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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.
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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
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.
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AP researcher Fu Ting contributed from Shanghai.
Summoned by Congress, Jon Corzine embraced a bold strategy Thursday to distance himself from MF Global’s fall and $1.2 billion in missing clients’ money:
Answer each question. Be courteous. And don’t huddle with your lawyer before replying.
He said very little. Nevertheless, it was a risky strategy, even for a risk-taking financial executive. Anything Corzine might say could be used against him in a courtroom, should he ever be charged in the MF Global case.
Yet the former CEO of the securities firm never declined to answer questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The one-time senator and New Jersey governor was subpoenaed by his former colleagues to explain how MF Global collapsed just over a month ago in the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. It’s the first time in more than 100 years that Congress has subpoenaed a former senator to testify, according to Senate historian Don Ritchie.
Looking strained and speaking hoarsely during nearly three hours of testimony, Corzine said he never intended to break rules that require firms to safeguard client funds. He said he doesn’t know what happened to the missing money, but added that customers’ losses weigh on his mind “every day, every hour.”
He said several times that he did not become aware of the shortfall in client accounts until Oct. 30, one day before MF Global filed for bankruptcy following its disastrous bets on European debt.
“I’m not in a position, given the number of transactions, to know anything specific about the movement of any specific funds,” said Corzine, who took over as CEO more than a year and a half ago.
In his testimony to the House Agriculture Committee, Corzine sought to deflect blame for the company’s collapse, arguing that he inherited a firm already doomed by his predecessors’ bad financial decisions.
Legal experts said they were surprised by Corzine’s decision to answer each question, however vaguely, given the legal risks. The FBI and federal regulators are investigating MF Global.
It’s hard to see how the testimony will benefit Corzine, said Robert Mintz, a defense attorney in Newark, N.J., who specializes in white-collar cases.
Mintz said Corzine’s answers leave him open to “a barrage of questions about facts and circumstances that will no doubt be the subject of review by prosecutors and regulators.”
Two other congressional panels have also voted to subpoena Corzine.
His testimony provided his first public comments since the firm’s spectacular collapse. A lawyer who handles white-collar criminal cases accompanied Corzine and sat behind him during the hearing. But Corzine never turned to seek his advice.
The hearing wasn’t particularly confrontational, though a few members expressed disbelief that Corzine could be so detached as CEO.
Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., told him it strained belief “for you to sit there and say instant payday loans… you know nothing about” the missing customer money. A lot of farmers in Georgia need to know, Scott said. “The key to this is you. You’re the CEO.”
Corzine said he was confident that others at MF Global were checking daily to ensure that the firm’s money and clients’ fund were being kept separate.
“I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date,” he said.
He said MF Global toppled, in part, because of a large quarterly loss caused by his predecessors’ accounting moves. Rating agencies responded to the loss by downgrading the firm’s credit rating, which panicked investors and trading partners.
“The marketplace lost confidence in our firm,” he said.
He disputed media reports that he personally pushed the company to make big, doomed bets on risky European debt using too much borrowed money.
He said he made the high-stakes bets only after discussions with company executives who traded European debt long before he arrived. And he said he reduced MF Global’s investment risks in some ways.
Some outside experts challenged some of his assertions.
Janet Tavakoli, an expert on the transactions MF Global specialized in, said Corzine’s remarks seemed to divert attention from the firm’s fundamental flaw under his leadership: It lacked the cash to cover its bets after investors started to fear that a major European nation would default.
“His entire testimony looks like a very skilled way to try to detract from that key issue,” said Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance.
Lawmakers have heard from farmers, ranchers and small-business owners who are missing money deposited with the firm. Agricultural businesses use brokerage firms to help reduce their risks in an industry vulnerable to swings in oil, corn and other commodity prices.
A Democrat, Corzine represented New Jersey in the Senate from 2001 through 2005. He later served a single four-year term as governor, losing a re-election bid in 2009. Before entering politics, he was CEO of Goldman Sachs.
Several class-action lawsuits on behalf of shareholders have been filed against Corzine and three other top executives, accusing the firm and its leaders of making false statements about MF Global’s stability.
Stephen Gillers, a professor at New York University School of Law, said lawyers typically advise clients in Corzine’s situation not to answer questions.
