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Business Right Now
Bear Stearns tops forecasts, reveals fine NEW YORK (AP) _ Bear Stearns says it has been fined 250 (m) million dollars by regulators for fraudulent market timing and late trading of mutual funds. The news comes on the same day it reported record first-quarter earnings.It is third Wall Street brokerage to deliver better-than-expected results this week, enjoying results from strong equity trading and investment banking fees.Bear Stearns earned nearly 509 (m) million dollars, or three dollars, 54 cents a share.Analysts were looking for a gain of two dollars, 95 cents.The N-Y-S-E regulatory arm says Bear Stearns engaged in a pattern of deceptive market timing and late trading of fund shares from 1999 through 2003. The trades were designed to take advantage of the time between the markets' closing and the new share values posted by mutual fund companies. The Securities and Exchange Commission also announced the settlement.Goldman Sachs Group and Lehman Brothers Holdings both posted record first-quarter income and revenues earlier.At midday, Bear Stearns shares were up a dollar, two cents to 135 dollars, 23 cents, a gain of less than one percent.INFLATIONC-P-I up one-tenthWASHINGTON (AP) _ The government says inflation pressures weren't so bad last month.Falling prices for gasoline, natural gas and other energy prices helped keep the lid on.The Labor Department's Consumer Price Index rose just one-tenth of one percent.The C-P-I, the main measure of prices at the retail level, had surged seven-tenths in January.The core rate, watched for signs whether inflation has spilled beyond food and energy, was also muted. The core rate was also up one-tenth of one percent in February.HOUSING STARTSFewer starts reported in February, permits also downWASHINGTON (AP) _ After new housing construction soared in January to the highest level in more than three decades, the government says building eased last month. And a leading industry economist says you should expect more slowing in the months ahead.The Commerce Department says construction of new homes and apartments fell nearly eight percent. Even so, it wasn't as large a decline as economists had expected.Dave Seiders (SY'-durz), chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders, says he looks for further slowing in the months ahead.Seiders says the slowdown means that would-be buyers can expect more incentives offered by builders, providing freebies such as upgraded carpeting or countertops at no additional cost.Some of the strength seen so far this year is attributed to unusually warm weather.A gauge of future demand was also down. Building permits dropped three-point-two percent.SWITZERLAND-ROCHE-TAMIFLURoche: capacity to produce drug much exceeds government ordersBASEL, Switzerland (AP) _ Swiss drug company Roche Holding says while it has greatly increased its capacity to produce the antiviral drug Tamiflu, government orders to stockpile it are lagging far behind.Tamiflu is regarded as the best initial defense against a much-feared possible mutation of the deadly bird flu virus.A top company official says that capacity now exceeds government orders for Tamiflu.William Burns, chief executive of the Roche Pharma unit, tells reporters that the company expects to be able to produce enough Tamiflu to treat 400 (m) million people by the end of the year. The global network is being expanded to nine countries and more than 15 partner companies.Burns says total government orders and commitments received since last year to buy Tamiflu are less than half the amount Roche and its partners will be able to produce in a single year, starting next year.So far, the H-five-N-one strain remains very difficult for humans to catch. Almost all of the 177 cases and 98 deaths confirmed since 2003 have been individuals who had close contact with poultry.JAPAN-TOYOTAToyota introduces hybrid rear-wheel drive LexusTOKYO (AP) _ Toyota's latest luxury car is powered by the world's first commercially mass produced hybrid system designed for rear-wheel drive vehicles.The Japanese automaker says the Lexus G-S 450-H, powered by an electric motor and gasoline engine, will go on sale in North America and Japan next month.Toyota hopes to sell 57-hundred of the vehicles this year, including about two-thousand in North America.Toyota initially developed the hybrid system for the front-wheel drive Prius compact car. Some design changes were needed to adapt it for the Lexus, which Toyota says gets an average of 34 miles a gallon.AUTOS-HEALTH CAREChrysler to change health plan for salaried employees, retireesUNDATED (AP) _ Chrysler chief Tom LaSorda says it's an innovative, competitive and equitable way to handle health insurance premiums.The Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler is changing its health-care plan for active and retired salaried employees. The new plan requires those who earn more money to pay more in premiums.Chrysler says starting next year, all salaried employees' health-care pre-tax premium increases will be based on their ranks and base salary levels. Top executives will be responsible for up to 100 percent of their premiums.The changes will affect more than 17-thousand retirees and almost 15-thousand active white-collar workers.Chrysler reported a profit of one-point-eight (b) billion dollars in 2005 in the U-S. That's up six percent from the previous year. The company says it's facing increasing costs and competition and will seek benefit cuts from workers.MARCH MADNESSMarch Madness could cost nation's businesses a bundleCHICAGO (AP) _ With free online viewing of this year's N-C-A-A men's basketball tournament, there may be double trouble in store for businesses where employees are focused on the games.What's new is the decision by C-B-S Sports to offer free online viewing of the games.Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas predicts worker productivity will suffer. It estimates that over the 16 days of the tournament, lost productivity could top three and a-half (b) billion dollars.There have been reports that firms have attempted to block their Internet users from watching the games. But Mike Hronek (RAHN'-ik) with the I-T firm C-D-W says most companies don't have the money or capability to lock out the games. He says it might not be such a good idea, anyway. Hronek says that could send computer users surfing to other less-secure sites to get their basketball fixes, where they could accidentally download something malicious.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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