Finance & Business World

Asian stocks opened lower Wednesday after Slovakia blocked a measure to expand Europe’s financial rescue program for heavily indebted countries.

The move sent markets south as worries intensified that a failure by Europe to contain its debt crisis could lead to a massive debt default by the Greek government.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.7 percent to 8,716.13. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.3 percent to 1,790.30, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.4 percent to 17,894.31. Benchmarks in Australia, Taiwan, Singapore and mainland China were also lower.

Slovakia’s parliament rejected a bill Tuesday that would have strengthened the powers of a regional rescue fund to help bail out strapped economies in the eurozone.

The 16 other countries that use the euro have already signed off on the bill, but the measure requires unanimous support.

There are ways around Slovakia’s opposition, but the move temporarily sets back efforts to address Europe’s debt jam, which has been the most important issue for financial markets for months.

Greece has been on the brink of defaulting on its debt for months. If that happens, it would hurt European and U.S. banks by decimating the value of Greek government bonds they own. Those banks would then be less likely to lend to each other and to businesses. That could plug up an already weak global economy, with implications for everything from bank stocks to international trade.

The decision came after U.S. stock markets closed. The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 17 points after moving between small gains and losses throughout the day.

The Dow lost 0.1 percent to close at 11,416.3. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.1 percent to 1,195.54, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.7 percent to 2,583.03.

Many market watchers think the volatility will continue until heavily indebted countries like Greece, Spain and Italy have established a clear path out of their current debt mess.

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Dow Chemical Co. and the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. say they’ve signed an agreement that advances their plan to build one of the world’s biggest chemical plants in Saudi Arabia. The $20 billion complex is expected to begin production in 2015.

The companies announced Saturday that they signed a joint venture agreement for Sadara Chemical Co., which will own the plant being built in the desert kingdom. It will generate an estimated $10 billion in revenue annually.

Dow and Saudi Aramco together are investing about $12 billion, and a portion of Sadara will be sold to shareholders in a public offering in 2013 or 2014. The complex, with 26 manufacturing units, will be the largest integrated chemical facility ever built in one go, the companies say.

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The Associated Press emphasized its efforts to strengthen state news reports and investigative and accountability journalism in its annual presentation to media executives Thursday.

AP leaders told the members of the Associated Press Media Editors that the news cooperative continues to beef up state news reports, despite staff reductions and budget pressures shared with the industry.

The news cooperative is continuing its “Broken Budgets” multimedia series launched this year. The joint reporting project with AP members expands statehouse coverage to explore cutbacks in state budgets. The series has examined dozens of aspects of state finances, from spending on roads and schools to the nuts-and-bolts of how states borrow and spend.

The AP has also changed staffing in some areas to expand early morning news.

“We have to take that breaking news and drive it faster than we ever had before,” said Kathleen Carroll, executive editor and a senior vice president for the AP.

The AP also told media executives that the company has expanded state photo reports and reaffirmed its commitment to investigative journalism, highlighting an award-winning “Aging Nukes” series that detailed problems at U.S. nuclear plants.

AP leaders said the company has never placed a higher priority on accountability journalism, putting a greater emphasis on seeking public records and fact-checking claims by political candidates and public officials. Across the company, AP staffers filed some 1,500 requests for public documents last year, said Kristin Gazlay, AP vice president and managing editor for financial news and global training.

Political editor Liz Sidoti said the AP is bulking up analysis pieces to check statements by politicians, at times assigning a dozen reporters to scrutinize facts at a single presidential debate fast cash advance loan. She told news executives to expect more analysis to guide political coverage, especially as politicians step up claims about the economy.

Sidoti said the cooperative considers its top assignment over the coming to year to cover “the economy intersecting with the presidential campaign.”

She predicted a lively year.

“We’re all going to have a very competitive presidential race to cover next year,” Sidoti said.

AP Director of Photography Santiago Lyon told the executives that increased cooperation has meant many more photos in the U.S.

Lyon said domestic photo transmissions were up 9 percent in the second quarter of this year. He also said AP is better sharing photo coverage plans with members to avoid overlap.

