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Show n 2mttjcmlfi BUSINESS EDITOR ;:a: Local Industry News & notes A o v: 2008 SATURDAY, JUNE 14, A A V Grace Leong Dow Jones Nasdaq S&P500 Gold Silver Final Final Final Per ounce 12,307.35 165.77 2,454.50 50.15 1,360.03 20.16 Per ounce 870.30 $1.20 $16,540 -- $0.09 gleongheraldextra.com 344-91- 0 EXCHANGING THE DOLLAR Yen Euro Pound Canadian dollar Mexican peso Friday Thursday 108.21 $1.5354 $1.9469 1.0290 10.3734 107.93 $1.5423 $1.9474 1.0230 10.3824 Cost of Living Utah property auction nets $10M Consumer prices along the Wasatch Front up in May, but A surprising drop in grocery prices grocery costs lower in May helped mitigate an overall rise in the cost of living along the Wasatch Front, according to a report issued by Wells Fargo on Friday. Overall, consumer prices in Utah rose 1 percent in May, outpacing that of the nation by 0.2 percent, according to the Wells Fargo Consumer Price Index and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. Locally, food prices fell 3.4 percent in May, while nationally, grocery costs gained 0.5 percent, In the past year, food costs nationally have jumped 5.1 percent. Housing costs, which account for 36 percent of an average Utahn's budget, gained 0.1 percent in May due to higher rental rates. Transportation costs, which account for 19 percent of a typical Utahn's budget, jumped 3.5 percent in May due mainly to higher gasoline prices, while clothing costs jumped 12.4 percent in May and utilities costs rose 3.6 percent due to seasonal adjustments in electricity rates. Despite new record highs set for gasoline in May, core inflation, which excludes food and energy costs, is stable nationally at 23 percent, the report said. That suggests commodity price hikes aren't spreading to the rest of the economy. 200 bidders on 52 homes and properties in Utah, Salt Lake counties Grace Leong DAILY office of national $25,000 and $50,000. "The most expensive property, a $2,6 million mansion in Heber owned by Heber Valley National Bank, sold for $800,000. That's because the property was only partially finished and its true value was between $1.1 million and $1.2 million," said Eric Nelson, founder of the Las Vegas-base- d HERALD ; , Fifty two foreclosed residential properties and lots in Utah were auctioned for a total of about $10 million on Thursday. The auction, which was managed by Las Vegas-base- d Eric Nelson Auctioneering, attracted up to 800 attendees real estate auctioneer. including 200 registered bidThe lowest bid went to ders. Thirty five of the 52 home in square-foo- t properties, formerly owned by Centennial Bank, were located American Fork, he said. The in northern Utah County. property, which sold for $ 105,000, was appraised at Bids for homes started at $50,000 or $100,000, while bid& $175,000. for the lots started at between "Each property had about homes." Of the 52 properties, 23 were finished and unfinished homes appraised at between $175,000 and $2.6 million in value, and the remainder were custom or unfinished lots in Lehi, Mapleton, Alpine, Bountiful, Westhaven and Willard. The lots were valued at between $111,800 and $408,000. Several of the properties are located in -- People on the Move services company names new d exec Consonus Technologies Inc., a Cary, data center and IT managed services provider, named James Edwards its client solutions lead in the Salt Lake City office. Edwards has an extensive technical background in inSLC three to four bidders, and each one achieved between 60 percent and 90 percent of their total value," NelsoiTsaid. "One bidder, probably a developer, spent $3 million for 12 properties, including 10 lots and two Highland, Alpine, Eagle Moun- tain, American Fork, Lindon and Provo, while others are in Draper, Mountain Green, Kaysville and South Jordan. During the auction, several custom and unfinished lots garnered bids ranging between $60,000 and $150,000 each. "Eight lots in Lehi sold for $90,000 each, while 14 finished lots in Mapleton each sold for between $120,000 and $150,000," Nelson said. "One paper lot subdivision in Mapleton (consisting of several parcels of raw land) sold for $650,000." Centennial Bank will have seven days to verify and accept the bids. Once the highest bidders are notified of their bid's acceptance, they will See Riverton, Bluffdale, Layton, AUCTION, B5 IT N.C.