Russia refrained from cutting interest rates after a surprise reduction in December, signaling for the first time since August that borrowing costs may remain unchanged in the
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Asian stock markets were mostly lower Friday ahead of a U.S. jobs report that is a key gauge of how robust the world’s No. 1 economy is.
Benchmark oil was nearly unchanged at $96 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro and the yen.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.5 percent to 8,829.69. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1 percent to 1,964.78 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.1 percent to 20,719.23.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4 percent at 4,249.40. Benchmarks in India, Thailand and New Zealand fell while Taiwan, Singapore and Indonesia rose.
Later Friday, the U.S. government releases its report on January job creation and the unemployment rate. In December, the country added 200,000 jobs, and the jobless rate was 8.5 percent.
Some analysts said they are not expecting a strong increase in jobs, based on a report Wednesday from private payroll agency ADP. The report said private-sector employment rose by 170,000 in January from the previous month _ fewer jobs than expected.
“The two series continue to track fairly closely and both show what everyone has rightfully fretted about for the past 18 months: there hasn’t been any trend improvement in job growth since mid-2010,” said analysts at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore.
Traders were largely refraining from big moves ahead of the employment data in case it turns out to be worse than expected.
“For right now, for major indexes like Dow Jones, the Hang Seng and also Germany’s DAX, they are already at a relatively high level,” said Linus Yip, strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong. “For major indexes which shot up to high levels, we need more information for markets to expand the uptrend.”
The results of earnings reports, meanwhile, reverberated across markets. Japan’s Hitachi Ltd. jumped 7.3 percent after the electronics maker maintained its earlier earnings projection for the business year to March 31.
But Singapore Airlines fell 2.5 percent a day after announcing that quarterly profit plunged 53 percent as passenger demand slowed while higher fuel prices sent costs up. South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries plummeted 7.2 percent after posting a 91 percent plunge in fourth-quarter net profit, Yonhap News agency said.
Elsewhere, Australian miner Lynas Corp. tumbled 9.4 percent amid opposition to its rare earths plant in Malaysia’s central Pahang state that is scheduled to begin operations later this year.
Stocks were largely unchanged on Wall Street on Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down less than 0.1 percent at 12,705.41. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.1 percent to 1,325.54. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.4 percent to 2,859.68.
Benchmark oil for March delivery was up 4 cents to $96.39 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell by $1.25 to end at $96.36 per barrel in New York on Thursday.
In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3131 from $1.3141 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose to 76.18 yen from 76.16 yen.
As with fast payday loans, this recently used to be the case, but competitive lenders and higher demand has taken this loan type to mainstay levels.
Greece’s prime minister resumed talks late Thursday with top bank negotiators to try and overcome obstacles to a major debt-relief deal needed to avoid bankruptcy.
Premier Lucas Papademos met with Charles Dallara, managing director of the Institute of International Finance, a banking lobby, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of French bank BNP Paribas.
Private bondholders are being asked to forgive half their Greek debt, and in return accept cash payments and new bonds with longer maturities. The deal is required for a second international bailout with a looming euro14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20 that carries a serious threat of bankruptcy for Greece.
Top eurozone officials are pressing private bondholders to accept the new bonds at a lower interest rate.
A senior Greek government official said, despite delays in concluding the negotiations, Greece was still aiming to submit its formal offer for the bond-swap deal to banks and other private creditors by Feb. 13. The official asked not to be named because the talks are ongoing.
Dallara resumed the talks in Athens for a third successive week.
Eurozone countries have taken a tough stance with the IIF because they would have to provide additional help to Greece if the bond-swap deal falls short of expectations.
“To ensure debt sustainability for Greece, it is essential that a new program be supported by a combination of private sector involvement and official sector support,” William Murray, an IMF spokesman, said late Wednesday.
Murray said the IMF has not asked the European Central Bank, which holds more than euro40 billion ($52 billion) in Greek government bonds, to play any specific role in relieving Greece’s debt pile.
The ECB, as a public sector holder of Greek debt, is protected from any writedown.
