QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The overall trend here is positive and consistent with a gradually improving job market.We have stemmed the bleeding in layoffs, what remains is to add jobs.” Gennadiy Goldberg, TD Securities USA LLC U.S. strategist Article, 1DStudent business teams compete in LR
Twelve of the state’s top undergraduate business teams will compete in the semifinal round of the Donald W.
Reynolds Governor’s Cup Collegiate Business Plan Competition later this month.
Cash prizes totaling $144,000 will be awarded to winning teams at an April 9 luncheon at the Statehouse Convention Center. This is the 14th year for the competition.
Teams from seven of Arkansas’ colleges and universities will compete in four categories.
Harding University and John Brown University will each bring three undergraduate teams, the University of Arkansas and Ouachita Baptist University will bring two, and Arkansas State University and Arkansas Baptist College each will have one team competing. The semifinalists will make presentations March 18 at the Embassy Suites in Little Rock.
On March 19, six undergraduate teams and the already selected six graduate finalists will compete for first, second and third place. Of the six graduate finalists, four teams are from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, with a single team each from Arkansas State University and Hendrix College.
The event is managed by the Arkansas Economic Acceleration Foundation, an affiliate of the privately held Arkansas Capital Corporation Group, which is made up of for-profit and nonprofit corporations dedicated to improving the lives of Arkansas residents.
Costco profit trails analysts’ estimates
Costco Wholesale Corp., the largest U.S. warehouse club chain, posted fiscal second-quarter profit that trailed analysts’ estimates as discounts meant to attract Christmas shoppers cut into sales.
Net income in the quarter ended Feb. 16 fell 15 percent to $463 million, or $1.05 a share, from $547 million, or $1.24, a year earlier, the Issaquah, Wash.-based company said Thursday. Analysts projected profit of $1.17, the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Sales and gross margins were weaker in some nonfood categories, especially during the four-week Christmas shopping season, Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said in the statement.
Costco has worked to lower its already-discounted prices in the past year to attract more shoppers to its annual memberships. Second-quarter sales at stores open more than a year increased 5 percent, excluding changes in gasoline prices and foreign-currency exchange rates.
Revenue by similar measures fell 0.4 percent at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in the U.S. and dropped 2.5 percent at Target Corp. in their most recent quarters. Costco’s total second-quarter sales rose about 5.8 percent to $26.3 billion. Costco shares fell $3.21, or 2.8 percent, to close Thursday at $113.26.
Municipal-bond market shrinks in U.S.
The U.S. municipal-bond market shrank by $14.5 billion last quarter as state and local governments pared sales of debt to finance public projects, according to the Federal Reserve.
The amount of municipal debt dropped to $3.67 trillion at year-end from about $3.69 trillion at the end of September, according to quarterly data released Thursday by the Fed. During 2013, obligations declined by $43.2 billion.
The municipal-bond market has contracted since 2010, as government agencies are hesitant to borrow after the 18-month recession that ended in 2009.
The reduction in bond sales has helped to prop up prices in the tax-exempt market, easing losses last year that were driven by speculation that interest rates will rise as the economy recovers. Bond prices move in the opposite direction of interest rates.
Municipal bonds returned 3.6 percent during the first two months of this year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch data, rebounding from a 2.9 percent loss in 2013.
- Bloomberg News
Bitcoin creator said to live in California
The creator of the digital currency bitcoin is a 64-year old man living in the Los Angeles area, according to a Newsweek magazine report.
The magazine published the results of an investigation concluding that Dorian Nakamoto, a former defense industry and government employee, is the mysterious computer coding and cryptography expert who wrote the seminal paper on bitcoin in 2009 and created the software that serves as the backbone of the currency’s system.
The initial bitcoin paper carried the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. Since the author otherwise chose to remain private and anonymous, it had been widely assumed the name was a pseudonym. The Nakamoto living in Temple City, Calif., used to be named Satoshi, Newsweek said.
Gavin Andresen, the chief scientist of the Bitcoin Foundation who had been one of the few people to communicate with Satoshi Nakamoto, didn’t immediately indicate whether he could identify Dorian Nakamoto as bitcoin’s creator. Andresen said in a message on Twitter that he regrets talking to the magazine about Nakamoto.
- Bloomberg News
European bank keeps interest steady
FRANKFURT, Germany - The European Central Bank kept its key interest rate on hold Thursday and raised its economic growth forecasts as it acknowledged that the recovery is strengthening in the 18 countries that use the euro.
The euro jumped as markets took the bank’s inaction and the comments from its president, Mario Draghi, as a sign that the top monetary authority for the eurozone might not take further steps to stimulate the economy.
“Amid a gradually firming recovery, the ECB sees no need to act,” analyst Christian Schulz at Berenberg Bank in London wrote in a research note. “Draghi also gave no indication today that the ECB may ease policy again in the foreseeable future.”
After the decision to keep the key rate at a record low of 0.25 percent, Draghi said the bank had raised its projection for economic growth to 1.2 percent this year, up slightly from the 1.1 percent estimate made in December.
Business, Pages 28 on 03/07/2014