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The dollar was mixed against major currencies Monday, as a light trading day left markets largely inactive, and Middle East conflict raised concerns about oil and commodities.

At 5 p.m. ET, the 15-nation euro was trading at $1.3927, down from $1.4025 late Friday. The British pound rose to $1.4413 amid expectations for U.K. interest rates to stand well below those in the euro zone.

Parity for the euro and pound is within sight, as the euro rose to an all-time high of 0.9722 pound.

Meanwhile, against the Japanese yen, the greenback slid to ¥90.65 from ¥90.78.

"There’s still a holiday feel in the air," said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy at Wells Fargo. "The trading activity is very light, so the dollar is staying weak."

Bennenbroek said he expected the greenback would remain "defensive" for most of the week.

The possibility of higher oil and commodity prices due to conflict in the Middle East also raised further concerns about the U.S. economy.

The war-torn Gaza Strip has endured air strikes from Israeli warplanes for three straight days, following the Dec. 19 expiration of a six-month cease-fire with Hamas, which controls Gaza.

The strikes have killed hundreds, sparking protests and increasing concerns that oil supplies from the Middle East, the world’s largest producing region, will be disrupted payday cash advance.

"There has been an inverse relationship between oil prices and the weaker dollar," Bennenbroek said. "When these geopolitical events happen, the dollar’s decline is not unexpected."

Bennenbroek also noted that although the dollar is traditionally viewed as a safe haven, the buck’s status "has been pretty mixed lately."

In sharp contrast to the greenback, the Swiss franc gained on the heightened geopolitical risk.

Commodity currencies including the Norwegian crown and Australian dollar strengthened as gold and oil prices rose amid the Gaza hostilities.

Gold rose more than 2% to its strongest since early October. Oil prices rose above $40 a barrel, up nearly 8% on the previous session.

The dollar is probably near a bottom, Bennenbroek said, as the greenback has fallen sharply.

"What’s going on now is not necessarily an indicator of what’s going to happen," he said. "The dollar is probably going to gain against many currencies in the new year." 

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A Florida health care company has purchased Forest Park and St. Alexius hospitals of St. Louis, hospital officials announced Wednesday.

Success Healthcare LLC of Boca Raton, Fla., founded in August, took over operations at the struggling hospitals on Dec. 10. The company owns one other hospital with two campuses in Southern California.

This marks the most recent ownership turnover for the St. Louis hospitals.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. sold the hospitals to Argilla Healthcare Inc. for $42 million in 2004. Argilla soon after merged with Doctors Community Healthcare Corp. of Arizona, which had just emerged from bankruptcy. Doctors Community later changed its name to Envision Hospital Corp. No one at Envision could be reached for comment Wednesday. Officials at Forest Park and St. Alexius hospitals also could not be reached for comment.

Forest Park Hospital, 6150 Oakland Avenue, has 450 licensed beds. The two south city campuses of St. Alexius, one at 3933 South Broadway and the other at 2639 Miami Street, have 476 licensed beds.

St. Alexius had a net income of $842,000 and Forest Park posted a loss of $2.3 million in 2006, the latest figures available, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Both hospitals have had a series of troubles in recent years.

Forest Park and AmerenUE reached a deal in February to keep the hospital’s electricity running after repeated problems with payments cheap pay day loans.

In 2006, the hospital’s owners announced they would lay off about 100 hospital workers, close the obstetrics unit and reduce orthopedic services.

Also in 2006, St. Alexius was sued by Aramark Healthcare Support Services Inc. of Philadelphia for more than $200,000, alleging that the hospital failed to pay for food services. A nurse-staffing company filed a similar suit against both hospitals that same year.

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The St. Louis hospitals will keep their names and there have been no changes in their services, according to Success Healthcare.

In a statement, the company said it planned to enact a financial strategy in the next six months "that will support the immediate and long-term objectives for the hospitals."

"I think they saw that these hospitals are community assets that would benefit from Success Healthcare," said company spokeswoman Bonnie Kaye.