“We continue to make good progress toward increasing the quality, and the volume, of the state photo reports,” he said.

AP also presented a good-natured look at its famed AP Stylebook, created in 1953 and the definitive style guide for publishers in all formats. AP in the last year added a new guide on food and recipes to its 2011 Stylebook, and quizzed media executives on some of the year’s style changes.

Every hand in the room went up to identify the correct style on “email.” The editor of the AP Stylebook, David Minthorn, said it was the best-known style change of the year.

“It was the dropped hyphen heard by copy editors around the world,” he said.

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U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories fell 21 in August to $649 million, according to market researcher NPD Group, partly because the popular “Madden NFL 12″ released later in the month than usual.

In its monthly report, the NPD Group said Thursday that video game software sales _ which refers to sales of the games themselves _ sank 34 percent in August to $265 million, compared with nearly $404 million in August 2010.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier said much of this drop stemmed from video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc.’s decision to release its latest “Madden” football game, “Madden NFL 12,” at the end of August, which is later than it usually rolls out a new version of the game. She added that the next several months includes a “strong release schedule” and that full-year game sales may end up flat or up slightly compared with 2010.

The research firm does not include game downloads and online games in its monthly retail sales data, so the numbers can sometimes show a decline even if more people are playing games on Facebook, their mobile phones and elsewhere payday loan.

Sales of video game hardware, which includes hand-held game systems and gaming consoles such as Nintendo Co.’s Wii and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360, dropped 12 percent to $249 million from $283 million a year earlier. Sales of video game accessories inched down 1 percent to $135 million.

Adding in sales of PC games, overall U.S. sales dropped 23 percent overall to $670 million.

The top-selling games during the month included “Deus Ex: Human Revolution” from Square Enix Inc., “NCAA Football 12″ from Electronic Arts Inc. and “Call of Duty: Black Ops” from Activision Blizzard Inc.

For the current month, Frasier expects “Madden NFL 12″ to take the top spot.

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Missouri’s tough laws discourage Ralcorp takeover, report says

Unless Ralcorp Holdings’ shows some willingness to come to the table to negotiate a sale, ConAgra Foods won’t increase its $94 a share offer because of Missouri’s stringent laws on hostile takeovers, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing sources close to the matter.

Omaha, Neb payday loans in 1 hour.-based ConAgra has made several attempts to buy the St. Louis-based company this year only to be rebuffed by Ralcorp’s board of directors. Ralcorp’s stock closed Tuesday at $81.83 a share, signaling that shareholders also don’t have much faith a sale will proceed. (Lisa Brown)

U.S. plans to nix hundreds of rules

The back-to-school season got off to a strong start as discounts and high temperatures in July drove shoppers to air-conditioned malls.

But merchants worry that momentum won’t continue through the remainder of the second-biggest shopping period of the year as the weather cools and the deals dry up.

Despite a flow of bad economic news that kept consumer confidence shaky, a number of retailers reported July revenue on Thursday that beat Wall Street estimates, including discounter Target, department store Macy’s and luxury chain Saks payday loan lenders. The International Council of Shopping Centers’ preliminary tally of retailers’ revenue at stores open at least a year

Shoe and sports clothing maker Adidas says net profit rose 11 percent in the second quarter and reported a big jump in sales in China.

Net profit rose to euro140 million ($200 million) from euro126 million in the same quarter a year ago, and the company said it was boosting its earnings outlook for the full year.

Adidas, the world’s No. 2 sporting goods maker behind Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike Inc., said Thursday that sales were now expected to increase 10 percent for the full year, excluding changes in currency exchange rates. That is up from the previous outlook for high single-digit sales growth.

Its full-year earnings per share estimate narrowed to euro3.12-euro3 cash advance flexible payments.10 from euro3.12-euro2.98.

Shares rose 3.25 percent to euro50.42 in morning trading German time.

The company, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, said Thursday that group revenues in the quarter rose 5 percent to euro3.06 billion, but that sales were up 10 percent however when currency shifts were excluded.

