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Show bp) DailySHerald PAGE 6 WEDNESDAY,APRIL 19, 2006 BUSINESS EDITOR | Grace Leong - 344-2910 - gleong@heraldextra.com | Final 11,268.77 +194.99 A Final 2,356.14 +44.98 | Final | | 1,307.65 422.32 Kristen Hays |ATED PR pushedinjlation at the wholesale level up in Marchat the fuel costs ahead temperduringhis sixth day on the witness standin his fraud and conspiracytrial. But he appeared to seethe whenfederal pros- ecutor Sean Berkowitz sternly pressed him aboutpoor investments housed in the off-the-books structures that prosecution witnesses said were used to hidelosses. Skilling occasionally answered with sar- Increasedoil prices drive high gasoline prices WASHINGTON — A big jumpingasoline prices pushedinfla- casm ortried to give lengthy explanations, only to have Berkowitz demanda “yes,” “no”or otherwise concise statement, to Which the ex-CEO wouldsay, “OK.” Thefinancialstructures, known as tion at the wholesale level up in Marchat the fastest pace in three Per ounce Per ounce $620.00 +$4.60 $13.760 +$0.42 Yen W28778 we Pound 1.231 $1.7793 Canadian dollar Mexican peso 1.1407 10.9440 4 $1.7694 ‘1.1459 11.0470. investmentsand assets as long as the en-. a prosecutor Tuesday whenchallenged about whether the company used fraudulent financial structures and other means to fudgeits numbers in the years beforeit collapsed into bankrupt cy proceedings. The 52-year-old formerCEO held his Jastest pace in three months,as oil prices climb above $70. barrel sending consumersa high-octane warning of expensive | EXCHANGING THE DOLLAR Tuesday stock and could protect against losses on Executive Jeffrey Skilling sparred with CAROLYN KASTER /Associated Press ‘| Silver Raptors, were largely backed by Enron HOUSTON — FormerEnron Corp.Chief Avintage Chevrolet Panel Truck drives past an Exxonstation in rural Biglerville. Pa. on Tuesday. A big jumpin gasoline prices || | S&P 500 | Dow Jones | ergy company’s shares remained above a certain level. The four structures crumbled as Enron stockfell throughout 2001, and accounted for more than half of a $1 billion charge the company reported in the third quarter that year when they wereshut down.Six weekslater Enron sought bankruptcy protection. Skilling's co-defendant, Enron founder KennethLay,is expected to begin testifying next week,after Skilling wraps up his testimony and other defense witnesses take the stand. The government contends Enron was so bent on meeting or beating Wall Street expectations that the company turned to fraud,including the use of the Raptors, to sweeppotential losses from its books and wrongly dipped into reserves to pad earn- . ings. JESSICA KOURKOUNIS/Associated Press FormerEnron CEO Jeff Skilling returns to the federal courthousein Houston after a lunch break Tuesday. » months. as oil prices above $70 a barrel sent consumersa high-octane warningof expensive fuel costs ahead. The Labor Department reported that wholesale pssaes by 0.5 percentin Marchfollowinga 1.4 percent declinein Fe which had beenthe largest dropin nearlythree years. The Marchincrease was slightly worse thanthe 0.4 percent rise that Wall Street had been expecting and was driven by a 9.1 percent surge in gasoline prices, the biggest one-month gain since November 2004. Motorola reports slight drop in quarter profits CHICAGO—Motorola Inc., the world’s No. 2 cell phone manufacturer. reported a slight dropinfirst-quarter income Tuesday despite a 23 percentjump in salesthathelped it gain market share and close the gap on rival Nokia Corp. Its shares tumbledin af.er-hours trading as analysts expressed disappointmentthatrecordsalesfailed to translate into higher profits. The company alsodisclosed 2,500 new job cuts, mostly abroad, that had not been formally announced — most of them related to the closure of two manufacturing plants in Nogales, Mexico, and Taiwan, Motorola had 69,000 employeesatthe start of 2006. Netincomefell to $686 million, or 27 cents per share, from $692 million, or 28 cents per share. in the sameperiod a yearearlier whenresults were