Finance & Business World

Even the hottest initial public stock offerings can lose steam after their first day of trading.

Sure, company insiders will make money selling at the opening price. And investors who used connections or big bucks to score shares at the IPO price will profit if they sell after a first-day “pop.”

For everyone else, the wildly mixed record of other ballyhooed IPOs beyond their first trading session offers a lesson. It’s one that should remind us that buying Facebook stock Friday provides a chance to lose money.

It’s understandable that everyone wants to get in early on what could be the next Google. Shares of the Internet search leader had an initial offering price of $85 in 2004, started on the stock market at $100 and climbed above $700 by 2007. Even after moving sideways for more than four years, they’re still above $600.

But odds are against hitting a grand slam like that in the current market.

Cautionary points to weigh if the Facebook frenzy is tempting you to buy stock on Day 1:

YOU’LL PAY MORE FOR YOUR STOCK THAN THE SMART MONEY DID.

The vast majority of average investors couldn’t get in at the $38-per-share offer price. Those shares went largely to company insiders, the deal’s underwriters or their fat-walleted clients. The price almost always shoots quickly higher by the time orders to buy at the market price kick in no fax cash loans.

SEVERAL OF LAST YEAR’S “MUST-HAVE” IPOS AREN’T ANY MORE.

— Pandora, an Internet radio company, went public June 15 at $20 a share. You could have bought the stock during the day for $26. It’s now trading under $11.

— Groupon, the online daily deal company, priced its stock at $20 a share in its Nov. 4 IPO. The stock traded above $31 the first day. Now it’s under $13.

— Zynga, the developer of “FarmVille” and other Facebook games, went public at $10 a share on Dec.16. The stock traded as high as $11.50 on its opening day. Lately it’s around $8.

— Even one of last year’s IPO stars isn’t a huge winner when you factor in the risk. LinkedIn more than doubled from its $45 offer price within minutes of hitting the market last May 19 and reached $122.70 before closing the first day at $94.25. It’s back to around $105 after a turbulent year, with a modest overall gain of 11 percent since the first day.

Buy-and-hold investors who want to make money off Facebook should hold off on the first day of trading. Maybe later they can think about buying.

Dave Carpenter is a AP’s personal finance writer

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The former head of Britain’s civil service says Prime Minister David Cameron’s links with the media were too cozy.

Gus O’Donnell retired in December after serving for six years as Britain’s top civil servant and chief adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron.

In evidence Monday to the country’s media ethics inquiry, he acknowledged Cameron had become too close to sections of the press.

O’Donnell told the hearing that Cameron had “felt his relationships had got too close, and I agree with that.”

The inquiry is investigating the work of Britain’s press in the wake of the tabloid phone hacking scandal.

Cameron set up the ethics inquiry amid public revulsion over the revelations that the News of the World had hacked murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone when she disappeared in 2002.

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An official says remains of several victims of a jetliner crash on the slopes of an Indonesian volcano have been airlifted to the capital for identification.

Search teams who climbed the near-vertical volcano face have been struggling to retrieve the bodies of the 45 people who were aboard the Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 that crashed during a demonstration flight for potential buyers.

Search and rescue agency spokesman Gagah Prakoso said a thick fog that had shrouded the slopes finally lifted Saturday, allowing helicopters to land.

Prakoso says the aircraft brought four body bags with remains to Jakarta.

There is still no sign of the black box recorder that might explain why the jetliner crashed about halfway into Wednesday’s 50-minute flight.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

MOUNT SALAK, Indonesia (AP) _ Search teams who scaled a volcano’s steep slopes found at least 12 bodies Friday near the wreckage of a Russian-made jetliner that crashed in Indonesia during a demonstration flight for potential buyers, an official said.

All 45 aboard the Sukhoi Superjet-100 that crashed Wednesday are feared dead.

“Today we have discovered 12 victims, all dead,” Rear Marshal Daryatmo, head of the national search and rescue agency, told reporters Friday.

Many of the bodies found Friday had been torn apart in the crash, said Lt. Col. Oni Junianto of the Indonesian marines, whose search team found eight corpses before returning to base camp further down the mountain.

“We see many other victims … but the ravines and steep cliffs prevent us from reaching them,” Junianto said in a statement.

