Finance & Business World

Russia devalued the ruble for the third time in a week, sending the currency to its lowest level against the dollar since January 2006, as oil’s drop below $37 a barrel dimmed the outlook for growth.

The ruble, down 18 percent against the dollar since the beginning of August, weakened 0.9 percent against the U.S. currency to 28.6905 and 1.4 percent versus the euro to 40.1773, near an all-time low.

The central bank allowed the ruble to fall about 1 percent against a basket of dollars and euros, accelerating the slide after spending 27 percent of reserves, or $162.7 billion, trying to defend the currency over four months. Oil, Russia’s biggest export earner, lost 4 percent to $37.43 on the New York Mercantile Exchange and is down nearly 75 percent since the July high. The government requires oil to average $70 to balance its 2009 budget.

“As long as oil remains depressed and at many year lows the central bank has no other choice but to carry on with its devaluation,” said Mikhail Galkin, head of fixed income research at MDM Bank in Moscow.

The currency has fallen 14 percent against the dollar and 11 percent versus the euro this year amid the plunge in oil, international condemnation of the country’s war with Georgia and the spreading global credit crisis. BNP Paribas SA estimates investors withdrew $211 billion from Russia since August. The nation’s oligarchs, who and took over assets of the biggest companies after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, are vying for $78 billion of Kremlin loans to meet debt payments.

Recession

The economy, which recovered from the government’s 1998 debt default to expand an average 7 percent in the eight years to 2007, may slip into a recession in the first half of 2009, Kremlin economic adviser Arkady Dvorkovich told Bloomberg Television on Dec pay day loan. 19.

The government will post a budget deficit next year for the first time in a decade and will use its $132.6 billion reserve fund, or extra oil revenue the government has set aside, to cover the financing gap, Dvorkovich told reporters in Moscow today.

An “accelerating” ruble devaluation is “detrimental” to economic growth because it stimulates currency speculation and limits new lending, Evgeny Gavrilenkov, chief economist at Troika Dialog in Moscow, wrote in a research note today. Troika Dialog earlier called for a one-time depreciation of as much as 20 percent.

“If in 2009 the oil price is between $30 and $40 and the state carries on with its strange policies on the money market, the possibility of an economic downturn will rise,” Gavrilenkov said.

Currency Basket

The ruble fell 1.2 percent against the basket of dollars and euros that the central bank uses to manage its fluctuations, and traded at 33.86 at 5:02 p.m. in Moscow.

Bank Rossii allowed the ruble to decline against its currency basket for the third time in four working days and the 10th time since Nov. 11, according to a central bank official who declined to be identified.

The Micex stock index fell for the first time in four days to 654.29, a drop of 1.1 percent.

Source

European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet said there’s a limit to how far the bank can cut interest rates and signaled policy makers may pause in January.

“Do we have a feeling there is a limit to the decrease in rates? At this stage certainly yes,” Trichet told journalists in Frankfurt late yesterday. The comments were embargoed until today. Asked whether the ECB will refrain from a further rate reduction next month, Trichet said it wants to “concentrate at this stage on getting what we already decided to be really operational.”

With risk-averse banks still refusing to lend to each other after monetary policy was loosened at an historic pace, Trichet’s ECB is more reluctant than the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England to fight the financial crisis with more rate cuts. The Fed may lower its benchmark rate to the lowest on record later today, and Bank of England Governor Mervyn King indicated U.K. policy makers are likely to keep reducing rates.

“The message from Trichet is that there is some caution at the ECB about cutting interest rates too far,” said Klaus Baader, chief European economist at Merrill Lynch & Co. in London. “The ECB is going to focus more on making sure previous rate cuts are passed on to money markets, so we don’t see them cutting as soon as January. There will be more cuts later.”

Deepening Recession

The ECB has lowered its benchmark rate by 175 basis points since October to 2.5 percent, the most aggressive reduction in its 10-year history. Europe’s manufacturing and services industries contracted in December at the fastest pace in at least a decade, data showed today, indicating the economy is falling deeper into recession.

Investors are betting the slump will force the ECB to slice at least another 25 basis points off its key rate at its next policy meeting on Jan. 15, Eonia forward contracts show. Before Trichet’s comments were published today, a 50-point cut had been fully priced in for January. The euro rose and the yield on the two-year note, the most sensitive to interest-rate expectations, pared gains.

