Wendy’s gave its new CEO a pay package worth $4.6 million for the last four months of 2011.
Emil Brolick was hired last September after Wendy’s split from fellow fast-food chain Arby’s. The 63-year-old Brolick has been on a mission to reinvent Wendy’s as a higher-end burger chain by improving ingredients and remodeling restaurants.
An Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing finds Brolick’s compensation included salary of $338,462, a bonus of $500,000, stock and option awards worth $3.2 million and an incentive-based bonus of $533,026.
Other compensation covered legal expenses related to the negotiation of his contract.
Wendy’s previous CEO, Roland Smith, received $16.5 million for the first part of 2011, including $11.3 million in severance pay.
The AP’s calculation includes salary, bonuses, perks and stock and option awards.
Asian stock markets fell Thursday after a weak Spanish bond auction inflamed concerns about the European debt crisis and hopes faded for more help for the U.S. economy from the Federal Reserve.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1 percent to 9,717.93, after hitting its lowest intraday point since March 8 at 9,692.70.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 1.5 percent to 20,489.01 and South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8 percent to 2,002.69. Falling commodity prices dragged Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 down 0.9 percent to 4,296.80.
The debt crisis in Europe flared anew Wednesday after a disappointing auction of government debt in Spain signaled investor confidence in the country’s finances is weakening. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 125 points, and the price of gold plunged to its lowest level since January.
That compounded worries that arose Tuesday, when minutes released from the March meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee gave no hint of a third round of bond purchases, dubbed quantitative easing III or QE3, to support the U.S. economy.
The Fed has already carried out two rounds of bond-buying, most recently in August 2010, to drive down long-term interest rates easy pay day loans. Low bond yields generally encourage investors to shift money to buying stocks.
Analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in an email that “markets remained under pressure with a further digestion of the Fed’s minutes which shows no hints for QE3.”
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 1 percent at 13,074.75. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index finished down 1 percent at 1,398.96. The Nasdaq composite index lost 1.5 percent to 3,068.09.
Benchmark oil for May delivery was up 48 cents to $101.95 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.54 to finish at $101.47 a barrel in New York on Wednesday. It had not closed below $102 per barrel since Feb. 15.
In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3152 from $1.3139 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar fell to 82.22 yen from 82.58 yen.
Stocks fell Thursday for the third day in a row after reminders that Europe has not solved its debt crisis and the U.S. economy is far from healed, despite progress on both fronts.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 58 points in early trading to 13,069. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell nine points to 1,397. The Nasdaq composite index fell 15 to 3,090.
The declines came despite incrementally good news about the U.S. economy. The government said that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits last week dropped by 5,000 to about 359,000, the lowest since April 2008
The government also said that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3 percent in the fourth quarter, which met analysts’ expectations and was the fastest pace since spring 2010.
But there was reason for concern, too: The government also said that many more people than it originally estimated filed unemployment claims in recent months. And economists believe the country’s growth has slowed to about 1.5 percent.
European markets fell across the board, despite a report from Germany that its unemployment rate fell slightly over the month. The benchmark stock index was down 1.9 percent in Germany and 1.3 percent apiece in France and Britain.
Though Greece is no longer on the brink of default, deep problems remain for the continent, where stronger countries are arguing that they shouldn’t have to bail out weaker ones paydayloan.
In Spain, workers took to the streets to protest government spending cuts, underscoring the difficulty that governments will have in reining in overblown spending.
The price of oil fell 65 cents per barrel in New York to $104.73. France’s prime minister said there’s a “good chance” the U.S. and Europe will release oil reserves, which could drive down prices by adding supply.
President Barack Obama was expected later Thursday to call on Congress to end tax breaks for oil companies. The price of oil has doubled since October, and the price of gasoline has risen about 20 percent this year.
Among the stocks making big moves:
_ Illumina, a diagnostics company, rose more than 4 percent to $52.06 after the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Group raised its offer for the company to $51 per share.
_ Best Buy fell more than 6 percent after announcing plans for big spending cuts, including closing 50 of its big-box stores.
_ JetBlue fell 8 percent, two days after passengers said a pilot came unhinged and forced a JetBlue flight to make an emergency landing on a flight from New York to Las Vegas.
The Obama administration on Saturday said it would again gauge interest from the oil and gas industry to explore federal waters off the Alaska coast, another bid to expand domestic energy production as gas prices soar and political pressure grows.
The Interior Department said it would again issue an official request for drilling interest in potential development leases in federal waters in Cook Inlet off the south-central coast of Alaska.