Local television showed what appeared to be the plane’s tail with the blue-and-white Sukhoi logo, part of a wing and bits of twisted metal scattered along the slope like confetti.

About 85 soldiers, police and volunteers used ropes to climb up to the wreckage through jungle on the near-vertical slopes of Mount Salak, search and rescue agency spokesman Gagah Prakoso said by telephone.

Thick fog and the mountain’s jagged slopes kept helicopters from landing at the crash site, so the bodies remained there along with the search teams.

The soldiers, police and volunteers fashioned a landing area by hacking down trees, but Prakoso said the helicopters were recalled to Jakarta late Friday because the fog limited visibility to only about 5 meters (15 feet).

The jetliner slammed into the dormant volcano at nearly 800 kph (480 mph) during drizzle. Russian and French investigators have joined the investigation into the cause.

The Superjet-100 is Russia’s first new model of passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago and was intended to help resurrect its aerospace industry.

The ill-fated Superjet was carrying representatives from local airlines and journalists on what was supposed to be a 50-minute demonstration flight. Just 21 minutes after takeoff from a Jakarta airfield, the Russian pilot and co-pilot asked for permission to drop from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet (3,000 meters to 1,800 meters). They gave no explanation, disappearing from the radar immediately afterward.

It was not clear why the crew asked to shift course, especially since they were so close to the 7,000-foot (2,200-meter) volcano, or whether they got an OK, officials have said.

Communication tapes will be reviewed as part of the investigation, but it’s unlikely they will be released to the public any time soon.

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Embattled Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson told company employees late Monday that he is sorry for the distraction his resume padding scandal has caused — without commenting on what role his own actions might have played in creating the drama.

"I want you to know how deeply I regret how this issue has affected the company and all of you," Thompson said in a memo obtained by CNN. "We have all been working very hard to move the company forward, and this has had the opposite effect. For that, I take full responsibility, and I want to apologize to you."

The scandal erupted late last week, when activist shareholder group Third Point first alleged that Thompson lied about his college degree. Thompson’s published bios have claimed that he holds a Bachelor’s degree in both accounting and computer science from Stonehill College, but his degree is actually only in accounting.

Yahoo (, Fortune 500) said that it had incorrectly stated Thompson’s academic credentials, claiming the mistake was an "inadvertent error."

On Tuesday, the Yahoo announced that Patti Hart, the director who led the search committee that picked Thompson, will soon leave the board.

First reported by tech blog AllThingsD, the news was later confirmed by Yahoo, which said Hart is stepping down at the behest of her own company, International Game Technology (). Hart, who joined Yahoo’s board in 2010, serves as CEO of IGT.

"The IGT board requested that she not seek reelection as a Yahoo director," Yahoo said in a written statement.

Yahoo’s board said also Tuesday that it has hired an outside counsel to conduct a review of the false statement. It appointed the company’s three independent directors to oversee the investigation.

All three directors were named to Yahoo’s board under Thompson’s watch, after a board shakeup that wiped out most of Yahoo’s previous directors.

Thompson said he would cooperate fully with the board’s review, and the CEO urged a "prompt" conclusion to the probe.

Thompson’s memo to Yahoo’s staff included no explanation for how the mistake happened. His apology was solely for the impact the scandal has had on the company, not for the act itself.

That didn’t impress the troops.

A senior Yahoo executive, who spoke to CNN on the condition that his name not be used, said: "Thompson has quickly lost the confidence of many employees, who think he has to go."

False statements about Thompson’s degree predate his tenure at Yahoo, which began in January. References to a "computer science" degree also appeared in his online biographical information on PayPal’s website when he was president of the eBay (, Fortune 500) subsidiary.

Thompson’s degree information is actually correct in eBay’s regulatory filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission and in the bio featured in filings for F5 (), where he serves as a director quick payday loans. In both cases, the companies state: "Mr. Thompson holds a B.S. in Accounting from Stonehill College," with no reference to a computer science degree.

Related story: Résumé padding: inconsequential or inexcusable?

But the false statement about his degree appeared in Yahoo’s latest annual report filed to the SEC: "Mr. Thompson holds a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and computer science from Stonehill College."