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NEW YORK — Stocks slid Tuesday, halting a two-day advance, after companies from FedEx Corp. to Danaher Corp. forecast earnings that disappointed investors as the deepening recession crimps sales.

FedEx tumbled 14 percent, its steepest loss in 21 years, after the second-biggest U.S. package-shipping company projected profit below analysts’ estimates amid a significantly weaker economy. Danaher, maker of Craftsman tools, slid 4.2 percent. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. dropped almost 7 percent as yields on three-month Treasuries turned negative for the first time, signaling increasing stress in credit markets.

"Investors have been schizophrenic here for a couple of months, and I don’t see any change in that," said Henry Herrmann, chief executive of Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. in Overland Park, Kan., which manages about $50 billion. "We still have very thin trading, and there’s a lot of nervousness."

The S&P 500 lost 2.3 percent to 888.67. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 242.85 points, or 2.7 percent, to 8,691.33 and the Nasdaq composite index slipped 1.6 percent to 1,547.34.

FedEx fell $10.78 to $63.65 after saying annual profit may be as much as one-third lower than analysts expected. Larger rival United Parcel Service Inc. fell $4.11 to $54.51, the most since Oct. 22.

Union Pacific Corp. slid 7.4 percent to $46.90 after Merrill Lynch & Co. cut the railroad operator’s shares to neutral from buy.

Con-way Inc. slid 14 percent to $22.19, the lowest level in more than seven years.

Danaher Corp. fell 4.2 percent to $49.78. The company said fourth-quarter profit will be lower than previously forecast. Danaher will close 13 factories and cut 1,700 jobs because of the deteriorating economy.

"You’re going to have to get used to this for the next three months; you’re going to see lowering of guidance," said Robert Lutts, president and chief investment officer at Cabot Money Management, which oversees $400 million in Boston cheap car insurance. "This is the real economy."

Kroger Co. fell 6.7 percent to $25.47. Safeway Inc. lost 6.7 percent to $22.04.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fell 3 percent to $55.81.

General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker whose shares surged 21 percent Monday, fell 4.7 percent to $4.70. Ford Motor Co. declined 4.4 percent to $3.23.

"The thing that has shaken people more than anything else is the implosion of these major household names," said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank in Cleveland, which manages $30 billion. "When the auto industry looked like it was on the verge of disappearance the market hit a low. That really shakes people."

JPMorgan fell 6.9 percent to $33.96, while Wells Fargo Co. slid 6.6 percent to $30.50.

T. Rowe Price Group Inc., the Baltimore-based money manager, slid 6.9 percent to $34.13, the first decline in six trading sessions.

SunTrust Banks Inc., Georgia’s largest lender, declined 11 percent to $30.04, while Bank of New York Mellon Corp. slid 10 percent to $27.63.

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WASHINGTON — Facing a legal battle that would have illuminated its widening market power, Google Inc. turned its back on struggling rival Yahoo Inc. and pulled the plug on an Internet advertising partnership that had been conceived to keep Yahoo out of Microsoft Corp.’s clutches.

The retreat announced Wednesday represented another setback for Yahoo, which had been counting on the Google deal to boost its finances and placate shareholders still incensed by management’s decision to reject a $47.5 billion takeover bid from Microsoft six months ago.

Google backed off to avoid a challenge from the Justice Department, which said it would sue to block the deal to preserve competition in Internet advertising companies making payday loans. Attorneys general from 15 states and Canada’s antitrust regulators also loomed as potential adversaries.

Without Google’s help, Yahoo now might feel more pressure to renew talks with Microsoft and ultimately sell itself for much less than the $33 per share that Microsoft offered in May. Yahoo closed Wednesday at $13.92, gaining more than 4 percent in a move reflecting investor hopes that Microsoft might renew its pursuit.

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VIENNA,–OPEC said at an emergency meeting yesterday that it will slash oil production by 1.5 million barrels to stem the "dramatic collapse" of oil prices, but crude prices plunged 5 per cent anyway as financial markets fell across the globe.

Demand for crude has evaporated and the supply levers held by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries appear to have little influence in the current economic climate.

