World financial news

Fry’s Food Stores will open its remodeled Marketplace store at Tatum and Shea boulevards Sept. 1 with a grand re-opening celebration.

The store, 4707 E. Shea Blvd., was closed in April to begin an extensive remodeling project that has added several new features, covered parking and 30,000 square feet of additional space.

Among the store’s new features are a 24-seat cooking school, 400-square-foot wine cellar with tasting bar, drive-through pharmacy and valet parking.

Fry’s just re-opened its Rural Road location in Tempe. Located at 3255 S. Rural Road, the store has an olive and soup bar as well as a medical clinic, staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, that offers treatments for minor illnesses business cards.

Meanwhile, Fry’s has closed its store at 1625 W. Camelback Road. Customers are asked to instead utilize the Fry’s location at Seventh Avenue and Camelback Road.

Fry's is one of several grocery store chains operated by Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), a grocery retailer with 2009 sales of nearly $77 billion.

Source

Get instant health insurance quotes, compare medical insurance plans, and find affordable health insurance to fit your health care coverage needs.

Research Triangle Park-based Semiconductor Research Corp. is getting some big backing from IBM (NYSE: IBM) and energy giant ABB (NYSE: ABB), both of which are putting money into SRC’s $5 million clean energy initiative.

SRC supports numerous faculty research projects at universities across the country. In the clean energy effort, Purdue University will get a photovoltaic research center, and a smart grid research center will be created at Carnegie Mellon University.

Initial efforts will focus on development of new modeling and simulation tools for development of photovoltaic devices for use in solar energy as well as systems and technology to support smart grids for electricity payday loans for bad credit.

“The development of these capabilities is beyond the scale of a single company or even industry, making the cooperation between industry and academia critical to delivering the benefits of alternative energy on a global scale,” said SRC Executive Vice President Steven Hillenius in a statement.

Source

Get instant affordable car insurance rates from multiple carriers online.

Advanced Inquiry Systems Inc., a company developing a semiconductor testing technology, has raised $10 million in a Series C round from a group of investors, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The money will be used to help bring a product to market.

The Hillsboro company closed a $11 million Series B round last year, bringing its funding up to $33 million at the time.

The company has developed a proprietary silicon-based testing platform to enable lower cost testing of memory devices pay day advance.

The company’s previous investors include OVP Venture Partners, TL Ventures, Intel Capital, Applied Ventures, KT Ventures and Northwest Technology Ventures. The Series C round included a new undiscloved investor.

The company was founded in 2002. It declined to disclose revenue on its most recent SEC filing.

Source

Estate planning attorneys may worry that their persistent headaches are a sign of something more serious. But once they remember what they do for a living, the headaches start to make perfect sense.

That’s because they are operating in a kind of weird estate tax limbo. The federal estate tax was here, now it’s gone for a year. It’s probably coming back soon, although no one can say exactly what it will look like.

Unless Congress acts, the estate tax will be back next year and no more than $1 million of a person’s estate would be exempt from it. That’s well below the $3.5 million exemption in place last year. And the top estate tax rate would be 55%, up from 45% in effect last year.

Oh, and just because there is no federal estate tax this year doesn’t mean heirs of someone who dies in 2010 have no federal tax liability on their inheritance. They very well may, but it can be hard to tell them in some instances what it will be because of ambiguities in the law.

So what’s an estate planner to do?

"You try to do as little as possible," [[for the estate of] someone who died in 2010," said Steve Hartnett, associate director of education at the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

And when you absolutely have to do something, he said, you make your best guess and hope it turns out to be the right one when Congress gets around to clarifying the estate tax rules of the road.

One potential minefield is how to deal with the change in "step up" rules for heirs.

Under the old regime, heirs who wanted to sell inherited assets had to pay the capital gains tax on the gains accrued since the day they inherited the asset. In other words, the "cost basis" of the asset was essentially stepped up to present day. Those rules go back into effect next year.

This year, however, when heirs sell appreciated assets they will owe capital gains tax on all the gains since the deceased bought the asset. But the first $1.3 million in gains is treated as tax free. And for surviving spouses, another $3 million is as well.

Say an estate’s assets with $5 million of gains are sold. Non-spousal heirs would only pay the capital gains tax on $3.7 million. A widow who is sole beneficiary would only owe tax on $700,000.

