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Show I I Jy , 7 QAj J V Jr I A 1 Ijoeal Industry News & notes II V V Dow Jones Nasdaq !Ll3 SATURDAY, MARCH 29. 2008 BUSINESS EDITOR Grace v V S&P500 Gold Silver Final Final Final Per ounce Per ounce 2,261.18 -- 19.65 1,315.22 -- 10.54 $930.60 -- $18.20 $17,900 -- $0,613 Leong-34- 4 EXCHANGING Yen Euro Pound Canadian dollar Mexican peso THE DOLLAR Friday Thursday 100.00 S1.5760 $1.9916 100.00 $1.5780 $2.0036 1.0165 10.6952 1.0191 10.6940 Enlis ting an internet executive d AH-PA- 2aUtt$Hcrlfi I 12,216.40 -- 86.06 People On the Move Neways exec elected to board of trustees for national Monzur Ahmed, senior director of regulatory trade group affairs for Springville-baseNeways, was elected as vice chairman of the Board of Trustees for the American Herbal Products Association. The national group focuses on herbs and herbal products. In addition, Ahmed has been appointed chair of the Foundation for Education & Research on Botanicals. SLC tech company names two new execs Obeo, a Salt Lake provider of residential real estate online marketing products, named Alan Earl its senior vice president of sales and marketing. He will oversee its global sales and marketing initiatives. Prior to joining Obeo, Earl worked as vice president of marketing and partner with ClearLink, a national company d internet service, specializing in and home security. Earl also held positions at Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Co. Jonathan Nicholas, Obeo's former senior vice president of sales and marketing, was named a consultant. Nicholas was recently appointed president of the Council of Real Estate Brokerage Managers and will continue to identify potential partners for Obeo. fxr fxvl ' il Y R v 's City-base- d high-spee- ( ' VI NATIONAL BRIEFING : Consumer spending weak in February WASHINGTON Consumers turned in the weakest spending performance in 17 months in February, while their confidence dropped to the lowest level in 16 years, raising further fears of a recession. The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending edged up by just 0.1 percent last month, the est showing since September 2006. And if the effects of inflation are removed, spending was flat in February, the third consecutive month of sluggish activity. Wall Street closes week slightly lower Wall Street finished the week with a NEW YORK decline Friday as the financial health of the consumer came into focus following a report that showed personal spending at its weakest growth in 17 months and a profit warning from J.C. Penney Co, After weeks of concentrating on credit problems and interest rates, the market was forced to pay attention to the consumers who drive economic growth. The Commerce Department said consumer spending ticked up a paltry 0.1 percent last month, in line with Wall Street's expectations. But that news and the profit warning from J.C. Penney raised g of consumers. concerns about the well-bein- Fed offers $100 billion more to banks . WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve announced d Friday it will auction another $100 billion in April to banks as it continues to combat the effects of a credit crisis. The central bank said it would make $50 billion available at each of two auctions, on April 7 and April 21. Through the end of March, the Fed has provided $260 billion in short-terloans to commercial banks through the innovative auction process. It also has employed Depression-er- a provisions to provide money to investment banks. All the moves have been designed to cope with a serious financial crisis that has roiled U.S. and global markets and caused the of Bear Stearns Cos., the nation's fifth largest investment bank. cash-strappe- near-collap- Malware cited in supermarket data breach Unauthorized software that was PORTLAND, Maine secretly installed on servers in Hannaford Bros. Co.'s supermarkets across the Northeast and in Florida enabled the massive data breach that compromised up to 4.2 million credit and debit cards, the company said Friday.' The Scarborough, Maine-base- d grocer confirmed a report in The Boston Globe that it tjOld Massachusetts regulators this week about the link between the breach and the illicit programs, known as "malware." At least 1,800 cases of fraud have been linked to the data breach, with unauthorized