LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You can get the same yield today on 680,000 acres of cotton as you could from 2.5 million acres in the 1940s.”
Scott Stiles,
extension economist for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Article, 1D
MasterCard, Visa warn about breach
NEW YORK - MasterCard and Visa said Friday that they had notified issuers of its credit cards of a potential breach of the security of customer accounts. Visa blamed a third company for the error.
Trading of the stock of Global Payments Inc., which processes credit-card transactions, was halted after published reports said it was responsible. The stock fell 9 percent for the day before trading was stopped.
Global Payments did not respond to requests for comment, and Visa would not name the company it believed was to blame. Neither Visa nor MasterCard would say how many customers were affected.
Credit-card companies generally protect customers against fraudulent transactions, and Visa said specifically Friday that its U.S. customers were not at risk. Both Visa and MasterCard said their own systems had not been compromised.
Last June, hackers stole information for 360,000 creditcard accounts at Citigroup. In the past year, there have been high-profile data attacks against the International Monetary Fund, National Public Radio, Google and Sony’s PlayStation Network.
AERT posted $8 million loss last year
Springdale-based Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies lost $8 million in 2011, according to the company’s annual report filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company lost $5.9 million in 2010.
AERT has plants in Springdale and Lowell, and manufactures building material from recycled plastic and waste wood fiber. AERT also has a plastics recycling plant outside Watts, Okla., south of Siloam Springs.
The company will hold an earnings call at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
AERT pointed to lower sales of its ChoiceDek brand carried by Lowe’s as one reason net sales were down 15 percent from the previous year. Net sales dropped from $69.8 million in 2010 to $59.3 million last year.
Part of the ChoiceDek loss was offset by a 3.9 percent sales increase in MoistureShield products.
AERT shares closed at 7.2 cents in over-the-counter trading Friday, down 0.29 cents, or 3.87 percent. Shares have traded between 16 cents and 25 cents during the past year.
Texas gains 7 in weekly count of rigs
HOUSTON - The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. was up by 11 this week to 1,979.
The Houston-based oil field services company Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday that 1,318 rigs were exploring for oil and 658 for natural gas. Three were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago this week Baker Hughes reported 1,776 active rigs.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Texas gained seven. Alaska, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania each picked up two. Oklahoma was up by one.
Louisiana lost three, and Wyoming was down by two.
Arkansas and Colorado fell by one.
California, New Mexico and West Virginia were unchanged.
The rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed out at 488 in 1999.
Ford CEO made $29.5 million in 2011
DEARBORN, Mich. - Alan Mulally’s compensation for 2011 was worth $29.5 million, the most in his six years as chief executive of the Ford Motor Co., the automaker disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday.
Mulally’s earnings included $2 million in salary, $5.5 million in bonuses, and stock and option awards valued at about $21.4 million. The total value of his compensation rose 11 percent last year, when Ford earned $20.2 billion in net income.
“We had a very good year last year,” said Jay Cooney, a Ford spokesman. “The compensation committee felt that our exceptional performance in 2011 merited these compensation awards.”
Ford’s executive chairman, William Clay Ford Jr., received compensation worth $14.5 million in 2011, 45 percent less than the previous year. He earned a $2 million salary, down from $4.8 million, and fewer stock and option awards.
All of Ford’s top executives got smaller bonuses than in 2010 because even though profits increased significantly, the company fell short of some targets for the year, including those measuring vehicle quality and market share.
Turkey to cut Iran oil imports 20%
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey announced Friday that it was reducing oil imports from Iran by 20 percent, apparently bowing to pressure from the United States, which is leading an international effort to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
The U.S. has threatened economic sanctions on countries that do not curtail purchases of petroleum from Iran, and its ambassador to Turkey this week urged the government there to comply.
On Friday, Turkey’s oil refiner Tupras confirmed that its purchases from Iran were being reduced by a fifth.
The announcement appears to be a shift for Turkey, which has so far said it is only bound to enforce United Nations sanctions, not those of the U.S. or European Union.
Turkey imports about 30 percent of its oil from Iran. To make up for the reduction in those imports, it will purchase crude from Libya and make spot purchases or sign longterm contracts with Saudi Arabia, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said.
OPEC’s March output most since ’08
Oil output in March by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries rose to the highest level in more than three years, led by a Libyan production gain, a Bloomberg News survey showed.
Production increased 110,000 barrels, or 0.4 percent, to an average 31.22 million barrels a day in March from a revised 31.11 million in February, according to the survey of oil companies, producers and analysts. A barrel is 42 gallons.
Output increased to the highest level since October 2008. The February total was revised 55,000 barrels a day higher. Iranian production fell to the lowest level in almost 10 years.
OPEC decided at a Dec. 14 meeting in Vienna to increase its production ceiling to 30 million barrels a day, the first change in three years. The new target is for all members, including Iraq, which had previously been exempt from monthly goals. OPEC will review quotas at its next meeting, scheduled for June 14.
Business, Pages 29 on 03/31/2012