Draghi Says Lull in Financial Crisis Should Spur Governments, Banks to Act - Bloomberg
March 14th, 2012
Finance, Business, Economic
Contegra Construction Co., with offices in Edwardsville and Chesterfield, completed a $10.5 million renovation and expansion of the Hatheway Hall theater building at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey.
Contegra added 6,800 square feet and renovated 62,500 square feet. It supervised the installation of an 8,600-square-foot solar rooftop array.
The project’s architectural highlight is a new two-story, 2,000-square-foot, glass-enclosed lobby topped by a suspended “wave” ceiling no credit check payday loans.
AAIC Inc. of Collinsville was the project architect, with Sheppard, Morgan & Schwab of Alton serving as civil engineer.
Brown Shoe Co. said today that it’s closing a distribution facility in Sikeston, Mo., and 15 Famous Footwear stores.
The closures come as Clayton-based footwear company Brown Shoe announced fourth quarter and year-end earnings that missed analysts’ expectations.
For the fourth quarter that ended Jan. 28, Brown Shoe reported a loss of $8.2 million, or 21 cents a share, compared with a $3.4 million profit, or 8 cents a share, a year ago. Net sales increased to $628.9 million compared with $604.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.
On an adjusted basis, Brown Shoe reported a $4.1 million profit in the fourth quarter, or 10 cents per diluted share. Analysts expected adjusted earnings per share of 20 cents for the fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg.
For its 2011 fiscal year, Brown shoe reported a $24.6 million profit, or 56 cents a share, compared with a $37.2 million profit ,or 85 cents a share, in 2010. Net sales for fiscal 2011 increased to $2.6 billion, compared with $2.5 billion a year ago.
Brown Shoe said it expects its adjusted earnings in fiscal 2012 will range between 78 and 92 cents per share.
The earnings report sent Brown Shoe’s stock down more than a dollar in early morning trading. Brown Shoe’s stock was trading at $9.14 a share mid-morning, down more than 12 percent from its opening price of $10.02 a share.
A decline in toning shoe sales and boots contributed to the profit declines. In the fourth quarter, toning shoe sales at Brown Shoes’ Famous Footwear stores dropped 59 percent compared to a year prior, and boot sales dropped nearly 6 percent.
As part of its ”portfolio realignment efforts,” Brown Shoe has closed dozens of underperforming Famous Footwear locations. In fiscal 2011, Brown Shoe pared its number of Famous Footwear stores from 1,110 to 1,089.
Brown Shoe did not identify the 15 Famous Footwear stores it plans to close in 2012. The company also closed a factory in JiangXi, China.
“For 2012, we will build on these efforts, while delivering great product — on time and on quality — and executing against expectations,” president and CEO Diane Sullivan said in a press release.
Brown Shoe’s brands include Naturalizer, Dr. Scholl’s, LifeStride and Franco Sarto. The company operates more than 1,300 Famous Footwear and Naturalizer stores in the U.S., Canada and China.
More than 9 million retired Americans don’t have enough money to cover basic living expenses, according to a new study.
Of the nearly 20 million older Americans who live alone or with a spouse, about 47 percent can’t afford everyday necessities such as proper nutrition and medical care, according to the analysis by Wider Opportunities for Women, a nonprofit research firm in Washington. Another 20 million seniors live with family or in group settings such as nursing homes and aren’t included in the study.
The research organization used Census data to calculate median 2010 income levels for people 65 or older. Income came from a variety of sources, including Social Security, pensions and retirement savings.
It compared that to basic living expenses in individual states and determined the gap between the two. Though there is a chasm between income and living expenses in every state, it’s especially pronounced in some urbanized states, where the rising cost of living has outstripped the fixed incomes on which many seniors depend.
In California, for example, a single person renting an apartment would need an annual income of $25,884 to cover everyday needs. But median elder income is only $19,200, according to the group.
Given that they’ve already retired, that means the typical senior must cut expenses to bridge that gap of $6,684.
World stocks traded unevenly Friday as investors weighed the impact of high oil prices against new signs of improvement in the U.S. jobs market.
Benchmark oil hovered above $108 per barrel while the dollar rose against the yen and the euro.
European stocks budged only slightly in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 was marginally lower at 5,929.90. Germany’s DAX was nearly unchanged at 6941.08 and France’s CAC-40 was 0.1 percent higher at 3,504.18.
Wall Street appeared set for a lower opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures losing 0.1 percent to 12,958 while S&P 500 futures lost 0.2 percent to 1,372.
“Investors remain very nervous about the oil market and potential supply disruptions arising from the Middle East. From an investment perspective, high oil prices are quite negative for global growth,” said Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia.
Asian stock markets performed robustly, however, in the footsteps of Wall Street gains on Thursday.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.7 percent to finish at 9,777.03, its highest close in seven months.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.8 percent to 21,562.26 and South Korea’s Kospi added 0.2 percent to 2,034.63.
Mainland Chinese shares rose, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index adding 1.4 percent to 2,460.69. The Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 2.1 percent to 980.77. Benchmarks in Australia, Singapore and Taiwan also rose.
The region’s markets were boosted by the latest sign of improvement in the U.S. jobs market. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest point since March 2008. The four-week average was also the lowest in four years.
Analysts said investors are also looking to the opening Monday of the annual meeting of the ceremonial Chinese legislature, which is used by the government as a platform to announce its policy direction for the coming year.
Investors expect to see measures to help prop up domestic demand as well as looser reins on lending to try to boost growth, said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong.
“Right now, exports from mainland China are not so good, so they have to do more things to push up domestic demand,” he said.
News that major state-owned Chinese banks may begin easing property lending policies for first-time home buyers boosted real estate shares. Poly Real Estate, China’s second-largest listed property, gained 4.4 percent and industry leader China Vanke jumped 4 percent.
Tokyo-based Elpida Memory Ltd. plummeted 29 percent. The company, the only manufacturer in Japan to specialize in DRAM chips used in mobile phones and computers, filed for bankruptcy protection Monday.
Benchmark oil for April delivery was down 66 cents to $108.18 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.77 to finish at $108.84 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3257 from $1.3316 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose to 81.53 yen from 81.08 yen.
Filed under: management, term by TheDoor
Comments Off
The price of gasoline is continuing its steady climb. Drivers are paying the highest price ever for the end of February.
The national average now sits at $3.72 per gallon, up 30 cents from a month ago and 35 cents from the same time last year. Prices are highest in Hawaii, Alaska, California, New York and Connecticut.
Gasoline is following a similar rise in oil, which is used to make gasoline. Analysts say the national average could peak in late April as high as $4.25 per gallon as refineries shift to a more expensive blend of gasoline used in the summer.
Oil prices have jumped 10 percent this year. They fell slightly on Tuesday, however, giving up 10 cents to $108.46 per barrel in New York.