforms from last year. He still has an unpaid balance there of about $1,800.
Ruth Fuchs, the store’s office manager, said he did make an initial down payment of $2,000. But a check he wrote for another payment bounced.
Randy Champion of Oakville said getting his money back is not his main concern.
“If I do
British banking company HSBC said Monday it will cut 30,000 jobs worldwide by 2013 and sell almost half its bank branches in the U.S., part of a new strategy to cut back on retail operations in some parts of the world and focus instead on fast-growing emerging markets.
The bank, which reported a 3 percent increase in pretax profits to $11.5 billion in the six months to June, has already cut 5,000 jobs this year.
Bank spokesman Patrick Humphris said another 25,000 will be slashed by 2013. HSBC currently employs around 296,000 people worldwide.
Humphris declined to give details of where the job cuts would be but said the group is still hiring in emerging economies such as Brazil and Mexico.
As part of its restructuring, HSBC will sell 195 retail banking branches in the United States to First Niagara Bank for around $1 billion. Most of the branches to be sold are in upstate New York, while six are in Connecticut. Four more are northern Westchester County, and two in Putnam County.
The bank is still dealing with the legacy of bad loans in the U.S. from the 2003 acquisition of consumer lender Household International Inc. The acquisition made HSBC the biggest subprime lender in the United States at the time, which resulted in billions of losses to HSBC leading up to the financial crisis of 2008.
“I am pleased with there results, which mark a first step in the right direction on what will be a long journey,” New chief executive Stuart Gulliver said in a statement.
The bank also increased its dividend by 12.5 percent to 18 cents per share.
News of the bank’s overhaul and its profit _ earnings per share rose to 51 cents in the first half from 38 cents a year earlier, allowing for a 12.5 percent divident increase to 18 cents _ boosted the company’s share price.
By mid morning in London, shares in HSBC Holdings PLC were up 4.4 percent at 620.80 pence (10.19).
We’ve seen tornadoes, floods, a tidal wave, leaking radiation, rioting Greeks, warring Libyans, rising gasoline and food prices, a stumbling job market and now Congress is threatening to default on the national debt business cards design.
What’s next? The Black Death?
Spring brought a parade of horribles for investors, each one a blow to stocks. Still, the market survived without a full-blown correction
President Barack Obama said Wednesday he believes Democrats and Republicans will reach agreement on reasonable spending cuts and an end to tax cuts for the superwealthy and flourishing oil companies, avoiding a looming and potentially catastrophic American default on its debt.
The deadline for Congress to agree to raising the U.S. debt limit is less than two months away and the International Monetary Fund, reporting on the same day that Obama spoke at a White House news conference, warned that inaction could lead to a spike in interest rates that would harm the U.S. economy and world financial markets.
The debt limit is the amount the government can borrow to help finance its operations. The United States reached its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit in May. It is at risk of defaulting on its debt if it doesn’t raise that limit by Aug. 2.
Obama insists that Republicans, in blocking a deal on raising the debt limit, are threatening U.S. financial stability by refusing to end tax breaks for “millionaires and billionaires and oil companies and hedge fund managers and for corporate jet owners.”
He said Democrats were willing to make painful cuts in government spending and that the Republican position, that insists on cuts in government sponsored medical insurance for the poor and elderly but no increase in tax revenue, was not sustainable.
Obama said both parties must be prepared to “take on their sacred cows” as part of the deficit-reduction negotiations.
The IMF urged lawmakers to raise the debt limit, now $14.3 trillion, and warned that failure to do so could produce a spike in interest rates and “severe shock to the economy and world financial markets.”
It recommended a long-term strategy for reducing debt, warning that cutting deficits too quickly could slow the weak recovery of the U.S. economy.
The budget deficit is projected to reach a record $1.4 trillion for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
In his opening remarks at Wednesday’s news conference, Obama also called on lawmakers to renew a Social Security payroll tax cut that took effect on Jan. 1, identifying it as one of several measures lawmakers could approve to help create jobs. Social Security is the federal pension program for retired Americans and has been in effect for more than 70 years, dating back to the 1930s Great Depression.
He also urged passage of trade agreements with Panama, South Korea and Colombia, and an overhaul of the nation’s patent laws.
Obama’s last previous full-fledged news conference was in March. In the intervening months, the economic recovery has slowed, the president has announced a plan to begin withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan and the administration has joined an international military coalition working to prevent the rout of rebels hoping to topple Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Obama responded at length to claims by many in Congress, members from both parties, that he was in violation of the post-Vietnam War Powers Act by engaging in operations to protect Libyan civilians and overthrow Gadhafi.
He said the operation was limited in scope and did not involve American troops on the ground in Libya and therefore was not covered by the law, which requires the president to seek congressional approval before the country goes to war.
On Afghanistan, Obama said the U.S. mission can be successful, but he is not ready to declare victory just yet. He said the mission, as the United States begins withdrawing troops next month, is narrowly focused on making sure al-Qaida cannot attack the U.S. and helping Afghans maintain their own security. Obama said he believes the U.S. will succeed in those objectives because of the “extraordinary work” of the U.S. military.
Obama said the progress the military has made so far is allowing him to begin bringing troops home. Last week he announced plans for the 33,000 surge forces he sent to Afghanistan to leave the country by the end of next summer. The first 10,000 troops will come home by the end of this year.
CREVE COEUR
Iceland closed its main international airport Sunday as a volcanic eruption sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles (20 kilometers) into the air.
Airport and air traffic control operator ISAVIA said Keflavik airport was closed at 0830 GMT (4:30 a.m. EDT), and no flights were taking off or landing.
