Simmons to report its earnings today
Simmons First National Corp. will release its third-quarter earnings today and conduct a conference call beginning at 3 p.m.
Those interested in accessing the call, in which company executives will address the quarterly financial results, can dial (866) 298-7926 and ask for the Simmons First National call. The conference identification number is 17056028.
Pine Bluff-based Simmons has $4.8 billion in assets and operates banks in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri.
-- David Smith
Deltic 3rd-quarter earnings inch to $6M
El Dorado-based Deltic Timber Corp. on Wednesday reported a third-quarter net income of $6 million, or 47 cents a share, up from $5.9 million reported in the same quarter a year ago.
Ray Dillon, Deltic's president and CEO, said in a statement released after the market closed that pine sawtimber stumpage prices are higher compared to 2013 and the company was able to sell "some non-strategically located timberland."
The company reported net sales of $58.3 million for the quarter ending Sept. 30, compared to $56.5 million for the same quarter in 2013. It said its woodlands segment generated $9.5 million in sales in the quarter, up from $8.4 million last year, while its manufacturing segment generated $49.4 million in sales, up from $48.8 million a year ago, and the real estate segment $3.2 million, compared to $2.8 million a year ago.
Shares of Deltic stock fell 46 cents Wednesday to close at $66.75.
Deltic will hold a conference call at 10 a.m. today to discuss the quarter's results. Those interested in listening can call (866) 515-2908 and use the pass code 44860375. The call also can be accessed online at deltic.com.
-- Glen Chase
Picasolar lands $800,000 federal grant
Picasolar Inc., a Fayetteville-based technology startup company, has received an $800,000 award from the Department of Energy to further develop its process to make solar cells more efficient.
The award is part of the $14 million SunShot incubator program awarded to 20 small businesses to develop solar technologies and services. It's part of a larger $53 million allocated by the Department of Energy to further innovation and drive down the costs of solar power.
"The goal of the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative is to get solar energy to 6 cents per kilowatt hour by 2020 and in doing so making solar one of the most cost-effective forms of electricity generation on the planet," Douglas Hutchings, CEO of Picasolar, said in a release Wednesday.
"It is exciting to think that a technology invented in Fayetteville by [University of Arkansas] graduates can play a big role in this process."
Picasolar, and its sister company Silicon Solar Solutions, developed a hydrogen selective emitter that improves the top layer of a solar cell, making it up to 15 percent more efficient as well as more affordable, lowering manufacturing costs by reducing the need for silver. They are clients of the Genesis Technology Incubator at the University of Arkansas Technology Park, where they have office and laboratory space.
The emitter was invented by Seth Shumate, the company's chief technology officer and a doctoral candidate at the UA. Hutchings is also a UA graduate.
-- John Magsam
EPA: Mini Coopers overstate mileage
DETROIT -- The U.S. government has told BMW to reduce the gas mileage estimates on window stickers of four Mini Cooper models.
Testing by the Environmental Protection Agency lab in Ann Arbor, Mich., discovered the overstated mileage.
The vehicles affected are the 2014 Mini Cooper three-door and Mini Cooper three-door S models with manual and automatic transmissions. BMW must cut the highway mileage by one-to-four miles per gallon depending on the model. Estimates for city driving and combined city and highway fuel economy also must be reduced.
The EPA said it audited the Mini gas mileage and came up with lower values than BMW, which makes the cars. It's the fourth time in the past two years that the EPA has found discrepancies in the gas mileage estimates provided by an automaker.
-- The Associated Press
Low oil prices seen as boon for plastics
Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker by sales, said this year's plunging oil prices will stimulate national economies and help rather than hurt its plastics business next year.
Lower oil prices should help increase gross domestic product in the U.S., the U.K, Japan and China, Howard Ungerleider, chief financial officer of Midland, Michigan-based Dow, said on a conference call with analysts Wednesday. The positive effect will become more visible through 2015, he said.
"Low oil price means more demand in the GDP," Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris said on the call.
Brent crude, the benchmark for global oil trading, has plunged more than 20 percent from its June high to about $86 a barrel, meeting a common definition of a bear market. Oil prices should rebound to more than $100 a barrel next year as economies strengthen, Liveris said.
While lower oil prices probably are an indication of weak economic growth, Liveris' bullish comments on the decline and Dow's third-quarter results are "calming" for investors, said John Roberts, a New York-based analyst at UBS Securities LLC.
-- Bloomberg News
Cheap truffles buoy suffering Italians
Even in the midst of the longest economic slump since World War II, Italian gourmands have something to celebrate: truffles, plenty of them.
Prices for the country's white truffles, a delicacy from New York to Moscow, have dropped about 37 percent this year as unseasonably heavy rains during the summer spawned a record number of the fungi. They cost about $280 per 3.5 ounces, compared with $443 last year and $633 in 2012, according to data from the National Centre for the Study of Truffles.
"We've had a good harvest this year due to a rainy summer," said Giovanni Monchiero, who's been a truffle hunter for 45 years and runs a school to help dogs sniff out the coveted fungi in Italy's northwestern town of Roddi.
Celebrated by Cicero and Plutarch, truffles are a seasonal delicacy, typically available from October to December. Production of white truffles this year was about 30 percent higher than the same period in 2013, according to the Centre.
Truffle aficionados use dogs to search for the tubers, which grow on the roots of trees including oak and beech. White truffles are generally grated over dishes raw, unlike the cheaper black variety, which is usually cooked.
-- Bloomberg News
China's pullback saps Netjets' growth
NetJets Inc., the aviation unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., will need about five years to make self-sustaining the chartered jet business it began last month in China, as government officials shun private jets.
The Chinese Communist Party's austerity measures are dragging on growth for private aviation, which also faces an economic slowdown and a lack of general aviation airports, said Robert Molsbergen, president of NetJets' executive jet management unit.
"Typically a lot of the flying in China was done by Chinese officials and that basically is almost all gone," Molsbergen said in an interview at the National Business Aviation Association conference in Orlando, Fla.
The government's decision to pull back on infrastructure spending and scrutinize expenses shows how policy shifts in China can affect the business climate. The economy is forecast to grow 7.3 percent this year and 7 percent next year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with 14.2 percent in 2007.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China last month authorized NetJets, based in Columbus, Ohio, to offer private aircraft services. The operation, which has two aircraft, is the first foreign-owned chartered jet company in China and has about 20 local competitors, Molsbergen said. It will take a few years to break even in China, he said.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 10/23/2014