boosted bya substantial gain on investments. That matched the estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Soaring stocks propel Dow Jones up NEWYORK Stocks soared Tuesday on newsthat Federal Reserve policymakers believed their run ofinterest rate hikes is likely nearing anend, propelling the DowJonesindustrials up nearly 200 points. The report helped offset the effects of oil prices that passed $71 abarrel. Wall Street wasalready climbing in mid-afternoon whenthe Fed peed minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s March 28 meeting that showed mostof the panel's members“thought te the endofthe tightening process was likely to be near, and some expressed concernsabout the dangersoftightening too much. given thelagsin the effects ofpolicy.” Yahoo meets quarter profit expectations SAN FRANCISCO— Yahoo Inc.'s first-quarter profit met analyst expectations Tuesday, relieving investors who feared losses in the Internet powerhouse's search engine market share might hinderits.advertising growth. Yahoo shares surged more than 6 percenton the news. The Sunnyvale, Calif -based companysaid it earned $159.6 mil- lion, or 11 cents per share, during thefirst three months of the year. That represented a 22 percent decrease from net incomeof MIKESIEGEL/The Seattle Times Timing Qian, center, cheers as Chinese President HuJintao arrives at PaineField in Everett, Wash. on Tuesday. President Hu starts U.S.visit with business Chinesepresidentbegins U.S.visit with businessleaders in Seattle $204.6 million, or 14 cents per share, at the sametime a year ago. It wasn't an apples-to-apples comparison because of new rules requiring companiesto recognizethe costs of their employee stock options. Allison Linn HE AS! 'D PRESS SEATTLE — Chinese Presi- STOCKS OF LOCAL INTEREST Yesterday's performanceof selected publicly traded companies SYM AA ABS ABX ARP AIG AMD AMGN BAC Bu BS BN | BAG CMCSK VX Dis DNEX ERICY. EIR FC GOW GE HCA HRB HSIC 18M INTC BW XP AWN. KRON LEE UB WW WV CK MER MITY MNISI COMPANY ALCOAINC ALBERTSONSINC —_BARRICK GOLD CP AMERELECRICPOWCO AMERINTLGROUPINC ADV MICRO DEVICES LAST CHANGE 3516 +16 2535 000 3044 022 3324 6348 123 709699 + 45.96 uo 3m 5122 8% 3.04 2880 os SYM MSFT MU MYGN NAR. ETM NOVL NUS BK DF AMERICACP NWN PCG BELLSOUTH CP PFE BANTACORP Q cmGROUPINC ROPRF CRESTED CORP SOK. Comcast Goporaton SHLD CHEVRON CORP Sil WALT DISNEY-DisNeY c SKYW Dionex Corporation SNTO LM Encsson Telephone SP ENTERGY.CP STA FRANKUNCOVEY CO STR GOLDENWESTRINGP 70.70 +2.14 | SWAT GENELECTRICCO 3387 +058 SY HCAINC 4585 +019 T HRBLOCKINC 230 +020 ToT Henry Schein, nc 4669 +084 UDR —INTLBUSINESS MACH 8331 41.67 UNH Intel Corporation 1933 +020 USB JetBlue Arways Coporatin 951 +004 | USEG PENNEYJCCOHOLDIN 60.65 +091 USNA NORDSTROM INC 3923 +053 UTMD Kronos incoperated «4068 +090 VZ _LEEENTERPRISES 3210 041 WEN LONGVIEWFIBRECO 26.09 +091. WRC LUCENTTECHINC 301 +005 WMT SOUTHWESTAIRLINES 17.48 4052 WNI MCKESSON CORP 5167 4041 X MLCOCMNSTK 7932 +092 xe MIT Enterprises inc 1880 +007 ZION Merit Medical Systems, Inc. 11.24 40.12 COMPANY LAST CHANGE Murosott Corporation «2723 +038 MICRONTECHNOLOGY 1603 40.91 Genetics 2545 +089 NATURES SUNSHINE PROD INC9'50 +0.20 NetManage. nc 58 019 Novel Inc 775 +007 NUSKIN ENTINC 1722 +025 NORTHWESTNATGAS 35.00. +048 PGRECP 39.49 +068 PFIZERINC 2493 +049 QWESTCOMMINTLINC 675 +006 ROYAL DUTCH PETSWES 65.745 0.00 SCO Group, Inc (The) 497 008 Sears Holdings Corporation 140.33. +4.00 SMITHINTLINC 4183 +103 SkyWest nc 2599 +018 Sento Corporation 1% 0.04 SCOTTISH PWR ADS 4010 +070 STPAULTRAVELERSCO 41.80" +0.69 QUESTARCP BSS +277 Swift Transportation Co, inc. 2473. +065 SYBASEINC 2143 +022 —ATATINC 2596 +051 TARGETCP 51.68 +045 UNITEDOOMINRUYTR 2747 +059 UNITEDHEALTHGROUP 4967-200 USBANCORP 3055 +017 US. Enemy Cop. 688 007 USANAHealth Sciences inc. 41.79 +1.10 UtahMedical Product, inc. 31.90 0.10 VERZONCOMMUN 3320 +073 WENDYSINTLING 6188 +083 WELISFARGO&CONEW 6506 +060 WALMARTSTORES 6A +058 SCHIFF NUTRITINTL 579 +022 UNITEDSTATESSTEL «67.81 +308 XCELENERGYINC 1820 +028 ZorsBancomporation «383. _+2.19 