QUOTE OF THE DAY
“People are feeling better, that’s a positive for the holiday season. This year I don’t see the same strong fiscal headwinds ahead of us to impede our momentum.”
Russell Price, Ameriprise Financial Inc. senior economist Article, 1D
Business Forecast Lunch set in Rogers
The 20th annual Business Forecast Lunch, where the economic outlook for Arkansas as well as the nation and world will be examined, is scheduled for Jan. 16 in Rogers.
The event will include Donnie Smith, the chief executive officer and president of Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc., as moderator.
It also will feature international forecaster Yi Wen, assistant vice president of St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank domestic forecaster Richard Yamarone, chief economist at Bloomberg Brief and state and local forecaster Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Coordinated by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at UA-Fayetteville, the event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center in Rogers.
Reservations can be made by contacting the Center for Business and Economic Research at (479) 575-4151, by email at cber@walton.uark.edu or online at the Business Forecast website at cber.uark.edu.
Barnes & Noble shares fall on SEC probe
Shares of Barnes & Noble fell Friday after the company said it was cooperating in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into its accounting.
The SEC told the bookseller Oct. 16 that it was investigating the company’s restatement of earnings announced in July as well as an employee allegation that it improperly allocated some information-technology expenses between its Nook and retail segments, according to a filing made after the market closed Thursday.
Barnes & Noble has been working on a turnaround in the face of tough competition and customers increasingly choosing digital books, music and video.
PNC settles bad loans with Freddie Mac
PNC Financial Services Group Inc., the second biggest U.S. regional bank, reached an $89 million settlement with Freddie Mac over mortgages sold to the government-backed firm in the years leading up to the credit crisis.
The sum, minus credits of $8 million, covers existing and future refunds tied to about 900,000 loans between 2000 and 2008, Pittsburgh-based PNC said Friday in a statement.
The deal also compensates for past and potential losses where mortgage insurance failed to cover the cost, PNC said.
The agreement helps Chief Executive Officer William S. Demchak bring PNC closer to settling its disputes with government-backed mortgage firms, which are pushing U.S. lenders for billions of dollars in refunds on faulty home loans.
PNC reached a tentative accord in October with Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, during the same span.
Both deals are covered by reserves, according to the bank.
Legal disputes tied to mortgages have cost the largest U.S. lenders more than $100 billion, and regional banks also have come under pressure from regulators and private investors for refunds.
In October, Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. agreed to a $65 million accord with Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., for loans made between 2000 and 2008. Wells Fargo & Co., the largest U.S. home lender, agreed to pay $869 million on loans sold before 2009.
WTO deal closer as subsidies put aside
BALI, Indonesia - A World Trade Organization deal moved closer to approval Friday after a row over food subsidies was set aside after hours of global negotiations that went late into the night.
Trade ministers had come to the four-day WTO meetings on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali with little hope that a slimmed-down agreement would be reached, with India refusing to budge on a provision that could endanger subsidies for grains under a policy to feed its poor.
But a draft proposal released late Friday to be decided on by the ministers put the subsidy issue on the back burner, allowing it to be taken up at a later point and opening room for consensus.
The proposal also would simplify customs procedures.
India Trade Minister Anand Sharma said he endorses the draft proposal.
“This is a decision which is historic, and it will resonate in all continents,” he said.
The deal could enhance global trade by $1 trillion and revive the WTO’s broader Doha Round of trade negotiations, sometimes known as the development round because of sweeping changes in regulations, taxes and subsidies that would benefit low-income countries.
- The Associated Press
J.C. Penney discloses financial inquiry
J.C. Penney Co. disclosed that the Securities and Exchange Commission asked for information about the retailer’s finances, including a stock sale in September that it is using to pay for an attempted turnaround.
A letter from the SEC on Oct. 7 requested “information regarding the company’s liquidity, cash position, and debt and equity financing, as well as the company’s underwritten public offering of common stock,” Plano, Texas-based J.C. Penney said Thursday in a quarterly filing.
The company said it is cooperating with the SEC and providing the requested material. On Sept. 26, J.C. Penney announced an offering to sell as much as $932 million of new shares amid a turnaround effort.
“Receiving a letter of inquiry from the SEC is a serious matter, but in my view, there’s no malfeasance on the part of J.C. Penney’s management,” said William Frohnhoefer, a New York-based analyst at BTIG LLC.
Kristin Hays, a spokesman for J.C. Penney, declined to comment.
- Bloomberg News
Business, Pages 26 on 12/07/2013