Sales increased by double-digit percentages in all geographic regions for the first half, with a 37 percent increase in China.

Adidas brands include Reebok shoes and Taylor-Made golf equipment.

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Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday downgraded Ireland’s government bond ratings to junk, dealing a further blow to the eurozone as it struggles to contain a worsening debt crisis.

Moody’s said it cut Ireland’s rating by one notch to Ba1 from Baa3, because it sees a growing risk the debt-ridden country will need a second bailout once its current rescue package expires at the end of 2013. The outlook for Ireland remains “negative,” Moody’s added.

Banks and other private investors will likely be asked to contribute to any new bailout, for instance by giving Ireland more time to repay its bonds, Moody’s said. Such private sector involvement is currently being negotiated for Greece, the first eurozone country that had to be bailed out and which now is negotiating its second rescue package within a little over a year.

The downgrade of Ireland follows a similar move last week, when Moody’s cut the rating of Portugal, the third victim of the eurozone’s debt crisis. It comes at a difficult time for the 17-country currency union, which in recent days has seen the crisis threatening to engulf big countries like Spain and Italy, which are too big to be bailed out.

A two-day meeting of finance ministers in Brussels, which concluded earlier Tuesday, opened the door for lower interest rates and longer maturities for the rescue loans of already bailed out countries _ a move that should take some pressure off Ireland. The ministers said they would also discuss wider powers for the eurozone’s bailout fund, such as the right to buy distressed bonds on the open market and thereby lower a country’s debt load.

However, the concessions, which remained very vague, came as ministers for the first time acknowledged that they are prepared to accept a temporary default rating for Greece as part of their efforts to get banks and investment funds to share the burden of a second bailout.

The debate over the new Greek package has rocked markets and undermined investor confidence in other struggling countries like Ireland. It has also pushed the European Union and other eurozone countries to attack the rating agencies, which they say are unfair in their assessments of countries that have already been saved.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive and one of the institutions overseeing Ireland’s exiting bailout, immediately came out against the downgrade.

“It contrasts very much with the recent data, which support a return to GDP growth this year, and the determined implementation of the (bailout) program by the Irish government, which has taken strong ownership of it,” the Commission said in a statement.

Moody’s acknowledged that the Irish government has slashed its budget deficit _ the EU’s largest by far last year _ and met the targets set out in its program, which on top of cuts also includes tax increases and economic reforms.

However, Moody’s warned that “implementation risks remain significant, particularly in light of the continued weakness in the Irish economy.”

It also cited “the shift in tone among EU governments towards the conditions under which support to distressed euro area sovereigns will be made available.”

The EU has been locked in a battle with rating agencies for the past week, after it slammed Moody’s decision to downgrade Portugal. The bloc has already implemented new rules for rating agencies following their failure to predict the credit crisis of 2007-08. It is set to propose a new round of regulation in November, in which it may introduce new requirements for sovereign debt ratings, such as a longer warning period for governments, allowing them to point out flaws with the data. It is also considering to stop ratings for countries that have an international support program, saying that the agencies have so far not taken proper account of European solidarity and that those countries are already under sufficient surveillance from their public creditors.

Debt inspectors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are currently in Dublin, checking on the implementation of the bailout program before the next loan installment can be transferred. Their mission is set to end on Thursday.

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Shareholders of electronics manufacturer LaBarge Inc. approved the sale of the Ladue-based company to Ducommun Inc. at a special meeting held today.

Ducommun, an aerospace supplier based in Carson, Calif., announced in April that it was buying LaBarge for $340 million. The sale is expected to close on or about June 28.

LaBarge, which has 40 local employees, will become part of Ducommun’s Technologies subsidiary, which will be renamed Ducommun LaBarge Technologies. The subsidiary will be headquartered in the St. Louis area, according to a LaBarge spokeswoman.

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Steve Taylor and his father Wray have close to $250,000 worth of solar power panels sitting in a field near Strathroy, Ont., that can