“The Fund has no view on the relative contribution of private sector involvement and official sector support in achieving” the target of cutting Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio to 120 percent, Murray said.
Greece is currently surviving on a euro110-billion loan package from eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund, and has been promised an additional euro130 billion in rescue aid if the bond-swap deal goes through.
EU-IMF debt inspectors are currently in Athens for talks with the Papademos government, to set conditions for the second package that are expected to produce more austerity measures in the recession-hit country.
Hardship facing many Greeks has spurred a huge drop in support for the country’s Socialist party, which won the last general election in 2009 with nearly 44 percent of the vote, and formed a coalition government with rival conservatives two months ago.
A nationwide opinion poll published Thursday found support for the Socialists has dropped to 12 percent, just behind three opposition left-wing parties.
The VPRC survey for the Epikaira news magazine gave the conservatives 30.5 percent support. Sample data was not immediately available.
General elections are expected in late April.
Anheuser-Busch President David Peacock, who has led the brewery’s U.S. operations since 2008, has resigned from the company.
Employees were notified today of Peacock’s resignation, which is effective today. He’s leaving to spend more time with his family and pursue other business interests, according to the company.
Peacock will continue to serve in an advisory role, according to an email sent by Luiz Edmond, who is assuming leadership of the brewery’s U payday loans.S. operations based in St. Louis.
Peacock was formerly vice president of marketing at the brewery.
European Union governments returned to German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Ski resort operator Peak Resorts filed documents with federal authorities this month that more than doubles its plans for an initial public offering of its common stock to $103.5 million.
Wildwood-based Peak Resorts, which owns the Hidden Valley ski area locally and owns or leases 11 other ski properties nationwide, originally filed for a $40.3 million IPO in mid-April, but shelved its plans to go public for several months.
According to documents Peak Resorts filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 21, the company has significantly expanded its IPO plans and now will offer 5 million shares of its stock on NASDAQ under the symbol PEAK, priced between $16 and $18 per share.
The prospectus also reveals other details about the company’s operations and its growth in recent years. Peak Resorts, led by CEO Tim Boyd, has grown its revenue 305 percent from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2011, when it had $98 million in revenue, according to its prospectus. In fiscal 2010, the company had $90 million in revenue.
Peak Resorts, which says it owns more ski areas in the U.S. than any other company, plans to use the $79 million in proceeds from the offering to repay debt on several of its properties, including $9 million to purchase the land beneath two ski areas in northeastern Pennsylvania, Jack Frost and Big Boulder, that it currently leases. The properties are both under contract with closing dates expected before the end of the year.
Peak Resorts also plans to use $6.5 million of the IPO proceeds to construct a new high-speed chair lift at its Mount Snow ski area in southern Vermont.
The economic downturn did not stop customers from hitting the slopes, Peak Resorts stated in its prospectus, and the number of visitors to its 12 ski resorts increased during the past two winter ski seasons.
Locally, Peak Resorts’ 250-acre Hidden Valley ski area and tube park opens from mid- December through February. Boyd developed Hidden Valley in 1982 and incorporated Peak Resorts as a holding company in 1997. In Peak Resort’s fiscal year, which ended April 30, 2011, Hidden Valley had $3.6 million in revenue, accounting for 4 percent of Peak’s total revenue.
Will Santa drop any loot into your 401(k) or IRA this year?
Typically, investors can count on a “Santa Claus rally” in the stock market between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, as an upbeat mood about the coming year prompts investors to indulge in stocks along with all the holiday fare.
But this year, questions abound about whether a fragile economy could fall back into recession. The European debt crisis looks increasingly out of control, while the latest chapter in Capitol Hill dysfunction raises the chance of higher taxes for all taxpayers and a smaller safety net for the unemployed.
“Supercommittee failure means that there is a greater risk that the payroll tax cut expires, though there is still a chance this could be attached to a year-end spending bill,” said Goldman Sachs economist Alec Phillips.
