LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We will force through reforms, and there will be no sacred cows.”
Masaru Kato,
chief financial officer of Sony Corp.
Article, 1DMichelin to add 9th tire plant in S.C.
GREENVILLE, S.C. - Michelin says it will bring 500 jobs to South Carolina with a new plant making tires for heavy machinery and an expansion at an existing plant.
The France-based company announced Tuesday that demand for its Earthmover tires has increased so quickly that it will invest $750 million to expand its ability to make the massive tires.
The tires are used for heavy equipment in industries such as mining and construction.
The new plant will be Michelin’s ninth in South Carolina. More than a third of Michelin’s 22,000 North American employees work in the state.
Michelin North America Chairman Pete Selleck praised the state’s pro-business climate and the productivity of South Carolina employees.
Michelin is the third big tire company to expand operations in South Carolina in the past year.
3-, 6-month T-bills rise at auction
WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday’s auction with rates on threemonth bills climbing to the highest level in three weeks.
The Treasury Department auctioned $31 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.085 percent, up from 0.075 percent last week. Another $29 billion in sixmonth bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.150 percent, up from 0.140 percent last week.
The three-month rate was the highest since these bills averaged 0.095 percent on March 19. The six-month rate was the highest since these bills averaged 0.170 percent on March 28.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,997.85 while a six-month bill sold for $9,992.42. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.086 percent for the threemonth bills and 0.152 percent for the six-month bills.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, edged up to 0.19 percent last week from 0.18 percent the previous week.
Apple market value tops $600 billion
NEW YORK - Apple, already the world’s most valuable company, hit the $600 billion level for the first time Tuesday.
Only one other company has been worth $600 billion - Apple’s old sparring partner Microsoft Corp. It reached that valuation for 13 trading days around the turn of the millennium, at the peak of the technology stock mania.
At its highest level, on Dec. 30, 1999, Microsoft’s valuation was $619 billion. It’s now worth $260 billion.
General Electric Co. came just short of reaching a $600 billion valuation in August 2000.
Apple shares hit $644 in morning trading, up 1.2 percent from Monday’s close.
Apple’s stock is up 59 percent since the start of the year, an indication that investors are catching up to what analysts have been saying for a while: Despite its enormous market capitalization, Apple’s stock has been undervalued relative to its even more enormous profits.
The rally has also been fueled by the report of another blow-out holiday quarter, and the announcement that Apple will start putting its $97.6 billion cash hoard to use this summer by paying a dividend and buying back shares.
Apple shares fell $7.79, to close at $628.44.
Chase restricts private student loans
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank, said it will stop providing private student loans to people who aren’t currently customers of the bank.
“The private student-loan market has continued to decline and government programs have expanded to help more students and their families,” said Steve O’Halloran, a spokesman for the New York-based bank.
Customers must have a Chase deposit, loan or credit-card relationship to apply, he said. The company will continue to service existing education loans and will work with schools’ financial aid offices to certify loans for students, he said.
MF trustee clarifies plan for clients
A trustee for the MF Global Inc. brokerage, in response to customer objections to its plan to distribute to them another $685 million, said the distribution won’t force them to give up claims against unknown parties, or hold them to other undefined conditions.
The trustee, James Giddens, said in court papers filed in Manhattan bankruptcy court Tuesday that the agreement “does not and will not alter or limit any rights a customer has” against third parties other than specific individuals named in the agreements, Giddens said.
While MF Global Holdings is unwinding in bankruptcy to repay creditors, its former operating unit, brokerage MF Global Inc., is liquidating under the Securities Investor Protection Act to repay customers who are estimated to be out $1.6 billion. The holding company and brokerage each have their own trustee, and the two have disputed whether certain assets belong to customers or creditors.
MF Global Holdings Ltd. filed the eighth-largest U.S.
bankruptcy on Oct. 31 with debt of almost $40 billion after making $6.3 billion in bets on sovereign debt and getting margin calls.
3rd UA business team wins contest
A third team of graduate students from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has taken the top prize in this year’s business plan contest, qualifying for an automatic berth for the Venture Labs Investment Competition.
The team, led by Ellen Brune, a doctoral student in chemical engineering, developed a plan to manufacture protein drugs faster and with greater cost-efficiency so they reach patients sooner. The other member of the team is her father, Ricky Draehn.
In January, the Learning DifferentiatED team, led by its president and chief executive officer, Barry James, a doctoral candidate in the microelectronics-photonics program, earned first place at the IBK Capital-Ivey Business Plan Competition, promoted as Canada’s premier graduate student business plan competition. That team created a business plan for a company that improves retention and success rates of adults preparing for the General Educational Development test.
In February, a group of five graduate student in UA’s Sam M. Walton College of Business earned the top prize at the Brown-Forman Cardinal Challenge at the University of Louisville in Kentucky for a plan that reinvents retailers’ shelf-planning process to ensure that customers find the products they want, when they want them.
Business, Pages 24 on 04/11/2012