-base- Tainted tomatoes formation security, managed services, systems support and corporate network implementations, including having served as a senior systems engineer with Canon Business Systems, formerly known as Uinta Business Systems. NATIONAL BRIEFING Oil below $135 after NEW YORK Oil OPEC questions prices prices pulled back Friday after OPEC & i . questioned whether crude can remain so high and the dollar gained against the euro. Meanwhile, U.S. filling station operators pushed average gas prices deeper into record territory. Prices at the pump are up nearly 7 cents since crossing the $4 threshold na-- . t ion wide last weekend. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, benchmark light, sweet crude for July delivery fell $1.88 to settle at ' $134.86. Yahoo sinks deeper as options dwindle SAN FRANCISCO Shares of Yahoo Inc. sank deeper Friday as the company reeled from Microsoft Corp.'s stunning rebuff of a merger deal and analysts pointed to the besieged Web portal's rapidly dwindling options. Yahoo fell by more than 4 percent earlier in the day but rallied to close down just a fraction at $23.47. The stock slid 10 percent late Thursday after the company announced that talks with Microsoft had again collapsed. It was a stunning blow for Yahoo investors, who had been holding out hope that a deal could be salvaged even after Microsoft walked away from its $47 billion takeover bid last month. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn started a spirited proxy campaign to kick out Yahoo's board and entice Microsoft back to the negotiating table. After the news about Microsoft, Yahoo announced a g deal with rival Google widely expected Inc., which it said could eventually generate up to $800 million in annual revenue. But many analysts were skeptical about what some saw as a desperate move that merely confirmed Yahoo's increasingly weak position, and which nearly everyone agreed will face stiff regulatory scrutiny. Analyst Jeetil Patel of Deutsche Bank called Yahoo's deal with Google "perhaps one of the worst strategic maneuvers seen in the Internet industry." "Net-ne- t, we don't understand this deal," Patel told clients in a research note. It also reinforced the view of critics that Yahoo's board had lost control of the ship, clinging to whatever alternatives it could find. A ' : ' V . search-outsourcin- BILL FDA refuses to name company and location linked to nine cases Tiffany Hsu Yesterday's performance of selected publicly traded companies SVM COMPANY AA ALCOA INC ABSY ABSOLUTESKY ABX AEP AMER ELECTRIC POW AKj AMER AMD ADV MICRO AMGN AMGEN BAC 8K BAM BROOKFIELD BLL BALL BMY LAST CHANGE SYM COMPANY MU MICRON LAST CHANGE 39.46 1.72 INC 0.0350 0.004 MYGN MYRIAD GENETICS BARRICK GOLD CP 38.55 0.04 NATR NATURE S SUNSHINE 42.79 0.83 NETM NETMANAGE 34.18 0.50 7.52 0.38 43.97 CP ASSET 7.66 0.32 45.33 0.01 7.50 O.OO INC 7.12 0.00 N0VI NOVELL INC 6.25 0.10 NUS NU SKIN ENT INC 16.57 0.07 0.75 NWN NORTHWEST 46.14 0.47 29.78 0.34 OMTR OMNITURE. 22.35 126 34.19 0J1 PCG PG&ECP 39.77 0.34 52.59 2.00 Q QWEST 422 0.05 BRISTOL MYERS SOjBB 20.12 0.45 RZ RASER TECH INC 8.85 0.47 C CITIGROINC 2048 0.59 SC0XQ SCOGRPINC 0.10 0.00 CMCSK COMCAST 21.48 0.26 SHLD SEARS HLDGS CORP 82.76 2.22 COST COSTCO 70.32 2.12 S SMITHINTIINC 77.87 0.51 CVX CHEVRONCORP 99.40 134 SKYW SKYWESTINC 14.32 0.17 DAL DELTA AIR UNES NEW DIS WALT DNEX DIONEXCP ERIC LM ERICSSON ETR ENTERGY FC FRANKLIN COVEY CO INTLGR0 Of INC DEVICES AMERICA CP a SFO. A WHOLESALE ADR C TECHNOLOGY NAT GAS INC. COMM INC HMTL 532 0.18 SNT0 SENTOCORP 0.06 0.00 C33.93 0.69 STR QUESTARCP 67.12 0.83 7217 032 SY SYBASE INC 3226 0.42 11.83 0.13 T AT&T 36.68 0.29 23S TGT TARGET CP 53.54 133 9.00 6.14 TRV THE TRAVELERS CO 47.84 0.03 29.15 0.10 UDR UDRINC 25.08 0.41 UNITEDHEALTH CP INC GE GEN ELECTRIC CO HRB H BLOCK INC 22.32 0.28 UNH HSC HENRY SCHEIN INC 53.14 0.71 USB IBM INTL BUSINESS 12615 230 USEG US ENERGY CORP 22.66 0.61 USNA USANAHEALTH SQEN 25.97 3.88 0.08 UTMD UTAH MEDICAL PROD 28.54 VERIZON R MACH CP .US BANCORP INTC INTEL JBLU JETBLUE AIRWAYS JCP PENNEYJCCO 39.47 1J9 VZ JWN NORDSTROMINC 34.73 1.48 WB WACHOVIA LEE LEE ENTERPRISES 5.15 0.12 WEN WENDY5 LUV SOUTHWEST 14.30 0.76 M MCKESSONCORP 5601 0.46 MER MICOCMNSTK 38.00 MERPJ MERRILL LYNCH MMSI MERIT MEDICAL MSFT MICROSOFT CP AIRLINES CP SYS f. 30.74 30.83 027 029 3.19 0.04 - 0.27 - 0.11 COMMUN 3733 CP 18.19 1.12 INTl WC 2734 0.83 WFC WEtLSfARGOSCO 26.06 stO.06 WMT WAL MART STORES 59.18 0.07 1.72 WNI SCHIFF NUTRIT INTL 5.81 0.04 1663 0.00 X UNITED STATES STEEL 15.98 029 XEl XCEL ENERGY 29.07 0.83 DON INC ZIONS BANCORP 0.70 174.61 8.03 20.71 0.16 34.94 - 088 Associated Press Restaurant chain linked to salmonella LOS Stocks of Local Interest HABERThe box of Louisiana Creole tomatoes is seen on display at a roadside stand on Tuesday, in Chalmette, La. With the nation gripped in a tainted tomato scare, Louisiana is just starting to bring in their crop of Creole tomatoes. Tomatoes harvested in Louisiana are not affected by the recent salmonella outbreak and are safe to consume, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday. A ANGELES TIMES Nine people sickened by a salmonella outbreak linked to fresh tomatoes ate at two restaurants from the same chain, federal officials confirmed Friday. The chain's name and restaurant location are confidential, said David Acheson, associate commissioner of foods for the Food and Drug Administration, during a conference call with reporters. A spokesman for the agency also declined to provide the time frame for the cases or say whether the restaurants were in the same state. The FDA is tracking several clusters of cases, including the nine chain-basecases, in its investigation to pinpoint the origin of the rare salmonella saint-pastrain, Acheson said. So far, 228 people have contracted salmonella in 23 states l, since said health of d ul mid-Apri- ficials. Acheson said the "vast majority" of tomatoes produced during the outbreak were "very likely" from Florida or Mexico. Health experts are "still watching to see whether or not the outbreak is ongoing" because they must account for a bacterium's incubation period and the lag in reporting and testing cases, said Dr. Patricia Griffin, chief of the enteric diseases epidemiology branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The investigation into the source of the outbreak has been prolonged and difficult because of the number of victims and igji energy, food costs push inflation to Martin Crutsinger THE ASSOCIATED WASHINGTON PRESS Soaring energy costs pushed inflation up in May at the fastest pace in six months. Food costs kept rising, too, and all signs are pointing to more bad news on gasoline, oil and food in the months ahead. Costs for clothing and prescription drugs did drop last month, but consumer prices rose by 0.6 percent in all, the increase biggest since November, the Labor Department reported Friday. one-mon- Food prices, which had taken the biggest leap in 18 years in April, rose by a more moderate 0.3 percent in May, but that still left food costs rising at a 6.3 percent rate so far this year, well above last year's increase. People are paying 10.2 percent more for milk than a year ago. Consumers are getting hammered by a relentless surge in energy costs, pushing gasoline above $4 per gallon. The rising food prices partly reflect higher costs for transporting products to grocery stores. Core inflat ion, which ex one-mon- cludes energy and food, edged up 0.2 percent in May, an increase that was in line with expectations and helped to ease worries in financial markets that the Federal Reserve was inching closer to starting to raise interest rates to combat inflation pressures. Clothing costs fell by 0.3 percent and the cost of prescription drugs dropped by 0.7 percent, but airline tickets jumped 3.2 percent, the biggest gain in more'than six years, again reflecting the surge in , See INFLATION, B5 the variety of ways they could have contracted the illness, Acheson said. Consumers have avoided tomatoes, forcing farmers to lose millions of dollars as they wait for the fruit to be cleared. "Doing these trace-back- s through these multiple channels are very and complex," Acheson said. "We are getting closer, but as of yet, there is no specific geographic location identified." Meanwhile, Acheson said, the FDA has stepped up its sampling of domestic and imported tomatoes to check for more signs of salmonella. 6-mo- high1 nth Consumer prices Changes from the preceding month in the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers: 1.0 - percent ' 0.8 I- 0.6 1 n A 0.6 1- E I.. l. ill' A A M MJJASONDJFMAM 2007 SOURCE 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics AP |