Iran and Venezuela pushed for a cut of two million barrels a day, but there were concerns among other OPEC members that a more severe production cut would exacerbate a deteriorating economic crisis and further destroy demand.

OPEC officials, however, signalled they were prepared to slice deeper quickly if crude continues its freefall.

The world’s biggest crude consumer immediately blasted OPEC.

"It has always been our view that the value of commodities, including oil, should be determined in open, competitive markets, and not by these kinds of anti-market production decisions," White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said http://payday-z.com. "The high oil prices from the past year contributed to the slowdown in demand and the subsequent downturn in the economy, and we would ask that everyone keep that in mind going forward."

OPEC is already producing 300,000 barrels a day above its own quota of about 29 million barrels.

If that overproduction is stopped, and all members comply with the 1.5 million cut, OPEC would produce about 1.8 million fewer barrels of oil a day.

OPEC said it was ready to slice production again quickly if yesterday’s decision does not end the price free fall.

OPEC president Chakib Khelil said OPEC was ready to convene another emergency session before its next planned gathering in December in Algeria "if there are further decisions that have to be made.

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WASHINGTON–U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday sought to reassure Americans about the cost and scope of the country's financial bailout plan and said that in the long run "our economy will bounce back."

Bush, in his weekly radio address, acknowledged that people are concerned about their finances and, while he offered assurances about an eventual recovery, he did not say when that would happen.

Since Oct. 9, 2007, when the Dow topped 14,000, investors have lost $8.3 trillion from pension funds, college savings plans, 401(k)s and other investments.

"The federal government has responded to this crisis with systematic and aggressive measures to protect the financial security of the American people," Bush said. "These actions will take more time to have their full impact. But they are big enough and bold enough to work." Congress authorized a $700-billion package to buy bad assets from banks and other institutions to shore up the financial industry.

Bush was to meet later Saturday at Camp David for talks on the economy with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission president Jose Manual Barroso, who were to stop in the United States on their way home from a summit in Canada.

In the Democrats' weekly radio address, Representative Rahm Emanuel used the occasion for campaign criticism against John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee.

"On weekends like this, maybe you're like me and my neighbours, working around the house, trying to save a few bucks," said Emanuel, the chairman of the House Democratic caucus. "My neighbours and yours are struggling in this economy. They're working as hard as they know how, but the economic policies that George Bush proposed and John McCain supports have left them working harder, paying more and making less low rates payday advance."

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the Camp David meeting was not expected to produce any new policy decisions or the date or place for a planned meeting of leaders of major economic powers, the so-called Group of Eight. Instead, she said it would focus on efforts extending as far back as April on co-ordination for financial stability through measures such as bank disclosures, accounting rules at credit rating agencies, capital standards and asset valuation.

The bailout plan runs counter to Bush's oft-stated commitment to free enterprise and the president said he knew many Americans have reservations about the government's approach, particularly the Treasury's planned injection of up to $250 billion in U.S. banks in return for partial ownership stakes, something that hasn't been done since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"As a strong believer in free markets, I would oppose such measures under ordinary circumstances," the president said. "But these are no ordinary circumstances. Had the government not acted, the hole in our financial system would have grown larger, families and businesses would have had an even tougher time getting loans and ultimately the government would have been forced to respond with even more drastic and costly measures later on."

Bush said the government's involvement was limited in scope and Washington will not exercise control over any private firm and federal officials will not have a seat on bank boards. He also said he believed that the final cost to taxpayers would be significantly less than the initial investment as the housing market recovers.

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John Thain, the Merrill Lynch & Co Inc chief executive who engineered its sale to Bank of America Corp, will head investment banking, securities and wealth management at the new company.

But analysts don’t expect Thain, who has led two major companies, to remain in his new job for long. They look for him to aim for the top spot at Bank of America (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) or seek a CEO job elsewhere.

