QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s a bit painful for investors to see the equities markets drop as they have, but this is healthy for this market.” Chris Gaffney, EverBank senior market strategist Article, 1D
Knight, LaBelle to sing in Wal-Mart event
Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle will be the guest stars at a Wal-Mart-sponsored event in Rogers that will get airtime during the 45th annual NAACP Image Awards live in Pasadena, Calif., Feb. 22. The awards and local activities are part of celebrations for Black History Month.
Up to 1,300 people are expected to attend the award ceremony’s viewing event, on which Wal-Mart has bought two 30-second commercials. The spots will feature live interviews and footage from the blue-carpet affair at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center. Royal blue is Wal-Mart’s signature color.
Sharonda Britton - director of marketing, multicultural, African American and Asian at Wal-Mart - said Knight and LaBelle were asked to take part in the local festivities, with officials not expecting a “yes” from both rhythm and blues divas.
“They’re extremely excited about coming to Bentonville, and they asked what else can they do to continue building on their relationship with Wal-Mart this year,” Britton said.
The NAACP awards were once aired on NBC but are now being shown on TV One, a cable network serving 57 million households with real life and entertainment programming.
Yellen sworn in as new Fed chairman
Janet Yellen was sworn in Monday as the chairman of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors in Washington, while her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, joined the Brookings Institution as a distinguished fellow in residence.
The announcements completed a leadership transition, with Yellen becoming top policymaker as the Fed tries to wean financial markets off a bond purchase program that has pushed up central bank assets to $4.1 trillion. She is scheduled next week to report on monetary policy in semiannual testimony before the House and Senate.
Yellen’s oath of office was administered in the Fed’s board room by Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo, the central bank said in a statement. Her term will last through Feb. 3, 2018. She didn’t make a public statement at the ceremony.
Yellen will testify before the House Financial Services Committee next Tuesday, and before the Senate Banking Committee on Feb. 13.
Bernanke, whose term at the Fed expired Friday, will be a distinguished fellow in residence at Brookings, the organization said in a statement. His former Fed colleague Don Kohn, who was vice chairman of the central bank under Bernanke, is a senior fellow at Brookings, as is former Fed Vice Chairman Alice Rivlin.
Shell accused of conspiracy in Argentina
Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Argentine unit was accused of conspiring against the country’s interests by Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich after the oil producer increased fuel prices after a devaluation of the peso.
Shell raised prices an average of 12 percent at its service stations, which represent 18 percent of the Argentine market, the company said in a statement published Monday by Argentine newspapers. The company’s previous price increase of 6.8 percent was Jan. 2, before Argentina moved to weaken the peso 15 percent from Jan. 22 to Jan. 23, the largest drop since 2002.
The sudden fall in the peso, which is the worst performing currency in the world after tumbling 19 percent this year, prompted Shell to increase prices again, the company said in the statement. The increase was the first by a fuel distributor in the Buenos Aires area since the devaluation and occurred 10 days after the government said Shell Argentina’s Chief Executive Officer Juan Jose Aranguren attempted to interfere in the currency exchange market by buying dollars at a higher rate than the market was selling.
“Shell’s attitude and the one from its highest executive is conspiratorial and against the interests of the country,” Capitanich told reporters Monday morning in Buenos Aires.
“The only explanation for this behavior is greediness.”
Reginaldo Thomson, a spokesman for Shell’s Argentine unit in Buenos Aires, didn’t reply to telephone calls and emails seeking comment.
- Bloomberg News
Walgreen sues over mobile refill apps
Walgreen Co., armed with a new patent, sued Rite Aid Corp., CVS Caremark Corp. and Shopko Stores Inc., claiming they’re misappropriating its technology for refilling prescriptions with mobile-phone scanners.
Walgreen, the largest U.S. drugstore chain, with $72 billion in sales last fiscal year, was awarded a patent last month for a system to “express refill” prescriptions and is entitled to exclusive use of the invention, the Deerfield, Ill.-based company said in complaints filed Friday in federal court in Wilmington, Del.
Walgreen said it “owns, offers and operates” mobile applications that run on iPhones, Android-equipped phones and BlackBerrys. Rite Aid, CVS and Shopko are using the methods without a license, according to Walgreen’s filing, which seeks unspecified damages and orders to stop the infringement.
Carolyn Castel, a spokesman for Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS; Susan Henderson of Camp Hill, Pa.-based Rite Aid; and Tara Powers of Lambert, Edwards & Associates, a spokesman for Green Bay, Wisc.-based Shopko, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuits.
- Bloomberg News
EU survey: 99% view Greece as corrupt
Ninety-nine percent of Greeks say corruption is widespread in their country, the highest percentage in the European Union, according to a European Commission report released Monday.
Sixty-six percent of Greeks surveyed said corruption could be a problem for companies doing business in the country, compared with a 43 percent European average, while 15 percent said they’d been asked to pay a bribe to a state employee “at least once.”
Greece ranked last in the Transparency International corruption perception index for European Union countries in 2013, and the country’s 99 percent figure in Monday’s survey compares with a 76 percent European Union average.
Public procurement remains a risk area, the Commission said in its report. “Increasing supervision of party funding and declarations of interests by politicians, and revisiting the issue of immunity, would contribute to a better situation in Greece,” the report said.
The survey was conducted between February and March 2013. No sample size or margin of error was given.
- Bloomberg News
Business, Pages 24 on 02/04/2014