“We have to beware of being trapped at nominal rates that would be much too low,” Trichet said. “It seems to me that it is certainly something we have in mind and we will have to examine that and reflect on that. But as you know, we never pre- commit.”

“The ECB is taking an isolationist stance to differentiate itself from the Fed and the BOE,” said Julian Callow, chief European economist at Barclays Capital in London, who believes the bank will pause next month and then cut its key rate to 1 guaranteed payday loans.25 percent by May.

‘Free Riding’

“In a way it’s free riding on the U.S. fiscal stimulus plan, hoping it will help the global economy,” said Callow. “However, with the Fed embarking on quantitative easing, it will push up the euro, which would be another massive blow to Europe’s economy.”

The Fed may today halve its main interest rate to 0.5 percent and signal plans to channel credit to businesses and consumers by further enlarging its $2.26 trillion of assets. The policy, known as quantitative easing, was adopted by the Bank of Japan for five years through March 2006 to fight deflation.

While Trichet refused to rule out such measures given the “extraordinary” circumstances, he said it would “not be appropriate” at the moment for the ECB to start buying government bonds.

Deposit Rate Cut?

Instead he urged banks to lend to each other again and said the ECB is examining whether to cut its deposit rate further to discourage financial institutions from parking excess cash with it overnight. Banks deposited 178.4 billion euros ($244 billion) with the ECB yesterday. In the year to Sept. 15, deposits with the ECB averaged just 534 million euros a day.

The euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, that banks say they charge each other for three-month loans fell 4 basis points to 3.20 percent today, European Banking Federation data showed. While the lowest since August 2006, that’s still 70 basis points more than the ECB’s benchmark. The gap averaged 15 basis points in the seven years to August 2007, before the credit crisis began.

Since lowering the benchmark rate on Dec. 4 by 75 basis points, the biggest-ever single reduction, some ECB officials have indicated they’re reluctant to cut borrowing costs much further. Executive Board member Juergen Stark said on Dec. 10 that the scope for further moves is “very limited” and Bundesbank President Axel Weber said the next day he “would like to avoid” the ECB’s key rate falling below 2 percent.

By contrast, Portugal’s Vitor Constancio said last week that policy makers still have a “margin of maneuver” on rates to fight the “risk of a significant recession.”

Trichet said it’s important to ensure that the ECB’s 175 basis points of monetary easing to date “is effective in terms of going through the various channels and into the real economy.”

Source

While attendance may be down at the 49th annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and boat sales have run into choppy seas, some positive signs persist for both the show and boat sales across South Florida.

The show, which ran Oct. 30 through Nov. 3, saw a 4 percent decrease in attendance from last year for all of the days of the show, excluding the final Monday, a show spokeswoman said.

Show Management, the managerial agency, did not immediately provide exact headcounts for each day or final figures. The spokeswoman estimated that between 130,000 and 140,000 people attended last year.

Sales figures may not be available until a week after the show ends, but the general outlook was positive, according to Show Management COO Andrew Doole.

The financial crisis caused some concern for vendors and show organizers, he said. Still, “I think everybody here is pleasantly surprised at the crowd we’ve got.”

The crowd was relatively steady, thanks to increased marketing efforts abroad. The show targeted Russia, the Middle East and South America, in particular, Doole said. The result: a 15 percent increase in international attendance.

International attendance was helped by the fact that many new marinas have been built in Central and South America and the value of the U.S. dollar, which, until recently, had declined against many foreign currencies, Doole said.

“The boats here are a bargain at the moment,” he noted.

While the dollar and the soft market for smaller boats have caused many price tags to drop, not every boat is a bargain. Some brokers and builders said the megayacht sector –those boats longer than 80 feet and often priced in the millions – are selling just fine.

“Under 100 feet or under 80 feet, those guys are dying,” said Tim Johnson, a broker at International Yacht Collection’s Fort Lauderdale office emergency cash loans. But, since most of International Yacht Collection’s boats are “well above” 100 feet and its clientele is extremely affluent, the company’s business is steady, he said.

“People ask me on a daily basis: ‘Isn’t the price of fuel affecting your business?’ Oh, give me a break,” Johnson said.

Mike Dickman, director of marketing for HMY Yacht Sales in Dania Beach, said that most of HMY’s boats are in the mid range – 45 feet to 80 feet – exposing them to more market pressure than the biggest boats. Still, early sales from this year’s show forecast a better year than last, he said.

The credit crunch may make financing a boat more difficult, but it didn’t play a large role, said Frank Herhold, executive director of Marine Industries Association of South Florida. However, it could impact lower-end sales where the industry is seeing a slowdown, he said.

