Business
News |
NEW YORK (Dow Jones/AP) - The
U.S. service sector's expansion cooled off somewhat in June, a closely watched
private survey found, though hiring and orders for new goods heated up compared
to May's pace. |
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The Institute for Supply
Management's non-manufacturing index for June ebbed to 59.9 after hitting 65.2
in May and 68.4 in April. The June reading was well below the 63.0
expected by economists. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion. |
The ISM's non-manufacturing
index is comprised mostly of service-related businesses, which make up the
majority of overall U.S. economic activity.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush
administration on Tuesday proposed tariffs on shrimp imports from China and
Vietnam, finding that companies there were dumping frozen and canned warm-water
shrimp products into the United States at artificially low prices. |
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U.S. seafood distributors and
retailers said Americans will face higher shrimp prices at restaurants and in
grocery stores if the duties, which take effect later this week, are kept. |
But shrimpers and processors
disputed the claims, arguing that those companies' huge profits could absorb
any small increase without passing costs on to consumers.
NEW YORK (AP) - Mark Belnick,
Tyco International's former top lawyer, earned all of the millions of dollars
Tyco paid him and prosecutors have yet to prove that he committed a single
crime, a defence lawyer said in closing arguments Tuesday. |
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Lawyer Reid Weingarten
suggested that Belnick is on trial as a scapegoat for the failings of others,
mainly the board of directors that allowed the alleged excesses of Tyco's
former chief executive officer, L. Dennis Kozlowski, to go unchecked. |
Belnick, 57, is in his ninth
week of trial in Manhattan's state Supreme Court on charges of first-degree
grand larceny, falsifying business records and securities fraud. He faces up to
25 years in prison if convicted on the top count, grand larceny.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Bush
administration officials broke no laws in withholding from Congress estimates
of the cost of the new Medicare law, says an internal investigation made public
Tuesday. |
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The Health and Human Services
Department inspector general, the agency's internal watchdog, said its
three-month investigation found that administration officials used aggressive
tactics to keep from Congress its much higher estimates of the legislation's
cost - $100 billion more than the president and other officials were
acknowledging. |
Yet the effort - including
threats by Thomas Scully, the administration's Medicare chief until December,
to fire chief Medicare actuary Richard Foster - did not violate federal law,
the inspector general said.
MOSCOW (AP) - The oil giant
Yukos, already on the brink of insolvency, could face two more crippling tax
bills, Russia's Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said Tuesday. The company
warned that the government could begin seizing its assets this week. |
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Yukos has until the end of the
business day Wednesday to pay its $3.4 billion tax bill from 2000, but it is
prohibited from selling assets to raise cash to pay. |
On Monday, the Tax Agency
delivered another back taxes bill claiming Yukos owes $3.3 billion for 2001.
Ustinov told Ekho Moskvy radio on Tuesday that more back tax claims were likely
for 2002 and 2003.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush
administration announced Tuesday that it has resumed sharing a wide range of
financial information with Mexico with the aim of trying to catch money
launderers, drug dealers and terrorist financiers. |
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In April, the United
States had suspended sharing such information with Mexico, dealing a blow to
cross-border crime fighting, which had resulted in the arrests of several
high-profile drug lords. |
The U.S. government did so
after sensitive information provided by the Treasury Department's Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network was leaked by Mexican officials. After the
suspension, the network outlined a set of steps that Mexico should take before
the United States would agree to resume information-sharing.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Veritas
Software Corp. lost more than a third of its market value Tuesday after the
company warned of an earnings shortfall that amplified investors' recent
disenchantment with management. |
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Veritas expects to post
earnings ranging from 17 cents to 19 cents per share for the quarter ended in
June, missing a target of 21 cents to 23 cents set three weeks ago by the
business software maker. The company anticipates revenue of $485 million to
$495 million, below its previous estimate of $490 million to $505 million. |
The disappointing performance
rankled investors still agitated about a recent revelation of accounting abuses
that forced Veritas to restate its results for the past three years.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A line
of Dell Inc. desktop computers running a version of the Linux operating system
will be sold in Europe by a reseller, broadening alternative offerings to
Microsoft Corp.'s ubiquitous Windows software. |
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The computers being sold online
by Questar of Milan, Italy, will ship with Lindows Inc.'s Linspire operating
system - in English- or Italian-language versions - and will receive Dell
technical support, Questar said Tuesday. Starting at about $575, the systems
will be targeted at businesses, schools and consumers. |
The Dell OptiPlex systems
loaded with Linspire are available only through Questar. Dell was not offering
any Linspire-based systems on its Web site. Though it halted Linux computer
sales to businesses in 2001 because of low demand, Dell now sells workstations
running Red Hat Inc.'s version of Linux.
ATLANTA (AP) - Delta Air Lines'
pilots union has been hit with another wave of retirements - about 300 in June
- as its rank-and-file are expected to be asked by the struggling carrier to
dig even deeper for concessions. |
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The pilot retirements - many
among those under the required retirement age of 60 - leave the airline with
about 7,500 active pilots, union spokeswoman Karen Miller said. About 250
pilots retired in September 2003, she said. |
The voluntary retirements come
as Delta prepares to ask its pilots for more in wage, benefits and other
job-related concessions as the airline works to avoid bankruptcy amid higher
fuel costs and continued pressure from low-cost competitors.
BEIJING (AP) - China reported a
new outbreak of bird flu Tuesday and Thailand said it had a suspected case -
signs of a return of the highly contagious disease that health experts fear
could sicken humans. |
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It was China's first report of
the avian illness since it declared it had "stamped out" the disease
nearly four months ago. Tests at a farm in the southeastern province of Anhui
have confirmed chickens died of bird flu, the government said on state-run
television. |
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In Thailand, authorities said
they suspect a new outbreak of bird flu at a farm in the central province of
Ayutthaya. Thousands of chickens at the farm have died. |
Bird flu has also been
confirmed on farms in Vietnam in recent days.
By
The Associated Press |
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The Dow Jones industrial
average fell 63.49, or 0.6 percent, to 10,219.34. The Nasdaq dropped 43.23, or
2.2 percent, to 1,963.43. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 9.17, or
0.8 percent, at 1,116.21. |
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On the New York Mercantile
Exchange, crude futures set for August delivery settled up $1.26 at $39.65 a
barrel. August heating oil futures rose 2.04 cents to settle at $1.0931 a
gallon; August gasoline futures rose 2.77 cents to end at $1.2721 a gallon; and
August natural gas rose 27.6 cents to $6.424 per 1,000 cubic feet. |
In London, August Brent settled
88 cents higher at $37.18 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange.
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