dent HuJintaoarrived in the * Seattle area Tuesdayfor talks with businessleaders before he heads to Washington to meet political leaders worried about China’s muscular stance in trade, energy and currency policy. Huplanned to meet with Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates aaother business leaders, and tour a Boeing Co. commercial jet plant on Wednesday. Hubegan his trip in Everett, about 30 miles north of Seattle, where about 120 members of the Seattle Kung Fu Club and a pegent in Iran and North hevisit comes as RedmondMicrosoft, after years of battling widespread software piracy in the potenttially jucrative China market,is Soe that things are changing.Chinese governmentofficials say they are serious about cracking downonsalesofillegal copies of Microsoft's Windows Operating system, and some computer makersare pledging to'ship more computers with legitimate Windowssoftware installed. Oneof those companies, Lenovo Group Ltd., met Monday with Microsoft officials to reaffirm Lenovo's 5-month-old commitmentto ship computers handful of ribbon dancers from a Seattle elementary school gathered to welcomehim. Hualso was greeted by government andbusiness leaders, including Gov. Chris Gregoire and Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz. Huhas set an ambitious mission for his four-day U.S.tour. It comes at a time of unease among American businesses, political leaders and the public about how China is using its new power. His summit Thursday with President Bush will cover a broad agenda,from China’s “ , with genuine operating sysmuchcriticized currency and * tems. Microsoft held a similar meeting last week with Chiother trade policies, toits aggressive searchfor oil and dese computer manufacturer its stance toward nuclear Founder Technology Group Corp., also among the companies that havepledged to pro- mote legal Windowsuse. Althoughanalysts sayit could be some time before the promised changes havea significant effect on Microsoft's sales, the pledges area feelgood backdrop for Hu’s visit with Gates and other business and governmentexecutives. Chinese governmentofficials promised their U.S. counterpartslast week to fight software piracy,as they tried to ease tension over the record trade gap between the two countries. For Microsoft, the moveis important because it sees China as a major market in which to increase revenues. Lenovo,which last year bought IBM’s personal-computer business,is the world’s third-largest computer com- pany. Fees for bounced checks, ATMsontherise Eileen Alt Powell THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK The cost of overdrawing your checking account has gone up again, according to a study of bank fees released Tuesday. Bankrate.com said a survey of banks and thrifts in the nation’s 25 largest markets found that the average fee for a bounced check rose to $27.04 this spring from $26.0 last fall. That's the second on record, behind the average AORAMER $27.13 a year ago, according to - “one bright spot” was that eat banks have reduced the amount information service based they ose their customers” inNorth Palm Beach,Ha who use “alien” machines. These fees dropped to $1.29 from $1.37. haverisen on auBankrate.com estimated that teller machines, or consumers probably will pay ATMs, to $1.60 this spring some $4.2 billion in ATM service charges this year. from $1.54 last fall. Two years ao. ATM surcharges — which Fees have been rising in when consumers recent years becausé financial tse ATMs that aren't owned institutions have found them to be a more-predictable form of income than interest charges, Sneekyehcoe td ths » which can rise and fall as mar- ket conditions As 2 result, financial institutions have become more dependent on suchfees to generate profits. Charlotte, N.C.based Wachovia Corp., the nation’s fourth largest bank, reported Mondaythat in the first quarter,fees for the first time generated half the bank’s revenue. Greg McBride,senior financial analyst for Bankrate. com, said that althoughfees are higher, there are waysconsumers can work around them. |