charges showing up as far afield as Mexico, Italy and Bulgaria. , Stocks of Local Interest performance of selected publicly traded companies Yesterday's SYM COMPANY LAST CHANGE AA ALC0AINC ABSY ABSCH.UTESKY 36.1l" . CP ABX BAfiRKK AEP AMERICAN ELK AKj AMERINTL GROUP AMD ADV MICRO AMGN Amgenlrc BAC BK OF AMERICA GOLD - PWR DEVICES CP 073 SYM COMPANY MU MICRON MYGN Myriad LAST CHANGE 5.46 0.06 4028 0.63 SUNSHINE 8.53 0.03 he 4.01 0.00 6.21 0.05 0.46 TECHNOLOGY 0.038 0.002 44.70 038 NATR NATURES 40.97 0.34 NETM 42.80 0.66 NOVL NetManage, NowlLlnc. Genetics, he 5.91 025 NUS NU SKIN ENT INC 18.00 41.45 0.02 NWN NORTHWEST 42 J8 0.56 38.07 0.57 0MTR Omreture, 2436 0.378 NAT he CP BAM BROOKFIELD 26.79 0.49 PCG PG&E BU BAU.CP 45.14 Q QWEST 36.46 O30 4.60 8.85 4.12 135 0.12 0.02 BMY BRISTOL MYERS 21.48 000 0.18 RZ RASER C CITIGROUP 20.83 0.96 SC0XQ SCO GROUP CMCSK Comcast 18.58 0.56 SHLD Sears Holdings 102.20 328 COST Costco 64.37 0.89 SH SMITH INTL INC 62.43 0.10 CVX CHEVRON 84.50- DAL DELTA AIR UNES D6 DNEX EPJC IM Ericsson ETR ENTERGY FC INC 0.10 SKYW SkyWesthc. 21.12 0.12 8.61 026 SNTO SENTOCORP 0.09 0.01 WALT DISNEY 31.00 OUESTARCP 56.01 76.72 038 127 STR Dionec Corporation SY SYBASE INC 25.42 025 075 37.66 0.00 CORP CP FRANKLIN COVEY CO " INC 19.01 020 T AT&T 108.06 032 TGT TARGET CP 49.69 129 7.40 4X04 TRV THE TRAVELERS CO 47.42 0.04 INC GEN ELECTRIC CO 36.61 022 UDR UDR INC 24.17 0.38 HRB HR 20.96 0.02 UNH UNITEDHEALTH 34.40 0.40 HSK Henry Schen, 56.69 USB USBANC0RP 32.66 0.42 IBM INTL BUS MACHS 114.57 USEG US. Energy Corp. Intel Corporation 20.79 USNA USANA 329 2134 0.02 INTC ALU JetBlue 5.45 0 47 0.95 032 0.19 UTMD Utah Medkal Products 29.68 033 JCP PENNEYJCCO 37.48 3.04 VZ VERIZON 35.85 0.11 JWN NORDSTROM 32.62 1.97 WB WACHOV1ACP LEE LEE ENTERPRISES 10.76 031 WEN WENDYS LUV SOUTHWEST 12.03 0.16 WFC Ma MCKESSON 51.66 0.64 MER MLCOCMNSTK 39.93 MER-- J MERRILL LYNCH 1640 MMSI Merit 15.75 MSfT Microsoft Corporation 2731 GE BLOCK INC he INC AIRUNES CORP Medal Sys, he C0MMUN 5.60 25.99 1.08 22 M 0.70 WELLS FARGO & CO 29.35 0.91 WMT WAL MART STORES 52.12 025 1.97 WM SCHIFF NUTPJT INTL 0.60 X UNITED STATES STEEL 0.07 XEL XCEL ENERGY 0.15 BON Zkms INTL INC NC Bancorporation 1 5.89 0.08 25.69 417 19J7 0.08 46.04 0.67 DOUGUS C. PIZACAssociated Press his wife Claudia, Meg Whitman, Josh Romney and former Republican presidential hopeful, Mitt Rep. Chris Cannon, Romney, left to right, arrive for a fundraising luncheon for Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, Thursday. eBay CEO offers growth tips in Utah Meg Whitman, who retires Monday, to join McCain's presidential campaign Whitman, 51, shared lessons and strategies she has learned during her career with more than 250 Utah business and government leaders on Friday. bies. But she was hooked when She will remain on the board Grace Leong she saw how users wereso ad- for eBay, whose revenues are DAILY HERALD ; dicted that they slipped out of projected to be between $8.5 billion and $8.75 billion in 2008. business meetings to monitor Meg Whitman, the Silicon their auctions. "Disruptive ideas are vital" Valley corporate legend who she said, describing the con"Pierre's vision enabled helped make eBay a household name worldwide, had serious people to trade without regard cept of eBay as a "disruptive" force that has resulted in the misgivings when she took her to time and distance on a sysfirst look at the San Jose, Calif, tem based on trust," Whitman creation of a global online said at a luncheon hosted by marketplace that sells $2,039 company's then fledgling online auction site in 1997. of merchandise per second, Utah Technology Council at or $ 16.2 billion in gross merAt the time, half of the eBay the Salt Lake Community ColWeb site was dedicated to the lege on Friday. "And that was chandise volume in the fourth Ebola virus, a passion of eBay the magic." quarter of last year. "It is a founder Pierre Omidyar, while Making one of her final pub- challenge to constantly redethe other half was an online ; lic appearances as eBay's presi- fine ourselves. But we have to or we risk having someone auction site where people sold dent and CEO before retiring collectibles such as Beanie Ba from the position on Monday, else do it for us." Today, that "disruptive" idea has mushroomed into a thriving business that enables 276 million people