“The fact is that he’s a CEO — he’s not going to stay long,” said Greg Donaldson, director of portfolio strategy at Donaldson Capital Management in Evansville, Indiana. Thain was previously CEO at NYSE Euronext Inc (NYX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

A Merrill (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) spokeswoman declined comment on the announcement on Thursday. Jim Mahoney, a spokesman for Bank of America, said the bank expects Thain to be a “strong contributor” to the executive management team. “The issue of succession was not central to his conversations with (CEO Ken) Lewis,” he added.

Thain joined Merrill in December after the ouster of Stan O’Neal and was brought in to repair the financial service group after it wrote down $8.4 billion in soured mortgage securities in the third quarter of last year.

Thain has presided over substantial write-downs no fax payday loan. Merrill’s total tally is over $20 billion for this year, including a $5.7 billion write-down in the third quarter that was announced in July. Merrill’s troubles stem from aggressive risk-taking in complex securities during O’Neal’s tenure as CEO.

Many Merrill investors see Thain’s shepherding of the proposed sale to Bank of America as a master stroke that may have saved it from a worse fate. Bank of America had considered acquiring Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEHMQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which later filed for bankruptcy protection.

Thain also avoided being forced to sell the investment bank at a fire-sale price, as happened to Alan Schwartz, who was CEO at Bear Stearns when JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) bought Bear in March. 

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Alitalia (AZPIa.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will lose its operating license if a special administrator making a last-ditch attempt to sell the airline does not give Italy’s aviation authority a credible new offer or cost-cutting plan by Thursday.

Following the withdrawal of an Italian rescue bid because of opposition by pilots and cabin crew, the government-appointed administrator made a last attempt on Monday to attract offers, although previous bids to find a foreign buyer have failed.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti acknowledged that “buyers are not queuing up for Alitalia”.

Pilots and crew attempted to attract alternatives to the CAI consortium’s rescue bid on Monday by saying they would put up their own pay and pensions, totaling 340 million euros, “to back any serious, credible project for the relaunch of Alitalia”.

But so far, the only interest has been in the state-controlled airline’s heavy maintenance and cargo units as well as in leasing unused aircraft and laid-off staff fast cash. On Monday, Swiss investment firm AMA Asset Management Advisers said it was interested in buying or renting 30 Alitalia planes.

Flights continued as usual but Alitalia faces being grounded, and its assets liquidated, if there is no last-minute decision by dissenting unions to accept the job cuts and slimmed-down contracts that the CAI consortium had offered.

“Alitalia is flying with a provisional license,” the head of aviation body ENAC, Vito Riggio, told local radio ahead of talks with special administrator Augusto Fantozzi early on Monday.

He said afterwards that Fantozzi was given until Thursday to present “a report on the company’s prospects, any offers to buy it or a cost-cutting plan” in order to keep its license. 

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SUNSET HILLS — Steve Carani popped on his headset. This would not be a pleasant phone call. He had to tell a client that the value of her $10,000 Lehman Brothers bond had deteriorated after the investment bank’s massive bankruptcy on Monday. For now, it might be worth pennies on the dollar.

"Nobody’s going to have the exact answer as to what happened for some time," Carani told the client Friday. "I’m sorry it happened."

At the end of one of the craziest and scariest weeks on Wall Street in recent memory, financial pros are taking stock and trying to regroup, facing a suddenly changed financial services industry. For Carani, a financial advisor with 16 years at Edward Jones, that means reassuring clients that this is no time to panic.

This is one of the most volatile markets some professionals have ever seen. Stocks plummeted Monday and again Wednesday as many credit markets around the world stopped functioning normally and investors ran for cover. "This financial crisis might be the worst we’ve had in 70 years," Ron Kruszewski, chairman and CEO of St. Louis-based Stifel Financial Corp., said Monday, after the Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 500 points.

On Thursday and Friday, the market picked itself up off the floor; big rallies underscored that investors had craved: the federal government’s interventions on behalf of stumbling mega-insurer AIG and firms holding degrading mortgage-backed securities.

"The way the market responded (Thursday and Friday) points out how extreme the fear was," said Al Goldman, chief market strategist at Wachovia Securities. "Investors were thinking we were facing financial Armageddon."