Payroll tax relief, which was enacted to put more spending money into consumers’ pockets, will expire at the end of the year if Congress takes no action, and so far, Congress has shown no inclination to work cooperatively on tax or deficit-cutting measures. If the payroll tax cut disappears, the government will collect about $110 billion more a year, but that money will no longer be in paychecks as potential spending money.
That’s a concern to investors, because the economy needs consumer spending to grow. In addition, extended unemployment benefits, which provide people with about $50 billion a year to spend, would not be available either.
JPMorgan Chase economists have estimated that if the stimulus expires, the economy will go from a 3 percent annual growth rate this quarter to a 1.5 percent growth rate in the second quarter of next year as households encounter a ’sharp hit” to their after-tax income. The economists expect “consumer spending to stagnate.”
The stock market has slid the last couple of days as investors have envisioned ongoing paralysis, a recessionary threat and the potential of a negative credit rating for U.S. debt. Investors were shaken in August, when Standard & Poor’s responded to government inaction on the nation’s debt by knocking the U.S. credit rating down a half a notch, but the agencies have suggested recently that no further downgrades are planned.
That should be a relief to investors, because downgrades can inflict higher borrowing costs on countries, making it difficult to operate. But instead of U.S. Treasury yields rising, as they would based on fear of a downgrade, the 10-year bond dipped below 2 percent this week based on a different concern: Moody’s economist John Lonski said investors were worried that automatic cuts in government spending and further federal deficit trimming would slow the economy. Investors move money to safety in bonds, and consequently, yields fall.
Besides the $110 billion payroll tax cuts and $50 billion in unemployment help that could disappear, there are trillions in additional measures that will arise over the next year that could interfere with consumer spending and be a drag on the economy. If the “Bush tax cuts,” enacted in 2001 and 2003, expire according to schedule at the end of 2012, consumers will have about $4 trillion less to spend over the next 10 years.
For middle-income people, the tax cuts that could expire include a $1,000 child tax credit for parents. But it will decline to $500 without congressional action. Low-income taxpayers also now have a 10 percent tax bracket, but that will escalate to 15 percent if the deadline for an extension runs out. For middle-income and affluent people, the current tax structure will allow about 33 million people to escape the higher alternative minimum tax, if Congress keeps it going. For the rich, the expiration of an estate tax break will mean paying taxes on assets over $1 million, compared with protecting $5 million now.
Meanwhile, as investors worry that a wrong move on taxes and spending could hurt consumers and undermine the economy, trouble in European banks is starting to affect distant areas. Fearful banks are holding on to capital instead of lending, and strategist Ed Yardeni notes that’s interfering with lending in emerging markets.
Tropical Storm Kenneth has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean, with forecasters calling it a rare late-season tropical storm.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday that Kenneth had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph (65 kph). The storm was centered about 525 miles (845 kilometers) south of Manzanillo, Mexico.
Projections show Kenneth moving west out to sea, away from land, over the next several days payday lenders.
The eastern Pacific hurricane season ends Nov. 30.
Metropolitan Urological Specialists PC, a leading St. Louis area medical practice, appears to be digging itself out of a $1.3 million tax problem.
Public records filed this year indicate that the Chesterfield-based medical practice and its property affiliate — Metropolitan Urological Properties LLC — has owed at least that much in delinquent federal, state and local taxes, interest and fees.
Metropolitan, which operates a sexual health clinic and offers surgery and radiation treatments, has about a dozen physicians. The medical firm has an imaging center, a laboratory, and doctors’ offices at various locations in Crestwood, Creve Coeur, Florissant, and Chesterfield including offices on the campuses of Mercy Hospital St. Louis and St. Luke’s Hospital.
Metropolitan’s new interim chief executive, Bob Lawson, and several doctors did not respond to requests to comment. The firm referred questions to its attorney, Mayer Klein. The medical firm has substantially paid down its tax liabilities in recent months, Klien said. He would not specify Metropolitan’s remaining balance of delinquent withholding taxes, he said, because the company is privately held.
“Metro is strong and very successful and a very solid company,” Klein said. ”I’m aware of our financial condition and we do not have any tax concerns.”
