Home Depot shares falter early, rebound
NEW YORK -- Shares of Home Depot were under pressure early Wednesday as the home improvement retailer contends with the fallout of a data breach at its more than 2,000 U.S. and Canadian stores.
The company's stock shed as much as 34 cents in morning trading before recovering to close up 32 cents at $89.25.
Attorneys general for Connecticut, California and Illinois are leading a multistate investigation into the Home Depot data breach. Jaclyn Falkowski, spokesman for the Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, said Wednesday that initial contact has been made with Home Depot, but declined to comment further.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey sent a letter Tuesday to the Federal Trade Commission requesting that they investigate the data loss. The senators said they're concerned that Home Depot had inadequate procedures in place to detect and stop the theft of customer data.
Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Markey, D-Mass., introduced the Personal Data Protection and Breach Accountability Act in February after Target Corp. and others disclosed data breaches.
Home Depot said Wednesday that it will continue to cooperate with lawmakers and others.
Home Depot acknowledged Monday that its payment systems were hacked in a breach that could affect millions of customers that used credit and debit cards at its stores.
-- The Associated Press
Gulfstream to add paint hub in Georgia
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Gulfstream Aerospace plans to build a $33 million paint facility near the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport in an expansion that's expected to add at least 100 jobs.
The company announced the plan Tuesday.
The Savannah Morning News reported that the facility will be near the company's more than 680,000-square-foot maintenance building, considered the largest business aviation maintenance facility in the world.
Company officials say the new facility will be one of the most advanced high-tech paint hangars ever built.
Jay Neely, Gulfstream vice president for law and public affairs, said the paint center is expected to be completed next summer.
Neely said that Savannah-based Gulfstream now employs more than 10,000 people in Georgia.
-- The Associated Press
Deal seen lucrative for Minecraft maker
Microsoft Corp.'s potential acquisition of Mojang AB, the Swedish developer behind the Minecraft online game, could make the game's 35-year-old creator Markus Persson a billionaire.
Persson controls 71 percent of the business through holding company Notch Enterprises AB, according to its 2013 annual report. Notch Enterprises owns all of Notch Development AB, which owns Mojang and the licensing rights for Minecraft. Including dividends he's received since 2011, Persson would have a $1.5 billion fortune if the deal goes through, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Persson didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on his net worth.
-- Bloomberg News
Bookseller reads sales data, adds toys
Barnes & Noble Inc., suffering from years of sluggish book sales, is increasingly taking on a new role: toy store.
The retailer's toy sales rose almost 20 percent last quarter from a year earlier, executives said Tuesday during a conference call. After promoting the chain as a place for games, dolls and Legos, the company sees the products helping draw customers into its more than 650 locations.
In pushing deeper into toys, Barnes & Noble is capitalizing on a decline in companies dedicated to the market. Toys R Us Inc. and other chains have scaled back their locations, while KB Toys -- once the largest mall-based toy retailer -- closed its doors entirely. Barnes & Noble also aims to sell books to toy shoppers once they get in the door, cultivating a new generation of readers.
"People now understand after the last two holidays that we're in that business, and we're in it in a big way," Mitchell Klipper, head of the New York-based company's retail group, said in a phone interview. "And we have stuff you can't find in other retailers."
The push is part of an expansion of nonbook merchandise by Chief Executive Officer Michael Huseby, who is looking to squeeze more revenue from gifts and cafe purchases. Sales in that category made up 23 percent of the revenue for the retail division in fiscal 2013, up from 21 percent the previous year.
Barnes & Nobel shares fell 53 cents to close Wednesday at $23.56.
-- Bloomberg News
OPEC pares oil-demand outlook for '15
OPEC on Wednesday reduced forecasts for the amount of crude it will need to supply by the most in at least three years as surging North American shale output reduces reliance on the cartel's supplies.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries expects it will need to pump an average of 29.2 million barrels a day of crude next year, 200,000 a day less than it forecast a month ago. The group boosted estimates for supplies from countries outside OPEC by the same amount. The change implies that OPEC's 12 members would need to cut output by about 1.1 million barrels a day from the 30.3 million they produced in August.
Brent crude futures declined below $100 a barrel on Sept. 8 for the first time in 14 months amid constrained global consumption, swelling U.S. output and speculation that threats to supply in Iraq, Libya and Russia are fading. U.S. crude production will surge to a 45-year high next year, lowering prices and reducing the need for imports, the nation's Energy Information Administration said Tuesday.
"Supply concerns appear to be receding, as geopolitical tension in Ukraine and the Middle East have not led to major supply disruptions," OPEC's Vienna-based secretariat said in its monthly oil market report.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 09/11/2014