Sony said Wednesday it has detected a large number of unauthorized attempts to access user accounts on its PlayStation Network and other online entertainment services.
The Tokyo-based company temporarily locked about 93,000 accounts whose IDs and passwords were successfully verified by the intruders. Sony has sent email notifications and password reset procedures to affected customers on the PlayStation Network, Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment services.
Sony said credit card numbers linked to the compromised accounts are not at risk. It has “taken steps to mitigate the activity” and is investigating any wrongful use of the accounts themselves.
The announcement follows an embarrassing data breach in April, which compromised personal data from more than 100 million online gaming and entertainment accounts and forced PlayStation Network to be shut for a month.
Sony confirmed the latest incidents after its security systems detected an unusually high number of log-in attempts that failed, said Sony spokesman Sean Yoneda. The company suspects that those responsible obtained large data sets from other companies or sources, which were then used to try to access Sony accounts.
“What happened in April was a breach on our servers as we said in our announcements,” Yoneda said. “But this time around, there was no intrusion on our servers. This was … taking someone else’s identity and trying to use that to access our services.”
The access attempts occurred between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10 and targeted accounts globally.
Sony’s customer service centers around the world have not seen a spike in user calls related to the incidents, Yoneda said.
U.S. stocks soared to finish near the session’s highs Monday as optimism that European leaders will reach an agreement to contain the region’s debt crisis led investors to snap up beaten-down equities before the end of the September quarter.
“I don’t think there are any details, but (there are) further hopes for reaching some sort of settlement in terms of nailing down a plan” to overcome the European sovereign debt crisis, said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald. “The main thing for the market is to get this European issue behind us.”
After a choppy start to the day’s trading, stocks took off in the afternoon after The Wall Street Journal reported that the International Monetary Fund and euro-zone officials are working on a variety of options for using leverage to make the resources of the European Financial Stability Facility go much further.
All 30 of the Dow’s constituents ended higher, paced by a strong late rally in financials, after they bore the brunt of the steep sell-off last week. Pado said the day’s gains were also likely aided by funds that were keen to employ the cash on their books before the end of the September quarter and ahead of the upcoming third-quarter earnings.
At the same time, cheap valuations lured investors, other analysts said.
“I’d expect to see a little bit of rebound and some positive days, because we had such tremendous downside pressure and a lot of folks are thinking the markets are cheap,” said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners business card design.
The broad stock gains came on the heels of bullish cues from Europe, where banking stocks led a rally on optimism that the region’s politicians will be able to convince voters that a bigger bailout fund is required.
The market “needs some kind of concrete plan to stabilize” and it has “got to be something other than guesswork,” said Stephen Carl, head equity trader at the Williams Capital Group, referring to speculation that the European Central Bank may cut interest rates.
The market gains came even as data released by the Commerce Department showed that the sale of new homes fell 2.3 percent last month to an annual rate of 295,000, marking a decline for the fourth month in a row.
Gold prices continued to tumble after the CME Group boosted margin requirements on trading in the metals Friday. The December gold contract shed $45, or 2.7 percent, to settle at $1,594.8 an ounce, a two-month low.
Silver futures for delivery in December ended down 13 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $29.98 an ounce, the lowest since early February.
ST. LOUIS
Oil rose above $85 per barrel Tuesday on encouraging economic news from Asia and Europe. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.02 to finish at $85.44 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price oil produced abroad, increased $1.08 to $109.44 per barrel in London.
Prices rose following reports of better-than-expected manufacturing activity in China and Europe. And stocks rose in the U.S. ahead of an expected announcement from the Federal Reserve on Friday to further stimulate the nation’s economy.
The positive news was offset by reports of more unrest in Libya’s capitol as the Gadhafi regime appeared near collapse.
An end to the country’s six-month rebellion would clear the way for oil exports to resume, but analysts cautioned that it will likely take more than a year for oil to begin flowing at levels that would affect prices.
“Crude from Libya is going to be a story for 2012 or 2013. Not today,” said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service fast cash loans.
Fighting during the last six months has all but stopped activity in Libya’s oil fields. The country previously supplied about 1.5 million barrels per day for world markets. That’s roughly 2 percent of daily global oil demand.
Meanwhile, U.S. gas pump prices rose Tuesday to a national average $3.572 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular is 86.4 cents more expensive than the same time last year.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 3.18 cents to end at $2.9425 per gallon and gasoline futures added 4.15 cents to finish at $2.8766 per gallon. Natural gas rose 10.4 cents to end the day at $3.993 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Asian markets moved mostly lower early Friday as a congressional vote on a bill to extend the U.S. government’s debt ceiling was delayed with time running out ahead of a deadline for action next week.
