Finance & Business World

Household confidence improved last week to match the highest level in four years as more Americans said their finances were in better shape.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index was minus 31.4 in the period ended April 15, compared with minus 32.8 over the previous seven days. The reading equaled that from two weeks earlier as the best since March 2008. Nonetheless, the monthly expectations measure fell from a one-year high, showing concern remains that too many Americans are still unemployed.

China’s economic growth slowed to its lowest level in nearly three years in the first quarter amid lending controls and weak trade.

The world’s second-largest economy grew by 8.1 percent in the three months ending in March, its weakest expansion since the second quarter of 2009, data showed Friday. It grew 8.9 percent in the last quarter of 2011.

China’s growth has declined steadily since mid-2010 as global demand for exports weakened and Beijing tightened lending and investment curbs to cool an overheated economy and surging inflation.

Most analysts expect China to achieve a “soft landing,” with its slowdown bottoming out later this year and growth rebounding. But some worry growth might fall too abruptly, raising the risk of job losses.

A sharp slump could have global repercussions, hurting demand for oil, industrial components and consumer goods at a time when U.S. and European growth are weak.

Other data reported Friday showed China’s factory output, retail sales and other economic indicators weakening, though still at robust levels. Factory output rose 11.6 percent over a year earlier in the first quarter. Retail sales were up 10.9 percent.

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The Senate voted Wednesday to overhaul transportation programs and keep aid flowing to thousands of construction projects while strengthening highway and auto safety.

The 74-22 vote stepped up pressure for quick action by House because the government’s power to collect about $110 million a day in federal gasoline and diesel taxes, the main source of revenue for highway and transit programs, is set to expire March 31. If a final bill isn’t on the president’s desk by then, Congress would have to approve a temporary extension to avoid a shutdown of the programs, including the furlough of Federal Highway Administration employees and the layoff of construction workers.

The White House praised senators for trying to address these critical national needs and expressed hope the House “will move swiftly” and follow suit.

The Senate’s measure would spend $109 billion over about two years and preserve or create an estimated 2.8 million jobs. It would increase the amount of money available for states by raising current spending levels to take into account inflation over the past several years. That’s still far short of the dollars that two congressional commissions have said are needed to maintain aging highways, bridges and rail systems while expanding the nation’s transportation network to accommodate population growth between now and 2050.

The measure would reduce the number of federal transportation programs by roughly two-thirds in an effort to eliminate duplication. Senators preserved bicycle, pedestrian, safe routes to schools and rails-to-trails programs, targeted for elimination by Republicans, under a compromise that means they would have to compete with other programs for money.

For transit commuters, the bill would extend, back to Jan. 1, a tax break that allows the deduction of up to $240 a month tax-free from their paychecks for expenses incurred traveling to work. That had expired at the end of 2011.

On the safety front, the bill would require stricter federal oversight of the long-distance and tour bus industries through deadlines for buses to have seat belts, stronger roofs, anti-ejection windows and rollover crash avoidance systems. The bus industry carries about 750 million passengers a year, roughly the same as the domestic airline industry.

Other safety provisions include requiring that automakers provide rear seat-belt reminder systems to get children and other backseat passengers to buckle up, and testing child safety seats in frontal and side impact crashes.

The bill would let Washington reward states with extra safety money if they require graduated licenses for teenage drivers, permit police to pull over and ticket drivers for seat-belt and booster-seat violations, and mandate that convicted drunken drivers use ignition-lock devices.

Safety advocates criticized the broad exemptions from federal commercial driver’s licensing, vehicle inspection and other safety requirements for agricultural trucks operating with 150 miles of their farms. Farm lobbies said the rules hinder farmers’ ability to get their products to market.

States would have greater discretion over how to spend federal aid. But the bill would mean new requirements aimed at preventing waste and ensuring that national goals are met.

A credit assistance program championed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that helps leverage private investment for transportation projects of national and regional significance would grow by tenfold to $1 billion. In the past, the program has generated as much as $30 in private capital for every $1 in aid.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., co-author of the measure, said the bill “”probably will go down as one of the most significant pieces of legislation this year.”

One thing the bill would not do is resolve how to keep the federal Highway Trust Fund solvent beyond next year.