On Monday, Carani had to call dozens of clients to tell them that Lehman — with an investment-grade credit rating just weeks ago — was bankrupt, threatening their bond investments. It may have been the toughest day in his career and "by far" the roughest patch this week, he said.

Brokers and analysts fretted that fear, angst and uncertainty had become the primary factors in pricing securities this week, superseding fundamentals like valuation and future prospects. Safety seemed elusive. Destructive chain reactions seemed possible. "You’re looking at a range of emotion that is occurring in a short amount of time, which can be emotionally exhausting," said Richard Cripps, chief investment officer at Stifel Nicolaus.

At 7:00 Tuesday morning, a client called Carani’s office and left a message. "Tell Steve to sell everything. I want out."

In a 20-minute phone call, Carani was able to talk the client back from the brink. His mantra: prudence, diversification, patience — the old bedrocks of conservative investing.

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"Getting (investors) to hang on and stay intact — sometimes that’s the best strategy," said Carani, who oversees 70 brokerage offices.

Great opportunities open up for investors during times of crisis, said Goldman paydayloans.com. Unfortunately, he said, most people can’t bring themselves to buy stocks when the market is in a downturn and stocks can be had for a bargain.

"I’ve been doing this for 48 years, and two days ago, I thought I was going to lose my lunch," Goldman said Friday. "When my stomach acid rises to the point where I’m thinking I might lose my lunch, I know that’s when to buy stocks."

Experts stressed that the market could handle the strain, advising investors to keep an even keel and not to overreact either by dumping solid investments or piling into unsteady ones. For all of its travails, the market closed at the same level on Friday as it stood a week before. The Dow Jones industrial average is basically flat for the month. "The reality is, we’re not going to spontaneously combust," said Cripps.

Things had calmed down by Friday afternoon at Carani’s brokerage, tucked in a building near a coffee shop and sub cafe. Carani, dressed in a yellow tie festooned with small bulls — optimism? — said he would be on an anniversary trip most of next week. He might not even bring his laptop.

A 74-year-old client came in to discuss her investments in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Anheuser-Busch. "I’m not really getting panicky" about the market, she said. "If you panic and start selling, that’s when you’ll really get in the hole. You know, last week when things were down, I thought, ‘I wish I had some extra money so I could buy some of this low-priced stock!’"

jmcwilliams@post-dispatch.com

314-340-8372

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Secure Energy Inc., a St. Louis-based company developing a $550 million plant in Decatur, Ill., to convert coal to natural gas, has entered a long-term sales agreement with a unit of oil giant BP PLC.

Under the agreement, Secure Energy can sell gas to industrial customers in the Decatur. BP Canada Energy Marketing Co. will purchase any unsold fuel — up to 67 million cubic feet of gas a day.

The agreement represents a major milestone in the development of the Decatur plant, which is expected to be complete by the summer of 2011, said Lars Scott, a former Peabody Energy Corp. executive who co-founded Secure Energy several years ago.

Technologies to convert coal into other energy forms, such as natural gas or diesel, aren’t new, but they were cost-prohibitive in the era of cheap oil. Today, they’re getting another look because of higher petroleum prices.
The price of natural gas, which ranged between $1 and $2 per thousand cubic feet the 1990s, has averaged almost $10 per thousand cubic feet so far this year pay day loans. The price also has been especially volatile, spiking above $13 in June only to fall below $8 this month. Despite the decline, the project remains viable, Scott said.

The plant will use about 1.4 million tons of high-sulfur Illinois coal a year to produce 20 billion cubic feet natural gas — enough to heat 250,000 homes.

Secure Energy is in talks to find a coal supplier, Scott said. A previous agreement to purchase coal from International Coal Group Inc.’s Viper Mine in eastern Illinois expired.

The plant, to be built on a site purchased last year from Caterpillar Inc., will employ about 60 people, he said. Construction is expected to take 20 to 24 months.

Secure Energy received an air permit from the state in April 2007 and it has other major permits required to begin construction.

jtomich@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8320

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