Business news in brief

Global OK'd for oil by rail; Tesoro waits

Just as Global Partners LP gained approval to unload more oil from rail cars at a marine terminal in Oregon, Tesoro Corp. learned its plans for a similar project in neighboring Washington will have to wait.

The projects are among several oil-by-rail proposals facing opposition after recent derailments added to questions about the safety of carrying crude by train. Terminals are being developed across the western U.S. as refiners, lacking pipeline access, turn to rail to move crude from shale formations.

"California has arguably the highest crude prices in North America, and there are all these barrels in the middle of North America yearning to be free to go to the coast," said David Hackett, president of energy consulting company Stillwater Associates. "How will crude costs come down without those rail projects?"

Global Partners received an air permit Tuesday from Oregon regulators allowing it to take 120,000 barrels of oil a day off trains at a terminal on the coast. From there it will go to refineries via the Columbia River. In Washington, a state energy-siting council extended its deadline to March to consider a 360,000-barrel-a-day terminal proposed by Tesoro Corp. and Savage Cos.

A decision on Tesoro's project probably won't meet the March deadline, Andrew Hayes, a member of the Washington siting council, said Tuesday during a meeting of the panel in Olympia, the capital. He cited the complexity of the plan.

Tesoro and Global Partners are setting up rail operations as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling unleash a flood of oil from shale formations across the U.S. that the West has little pipeline access to.

-- Bloomberg News

Web-bruised, Staples to shut 140 stores

Staples Inc. will shut about 140 locations this year as part of a store-closing plan announced earlier, as the world's largest office-supply chain responds to online competition.

Staples shut 80 outlets in North America in the fiscal second quarter. Net income in the three months ending Aug. 2 dropped 20 percent to $82 million, or 13 cents a share, as $101 million was spent on closing locations, the Framingham, Mass.-based company said in a statement Wednesday.

Expansion by Web-based rivals such as Amazon.com Inc. has spurred reorganizations across the retail industry, including the merger of stationery suppliers Office Depot Inc. and OfficeMax Inc. Staples outlined plans in March to shut as many as 225 North American stores through next year, amounting to 12 percent of its outlets in the region, and to reduce costs by as much as $500 million.

"We have more work to do to stabilize our retail business, and we're taking action to improve customer traffic, reduce expenses and close underperforming stores," Chief Executive Officer Ron Sargent said in the statement.

Staples declined 1.9 percent to $11.40 at 11:37 a.m. in New York.

-- Bloomberg News

Macy's to pay up over shopper profiling

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Macy's has agreed to pay $650,000 to settle allegations of racial profiling at its flagship store in Manhattan's Herald Square.

Under the agreement signed Tuesday with New York's attorney general, the retailer will adopt new policies on police access to its security-camera monitors and against profiling, further train employees, investigate customer complaints, keep better records of detentions and report for three years on its compliance.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the settlement should help ensure that customers are treated equally regardless of race or ethnicity at the retail giant's 42 department stores statewide.

"It is absolutely unacceptable -- and it's illegal -- for anyone in New York to be treated like a criminal simply because of the color of their skin," Schneiderman said.

The attorney general's Civil Rights Bureau said it opened an investigation into Macy's in February 2013 when it received several complaints from minority-group customers. Since then, the office recorded complaints from 18 black, Hispanic and other ethnic-minority customers who claimed they'd been apprehended and detained at Macy's stores between 2007 and 2013 despite not having stolen or attempted to steal any merchandise.

The Civil Rights Bureau reached a similar agreement with the retailer Barneys earlier this month.

-- The Associated Press

Heineken sales, profit dip in first half

AMSTERDAM -- Heineken NV, the Amsterdam-based brewer, has reported first-half earnings that show a small drop in both revenue and profit -- but says its underlying performance was good.

Net profit was $840 million, from $849 million in the same period a year ago. Sales were down 1.4 percent to $13.5 billion, which Heineken, the largest brewer by sales within Europe, said was partly because of the strong euro. Stripping out currency and acquisition effects, Heineken said beer prices were up 1.5 percent and volumes increased 3.9 percent.

Chief Executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said Wednesday that the company's operations grew on a like-for-like basis in almost all regions in the first half, but warned that growth in underlying profit and revenue would "moderate" in the second half.

-- The Associated Press

Argentina seeks to skirt U.S. on default

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentina's government is proposing to change the way it pays holders of the country's debt, shifting it out of the U.S. financial and legal systems as a way to end the default triggered by a legal battle with U.S. investors.

President Cristina Fernandez said late Tuesday she will send a bill to Congress that would allow the South American country to pay creditors in Argentina through a local bank, removing the Bank of New York as its trustee.

The proposal is intended as a way around a U.S. court order that blocked Argentina from making $539 million in interest payments on July 30, triggering the country's second default in 13 years. It would apply to bondholders who accepted lower-value bonds after the country's 2001 default, and could further complicate the battle with holdout creditors.

Congress is expected to pass the bill, since the holdout creditors are reviled in Argentina as "vultures" who have sought to undermine the country's sovereignty by battling in the U.S. courts for full payment on the previously defaulted bonds.

-- The Associated Press

Business on 08/21/2014

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