The largest sources of money for the fund, which pays for highway and transit programs, are federal fuel taxes: 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents a gallon for diesel. Revenue from those taxes has declined since the economic downturn in 2008 and because the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks is increasing.

The bill would pay for highway programs through a combination of fuel taxes, cuts to other federal programs and tax changes, but also would drain the trust fund. Some senators have criticized provisions that are supposed to pay for transportation programs since they would raise about $10 billion over 10 years, but spend it in the first two years.

Efforts by House Republican leaders to pass their own, five-year bill without concessions to Democrats have fallen apart in recent weeks. The House returns next week from a weeklong recess.

Pointing to the large bipartisan vote in favor of the bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., urged House Republicans to consider passing the Senate measure as it is “to avert any crisis.”

“Why would they want to reinvent the wheel?” Boxer asked.

Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House plan is to “take up something that looks like” the Senate bill “unless the House coalesces around a better alternative, which we are actively pursuing.”

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The stock market finally got a deal from Greece, but it didn’t produce much of a rally.

The Dow Jones industrial average is finishing six points higher at 12,890. The Standard & Poor’s 500 is closing up two at 1,352. The Nasdaq composite ends the day up 11 at 2,927.

Greece says it has agreed to cut spending to satisfy some of its lenders. That’s a key condition for Greece to avoid a default next month that could spook world financial markets.

Earlier Thursday, the Dow rose to within 75 points of 13,000, a milestone it hasn’t reached since 2008. The S&P’s gain took it within about a point of doubling its level on March 9, 2009, the low for stocks during the Great Recession.

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Canada’s prime minister heads to China next week where he’ll discuss Canada’s vast oil reserves in a visit that’s being viewed as an “open warning” to the United States, which rejected a pipeline from Canada to Texas.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be in Beijing and two other cities for bilateral meetings with top Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, from Feb. 8-11.

Andrew MacDougall, Harper’s spokesman, said Friday it is “absolutely in Canada’s interests” to move the country’s resources to China.

Five Cabinet ministers, including the ministers of natural resources, trade and foreign affairs will make the trip with Harper.

Harper is determined to build a pipeline to Canada’s Pacific Coast after U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline that would have taken oil from Alberta to refineries in Texas.

Ninety-seven percent of Canadian oil exports now go to the U.S and Harper is eager to diversify. Canada is increasingly looking to China, thinking America doesn’t want a big-stake share in what environmentalists call “dirty oil,” which they say increases greenhouse gas emissions.

Canada has the world’s third-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela: more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production of 1.5 million barrels from the oil sands is expected to increase to 3.7 million by 2025, which the oil industry sees as a pressing reason to build the pipelines.

Harper told Obama he was “profoundly disappointed” that he rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline has become a hot topic in the U.S. presidential election. Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have both promised to approve the pipeline.

After Obama first delayed a decision on the Keystone pipeline in November, Harper told the Chinese president at the Pacific Rim summit in Hawaii that Canada would like to sell more oil to China, and the Canadian prime minister filled in Obama on what he said instant credit report.

Wenran Jiang, an energy expert and professor at the University of Alberta, said Canada is using China as leverage.

He said Harper’s visit is an explicit warning to the U.S.

“It’s a not a subtle warning. It’s an open warning,” Jiang said. “Harper has said Keystone was a wake-up call.”

Jiang said Washington will be paying attention to the trip but he said a number of factors make U.S. officials less worried than a few years ago when China’s intentions in Canada’s oil sector weren’t as clear as they are now.

Jiang said U.S. officials no longer fear that the Chinese are investing in Canada to lock up the supply and ship it back to China. But Jiang said that doesn’t prevent Republicans like Gingrich and Romney from raising fears that the U.S. is losing energy security.

David Goldwyn, a former energy official in the Obama administration, has said he sees no threat from Chinese inroads into Canada because there is more than enough oil for all concerned.

China’s growing economy is hungry for Canadian oil. Chinese state-owned companies have invested more than $16 billion in Canadian energy in the past two years. State-controlled Sinopec has a stake in Enbridge’s proposed Pacific pipeline, and if it is built, Chinese investment in Alberta oil sands is sure to boom.