Critics like Third Point seized on that line and are demanding answers about how it made its way into Yahoo’s regulatory filings. CEOs are required to personally certify that their company’s statements are accurate.

The annual report Yahoo filed last month includes this line, directly above Scott Thompson’s signature: "This report does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact."

A spokeswoman from Third Point declined to comment on Thompson’s apology.

The investment group said earlier on Monday that it wasn’t satisfied with Yahoo’s review process. It sent Yahoo’s board a letter demanding that it be allowed to inspect books and records relating to Thompson’s hiring, and it urged the company to make details of the review public.

Yahoo’s board "will make an appropriate disclosure to shareholders" upon conclusion of its review, Yahoo said in a statement e-mailed statement to CNNMoney.

Yahoo typically uses the headhunting firm Heidrick & Struggles for its executive searches. But AllThingsD says the firm wasn’t involved in the search for Thompson — he reportedly reached out directly to company directors to pitch himself for the CEO job.

CNNMoney has reached out to Heidrick & Struggles to find out if the firm was involved in vetting Thompson’s background. The firm declined to comment, but a source close to the company said Heidrick & Struggles was not involved in Thompson’s appointment in any way.

Meanwhile, Thompson said he would continue pushing forward on the company’s latest attempt to rebuild.

"I feel I owe it to all of you to make sure that nothing disrupts the progress we’ve made in just a few short months due to all of your focus, commitment, and hard work," he said. "We have a lot of work to do. We need to continue to act as one team to fulfill the potential of this great company and keep moving forward. You have my word that all my energy and attention will be on that mission."

– CNN’s Dan Simon and Katy Byron contributed reporting to this article. 

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ST. CHARLES COUNTY • Longtime banker and civic leader Darrell B. Roegner, who died last November, will be honored posthumously at the annual awards banquet of Partners for Progress of Greater St. Charles.

Roegner was chosen by the civic group for this year’s Lifetime of Progress award in recognition of his business, civic and charitable activities over the years.

At different times he chaired the boards of Partners for Progress, the Salvation Army of St. Charles County and the St. Charles Community College Foundation. 

He also helped organize countywide campaigns to pass and continue a sales tax that helps pay for road construction. He also was on the boards of Barnes-Jewish Hospital St. Peters, the Tri-County YMCA and Habitat for Humanity.

The banquet will be at 6:30 p.m. May 4 at the St. Charles Convention Center in St. Charles.

Among other honorees:

* Education Progress Award:  the River City Robots, which works on robotics and technology with children and teenagers.

* Health Progress Award:  Barnes-Jewish Hospital St. Peters and Progress West Healthcare Center for its anti-obesity program.

* Quality of Place Progress Award:  Team Target, a group of volunteers from Target stores who played a major role in the MO’ Cowbell Half Marathon put on by the partners group last fall.

* Leadership Progress Award:  Shared by St. Charles County government and city governments across the county for working together to secure state and federal funding for completion of the Page Avenue extension.

* Economy Progress Award:  General Motors’ Wentzville plant for its expansion plan.

Banquet tickets are $100 per person.  For more information, call 636-441-6880, extension 254.

 

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With the wow factor conspicuously absent from the latest crop of smartphones and tablet PCs offered by vendors including Apple Inc., some experts are asking whether innovation has hit a wall in the post-Jobs era.

U.S. employers hired far fewer workers in March than in previous months, keeping the door open for the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary support for a still sluggish economy.

The report was seized upon by Republicans hoping to make the weak economy the centerpiece of their campaign for November’s presidential and congressional elections.

Even as the unemployment rate fell to a three-year low of 8.2 percent, job growth slowed to 120,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, the smallest increase since October.

That was less than half the average monthly increase in the prior three months and way below the lowest estimate in a Reuters survey. Economists had expected an increase of 203,000 and the jobless rate to hold at 8.3 percent.

The numbers likely reflected the fading boost from unseasonably warm winter weather and brought the job market, which had been showing surprising strength since December, more in line with signs of a broader slowdown in the overall economy.

It also backed the caution expressed by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week about whether the labor market could sustain gains above the 200,000 mark when economic growth is tracking a sub-par rate. The data raises the chances of the U.S. central bank launching a third bond buying program or quantitative easing.

