BUSINESS BRIEFS
Squeezed banks received $260B from Fed so far
Advertiser Staff and News Services
WASHINGTON — Fighting to ease a credit crisis, the Federal Reserve has provided $260 billion in short-term loans to squeezed banks since December to help them overcome credit problems.
It's part of an ongoing effort by the central bank to provide relief to a spreading credit crunch that has unnerved financial markets. The situation threatens to push the country into a deep recession.
The central bank yesterday announced the results of its most recent auction — the eighth since the program started in December — where commercial banks bid to get a slice of $50 billion in short-term loans.
In the auction, commercial banks paid an interest rate of 2.615 percent, the lowest rate for any of the auctions of this kind conducted so far.
PROFIT PREDICTION BOOSTS MONSANTO
ST. LOUIS — Monsanto Co. shares jumped nearly 10 percent yesterday after the agricultural products company said earnings per share for the second quarter and for all of fiscal 2008 will be stronger than projected.
St. Louis-based Monsanto now projects that its full-year earnings per share will be in the range of $3.38 to $3.48, including a gain of 23 cents per share for a settlement of claims related to subsidiary Solutia's emergence from bankruptcy.
TWO-SEAT TOURIST ROCKET PLANNED
LOS ANGELES — A California aerospace company plans to enter the space tourism industry with a two-seat rocket ship capable of suborbital flights to altitudes more than 37 miles above the Earth.
The Lynx, about the size of a small private plane, is expected to begin flying in 2010, according to developer Xcor Aerospace, which planned to release details of the design at a news conference today.
VIOXX CLAIMANTS HAVE MORE TIME
NEW ORLEANS — People who think their heart attacks or strokes were caused by the once-popular painkiller Vioxx and want early partial payments now have another month to file paperwork backing up their claims under a settlement with manufacturer Merck & Co.
Claims are still coming in to BrownGreer PLC, the Richmond, Va., law firm appointed to administer them, Merck lawyer Doug Marvin said. And, he told U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, some law firms — especially those with many clients registered for the settlement — are still working on claims.
Merck has agreed to delay the claims deadline from March 31 until May 1, Marvin said. The deadline remains July — and possibly as late as October — for those who don't want an early partial payment.
HIGH COURT WON'T EXPAND REVIEWS
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court yesterday refused to expand the role of the judiciary in reviewing arbitration awards under federal law.
The 6-3 decision came in an environmental cleanup dispute. Designed as a quick, inexpensive alternative to costly court battles, arbitration is seen by some in the business community as too risky because the opportunities for court review under the Federal Arbitration Act are narrow.
Writing for the majority, Justice David Souter said the law's essential virtue is in "resolving disputes straightaway." The Supreme Court, Souter wrote, has "no business" expanding judicial review beyond what the law allows.
The decision came in a cleanup dispute between toymaker Mattel Inc. and the owner of a factory site in Oregon contaminated with an industrial solvent. An arbitrator ruled in favor of Mattel, which won the case at the Supreme Court.
The justices did not rule on other possible avenues Hall Street and Mattel could take outside the Federal Arbitration Act, and so sent the case back to the lower federal courts, where Hall Street will pursue the case, its lawyers said.