Zhang Junsai, China’s ambassador to Canada, has said Harper’s visit will help forge a “win-win” natural resource partnership with Canada to help his country’s expanding economy meet its voracious energy needs.

Forty Canadian business leaders will accompany Harper on the trip.

Relations between the countries have improved since Harper’s first visit in 2009 when Premier Wen publicly chided Harper for taking so long to visit China. Harper has since changed Canada’s hardline stance on human rights.

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An unusual small claims lawsuit by a Honda hybrid owner took another complicated turn Wednesday with additional arguments that prompted a commissioner to delay a ruling for more consideration.

Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan said he was aware of “a media blitz on this case,” and wanted to be clear on all of the issues raised by Honda owner Heather Peters.

Peters told the court she was anxious to get the matter resolved and did not want to waste the court’s time.

“You’re not wasting the court’s time,” said Carnahan. “These are serious issues affecting more people than just you.”

Honda representative Neil Schmidt showed up for the hearing with a stack of envelopes that the commissioner estimated as 8 inches high, purportedly containing letters from satisfied Honda owners.

Carnahan declined to open the envelopes, saying it would just prolong the hearing that has already gone on longer than most small claims court actions.

Peters said she did not want to see the letters and had submitted her own testimonials from those who are dissatisfied with the cars.

“I’ll stipulate there are people who love their cars,” she said as she pointed to the audience where six other disappointed Honda owners were seated, including a woman who drove from Sacramento to attend the hearing.

The woman, Kathy Wood, of Elk Grove said outside court, “I drove from Sacramento because if she can do all this that’s the least I can do.”

Peters, a former lawyer, has been using the Internet to try to rally other Honda hybrid owners to follow her example and go to small claims court rather than accept a proposed class-action settlement by Honda.

Peters bought her car in April 2006.

Peters claimed the car never came close to the 50 miles per gallon (21.26 kilometers per liter) promised and that it got no more than 30 miles per gallon (12.75 kilometers per liter) when the battery began deteriorating. She still owns the car and wants to be compensated for money lost on gas, as well as punitive damages.

She bolted from a class-action lawsuit in order to sue for $10,000 rather than agree to a proposed settlement by Honda with thousands of car owners that would give each owner $100 to $200 and a $1,000 credit on the purchase of a new Honda.

She has said that if all owners of the problem cars won in small-claims court, it could cost Honda $2 billion

Wood said she is planning to opt out of a class-action suit.

“I’m never buying a Honda again,” Wood said.

Schmidt presented charts that he said showed that even with the decreased mileage, Peters benefited from having the car. She called his calculations “laughable.”

“If Honda snuck into my garage and siphoned gas out of my car, that’s a crime,” Peters told the commissioner. “That’s what they’re doing.”

Honda also sent Darren Johnson, its manager in charge of certifications, to explain how Honda tests its vehicles in relation to tests by the environmental protection agency.

Schmidt claimed there was no fraud and said “we’re being sued for telling the truth and she actually benefited from having the hybrid.”

Carnahan said he was taking the matter under submission and would have a ruling probably next week or at least before the Feb. 11 deadline for people to opt out of the class action case.

Outside court Peters said, “I feel great. I did my best. However he decides it I’m happy I did it. It’s brought to light a lot of background stuff that people should know.

“I’m the trailblazer here,” she said, “and everyone else can follow what I did.”

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World stock markets rose Friday, driven higher by a successful bond issue in Europe that eased worries over the continent’s sovereign debt crisis.

Benchmark oil rose to nearly $100 per barrel and the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

European shares rose in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 advanced 0.6 percent to 5,694.38. Germany’s DAX gained 0.7 percent to 6,221.96 and the CAC-40 in Paris gained 0.9 percent 3,229.17. Wall Street, too, was set to open higher, with Dow Jones industrial futures up 0.1 percent to 12,424. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent at 1,293.

Asian shares were mostly higher. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.4 percent to close at 8,500.02 and South Korea’s Kospi index moved 0.6 percent at 1,875.68. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index vacillated before closing in positive territory, up 0.6 percent to 19,204.42.

Australia’s S&P ASX 200 was 0.4 percent higher at 4,195.90. Benchmarks in Singapore, Indonesia, India and Malaysia also rose.