“The economy may not be growing as strongly as the data around the turn of the year, benefiting from favorable weather, suggested,” said Michelle Girard, senior economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut. “While QE3 may not be seen as the odds-on bet, nothing can be ruled out.”

The retail sector surprisingly shed jobs for the second straight month, pulling down job growth in the massive private service sector. Economists were puzzled by the drop given that retailers such as Macy’s and Target reported brisk business in March.

Manufacturing jobs picked up a little and workers saw an increase in their overtime hours, helped by carmakers trying to meet pent-up demand for motor vehicles. Factory jobs increased 37,000 in March and 31,000 in February.

That contributed to lifting hourly earnings by five cents last month, which should help to support spending.

Prices for U.S. Treasury debt rallied on the report, pushing yields to more than three week lows, as investors anticipated further bond purchases by the Fed. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies. The New York Stock Exchange is closed for the Good Friday holiday.

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US non-farm payrolls graphic: link.reuters.com/wej57s

Graphic on US unemployment: link.reuters.com/zej57s

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GIVE UP THE SEARCH FOR WORK

The cooling in hiring last month, if sustained, could hurt President Barack Obama’s chances of re-election in November payday loans.

White House economic adviser Gene Sperling said the data showed the U.S. economy is making progress, but still has a long way to go.

Mitt Romney, his likely Republican opponent, called the report “very troubling”.

“It is increasingly clear the Obama economy is not working and that after three years in office the President’s excuses have run out,” he said.

While the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since January 2009, that was mainly because some people gave up the search for work. The household survey - from which the jobless rate is derived and is separate to the measure of new jobs - showed a drop in employment for the first time since June.

The unemployment rate has fallen from 9.1 percent in August.

In one of only a few brighter parts of the report, a broad measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have stopped looking and those working only part time but who want more work, fell to a three-year low of 14.5 percent from 14.9 percent.

The economy is believed to have slowed in the first quarter to around a 2 percent annual rate from the 3 percent rate in the October-December period.

Despite the slowdown in job growth last month, several economists said it was not the start of a new trend and were hopeful the labor market would not see a repeat of the spring of 2010 and 2011 when job creation faltered.

“This is not the new run rate for payrolls, but it will feed fears of that will work to the advantage of the Fed because it will keep rates lower,” said Eric Green, chief economist at TD Securities in New York.

“This will fade because we have had this adjustment for the seasonal effects. What we do from here is we move back to 200,000 (jobs) in coming months.”

Last month, the services sector added only 90,000, a sharp step back from February’s 204,000 gain in payrolls. That was in stark contrast with a survey on the services sector, showing a relatively strong increase in employment.

Retail employment fell dropped 33,800 after falling 28,600 the prior month.

“It’s puzzling, I don’t think it will continue because the reports from retailers have generally been upbeat. I struggle to understand why these numbers would be so negative,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Construction hiring fell 7,000, the second straight monthly decline. Temporary help fell 7,500 after rising 54,900 in February. Government employment edged down 1,000 after rising 7,000 in February.

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China watchers got a mixed view over the weekend of the country’s all-important manufacturing sector.

China’s government reported that manufacturing expanded in March, while a closely-watched private report said factories struggled with poor demand for their products.

The National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday that its official index of purchasing managers’ sentiment rose to 53.1 in March from 51 in February. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector.

The March report marked the fourth consecutive monthly increase and the index’s highest reading in a year.

At the same time, banking company HSBC issued a report that showed factory output fell in March for the fourth time in five months.

"Factory output was reduced largely in response to lackluster demand from domestic and external markets," the HSBC report said on line pay day loans.

The contrasting reports follow a pattern of recent months, as the two indexes have diverged.

Investors and analysts have been concerned that China’s extraordinary growth may be slowing too quickly.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao rattled investors recently when he said that China’s new gross domestic product growth forecast for 2012 is 7.5%, down from an earlier prediction of 8%.

A "hard landing" by China could ripple throughout the world. Troubles in Europe, the largest market for China’s goods, have intensified fears about a China slowdown.

Of course, China’s growth far exceeds what many developed countries are experiencing. China’s GDP rose 9.2% last year, while the U.S. economy grew 1.7%.  

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