Finance & Business World

Confidence among U.S. homebuilders held in March at the highest level since June 2007 as sales expectations climbed for a sixth month.

The reading of 28 in the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence was less than projected and followed a February figure that was lower than initially reported, figures from the Washington-based group showed today. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a rise to 30. Readings below 50 mean more respondents said conditions were poor.

Cheaper homes and mortgage rates close to all-time lows are helping drive record housing affordability, benefiting builders such as Toll Brothers Inc. At the same time, the real estate market remains challenged by distressed properties and the threat of more foreclosures that could push down values further.

Germany’s government says it is speeding up its plans to cut its borrowing as it works to balance its budget by 2016.

A senior official said Friday that the federal government will reduce its new borrowing between 2013 and 2016 to euro45.6 billion ($59.5 billion) from the previously planned euro73 billion.

A robust economy has helped increase Germany’s tax intake, allowing the country to run up less new debt. Germany plans to balance its budget in 2016, when it expects to borrow only euro1.1 billion.

Germany has pushed hard for the other 16 countries that use the euro as their currency to get their public finances in order as the continent recovers from the debt crisis.

The official briefed reporters on condition of anonymity because the plan hasn’t officially been released.

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Euro-area finance ministers are set to clear a second rescue for Greece today to avoid what Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti described as a potential

Futures traders are pricing in the biggest increase in U.S. equity hedging costs since 2010 after the Standard & Poor

White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew said hundreds of billions of dollars in spending for roads and bridges, education and manufacturing are necessary to keep the U.S. economy growing.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank

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Viacom Inc.’s Philippe Dauman led the list of America’s top-paid CEOs in 2010 but his pay package for 2011 was nearly halved, mainly because he didn’t get stock bonuses for renewing his contract as he did a year ago.

Still, an Associated Press tally values Dauman’s pay package at $43 million, down from $84.5 million a year ago.

The figures were contained in a securities filing the media company filed Friday.

Another reason he won’t be the highest paid CEO last year: Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook was awarded a package valued at a whopping $378 million for replacing the late Steve Jobs at the helm.

Dauman’s base salary rose 33 percent to $3.5 million, but the bulk of his pay came in the form of a $20 million bonus for good performance, a 78 percent increase from a year ago. The company said operating profits came in above the mid-point of its target range and free cash flow generation was near the top of its range.

Dauman’s annual grant of stock awards was 68 percent smaller than a year ago at $13.3 million, and new stock options he was granted were valued at $6 million, down 79 percent from fiscal 2010.

He also received other compensation of $262,636, mainly for personal use of the company aircraft.

New York-based Viacom’s executive chairman and 88-year-old founder, Sumner Redstone, saw a 39 percent boost to his pay package to $21 million.

Redstone, who controls the company through a special class of voting shares, pulled down a base salary of $1.75 million, up a third from a year earlier, and a performance bonus up 78 percent at $10 million. New grants of stock and stock options came to about $8 million, the same as the previous year.

Redstone also benefited from a preferential executive pension plan that grew by about $1 million, with other compensation totaling $30,955 quick payday loan.

Over the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Viacom’s widely traded Class B shares rose 7 percent to $38.74 from $36.19. The company said its total shareholder return in fiscal 2011, comprised of $417 million in dividends and $2.5 billion in share buybacks, was 8.7 percent, compared to 0.8 percent for the companies of the S&P 500 Index.

Viacom owns pay TV networks such as MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1 and the Paramount Pictures movie studio.

The Associated Press formula calculates an executive’s total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits. That makes the AP total slightly different in most cases from the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The value that a company assigned to an executive’s stock and option awards for 2011 was the present value of what the company expected the awards to be worth to the executive over time. Companies use one of several formulas to calculate that value. However, the number is just an estimate, and what an executive ultimately receives will depend on the performance of the company’s stock in the years after the awards are granted. Most stock compensation programs require an executive to wait a specified amount of time to receive shares or exercise options

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Much work remains to achieve maximum U.S. employment and stable prices, and the central bank will do its part, an influential Federal Reserve official said on Friday.

The pace of the U.S. economic recovery remains “sluggish” and is likely to slow somewhat this year, New York Fed President William Dudley said in prepared remarks. Unemployment is likely to remain “unacceptably high” for some time, he added, while inflation is likely to be below the Fed’s new 2-percent objective for several years.

“Clearly, much work remains to achieve the Fed’s dual mandate of maximum sustainable employment in the context of price stability,” Dudley said in a briefing to media.

The Fed, which has kept interest rates near zero for more than three years, “has done and will continue to do its part in supporting the recovery - but it is not all-powerful,” he added.

“Other complementary policy actions in housing, fiscal policy and structural adjustment or rebalancing of the economy will be essential if we are to achieve the best available recovery free business cards.”

Besides the low rates, the Fed has also bought $2.3 trillion in long-term securities in an unprecedented drive to spur growth and revive the economy after the worst recession in decades. Yet the recovery has been slow and the outlook issued by the Fed this week was bleak, leading the central bank to say it expects to keep rates “exceptionally low” at least through late 2014.

Dudley, a permanent voter on the Fed’s policy-setting committee, added that he expects “moderate” growth this year, and warned the risks are skewed to the downside in part because of Europe’s debt crisis. The economy continues to operate with “significant excess slack,” he said.

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Asian stocks posted muted gains Monday in trade thinned by Chinese New Year holidays as talks on a debt agreement for Greece dragged on.

Only a handful of markets were open for business. Trading is closed in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average was up 0.2 percent at 8,779.16 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3 percent to 4,228.10. New Zealand’s benchmark added 0.1 percent to 3,279.19.

On Friday, stocks in Europe mostly held their gains for the week, waiting for the outcome of Greece’s negotiations with its creditors on a deal to cut the face value of up to euro200 billion ($258 billion) in debt by 50 percent.

Over the weekend, the representative of Greece’s private creditors said the talks are continuing even after his unexpected departure from the country.

A deal in Athens would allow the country to receive a second bailout package from other European governments and the International Monetary Fund, and cut Greece’s debt from an estimated 160 percent of its annual economic output to 120 percent by 2020 low interest rate personal loans.

That is still painfully high, but without the help, Greece will not be able to pay euro14.5 billion in debt due March 20. A Greek default would send borrowing costs higher across Europe and could trigger chaos in the global financial system.

On Wall Street on Friday the Dow rose 96.50 points to close at 12,720.48. The S&P 500 index inched up 0.88 to 1,315.38 and the Nasdaq gained 1.63 points to 2,786.70.

In energy trading, benchmark crude was down 41 cents at $97.92 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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