But mainland Chinese shares fell as investors continued to cash in on recent gains. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.3 percent to 2,244.58, while the Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 3.5 percent to 845.93.

“The market will be volatile for the next one or two weeks after this correction, since there is just no support for the market to rise in the long term,” said Xu Xiaoyu, an analyst at China Investment Securities, based in Beijing.

PetroChina, the country’s biggest oil and gas company and the Shanghai benchmark’s biggest component, gained 1.4 percent as oil prices rose to near $100 a barrel in Asia on Friday on worries over supply tightness.

Elsewhere, raw materials and industrial companies advanced, following their U.S. counterparts higher. Japanese heavy equipment maker Komatsu Ltd guaranteed payday loans. jumped 4.1 percent and Hitachi Construction Machinery gained 3.8 percent.

Energy Resources of Australia soared 6 percent and Paladin Energy Ltd., an Australian uranium miner, gained 3.1 percent. But shares in Australia’s QBE Insurance group dropped 3.1 percent, after the company warned its earnings could halve following a spate of natural disasters in 2011.

South Korean tech shares advanced, with Samsung Electronics Co., the country’s largest company, up 1.8 percent and Hynix Semiconductor, a global leader in chip-making, surging 4.1 percent. Its largest banking group, Woori Financial Holdings Co., jumped 3.9 percent.

Strong bond auctions in Italy and Spain on Thursday pushed stocks higher. Italy was able to sell one-year bonds at a rate of just 2.735 percent, less than half the 5.95 percent rate it had to pay last month. Spain was able to raise double the amount of money it had sought to raise in its own bond sale as demand for its debt was strong.

Investors have been worried that Italy and Spain might get dragged into the region’s debt crisis. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have been forced to get relief from their lenders after their borrowing costs spiked to levels the countries could no longer afford.

Benchmark oil for February delivery rose 78 cents to $99.88 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract tumbled $2 to finish at $99.10 per barrel in New York on Thursday.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.2843 from $1.2827 late Thursday in New York. The dollar was slightly down at 76.73 yen from 76.76 yen.

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Banks are hoarding the European Central Bank

Three Federal Reserve policy makers called on the U.S. government to try new programs to revive the housing market while differing over whether the central bank should take more steps to cut borrowing costs.

New York Fed President William C. Dudley said in New Jersey today that

Boeing Co. beat Lockheed Martin Corp. to win a $3.48 billion, seven-year contract that lets it keep its role as the primary developer of the U.S. shield against intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Missile Defense Agency announced the contract in a statement Friday. The agency oversees the Ground-based Midcourse Missile Defense, which includes interceptors in Alaska and California, ground- and sea-based radar, satellites and a command and control system.

The Boeing team, which included Northrop Grumman Corp. of Falls Church, Va., delivered “a cost-effective approach to program management and execution,” Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive of Boeing’s defense unit, said in a statement.

Lockheed, the world’s largest defense contractor, was seeking to dislodge Boeing from the contract it has held since 1998. Boeing has said the program totaled as much as $18 billion during the 10 years ending 2011.

Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, head of the Missile Defense Agency, said in August 2010, when the agency was preparing to call for bids, that it needed to contain costs.

“But before we get to cost, bidders have got to demonstrate they’ve the capacity and capability, and also an ability to do upgrades,” he said high risk personal loans.

Lockheed’s team included Raytheon, which makes the non-exploding warhead that is designed to seek and destroy enemy missiles. Raytheon was on both teams.

The news for Boeing officials came just one day after they and St. Louis leaders lauded a $30 billion deal for the company to provide Saudi Arabia with 84 new F-15 fighters. The deal will prolong production of the F-15, which is largely built at Boeing’s plant in north St. Louis County, by about five years, through 2020.

The Regional Chamber and Growth Association on Friday estimated that the F-15 work supports 1,000 manufacturing jobs at Boeing and contributes to nearly 4,000 more through local suppliers and spinoff activity.

The Boeing jobs generate $1.1 billion a year in wages and other economic activity, and the indirect impact is another roughly $1.8 billion, according to RCGA economist Ruth Sergenian.

Tim Logan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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