On Sept. 16 of this year, the Internal Revenue Service filed an $855,291 tax lien on “all property and rights to this property” belonging to the medical practice, federal records show.
The IRS filed the tax lien after Metropolitan fell behind on its federal taxes - namely, the employer’s quarterly payments of funds it must withhold from its employee’s paychecks for Social Security and Medicare. “We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid,” the federal tax lien states.
Earlier this year, the Missouri Department of Revenue placed three tax liens on the firm totaling $154,103 involving overdue withholding taxes, state records show. The smallest of those state tax liens, totaling about $405, has been released.
Metropolitan’s delay in meeting its federal and state tax obligations echoes its difficulties paying its property taxes. The Post-Dispatch reported last week that the medical firm’s property affiliate - Metropolitan Urological Properties LLC - owes state and local tax authorities $338,224 in delinquent taxes, interest and penalties from 2009 and 2010 on two of its properties, which include medical office buildings at 10296 Big Bend Boulevard in Crestwood and at 215 Dunn Road in Florissant, according to St. Louis County Department of Revenue.
According to Missouri Department of Revenue records, Metropolitan’s problems paying its wittholding taxes began in early 2009.
In 2010, Missouri state tax authorities placed a $8,854 tax lien on Metropolitan, but the medical firm paid those delinquent withholding taxes and that lien was released in February of this year.
The medical firm’s former chief executive, Dunard Morris, left the firm last month for unexplained reasons. He did not return calls Thursday for comment.
One of the St. Louis area’s leading medical practices for urologists owes more than $338,000 in delinquent property taxes, interest and penalties, St. Louis County records show.
Five years ago, Metropolitan Urological Specialists announced its plan to invest about $15 million in three outpatient centers, including a sexual medicine clinic, and to take on additional urologists as private physician shareholders. The firm, based in Chesterfield, also planned to invest heavily in laboratory and imaging equipment.
Dunard Morris, the medical firm’s former chief executive, said at the time that Metropolitan’s expansion would help meet the growing needs of the baby boomer generation. A large proportion of the firm’s business involves Medicare patients. Morris recently left the firm for unknown reasons.
But the firm, which still lists 14 physicians on its website, now struggles to pay its taxes. The county has sought to collect the back taxes by filing liens on the firm’s property.
The medical firm’s affiliate, Metropolitan Urological Properties LLC, owes state and local tax authorities $338,223 in delinquent taxes, interest and penalties from 2009 and 2010 on its medical office buildings at 10296 Big Bend Boulevard in Crestwood and at 215 Dunn Road in Florissant, according to the St. Louis County Department of Revenue.
Metropolitan Urological Properties also owes state and local property taxes for 2011 totaling $172,652 on those two parcels and improvements to those sites. That amount is due by Dec. 31, and becomes delinquent if not paid or postmarked before Jan. 1, 2012.
If the firm’s 2009 tax bill remains unpaid on its medical office complex in Crestwood, whose market value has been appraised at $4.9 million, county authorities are prepared to auction the property next August.
It is unclear when exactly Metropolitan started falling behind on its taxes or what specifically may have caused any related financial troubles. As shareholders, Metropolitan’s physicians could be on the hook if the firm defaults on any of its financial obligations.
Metropolitan’s property affiliate was able to pay a $29,481 tax bill on its Dunn Road parcel for 2009, but not a larger tax bill on its Big Bend parcel for that year. It did not pay its 2010 tax bills on either parcel.
Bob Lawson, the medical firm’s newly hired interim chief executive, did not return calls requesting comment. Several doctors affiliated with Metropolitan Urological Specialists also did not return phone calls.
Morris, who left the medical practice this fall, returned phone calls placed to one of his residences by leaving a voicemail message that said he was “out of state,” without saying exactly where.
“I have a lot to tell regarding health care and other things. I won’t talk with you if you run your story,” Morris said in the voicemail message. “I got sick of what I see in health care, and specifically in our group. And it’s a much wider story than me or anyone else.”