“My gut feeling is [getting financing is] a little bit tougher but it’s there,” Herhold said. “I haven’t had dealers tell me they lost a sale because they couldn’t get financing.”

At any rate, the high-end deals are mostly cash, he noted.

South Florida Business Journal reported data in late September showing that new boat sales here declined 26 percent for the first half of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007.

The decline is a large concern for the marine industry, which has an estimated $13.5 million impact on the region and accounts for more than 150,000 jobs.

Source

The Portland Development Commission has set a deadline for project applications within the Convention Center Urban Renewal area.

The Nov. 21 deadline comes as PDC considers how to disperse funds within its commercial redevelopment program. The program provides financial assistance for property development or rehabilitation that supports urban renewal goals.

Such goals include redeveloping vacant and abandoned buildings, preserving historic buildings and adding transit-oriented development projects.

PDC’s commercial redevelopment program supplements primary financing. The money typically goes for acquisition, pre-development, construction and permanent financing low fee payday advance. The funding comes through tax-increment financing and must be tied to improving specific urban renewal areas.

The Convention Center urban renewal area contains 593 acres in Northeast Portland. The area expires in June 2013.

Applicants can attend an Oct. 21 PDC informational session regarding project eligibility. The hour-long meeting takes place at 4:30 p.m. in the PDC’s Commission Conference Room, 222 N.W. Fifth Ave.

Visit www.pdc.us/occredevloan for more loan program details.

Source

Big Dog Motorcycles announced Friday it has laid off 22 employees and will lay off 27 more in the next 60 days.

The layoffs are a consequence of economic problems, which no motorcycle company has been immune to this year, says Paul Hansen, marketing director at Big Dog.

It is the third round of layoffs for the Wichita company in the last year.

“We’re resizing the company to reposition it so when the economy rebounds we’ll have the right product, and we’ll still be a viable player in the marketplace,” Hansen says.

Hansen says high-end motorcycle sales, which Big Dog specializes in, have been on the decline for the last two to three years.

“Then we come into this year with the mortgage crisis,” he says 1500 payday loans. “That’s kind of hurts us on both fronts, because a lot of our customer base is the people who build the houses — a lot of home builders and contractors and blue-collar workers.”

Lenders tightening credit standards, high gas prices and the upcoming presidential election have also contributed to the slump, Hansen says.

Source

Harsch Investment Properties is implementing a nonsmoking policy at Pacific Office Center.

Effective Monday, all areas of the building and its perimeter — including entryways, garages, outside lobbies and the loading dock — will be designated nonsmoking. Those who wish to smoke must be at least 25 feet from these areas. Signs will be posted around the building to identify the property as nonsmoking.

Harsh said the policy “is intended to improve the overall health and work environment for all tenants and their guests.”

“We understand this will be an inconvenience for some, but are steadfast in our belief that this will be a positive change,” Harsch’s senior property manager Lisa Ezell-Rummel said in a memo to the buildings tenants easy payday loan. “Several downtown office buildings, including our neighbors at Fox Tower, have implemented similar nonsmoking policies and found strong support from a majority of their tenants.”

Source

The Supreme Court said Monday it will review a $79.5 million punitive damages judgment against Marlboro-maker Philip Morris for the third time.

The justices have twice struck down the award to the family of a longtime smoker of Marlboros, made by Altria Group Inc.’s (MO, Fortune 500) Philip Morris USA.

Oregon courts have repeatedly upheld the judgment. The most recent ruling, in January, followed a high court decision last year that said jurors may punish a defendant only for harm done to someone who is suing, not other smokers who could make similar claims.

The justices will consider only whether the Oregon Supreme Court in essence ignored the U.S. high court’s ruling, not whether the amount of the judgment is constitutionally permissible.

The case will be argued in the fall.

Altria associate general counsel Murray Garnick applauded the justices’ decision to review the case again.

"The Court has previously instructed the Oregon appellate courts to properly apply the constitutional standards to the punitive damage award in this case. The Oregon courts have not done so, and so the Supreme Court has agreed to review the case once again," Garnick said.

The award was for the family of Jesse Williams, a former Portland janitor who started smoking during a 1950s Army hitch and died in 1997, six months after he was diagnosed with lung cancer advance america cash advance. A jury in Portland made the award in 1999.

The Oregon high court made its first decision in 2002, refusing to hear an appeal from Philip Morris.