The Treasury Department says the debt ceiling _ currently at $14.3 trillion _ must be raised by Tuesday or the government won’t have enough money to cover all its bills, which has led to fears the United States could default on its debt and harm the fragile global economy.
In Asia, markets moved downward, but the declines were far from steep as investors appeared to take a wait-and-see stance amid the ongoing political wrangling in Washington.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average fell 0.1 percent to 9,891.45. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slipped 0.2 percent to 22,525.65. China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.1 percent to 2,707.28.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.3 percent to 2,149.15. Australia’s benchmark also fell, but New Zealand’s moved higher.
The dollar fell to 77.72 yen in Asia from 77.88 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro fell to $1.4313 from $1.4311.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives delayed the vote on the bill to extend the government’s debt limit and cut federal spending, though there was an expectation it would occur later Thursday evening in Washington.
On Wall Street, a late sell-off Thursday erased earlier gains as investors fretted that the bill headed for a vote in the House of Representatives would fail to lead to a breakthrough in the debt stalemate.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 62.44 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 12,240.11 on Thursday. The index had been up as many 82 points earlier in the day following an unexpected decrease in new claims for unemployment benefits.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.3 percent to close at 1,300.67. The Nasdaq composite index, however, edged up 0.1 percent to 2,766.25.
Benchmark oil for September delivery was down 24 cents to $97.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose 4 cents to settle at $97.44 Thursday.
Regulators have rejected a Pfizer Inc. pain drug that is designed to discourage abuse.
The New York drugmaker said the Food and Drug Administration asked for more information about the drug, called Remoxy. In May it said approval of Remoxy could be delayed because of issues with the manufacturing part of its application. Pfizer did not say Friday if the FDA’s decision was related to those problems. Its shares slipped 8 cents to $20.57 in premarket trading.
Shares of Pfizer’s partners on Remoxy, Pain Therapeutics Inc. and Durect Corp., both plunged. Durect shares dropped 89 cents, or 29 percent, to $2.20. Pain Therapeutics stock gave up $4.83, or 52 percent, to $4.41.
Remoxy is similar to Purdue Pharma LP’s pain drug OxyContin. Both drugs contain an extended-release version of the drug oxycodone and both are intended to treat severe pain. OxyContin is one of the most frequently abused prescription drugs, and Remoxy is designed to be more difficult to abuse. The oxycodone in Remoxy is in a thick liquid form, which is designed to make it hard to crush and snort, or be injected, or dissolved in alcohol. Remoxy is a key part of Pfizer’s $3.6 billion acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals, which closed in March.
Purdue began selling a new tampering-resistant version of OxyContin last year. The time-release formula in the original version could be avoided if the drug was crushed or dissolved, which delivered the full dose quickly and created a high similar to heroin.
The FDA has long been concerned about abuse of prescription pain drugs, and in May, the agency called a meeting with drug companies who were studying extended-release opioid pain drugs. They discussed ways to train prescribers and reduce the risks of the drugs. Pfizer said those issues could also complicate approval for Remoxy.
The agency also delayed approval of Remoxy in December 2008, saying it needed more data.
Remoxy was developed by Durect, which licensed it to Pain Therapeutics in 2002. Pain Therapeutics later sublicensed the rights to King Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Pfizer.
Striking Canada Post workers had to be legislated back to work or this year
European Union agriculture ministers are assessing whether farmers will be able to recoup from EU coffers up to 30 percent of the cost of vegetables that cannot be sold because of the German E.coli contamination crisis.
Two officials said Tuesday that the EU Commission has come up with the proposal as a base for negotiations at a special emergency meeting of farm ministers dealing with the economic impact of the crisis. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Earlier Tuesday, the EU health chief warned Germany against premature _ and inaccurate _ conclusions on the source of contaminated food that have spread fear all over Europe and cost farmers in exports.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
BERLIN (AP) _ Germany’s national disease control center says a further 94 people have been sickened by the deadliest E guaranteed high risk personal loans.coli outbreak in modern history.
The Robert Koch Institute said the number of registered infections in Germany rose to 2,325 Tuesday, with those in other European countries still standing at about 100.
The institute adds the latest figures indicate that the number of new cases is declining _ a sign that the epidemic that might have reached its peak. But it cautions that it is not certain whether the latest decrease will continue in the coming days.
It said the number of people suffering from a serious complication that may lead to kidney failure among those sickened rose by 12 to 642.