“When you answer a full day’s worth of questions, you’re committing yourself to a story that could come back to haunt you,” Gillers said.
Mintz added: “It only makes sense if your answers can satisfy those posing the questions. Short of that, the risks far outweigh the benefits.”
MEXICO, Mo.
The U.S. Justice Department expanded an investigatioin into Puerto Rican shipping Thursday, announcing a $14.2 million fine for a Florida-based company and a criminal charge against its former president.
Sea Star Line LLC agreed to the fine and a guilty plea to one felony count of conspiring to fix prices on cargo moving in and out of the U.S. island territory, the Justice Department said in a statement.
A federal grand jury in San Juan indicted the company’s former president and chief operating officer, Frank Peake, on a charge of conspiring to fix prices on Puerto Rico routes from late 2005 until April 2008. Peake, a New Jersey resident, is now a shipping company executive with a company affiliated with Sea Star.
Sea Star, based in Jacksonville, Florida, issued a statement apologizing to its customers, and noted the agreement provides that the Justice Department will not bring criminal charges against its parent companies, Saltchuk Resources Inc. and American Shipping Group Inc.
Sea Star employees engaged in the price-fixing scheme in violation of company policies, but the company is still responsible for the conduct under antitrust law, said Anthony Chiarello, President of American Shipping Group Inc.
“We extend sincere apologies to all of our loyal customers and the consumers who were affected by this conduct,” Chiarello said in the statement. “It was contrary to everything that Sea Star stands for and will not be tolerated in the future.”
He said by email that he was unable to answer questions because he was traveling.
David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Peake, said his client denies wrongdoing and expressed confidence his client will be cleared of a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
“Frank is innocent. He is never going to do a day in jail because he didn’t do the things they said he did,” said Markus, based in Miami. “It’s a real shame that the government is wasting its resources on something like this.”
Peake is accused of meeting with unidentified others in his industry to allocate customers and set prices for freight services for government and commercial clients, according to the indictment.
As part of the agreement, which is subject to court approval, Sea Star admitted conspiring to set prices and rig bids between May 2002 and April 2008, according to court papers.
Last April, the investigation brought a $15 million fine for Horizon Lines LLC of Charlotte, North Carolina. Five former executives of Sea Star and Horizon have received fines and jail sentences stemming from the probe.
Hurricane Jova roared toward a collision Tuesday night with a vulnerable Mexican coastline dotted with tourist resorts and flood-prone mountain villages, prompting evacuations and shutting down one of the country’s top cargo ports.
Jova weakened some as its center drew to within 78 miles (125 kilometers) of shore, but it still had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (160 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported. The forecast path pointed to landfall between Barra de Navidad and the larger resort of Puerto Vallarta to the north around midnight.
As the storm’s outer bands of rain began hitting the coast, some vowed to ride out the storm, while others took refuge at shelters in towns like Jaluco, just inland from the beach community of Barra de Navidad.
“My house has a thatch roof, and it’s not safe,” said Maria de Jesus Palomera Delgado, 44, a farmworker’s wife who went to an improvised shelter at a grade school in Jaluco, along with her 17 children and grandchildren.
“The neighbors told us the house was going to collapse” if hit by the hurricane, she added as the children slept nearby on folding cots packed into a classroom.
In an another classroom, migrant farmworker Rufina Francisco Ventura, 27, fed her 2-month-old son. She said she had left the ranch where she plants chilies and tomatoes planning only to pick up some free blankets, but shelter workers “told me I shouldn’t leave here, because it’s going to hit hard.”
Jalisco state authorities evacuated about 200 people to shelters by Tuesday and was issuing alerts over loudspeakers placed in communities long the coast, telling people to take precautions as the hurricane approached, state civil defense spokesman Juan Pablo Vigueras said. The state had 69 shelters ready, he said.
Authorities also set up shelters for residents of inland towns, where the mountainous terrain could cause flash floods and mudslides, which often pose the greatest dangers in hurricanes
“We have about 100 officials working in these communities, telling people they should evacuate,” said Francisco Garnica, the duty officer at the Jalisco state civil defense office. But many were reluctant to leave their homes for fear they would be robbed. “They are worried about their possessions,” he said.
The Mexican army said it had assigned about 1,500 soldiers to hurricane preparedness and relief efforts.