Spokeswoman Hjordis Gudmundsdottir said the ash plume was covering Iceland, but “the good news is that it is not heading to Europe.”
She said the ash was blowing west toward Greenland instead.
She said officials were investigating whether Iceland’s other airports could take Keflavik-bound flights.
Trans-Atlantic flights were being diverted away from Iceland, and there was no sign yet that the eruption would cause the widespread travel disruption triggered last year by ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.
In April 2010, officials closed the continent’s air space for five days, fearing the ash could harm jet engines. Some 10 million travelers were stranded.
The Grimsvotn volcano, which lies under the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier, began erupting Saturday for the first time since 2004.
Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, said last year’s eruption was a rare event and Grimsvotn would likely have much less effect on international air traffic.
“The ash in Eyjafjallajokull was persistent or unremitting and fine-grained,” Einarsson said. “The ash in Grimsvotn is more coarse and not as likely to cause danger as it falls to the ground faster and doesn’t stay as long in the air as in the Eyjafjallajokull eruption.”
Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the world’s most volcanically active countries and eruptions are frequent.
Eruptions often cause local flooding from melting glacier ice, but rarely cause deaths. Police closed a main road near the volcano Sunday as heavy ash fell.
The Grimsvotn volcano also erupted in 1998, 1996 and 1993. The eruptions have lasted between a day and several weeks.
Europe’s top officials closed ranks Thursday to demand that the IMF’s next leader be one of their own, someone with enough technical expertise and political savvy to handle the continent’s relentless debt crisis.
Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who has been widely praised for his leadership of the Intentional Monetary Fund and its involvement in solving Europe’s woes, resigned Wednesday to devote “all his energy” to fighting sexual assault charges in New York.
The move heated up simmering debate over his successor, with Europe aggressively staking its traditional claim to the post even as fast-growing nations like China and Brazil say it’s time to break that monopoly and seek an IMF chief from a developing nation. The Washington, D.C-based organization is empowered to direct billions of dollars to stabilize the global economy.
Hours after Strauss-Kahn’s resignation, everyone from the European Commission to the German chancellor to the French finance minister _ herself a potential candidate _ said the replacement should come from Europe. Not because of any tradition, they insisted, but because intimate knowledge of Europe’s debt crisis should be a critical element of any candidate’s portfolio.
“From a European point of view, it is essential that the appointment will be merit-based, where competence and economic and political experience play the key role,” said Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Monetary and Economic Affairs. “And in this current juncture it is a merit if the person has quite solid knowledge of the European economy and decision making.”
France’s Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has in recent days been touted in many European capitals as a good choice. A sharp, articulate negotiator, she has a strong international reputation and impeccable English after living in the United States for many years.
“I am convinced that she is a good candidate. I made a few trips with her to Asia. I was able to verify her popularity among ministers of large emerging countries,” France’s transport minister, Thierry Mariani, told France-Info radio Thursday.
Despite Lagarde’s popularity, Mariani was the first member of the French government to speak about her publicly.
That’s partly because she is a member of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party, and if Sarkozy openly pushes for her candidacy, that could fuel the widespread belief in France that the accusations against Strauss-Kahn were part of a conspiracy to knock him off what appeared to be his march toward the French presidency.
Lagarde herself mentioned no names but said she too supported a European for the job.
“I’m a true European and I’m convinced that Europe is the way to go, as far as we are concerned,” she told reporters on a visit to a French supermarket. “I am a convinced European and I think that for such a candidacy, the Europeans must be united.”
In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed for a quick decision on a successor to Strauss-Kahn and underlined her hopes for another European.
“It is of great significance, of course, that we find a quick solution,” she said in Berlin Thursday, without naming specific candidates.
The IMF’s executive board released a letter from Strauss-Kahn on Wednesday in which he denied the allegations against him but said he felt he must resign to protect his family and the IMF.
Strauss-Kahn is facing a bail hearing Thursday in New York that could have spelled the end of his leadership of the IMF anyway. He faces charges of assaulting a maid in a New York hotel room and has been jailed in New York since Monday.
The maid, a 32-year-old immigrant from the West African nation of Guinea, told police the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn came out of the bathroom naked, chased her down, forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear before she broke free and fled.
The IMF’s statement said the process of choosing a new leader would begin, but in the meantime John Lipsky would remain its acting managing director.
Europeans have led the IMF since its inception after World War II. Americans have occupied both the No. 2 position at the IMF and the top post at its sister institution, the World Bank. The World Bank funds projects in developing countries.
Developing nations see Europe’s stranglehold on the position as increasingly out of touch with the world economy. China’s is now the world’s second largest economy. India’s and Brazil’s have cracked the top 10. Many emerging economies have become forces of financial stability, while rich countries have become weighed down by debt.
“We must establish meritocracy, so that the person leading the IMF is selected for their merits and not for being European,” Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Wednesday. “You can have a competent European … but you can have a representative from an emerging nation who is competent as well.”
China suggested it was time to shake things up at the IMF, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu saying the leadership “should be based on fairness, transparency and merit.”
The United States has a major say in determining who will head the fund, in part because it holds the largest number of votes. The prevailing view among analysts and former Treasury officials appears to be that Washington would back a strong European candidate who could be approved in a smooth process.
Other potential European candidates include Germany’s former central bank chief, Axel Weber; the head of Europe’s bailout fund, Klaus Regling; and Peer Steinbrueck, a former German finance minister.
Candidates from elsewhere include Turkey’s former finance minister, Kemal Dervis; Singapore’s finance chief, Tharman Shanmugaratnam; and Indian economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
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