Then the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the judgment of nearly $80 million, saying that punitive damages generally should be held to no more than nine times actual economic damages. It declined, however, to make that a firm rule.

In the Williams case, the family was awarded $800,000 in actual damages. The punitive damages are about 97 times greater. A state court previously cut the compensatory award to $521,000.

Next, the Oregon Supreme Court upheld the punitive damages, citing "extraordinarily reprehensible" conduct on the part of Philip Morris officials.

Then came the U.S. Supreme Court’s second take on the case, last year, a narrower ruling that did not address the size of the award but only how juries could consider the conduct of defendants in determining punitive damages.

Philip Morris also had asked the justices to rule on the size of the award, but they declined Monday to review that aspect of the appeal.

The case is Philip Morris USA v. Williams, 07-1216. 

Source

Earnings at the state's only public winery fell in the first quarter of 2008, due partly to rising fuel prices.

Turner-based Willamette Valley Vineyards (NASDAQ: WVVI) reported first quarter earnings of $60,000, or 1 cent per share, on sales of $3.4 million, compared with earnings of $234,000, or 5 cents per share, on sales of $3.6 million in the same quarter last year.

Sales slowed as a result of shortages of three pinot noir products, distributors ordering smaller quantities to reduce inventory, and higher fuel costs payday loan. The company's restaurant clients also reported less revenue than the prior year, reducing demand for wine.

The winery bottled approximately 40,000 cases in the quarter.

Shares were down less than 1 percent in after hours trading to $7.02. In the past 52 weeks, shares have traded between $5.08 and $7.50.

Source

Hungary's central bank may raise the benchmark interest rate for a third month to stop rising food and energy prices from accelerating inflation, which is already running at twice the bank's target, a survey showed.

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank in Budapest will raise the two- week deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 8.5 percent, the second-highest in the European Union after Romania, according to 16 of 21 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Five expect no change. The decision will be announced at 2 p.m. local time today.

Hungarian consumer prices have been rising more than twice as fast as the central bank target for 19 months. The bank will publish a quarterly update of its inflation forecast today and is likely to raise predictions for price increases this year and next, forcing policy makers' hands, analysts said.

“If they raise the inflation forecast but don't raise the interest rate, then they're hurting their credibility,'' said Zsolt Kondrat, a Budapest-based chief economist for Bayerische Landesbank's Hungarian unit.

Forward-rate agreements show that investors are betting on more than 25 basis points in rate increases in the next three to six months. The six-month forward rate was at 8.65 percent on May 23. The three-month money market rate was at 8.55 percent on May 23, also a sign of expectations for a rising rate.

The inflation rate was 6.6 percent in April, compared with the central bank's 3 percent target. The bank's most recent forecast, published in February, was for an inflation rate of 5.2 percent this year and 3.6 percent next year us fast cash.

Ready to Raise

Policy makers last month voted 7-4 to raise the benchmark rate to a three-year high of 8.25 percent, from 8 percent, and said they may lift it again as rising food and oil prices threaten to push up other costs.

Core inflation, which strips out some volatile food and energy prices and is one of the central bank's most closely watched figures, rose in April to an annual 5.6 percent from 5.3 percent in March.

Accelerating core inflation “strengthens our previously held position'' of being ready to lift the benchmark rate to fight consumer prices in case they threaten the bank's targets, bank vice president Julia Kiraly said on May 14.

Producer prices, an early indicator of inflation, also rose at a faster pace in March than the month before, rising to an annual 5.7 percent from 4.9 percent in February.

Some policy makers may reconsider raising rates because the forint has strengthened since the last rate-setting monetary council, helping cut the cost of imported goods, analysts said. The currency reached a three-year high of 242.38 per euro on May 21. It was trading at 244.42 at 8:13 a.m., from 244.68 late on May 23.

“The forint has strengthened incredibly and I'm sure there will be council members who would like to put a stop to rate increases,'' said Mariann Trippon, a Budapest-based economist at Intesa Sanpaolo SpA.

Source

US Airways Group Inc. will no longer offer passengers free snacks on its domestic flights starting June 1.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based airline, which has its largest hub at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, says the cost-cutting measure stems from the impact of rising fuel costs.

In addition to charging travelers for checking a second bag and premium-coach seating, US Airways is evaluating other fees for services paydayloans.

US Airways (NYSE:LCC) operates 3,800 flights per day to more than 230 destinations in the Americas and Europe.

Source