Farm Service Agency sends out ballots
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun mailing ballots to eligible farmers and ranchers for the 2015 Farm Service Agency County Committee elections.
Producers must return their ballots to their local Farm Service Agency offices by Dec. 7 to ensure their votes are counted, USDA said in a news release.
Nearly 7,700 committee members serve Farm Service Agency offices nationwide. Each committee has three to 11 elected members who serve three-year terms of office. One-third of the committee seats are up for election each year.
Committee members help the agency make decisions on commodity support programs, conservation programs, indemnity and disaster programs, emergency programs, and eligibility, USDA said.
-- Scott Morris
Wall Street bonuses projected to tumble
Wall Street bonuses face a fall of more than 10 percent this year after declines in fixed-income trading revenue and China's currency devaluation hurt profits, Stifel Financial Corp. Chief Executive Officer Ronald Kruszewski said.
"I think they could be down more," Kruszewski said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg Television when asked about estimates that payouts could drop 5 percent to 10 percent. "I'm not sure people have factored in the debacle that occurred in fixed income in the third quarter."
Revenue from trading bonds, currencies and commodities has declined industrywide, which puts pressure on companies to push down compensation and find ways to reduce costs. Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG are among global firms considering reducing bonuses, with the German bank weighing a 30 percent cut, and the Swiss one considering 60 percent.
"It was a tough summer," Kruszewski said. "People forgot about China and the devaluation and all that was going on, so this is not necessarily a year to write home for."
-- Bloomberg News
Homebuilder shares up on earnings rise
Shares of D.R. Horton Inc., the largest U.S. homebuilder, jumped the most in nine months after reporting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that rose 44 percent as sales increased.
Net income climbed to $238.9 million, or 64 cents a share, for the three months ended Sept. 30, from $166.3 million, or 45 cents, a year earlier, the Fort Worth-based company said in a statement Tuesday. The average estimate of 17 analysts was 63 cents a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
D.R. Horton shares rose $2.38, or 8.3 percent, to close Tuesday at $31.15.
D.R. Horton has been targeting all levels of homebuyers, from entry-level shoppers to those seeking luxury properties, as tight inventories continue to drive up prices. The median price of a new U.S. home increased 13.5 percent in September from a year earlier to $296,900, the highest level in 2015, according to the Commerce Department.
-- Bloomberg News
Sites to reopen after E. coli outbreak
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is preparing to reopen 43 restaurants in the Pacific Northwest that have been closed for more than a week after an E. coli outbreak sickened dozens of customers.
No cause of the outbreak has been found, and the restaurants in the Seattle and Portland, Ore., areas will reopen this week, according to Chris Arnold, a spokesman for the company.
At least 15 people in Oregon and 27 in Washington state became ill after eating at Chipotle restaurants, according to health officials in the two states. Chipotle closed the locations in those areas more than a week ago as authorities investigated the E. coli outbreak. Chipotle will discard all of the food at the closed restaurants and clean the facilities before reopening, the company said Tuesday.
-- Bloomberg News
Bond sale to test faith in railway project
Fortress Investment Group LLC is about to test the bond market's faith in its plan for the first new privately run passenger railroad in more than a century.
The Florida Development Finance Corp., which authorized the sale of tax-exempt bonds for the project, offered $1.75 billion of debt Tuesday to help the private-equity company pay for the railway running from Orlando to Miami, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Fortress' All Aboard Florida, not taxpayers, will be responsible for repaying the debt.
Underwriters led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch have been trying to line up buyers since Florida approved the sale on Aug. 5. At the time, Bank of America managing director Jim Calpin said the bank planned to quickly market the 30-year bonds to select investors, including high-yield municipal funds. He said investors would expect high interest rates -- a reflection of the risk involved.
The $3 billion project is part of a nationwide effort to revive railroads even as Amtrak continues to lose money with ridership at a record high.
-- Bloomberg News
Wal-Mart subsidiary to forgo Black Friday
Asda, the British supermarket that imported the event from U.S. parent Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in 2013, said Tuesday that it won't participate in Black Friday discounts this year.
Instead of having customers line up all night for a limited number of heavily discounted items such as flat-screen televisions, Asda plans to reduce prices by $39 million across the season.
Asda's move illustrates how U.K. retailers are backing away from a quintessentially American custom, only two years after adopting it.
Black Friday events last year saw customers fighting in the aisles, while retailers' websites crashed after being unable to cope with demand. Store chains including John Lewis and Argos have recently expressed misgivings about such events. U.S. retailers are also showing restraint: Discounters Wal-Mart and Target Corp. will spread out deals over a longer period.
Asda said its decision reflects "shopper fatigue setting in around flash sales on big-ticket, nonessential items at Christmas."
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 11/11/2015