The outbreak has killed a total of 22 people across Europe within a month.
NEW YORK
Treasuries rose for a third week, generating the biggest monthly return since August, as cooling economic growth and the Federal Reserve’s commitment to maintain stimulus encouraged demand for the safety of government debt.
Two-year note yields dropped the most in a month since January 2010 as policy makers said after a meeting that a $600 billion debt-purchase program will continue through June. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said he was unsure when monetary stimulus will unwind. Employers added fewer jobs in April than in March, a report next week is forecast to show.
“The lack of growth is supporting the Treasury market,” said Siddharth Joshi, an interest-rate strategist in New York at Citigroup Inc., one of the 20 primary dealers that trade with the U.S. central bank. “The Fed expressed very cautious sentiment toward growth and made it clear they aren’t going to do anything until sustainable growth has picked up.”
Two-year note yields fell five basis points this week, or 0.05 percentage point, to 0.60 percent in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. It was the lowest since March 21. The yields dropped 22 basis points in April, the most since sliding 32 basis points in January 2010.
Ten-year note yields declined 10 basis points to 3.29 percent yesterday, from 3.39 percent on April 22, and fell 18 basis points in April in the first monthly decrease since tumbling 44 basis points in August. They reached 3.28 percent, the least since March 23.
Monthly Return
Treasuries returned 1.1 percent this month, the first monthly gain since January and the biggest since August, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Treasury Master index. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of stocks advanced 2.9 percent in April.
Bonds climbed on April 28 as Commerce Department data showed U.S. gross domestic product slowed to a 1.8 percent annual pace in the first quarter, from a 3.1 percent pace in the fourth. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said yesterday its business barometer declined to 67.6 this month, more than economists forecast, from 70.6 in March.
Initial claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly increased last week, Labor Department data showed on April 28.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 190,000 workers in April after a gain of 216,000 the prior month, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey before the Labor Department reports the data on May 6.
‘Not Bouncing Back’
“Growth is not bouncing back as much as economists thought,” said Gary Pollack, head of fixed-income trading at a Deutsche Bank AG Private Wealth Management group in New York that oversees $12 billion. “Fiscal tightening, curtailing of industrial production, subdued inflationary pressures and a Fed that is on hold for a long time have left investors comfortable to go out on the curve and buy bonds.”
A bond market measure of inflation expectations the Fed uses to help determine monetary policy was at 2 no fax payday loan.96 percentage points, compared with a three-month high of 3.13 percent on April 15 and a 2011 low of 2.77 percentage points on Feb. 16.
The five-year forward break-even rate projects what the pace of consumer price increases may be beginning in 2016. It averaged 2.78 percentage points over the past five years.
“The market is battling the notion that there are inflationary risks in the system with the reality that growth has been slower than even the Fed thought it would be,” said Ian Lyngen, a government bond strategist at CRT Capital Group LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. “It doesn’t mean inflation risks are off the table, but slower growth is an offset.”
No Prediction
Bernanke indicated during a press conference after a Fed meeting ended on April 27 the central bank will maintain record monetary stimulus once U.S. debt purchases end in June, reinvesting principal payments from its securities holdings, while the need to cap inflation means further easing is unlikely. He wouldn’t predict when stimulus would end.
The central bank said in November it would buy Treasuries through the middle of 2011 to spur economic growth. It purchased $22.6 billion of them this week as part of the program.
“The broader economy is in a moderate recovery,” Bernanke said yesterday in a speech in Arlington, Virginia. “But our economy is far from where we would like it to be, and many people and neighborhoods are in danger of being left behind.”
The likelihood policy makers will raise the target rate for overnight lending between banks at their March 2012 meeting decreased to 44 percent yesterday, from 61 percent a month ago, Fed funds futures showed.
The central bank has kept the benchmark rate at zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008 to support the economy.
Bill Rates
Six-month bill rates slid to a record-low 0.0895 percent on April 28. Bill rates have fallen as the Treasury cut issuance on behalf of a Fed program as the federal debt ceiling approaches.
President Barack Obama has offered the outlines of a program to reduce the nation’s debt by $4 trillion over 12 years through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.
“Our deficits are too high,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said April 28 in Detroit. “They will not be solved by future economic growth, and left unaddressed they will hurt future economic growth.”
The Treasury auctioned $99 billion in two-, five- and seven-year notes this week. It sold $29 billion in seven-year debt on April 28 at a yield of 2.712 percent, $35 billion of five-year securities April 27 at a 2.124 percent yield and $35 billion of two-year notes April 26 at a yield of 0.673 percent.
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