As a result of the new step-up rules, estate planners face an array of new complexities. One of them is advising clients when to sell an asset to minimize the tax bite. For instance, if the heirs of someone who dies this year don’t sell an appreciated asset until 2011 or beyond, which step-up rules will they be subject to? Hartnett says how the law will be applied isn’t clear.

Equally confusing is how best to cook up an estate plan for someone who is living now and plans on doing so at least until 2011.

The ‘who knows?’ factor

The only good news is that generally speaking relatively few taxpayers are affected by the federal estate tax itself.

At most, only an estimated 1.76% of estates would be affected in 2011 if the estate tax is resurrected with a $1 million exemption, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.

Then again, every estate of someone who died this year, no matter how small, will be affected by changes to rules governing heirs’ step-up in cost basis.

Optimists still hold out hope Congress will offer clarity before 2011, but the smart money says it won’t come before the mid-term elections in November.

Then again, who knows?

Lawmakers shocked the death rattle out of people by actually letting the estate tax lapse this year. Soon after, there was talk that they would reinstate the estate tax retroactively. Wrong again. Now halfway through the year, few expect that will happen.

Next expectation? Lawmakers absolutely, positively will come up with a more lenient version of the federal estate tax for 2011 than the one slated for currently.

Several key senators have been trying to cut a deal for months. Negotiations have stalled on more than one occasion.

"We’re almost half a year away from a tax policy that a super majority of senators say they don’t support. Yet, we’re stuck," Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said earlier this week. "This time-sensitive issue has taken a back seat to everything else."

Anne Mathias, director of research at Concept Capital’s Washington Research Group, thinks it’s a fair bet to assume the new exemption level will fall somewhere between $3.5 million to $5 million.

But she also said if Republicans sweep the mid-term elections, and win at least 60 seats in the Senate, they may push to extend the repeal of the tax.

When Hartnett was asked what he thinks will happen with the estate tax next year, he gave the only answer he and his colleagues can give for many estate tax questions these days: "I don’t know." 

Source

Gov. Bev Perdue confirmed late Thursday afternoon that American Express will build a new data center in eastern Guilford County.

American Express had sought a location for a new $400 million data center that would employ up to 150 people.

“The decision today by American Express is great news for Guilford County and for North Carolina,” Perdue said in a statement. “I spoke recently to the American Express CEO, during the company’s final decision-making process, and emphasized North Carolina’s outstanding work force and business-friendly environment. We clearly made a compelling case to land this important project, bolstering our already-strong reputation as an excellent location for data centers, which bring sustainable jobs and significant investment.”

American Express already employs more than 2,000 people in Greensboro at a customer service center.

Source

Stocks plunged around the world Tuesday as fear spread that Europe’s attempt to contain Greece’s debt crisis would fail. The euro fell to its lowest point against the dollar in a year.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 225 points, its biggest drop in three months. The Dow and broader indexes each fell more than 2 percent. Meanwhile, Treasury prices rose on increased demand for safe investments.

Stocks have seesawed in the past week as European countries’ efforts to agree on a bailout package for Greece proceeded in fits and starts. An agreement finally came together over the weekend, but its ballooning size of $144 billion has investors worried that Europe would have an even tougher time assembling an aid package if a larger country such as Spain or Portugal were to get in trouble. Traders are concerned that problems in Greece and other countries could spill over to the rest of Europe and in turn, the U.S.

The stock drop was a reminder that it doesn’t take much to rattle investors who are on alert for anything that could disrupt the recovery. The avalanche of selling could continue while investors await answers on Greece. But analysts said most drops were likely to be mild because buyers had been using pullbacks as opportunities to buy.

Tuesday’s slump marked the fifth time in six days that the Dow rose or fell by triple digits. The market’s moves are reminiscent of the fearsome swings in the fall of 2008 and early in 2009 when investors panicked over how bad the recession would get.

Scott Fullman, director of derivatives investment strategy for WJB Capital Group in New York, said sudden turns in the market were to be expected as traders wrestled with concerns that stocks were overheated. "The market has kind of gotten itself into a volatile trading range," Fullman said.

Investors are worried that other cash-strapped European governments could also ask for emergency loans while the economy of the entire region is still recovering.

"It’s not as though even the strongest economies of Europe are doing particularly well," Mike Shea, managing partner at Direct Access Partners LLC in New York, said. "Why is a plumber in Germany going to bail out Greece or Portugal?"

