Raymond James Financial Inc. said it has agreed to acquire brokerage firm Howe Barnes Hoefer & Arnett Inc., bolstering its booming private-client unit. Get the full story »
Former Shell president predicts $5 gas by 2012
The former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, says Americans could be paying $5 for a gallon of gasoline by 2012.
In an interview with Platt’s Energy Week television, Hofmeister predicted gasoline prices will spike as the global demand for oil increases.
“I’m predicting actually the worst outcome over the next two years which takes us to 2012 with higher gasoline prices,” he said. Get the full story »
SXC Health buys pharmacy provider
SXC Health Solutions Corp, a provider of pharmacy-benefits management services, has acquired a specialty pharmacy provider for $100 million. Get the full story »
More firms plan to hire in 2011, survey says
More firms said they plan to hire full-time, permanent workers in 2011 than did this year, but wage growth likely will remain modest, according to data released Wednesday by job site CareerBuilder.com.
Almost one-quarter of employers — 24 percent — said they plan to hire full-time, permanent workers in 2011. That compares with 20 percent this year, and 14 percent in 2009, according to CareerBuilder.com’s survey in late November of more than 2,400 hiring managers and human-resource professionals. Get the full story »
Starbucks denies Kraft performed ‘well’
From Bloomberg News | Starbucks Corp. denied Kraft Foods Inc.’s claim that the foodmaker has performed “exceptionally well” under an agreement that Kraft claims gives it exclusive rights to sell Starbucks coffee in grocery stores through 2014.
“Starbucks avers that it has repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction to Kraft regarding Kraft’s performance” under the agreement, the world’s biggest coffee shop chain said in its answer to Kraft’s complaint. Get the full story>>
Bunge sees volatile food prices in 2011
Grain prices, already at two-year highs, are set to rise further this year before normalising in 2012 as the higher prices prompt farmers to plant more, the head of agribusiness giant Bunge told the Financial Times.
“For the next 12 months I think you will see volatility of prices,” Alberto Weisser said in an interview published on Wednesday. Grain prices rallied in 2010 after poor harvests in Russia and Australia. Get the full story »
BlackBerry PlayBook hurdle: Short battery life
If Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook is to succeed at market the way the company hopes, there are a few engineering hurdles to overcome. The most significant, according to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, is the device’s relatively poor battery life.
Sources tell him the tablet currently lasts just a few hours per charge, compared with rivals like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, which lasts about six, and the iPad, which lasts upward of 10. If true, that’s an untenable situation for RIM, which really needs to hit the mark with the PlayBook, and it may cause a delay of the launch–if only for a bit. Get the full story »
Dec. 29, 2010 at 6:12 a.m.
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Filed under: China, International, Semiconductors, Technology, Trade China’s rare earths export cut raises trade concerns
China has raised fresh international trade concerns after slashing export quotas on rare earths minerals, used in the manufacture of high-tech devices, risking action from the United States at the World Trade Organization.
China, which produces about 97 percent of the global supply of rare earth minerals, cut its export quotas by 35 percent for the first half of 2011 versus a year ago, saying it wanted to preserve ample reserves, but warned against basing its total 2011 export quota on the first half figures. Get the full story »
Media blitz preps viewers for Winfrey’s channel
The Oprah Winfrey Network launching Saturday is wary of promising too much of a good thing — Winfrey herself. In stoking interest in the cable channel, the goal is to exploit Winfrey’s popularity while emphasizing that OWN won’t be all Oprah, all the time.
“We really don’t want to be a niche brand. We want to be a mainstream cable” network with appeal beyond Winfrey’s fan base, said Darren Schillace, vice president of consumer marketing for OWN. Get the full story »
Cash-back credit cards lead to more debt, Fed finds
Credit cards that give cash back prompt consumers to spend more and accrue more debt, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
The initiation of a 1 percent cash rewards program yielded, on average, a $25 reward each month — and an increase in spending by $68 a month and in credit-card debt of $115 a month, the economists say in a paper to be presented at the American Economic Association meetings next week. Get the full story »
Ex-WaMu customers face Chase service fees
Chase, Chicago’s biggest bank, is telling customers who were charged no monthly service fees at Washington Mutual that they could face a $12 monthly service fee unless their accounts meet one of four conditions.
It’s one of several changes that Chase and other banks are making to their basic checking accounts in light of a federal crackdown on the types and amounts of fees that lenders can charge, including a dramatic reduction in fees that merchants pay banks when customers make purchases with their debit cards.
As previously reported, Chase recently disclosed that beginning Feb. 8, its “Chase Checking” customers will need at least one direct deposit of $500 a month for Chase to waive its $6 monthly service fee, or make at least five debit card purchases during the transaction period. Currently, a direct deposit of any amount qualifies. Get the full story »
ADM canola plant dropped from FDA restricted list
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has dropped Archer Daniels Midland’s canola crushing plant in Windsor, Ontario from its list of plants that are under import restrictions due to salmonella concerns, according to an update on the regulator’s website on Tuesday. Get the full story »
VC Experts: Groupon files to raise up to $950M
Groupon’s board has authorized the company to raise up to $950 million in what would be the biggest round of equity financing since Pixar sought some $500 million in 1995, the venture capital data firm VC Experts said on Tuesday.
The online discount coupon company, which specializes in local advertising, is seeking the funding after reports last month that it was in talks to sell itself to Google for up to $6 billion, in what would have been the web advertising giant’s biggest ever acquisition. Get the full story »
Sara Lee agrees to sell cleaning products unit
Sara Lee said it agreed to sell its White King and Janola cleaning products business to Australia-based detergent maker Symex Holdings for 37.9 million euros ($49.7 million).
The deal brings Sara Lee closer to its goal of focusing on selling food, coffee and tea.
Sara Lee, which has already spun off its body care, air care businesses and its stake in a joint venture with India’s Godrej, expects the deal with Symex to close during the first quarter of 2011. Get the full story »
Groupon, CouponCabin ranked busiest deal sites
What does Chicago have that no other U.S. city has this holiday season? The top two busiest coupon Web sites.
Top ranked was Groupon, the daily deal site, with 10 million unique visitors in November, up 54 percent over the previous month, according to online research firm ComScore Inc. Second was CouponCabin, a coupon-code aggregator, with 8.8 million visitors, a 400 percent increase over October.
Coupon sites, which offer promotional codes and other discounts to consumers, ranked as the top-gaining category of Web sites at the start of the holiday season, ComScore said. A record 44 million Americans visited a coupon site during November, up 40 percent since October. Get the full story »