A federal lease sale for that area a year ago was canceled because of lack of interest. Cook Inlet, the channel that runs from the Anchorage area south to the Gulf of Alaska, is home to Alaska’s oldest producing oil and gas basin.
The Interior Department has estimated the area could contain more than 1 billion barrels of oil and 1.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that is undiscovered and potentially recoverable. It has said at least one company has expressed interest, but has not identified it.
There were 13 exploration wells drilled in the federal waters in the Cook Inlet area between 1978 and 1985, but there are no active exploration or development facilities in the federal area now, according to the department payday loan lenders.
The new request for interest is the first stage in a likely two-year process for selling the federal leases and comes as the Obama administration has been under pressure to find new domestic energy sources, an issue that has already had a big impact on the 2012 presidential campaign.
Republicans have repeatedly hammered President Barack Obama, a Democrat, over rising prices at the gas pump, which have jumped almost 30 cents in the past month, pushing the national average to $3.87 a gallon.
They have also criticized Obama for failing to approve the $7 billion Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline, which Republicans argue would create thousands of jobs and bolster the U.S. economic recovery.
Obama earlier this week pledged to speed up approval for the pipeline, though analysts have said it will not likely be completed until 2014 at the earliest.
EDM Inc. named Chris Kerckhoff its director of business development.
Kerckhoff has more than 30 years of experience in construction/business development. He formerly was a principal with CS Consulting, and he was co-founder and principal in business development with CB&E, where he spent more than 10 years helping to guide that start-up business.
He is a member of AGC St. Louis-Green Building Task Force and Safety and Health Committee, the U payday loans.S. Green Building Council and the Landmarks Association of St. Louis.
Kerckhoff has a bachelor’s degree in real estate and construction management from the University of Denver.
The number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes likely increased in February to the highest level in two years.
Economists forecast that sales increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.6 million last month, according to a FactSet survey. The National Association of Realtors will report on February re-sales at 10 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday.
Home sales have risen nearly 13 percent over the past six months. While they are still below the 6 million that economists equate with a healthy economy, the gains have coincided with other good news in the housing market that suggests slow and steady improvement.
Homebuilders have grown more confident in the past six months after seeing more people express interest in buying a home. In February, they requested the most permits to build homes since October 2008.
Mortgage rates are near record lows. And the supply of homes fell in January to its lowest level in seven years.
A lower supply helps push up prices, which lures more sellers onto the market and generally improves the quality of homes for sale. Rising prices also boost sales because buyers want to invest in homes that are appreciating in value.
For the past few years, the market has been saturated for years with foreclosures. That has put downward pressure on prices and driven away buyers.
A key reason for the brighter housing outlook is the job market has strengthened no faxing payday loans. From December through February, employers added an average of 245,000 jobs a month. The unemployment rate has fallen to 8.3 percent, the lowest in three years.
Still, economists caution that the damage from the housing bust is deep and the industry is years away from fully recovering.
Fewer first-time buyers, who are critical to a housing recovery, are in the market for a home. They made up roughly one-third of sales last year. In healthy markets, the percentage is at least 40 percent.
Many can’t qualify for loans or meet higher down-payment requirements. Even those with excellent credit and stable jobs are holding off because they fear that home prices will keep falling.
Sales are measured when buyers close on homes. Some deals have been scuttled before the closing after banks declined mortgage applications, home inspectors found problems, appraisals showed a home was worth less than the bid, or a buyer lost a job.
The high rate of foreclosures has made resold homes cheaper than new ones. The median price of a new home is roughly 30 percent above the price of one that’s been occupied before _ twice the normal markup. Investors are taking advantage of the discounts.
With just five days to go for nations to put forward nominees to lead the World Bank, there are few signs the United States has finalized its choice to lead the global development lender.
The United States has held the presidency of the Bank since its founding after World War Two, while a European has always led its sister institution - the International Monetary Fund.
But Washington has yet to publicly identify a candidate and some observers think the delay could signal that the White House is having a hard time convincing possible candidates to take the job. The White House and Treasury Department have declined to comment.
Sources with knowledge of the administration’s thinking say the hope was to convince a woman to enter the race to replace Robert Zoellick, who has said he will step down when his term expires at the end of June.
Naming a woman could go some way to address calls from emerging-market nations for a change in the status quo. A woman has never led the bank.
Two sources said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was a leading contender. However, it is not clear she wants the job. Rice’s name often surfaces as a possible candidate to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.
When asked last week how she would help South Sudan if she was president of the World Bank, Rice replied: “Ridiculously hypothetical.”
Senator John Kerry and PepsiCo’s Indian-born CEO Indra Nooyi had also made an Obama administration short list, according to a source, although Kerry has publicly ruled out the job and another source said Nooyi was no longer in contention.