worldwide to trade, pay and communicate online, and is also the world's ninth largest retailer with $59 billion in merchandise volume last year. Citing a June 2006 survey by ACNielsen, Whitman said there are about 1.3 million sellers worldwide including 2,500 in Utah who make their living selling their products on eBay. There were 637 million new listings added to eBay worldwide in fourth quarter 2007. At any given time, there are about 113 million listings worldwide, and about 6.7 million listings See EBAY, B5 Fuel costs force airlines to lighten up Chris Kahn THE ASSOCIATED PRESS lich, chief economist for the Air Transport Association of America, an industry trade group. "Every penny rriore per gallon adds $195 niiilion to the industry's expenses per year. "You simply cannot make all of that up with fare increases." Jet fuel, which the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration tracked at $3.17 per gallon in New York on Tuesday, has doubled since the beginning of 2007. It outcheese. With jet fuel prices so high, paced labor as the biggest air- " line expense three years ago. airlines have no choice but to As of September 2007, fuel scour their planes for ways made up 27 percent of operatto lighten the load. There's no room for even the smallest bits ing expenses for U.S. airlines, of dead weight, from redunaccording to the latest data dant wing lights to extra wires from the Bureau of TransporROSS D. FRANKUNAssociated Press in the walls. Manufacturers tation Statistics. A snack and has on a Delta Airlines flight served also are using lighter materials The industry beverage typical struggled in plane construction. to keep up. Carriers have coming into Phoenix, Friday. With jet fuel prices so high, airlines are busy scouring planes for ways to lighten their "The pressure is immense" See AIRLINES, B5 load. to cut weight, said John Heim PHOENIX Your ginger-al- e doesn't come in a glass anymore on most US Airways flights. On Delta you'll find yourself in a thinner, lighter seat. If you fly JetBlue crosscountry, you'll get a dainty bag of crisps in place of the original snack box of cookies, crackers and spreadable Gov. sees Utah job growth hitting new lows shears, and those wind shears have taken us down and we're going to continue to hit some SALT LAKE CITY Gov. wind shears." Utah was among the nation's Jon Huntsman on Friday said Utah's job growth could tumble leaders in job growth last year to its lowest level in years amid at 4 percent, compared to 1.3 a time of national economic un- percent nationally. It was the fourth straight year Utah's certainty, but the state should continue to outperform the rest economy outperformed the of the country. nation's, with a high of 4.9 per"The nation is experiencing cent growth in 2006. On Friday, Huntsman said some really tough times. There is no question about that. We Utah's job growth rate could as a state are inexorably tied drop to as low as 1 percent. "I suspect our job growth to the trends of the nation and the trends of the world," number, which is a fairly Huntsman said. "We've been important measure of ones cruising along about 30,000 productivity as an economy, feet; and we've hit some wind will always be in the positive Brock Vergakis THE ASSOCIATED PRESS , territory. We might slip down to 1, maybe 1.5 percent ... while probably 45 of the 50 states are going to be in negative territory," Huntsman said during his monthly KUED news conference. Huntsman's comments are in stark contrast to an economic forecast his office released in January. The report forecast that Utah's job growth would only drop to 3.2 percent in 2008. Earlier this month, the Department of Workforce Services said Utah's job growth for 2008 was 2.3 percent through February. Mark Knold, chief economist for the Department of Workforce Services, said Friday that Huntsman's forecast is accurate and based on a sluggish housing market. "Construction is in decline. ... Building permits are down 70 percent," Knold said. "So what was turbcxharging the entire economy is now actually turning into a drag on the entire economy. Over the last three years it was so big that when you finally shut it down, you're going to end up with this reverse impact." Knold said the housing industry is under stress because financial institutions are offering fewer people loans. |