Jova was expected to hit the states of Jalisco, Colima and Nayarit the hardest. About 183,000 people live in the center of the storm’s projected path, said Laura Gurza, chief of the federal Civil Protection emergency response agency.
The U.S. hurricane center in Miami warned that storm surge was expected to produce significant coastal flooding between the major seaport of Manzanillo, east of Barra de Navidad, and Cabo Corrientes, southwest of Puerto Vallarta Internet Payday loans.
Jova could unleash as much as 20 inches (50 centimeters) in isolated areas as it moved inland.
Hotels in Barra de Navidad and the neighboring beach town of Melaque dragged in beach furniture and advised their guests to leave the towns.
But some tourists seemed unfazed.
Bill Clark, a 59-year-old traveler from Santa Rosa, California, ate tacos at a street stand while enjoying a balmy Monday night.
“Some people are going out of town but I’m not really worried,” said Clark, who has been coming to the town of about 3,000 people since 1994. “I’m from California, I have been through earthquakes.”
Christoph Dietschi, 42, and his wife, four children and mother-in-law had checked in to a small beachside hotel in Melaque for a family wedding, but left Monday after the manager told them he couldn’t guarantee their safety or service when the hurricane hit. They rented an apartment in Manzanillo.
“It was better to leave because they can’t guarantee that everything would be OK for us. Maybe there is no electricity, no water, so it’s better to leave,” Dietschi said.
Dietschi walked Manzanillo’s cobblestone streets with his family under just one umbrella to the beach of La Audiencia on Tuesday afternoon to watch the gray sky and choppy sea before the hurricane.
“We still hope that Saturday everything is all right,” said Diestschi. His brother-in-law is scheduled to get married at a church in Barra de Navidad on Saturday.
Heavy rains in Manzanillo forced restaurants and stores to close Tuesday afternoon. Employees at convenience stores boarded up or taped their windows. Soldiers patrolled the main seaside avenue.
Authorities shut down Manzanillo’s port, the biggest cargo center on Mexico’s Pacific coast, and the nearby port of Nuevo Vallarta.
A hurricane warning was in effect for a 100-mile (160-kilometer) stretch of coast from just south of Puerto Vallarta to a point south of Manzanillo. A tropical storm warning was in effect farther south, to the port of Lazaro Cardenas.
At midafternoon, Jova was centered about 85 miles (140 kilometers) southwest of Manzanillo and was moving north-northeast at 6 mph (9 kph), the Hurricane Center said.
In 1959, an unnamed hurricane struck near Manzanillo, reportedly killing 1,000 people. Detailed reports on hurricanes were not available at the time.
The hurricane was expected to be dissipating by the time the Pan American Games start Friday in nearby Guadalajara.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Irwin regained some strength farther out in the Pacific with winds near 45 mph (72 kph). While it was expected to move eastward toward land, forecasts indicated it probably wouldn’t make landfall.
The Belgian state will buy the national subsidiary of embattled bank Dexia for euro4 billion ($5.4 billion) as part of a wider bailout of the lender, the first banking victim of a new squeeze in European credit markets.
The part-nationalization of Franco-Belgian Dexia, announced Monday, was triggered by other banks’ increasing reluctance to lend to it due to its exposure to highly indebted eurozone states like Greece and Italy and to struggling municipalities in the United States.
Banks depend on loans to one another for a large part of their daily financing, but can quickly withhold them if they sense there is a danger that a counterpart might collapse and not repay the money. Such fears intensified last week, pushing Dexia to need rescuing from the government.
Belgium’s caretaker prime minister Yves Leterme said the nationalization was necessary to insulate the Belgian retail bank from the risks of the wider group, Dexia SA. He said support from the state ensures that all of Dexia’s clients “can be sure and certain that their money is in full security.”
On top of the nationalization, the governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg together will provide an additional euro90 billion ($121 billion) in funding guarantees for the bank for up to 10 years.
Belgium will provide 60.5 percent of these guarantees, 36.5 percent will come from France and the remaining 3 percent from Luxembourg.
At the same time, Dexia’s board is in negotiations with French banks Caisse des Depots et Consignations and La Banque Postale to find a solution to the financing of French local authorities, in which Dexia plays an important role.