Another short-list member, Lawrence Summers, a former adviser to President Barack Obama and a one-time Treasury secretary, has declined to comment. He told Reuters he would leave the selection process to the officials in charge of it.
LEAVING THE DOOR OPEN
The delay in identifying a U.S. nominee could leave the door open to a dark-horse candidate from the United States. It has also given other nations time to consider their own nominees.
“It wouldn’t be the first time in history that the White House had to scramble a bit,” said Whitney Debevoise, a former director to the World Bank board.
“I think they have lost the opportunity to put a name out there early and make it uncontested,” he added. “Usually … if the U.S. puts a name out there, then nobody else wants to put their name up because they know they don’t have a chance.”
Emerging and developing countries have been pushing to have more say at both the World Bank and IMF, and have said the decision on Zoellick’s successor should be merit-based.
Developing and emerging market economies are currently in consultations on putting forward names of non-U.S. candidates. The dilemma for developing regions, however, is finding candidates willing to come forward in a race in which the outcome is felt to be pre-ordained.
Indeed, the two most talked about names among developing countries are former World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, now Nigeria’s finance minister, and Trevor Manuel, the South African national planning minister pay day loans. Former Indonesian finance minister and current World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and Mexico’s central bank governor Agustin Carstens have ruled themselves out.
World Bank board sources said there were also talks under way about possibly appointing a candidate from a developing or emerging economy to head the Bank’s private-sector lender, the International Finance Corp. IFC CEOs have mainly been European.
The World Bank’s 24-member board, which represents all of the institution’s 187 member countries, has set a deadline for Friday for nominations to lead the Bank, and has said it would decide on the next president within a month.
ONE MAN RACE
U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, is the only formal candidate to have emerged so far. He has been formally nominated by Bhutan and a cluster of developing countries including East Timor, Jordan, Kenya, Namibia and Malaysia.
“Jeffrey Sachs is a good economist and a very good candidate, but we expect to see the rest of the names and what follows in the process,” Mexican Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade said on Sunday.
Last week, 27 lawmakers wrote to President Barack Obama to “strongly” encourage him to nominate Sachs. Sachs, whose self-proclaimed candidacy aims to challenge what he sees as a history of political appointments by the White House, acknowledges he lacks the Obama administration’s support.
“They’re not talking to me,” he told Reuters.
With his early nomination, Sachs has had a head start in lobbying for support among developing countries where he has a proven track record on issues such as education, health, climate change and fighting poverty.
“I have spoken with at least a couple of dozen leaders around the world in the last week and believe I have strong worldwide support in every region of the developing countries, and a lot of support in Europe as well,” Sachs said.
“For the European countries, they are not surprisingly saying that they are overwhelmingly likely to defer to the U.S. nominee and that they are waiting for that,” he added.
Sachs said while the United States was still likely to determine who gets the job, a desire among developing countries to end tradition suggested that was not a sure bet.
“I don’t think it is automatic because of feelings that this is an important institution and an important moment, and I don’t think the U.S. has simply the green light to choose anybody.”
Officials argued that it is important for the United States to retain the presidency of the bank, otherwise political support and funding for the institution could erode, given that Congress is focused on budget cutting.
The United States is the World Bank’s largest donor.
(This version of the story has been corrected to fix the date in the dateline)
Plastics manufacturer Spartech Corp. reported a $2.3 million loss in the first fiscal quarter, driven by increased freight costs, corporate expenses and spending on repairs and maintenance.
Clayton-based Spartech lost $2.3 million, or 7 cents a share, in the quarter ended Feb. 4, compared to a profit of $1.0 million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier.
The company’s business units include custom sheet and rollstock, packaging technologies and color and specialty compounds.
Net sales increased 20 percent to $281.8 million in the first quarter, driven by sales in the automotive sector, construction, and food packaging.
Spartech executives plan to hold an investors’ conference call Thursday at 10 a.m. to discuss the quarterly results.
A U.K. house-price index rose to a 19-month high in February as first-time buyers moved to beat the expiration of a property-tax exemption, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
The gauge based on a survey by London-based RICS increased 3 points from the previous month to minus 13, the strongest reading since July 2010, it said in a statement today. Still, with the measure below zero, that indicates more surveyors saw price declines than gains last month.
The figures partly reflect Britons looking to take advantage of a two-year stamp-duty exemption for first-time buyers purchasing a home for less than 250,000 pounds ($390,800) before it ends on March 24. While such
The Swiss central bank spent 17.8 billion francs ($19.5 billion) in 2011 to stem what it called the currency
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