Feb. 10 at 5:30 a.m.
Filed under:
Reports: Weekly jobless claims, 7:30 a.m.; Wholesale trade inventories for December, 9 a.m.; Freddie Mac releases weekly mortgage rates, 9 a.m.; Federal budget for January, 1 p.m.
Local earnings: Aptar Group Inc., CBOE Holdings, Gardner Denver Inc., Inland Real Estate Trust, Kraft Foods Inc., Littelfuse Inc., Treehouse Foods Inc.,
Other major earnings: Alcatel Lucent, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Molson Coors Brewing Co., PepsiCo Inc., Philip Morris International Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Thomson Reuters Corp., Renault SA, Credit Suisse Group
Feb. 9 at 5:50 p.m.
Filed under:
Construction,
Earnings,
Housing,
Real estate
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
As earnings reports from homebuilders have dribbled out over the past few weeks, only one company gave a very specific and very positive shout-out to the Chicago market.
That company was M/I Homes Inc., the Columbus, Ohio-based builder that broke ground on its first suburban Chicago home less than three years ago and just finalized the purchase of its seventh local project, one designed to bring 146 town homes to Naperville.
Nationally, the inventory of new homes for sale dropped to 191,000 in December, the lowest number since 1968, according to the National Association of Home Builders. It dropped locally too, but at year’s end, there remained more than a year of available new homes on the market. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 5:43 p.m.
Filed under:
Credit Cards,
Economy,
Policy,
Politics
By Reuters
The Federal Reserve may give U.S. banks insight into whether it will scale back its proposed crackdown on debit card processing fees, when a top official testifies before a congressional panel next week. Get the full story »
By Becky Yerak
Jordan Co., the private equity firm run by Chicago businessman John “Jay” Jordan, already does business in more than 30 countries, but is planning to re-enter India and is looking at investments in Vietnam.
Jordan, who serves on the boards of Lyric Opera and the Art Institute of Chicago and is a trustee of the University of Notre Dame, also told the Kellogg School of Management Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference on Wednesday that he expects 2011 and 2012 to be “extremely active years” for both buying and selling businesses, following a “fairly robust” 2010 but a “very slow” 2009. Get the full story »
By Associated Press
Archer Daniels Midland Co. on Wednesday announced a 5-year plan to invest in nearly 30,000 acres of palm trees in Brazil and build a new processing plant as part of a program to use palm in its biodiesel production.
The plant and palm acres are located in the northern Brazilian state of Para. Construction on the plant near Sao Domingos do Capim is anticipated to begin in 2013. It is expected to be operational in 2016. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 4:51 p.m.
Filed under:
Insurance
By Associated Press
Bloomington-based State Farm Insurance Cos. will stop providing supplemental medical coverage for its Medicare-eligible retirees next year in a cost-cutting move.
The company says it will instead help them find supplemental Medicare coverage and provide them with $200 a month to help. About 18,000 of the company’s 27,800 retirees are Medicare-eligible. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 4:38 p.m.
Filed under:
Exchanges,
M&A,
Updated
By Reuters
CBOE Holdings and Nasdaq OMX Group may scramble to find deal partners as global exchanges’ merger mania returns with a bang.
Germany’s Deutsche Boerse announced on Wednesday it was in advanced talks to buy NYSE Euronext, hours after the London Stock Exchange said it had agreed to buy Canadian stock market operator TMX.
The deals sent shares of exchanges up across the board as investors bet more is to come. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 4:26 p.m.
Filed under:
Earnings,
Insurance
By Associated Press
Auto and home insurer Allstate says its net income fell sharply in the fourth quarter as an Arizona hailstorm caused it to pay out far more in catastrophe losses.
In the final three months of last year, the company earned $296 million, or 55 cents per share. That’s down from $518 million, or 96 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 3:58 p.m.
Filed under:
Earnings
By Associated Press
Lincolnshire-based Acco Brands Corp. said Wednesday that its earnings grew more than sixfold in the fourth quarter, benefiting from new products.
But the maker of Swingline staplers and other office products cautioned that 2011 will remain challenging because of uncertain consumer and business spending. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 3:29 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos
By Mary Jane Grandinetti
In its second year as a standalone brand, Ram Trucks has positioned itself to take advantage of growing sales to small businesses and commercial fleets with the 1500 Tradesman.
Available in two or four wheel drive, the regular cab Tradesman offers a 10,400 pound towing capacity and 1,600 pound payload, to help the truck maker extend its sales gains to 10 straight months. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 3:27 p.m.
Filed under:
Economy
By Associated Press
The dollar lost ground Wednesday after a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the central bank will keep interest rates at record lows and continue its $600 billion bond purchases. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 2:54 p.m.
Filed under:
Cell phones,
Retail,
Updated
By Wailin Wong
CardStar Inc., a company that makes a popular mobile application to organize store loyalty cards, is now including daily deals service Groupon in its app.
Boston-based CardStar said it is the first mobile loyalty app to integrate with Groupon. CardStar launched its app for the iPhone in January 2009 and has 1.3 million users. The CardStar app uses the GPS technology built into mobile phones to identify a user’s location and display Groupon deals for that area. Users will need a Groupon account to buy the deals. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 2:14 p.m.
Filed under:
Commercial real estate,
Real estate
From Crain’s Chicago Business | The blizzard that paralyzed Chicago last week also postponed the court-ordered sheriff’s auction of the new mall at Block 37. The auction, which would be the largest foreclosure sale of a downtown property in more than a decade, was set for Feb. 2 after a group of lenders led by Bank of America Corp. obtained a foreclosure judgment in December against the four-level mall at 108 N. State St. Get the full story>>
Feb. 9 at 1:48 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Environment,
Green
By Julie Wernau
A residential electric car charging station in Washington D.C. (Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty)
By the end of this year, Chicagoans will not only be able to purchase and drive electric vehicles, but also charge those vehicles in the time it takes to finish a cup of coffee.
The city of Chicago has awarded a $1.9 million contract to a California firm to install 280 electric vehicle charging stations in Chicago and surrounding suburbs by the end of 2011.
The contract — paid for with equal state and federal dollars though a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — means the city has cleared a major hurdle on the road to widespread electric vehicle adoption. Get the full story »
Feb. 9 at 1:32 p.m.
Filed under:
Computers
By Reuters
Hewlett-Packard Co. unveiled its entrant in the tablet race, announcing a touchscreen device for summer release called the TouchPad to try to steal momentum from Apple Inc’s popular iPad.
The 9.7-inch tablet runs on the webOS mobile operating system, which HP acquired last summer in its $1.2 billion purchase of handheld device pioneer Palm. Get the full story »