Dexia said backing from the Caisse des Depots would reduce its short-term funding requirement by almost euro10 billion.
The announcement followed marathon negotiations between the three governments and the bank’s management.
Officials were worried that a collapse of the bank would exacerbate an already tight funding environment for banks in Europe, as analysts warn of a credit crunch similar to the one that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
At the same time, the Belgian and French governments were concerned that putting up more money for bank bailouts would threaten their credit rating and drive up interest rates on their bonds.
On Friday, Moody’s Investors Service placed Belgium’s Aa1 rating on review for a possible downgrade, due in part to the expected expense of guaranteeing that Dexia’s depositors will lose no money.
Belgian finance minister Didier Reynders said that the bailout would lift the country’s debt from around 97 percent of economic output to about 98 percent.
The French government, too, was under acute pressure to save Dexia as the bank is one of the country’s largest lenders to towns and cities.
France and Belgium already became part owners of the bank during a euro6.4 billion bailout in 2008.
Last week Dexia announced it was in negotiations with a group of international investors interested in buying its Luxembourg subsidiary.
At a news conference Monday, the bank’s management blamed the renewed problems on the risks that were piled up before they took over in 2008.
“We realized very quickly that we found ourselves in front of a very difficult mission,” said Chairman Jean-Luc Dehaene. Efforts to strip down Dexia’s balance sheet and shift funding from short-term to long-term were taken quickly, but management did not have enough time to get the lender back on track before it was slapped hard by the government debt crisis, Dehaene added.
The chairman insisted that Dexia faces a crisis of liquidity, not solvency _ meaning it is not bankrupt, but just doesn’t have the ready cash it needs in the short-term. That is why the bank managed to pass pan-European stress tests just this summer, Dehaene said.
Chief executive Pierre Mariani added that a threat to downgrade the bank’s credit worthiness by rating agency Moody’s last Monday, exacerbated by rumors during the week, “put some pressure on group funding.”
Dexia’s stock remained suspended Monday morning following steep losses early last week.
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Associated Press writer Don Melvin contributed to this story.
Delta Air Lines on Thursday confirmed its plan to buy 100 Boeing 737 jets as part of a fleet upgrade, with delivery set for 2013 to 2018.
The order announced Thursday is valued at $8.5 billion at list prices, although airlines commonly get discounts. The newer planes offer perks for travelers including a roomier cabin, less engine noise and more room in overhead bins. But they also have huge benefits for airlines because they are more efficient, require less maintenance and burn less fuel.
The 737-900 extended-range aircraft from Boeing Co. have a single aisle and up to 180 seats when set up with economy and first class. They have the range to fly on any of Delta’s current domestic routes. The 737-900 is the newest of Boeing’s popular 737 model.
Delta Air Lines Inc., which is based in Atlanta, said in January it was considering an order for as many as 200 jets _ possibly with options for 200 more _ to replace the aging fleet it uses for domestic flying. It said the timing of its delivery plan announced Thursday will allow it to keep its capital spending plan on target for this year. Keeping its costs under control is critical to its goal of reducing its debt over the next two years.
The new planes will replace Delta workhorses such as the DC-9-50s and Airbus A320s that it got when it bought Northwest Airlines in 2008, as well as Boeing 757-200s, which both airlines have operated paydayloans. The average age of Delta’s planes is 16 years. It has some Boeing planes that are less than two years old. But its DC-9s date back to the 1970s. They are the oldest commercial passenger planes flown today by a U.S. airline. Delta is the world’s second-largest airline, behind United Continental Holdings Inc. It has a total fleet of more than 700 planes.
Delta estimates that it will save between 15 and 20 percent in fuel and maintenance costs when it takes on the new planes. It is now more than halfway through a three-year, $2 billion plan to upgrade its fleet, facilities and technology.
The purchase is good news for Chicago-based Boeing, which lost its exclusive hold on American Airlines’ fleet last month. The airline, which is owned by AMR Corp., announced plans to split a massive order between Boeing and rival Airbus. It was the biggest plane order in history: 460 aircraft (260 planes from Airbus and 200 from Boeing) with options to buy 465 more.
In morning trading, Delta shares fell 39 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $6.86. Boeing shares shed 64 cents to $61.05.
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Samantha Bomkamp can be reached at http://twitter.com/SamWillTravel
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