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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 22, 2009

Feb. Could Be Worst Month Yet For Jobless Claims

WASHINGTON (AP) - February is shaping up to be another brutal month of job losses: The number of laid-off workers receiving unemployment benefits hit an all-time high of nearly 5 million, and new jobless claims are at levels not seen since the early 1980s.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that the number of people receiving regular unemployment benefits rose by 170,000 to 4.99 million for the week ending Feb. 7, marking the fourth straight week continuing claims have hit a record.

The surge in joblessness has pushed those claims far above the 2.77 million people getting benefits a year ago. The number totals 6.54 million with the inclusion of an additional 1.5 million people who are getting extended benefits under a program passed by Congress last summer.

And those numbers are sure to climb higher, based on the flood of newly laid-off workers seeking benefits.

Dow Ends At Lowest Close In More Than 6 Years

NEW YORK - (AP) An important psychological barrier gave way on Wall Street Thursday as the Dow Jones industrials fell to their lowest level in more than six years.

The Dow broke through a bottom reached in November, pulled down by sharp declines in key financial shares. It was the lowest ending for the Dow since Oct. 9, 2002, when the last bear market bottomed out.

The move below that level dashed hopes that the doldrums of November would mark the ending point of a long slump in the market, which is now nearly halfway below the peak levels reached in October 2007.

The market's inability to rally also signals that investors see no immediate end for the recession, which is already 14 months old and one of the most severe in decades. Investors also haven't been impressed with two major economic initiatives from the Obama administration this week, an economic stimulus package and a mortgage relief plan.

FBI Tracks Down Texas Financier In Fraud Case

WASHINGTON (AP) - Texas financier R. Allen Stanford was tracked down Thursday in Virginia, where FBI agents served him with legal papers in a multibillion-dollar fraud case.

FBI agents, acting at the request of the Securities and Exchange Commission, served Stanford papers in Fredericksburg, Va., said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko.

Stanford is not under arrest and is not in custody.

In a civil papers Tuesday, the SEC alleged Stanford and three of his companies committed an $8 billion fraud that lured investors with promises of improbable and unsubstantiated high returns on certificates of deposit and other investments.

US Steps Up Pressure On UBS In Bank Secrets Case

WASHINGTON (AP) - A government lawsuit Thursday seeks the identities of tens of thousands of possible U.S. tax cheats who hid billions of dollars in assets at the Swiss-based bank UBS AG. A defiant Swiss president pledged to maintain his country's bank secrecy laws.

In the suit filed in Miami, the Obama administration wants UBS to turn over information on as many as 52,000 U.S. customers who concealed their accounts from the U.S. government in violation of tax laws.

A deal announced Wednesday provides access to about 250 to 300 UBS customers who used Swiss bank secrecy laws to hide assets. To avoid prosecution, UBS agreed to pay $780 million.

But that does not mean the bank is about to fork over information on thousands of accounts.

Nestle, Hormel Benefit As Consumers Cut Spending

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Nestle SA, the world's largest food company, and Hormel Foods Corp., the maker of pork-in-a-can icon Spam, said Thursday they plan to keep pushing low-cost products as consumers trim their budgets amid the deepening recession.

Since May, Spam sales have been growing by double-digit percentages as consumers flock to the value they see in the brand, said Chief Executive Jeffrey Ettinger. Hormel's plants have boosted production and even run on weekends, he said.

Nestle, which makes Perrier water and Jenny Craig products in addition to its namesake chocolate, said Thursday it aimed to increase sales with low-cost products like bouillon cubes and instant coffee during the global downturn. It also plans to offer smaller packages so consumers can conserve their cash.

Embraer Slashes Work Force 20 Percent Amid Crisis

SAO PAULO (AP) - Brazil's Embraer plane maker will cut its work force by about 20 percent because the global financial crisis has sharply reduced demand for its mid-sized passenger jets and executive jets, the company said Thursday.

Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA did not specify the precise number of posts that will be eliminated, but said the amount represents about 20 percent of its global work force of 21,362 people.

The company is the world's fourth-largest plane maker after U.S.-based Boeing Co., Europe's Airbus and Canada's Bombardier Inc. Most of its workers are employed in Brazil.

Embraer also said it was revising downward its revenue guidance for 2009 to $5.5 billion, corresponding to 242 deliveries of commercial and executive jets.

Oil Prices Surge On Report Of Falling Inventories

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Oil prices jumped Thursday as new government data showed oil inventories fell unexpectedly and that consumption of gasoline and other petroleum products - which have been plummeting because of the recession - may be starting to edge higher.

The Energy Information Administration said crude stocks decreased 200,000 barrels to 350.6 million barrels for the week ended Friday. Analysts had expected stocks to grow by 3.5 million barrels, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. Inventories have risen more than 30 million barrels in the prior six weeks.

Even with the decline, crude supplies remain ample and U.S. oil storage sites, including the main depot in Cushing, Okla., are brimming with crude. Storage levels are nearing levels last seen in the summer of 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

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