Investors rushed to safer holdings such as Treasurys, pushing interest rates sharply lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.61 percent from 3.69 percent late Monday.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange’s Volatility Index, which is known as the market’s fear gauge, soared 18 percent. That is a signal that more investors are betting on big drops in the market.

The euro again fell against the dollar as traders turned away from the currency used by 16 European Union countries including Greece. When investors start doubting a country’s economic strength, they tend to sell its currency.

Anthony Chan, chief economist at J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Management in New York, said that Greece’s troubles weren’t enough to spoil a global rebound but that investors were concerned that this small hole in the world economy would become bigger.

"My suspicion is that this won’t end up being large enough to really cause the kind of problems that the market is obsessed with," he said.

The dollar rose against other major currencies, especially the euro. The euro sank as low as $1.2994 in New York, its weakest point since April 2009. It was worth $1.3212 late Monday and had traded as high as $1.51 last November.

The stronger dollar is a negative for investors because it would cut into profits for U.S. companies with sizable foreign operations. When the dollar is up, overseas profits translate into less money. The rising dollar also makes it more expensive for foreign buyers to purchase commodities like oil. That hurts demand.

Source

The Hawaii Convention Center has won another Prime Site Award from Facilities & Destinations magazine.

This is the center’s 12th consecutive award from the trade publication. It is one of 27 convention facilities managed by SMG nationwide to receive the award.

The award is determined by members of the meetings and conventions industry — promoters, booking agents and event planners — directly involved in site selection. Voting is based on convenience of location, attractiveness and maintenance of the facility, professionalism of staff, cuisine, and technological capabilities.

SMG markets and manages the Hawaii Convention Center under the direction of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the state’s tourism agency.

“We are extremely pleased with our continuous success and share our excitement with our 26 sister facilities of the SMG ohana,” said Joe Davis, SMG general manager for the Hawaii Convention Center, in a prepared statement. “This award not only recognizes the facility but highlights Hawaii as a great destination for meetings and the hard work of our staff and destination partners.”

Source

It’s spring, the eternal season of rejuvenation.

And that has some hoping, at last, for a rebirth of the housing market.

It has been a rough two years, with buyers and sellers battered by a wave of foreclosures, tight credit and uncertain job prospects. Government support — in the form of tax credits and federal backing for mortgages — has helped keep sales moving. But now those supports are ending, making this spring a key test of whether the housing market can walk on its own again.

"The next 60 days, they should tell us where we’re going," said Letty Demay, president of the St. Louis Association of Realtors. "Hopefully we’re going to see a good year."

Despite the long, grim slide, there are reasons for optimism: Chief among them is the fact that, for people with cash and confidence in their jobs, it is a good time to buy a house.

Between low prices, rock-bottom interest rates and the tax breaks for first-time homebuyers, housing is as affordable as it has been in years. Prices in St. Louis are back at 2004 levels, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and data tracked by Wells Fargo say the number of St. Louisans who can afford to buy is near 18-year highs.

That is driving a surge of interest this spring. Area real estate agents are busier than they have been in quite some time, Demay said. Phones are ringing. Houses are getting shown.

"I think overall we’ve got a stronger market than we’ve had in the last 18 months," she said.

And while that strength hasn’t yet shown up in sales numbers, which are not yet available for March, it is beginning to show in homes under contract. In the first week of April, the number of pending sales in St. Louis County — homes that are in contract but not yet closed upon — was nearly back to 2008 levels, after plunging 42 percent last year, according to data from Kelsey Cottrell Realty.

The market is strongest at lower price points, where the $8,000 tax credit has more impact and financing is easier to come by. The share of listings under $300,000 that are in contract is actually higher than it was two years ago, said the firm’s co-owner Kevin Cottrell. He said his agents were seeing something they hadn’t in quite some time: homes selling not in weeks, but in days.

"If they’re priced right, they won’t even make it to the weekend," he said.

But some of that strength comes from supports that are soon to be pulled out.

Homes must be in contract by April 30 to qualify for the $8,000 tax credit; and unlike last fall, when it was first set to expire, there is little momentum in Congress for another extension.

Meanwhile, interest rates are widely expected to rise after the Federal Reserve stopped buying mortgage-backed securities at the end of March.

So far, rate increases haven’t happened — Freddie Mac’s average 30-year fixed rate mortgage climbed from 5.08 percent to 5.21 before falling back to 5.07 a week later — but many experts think they will creep up over the next few months if the economy improves. Some predict six percent by year’s end.

That’s still low by historic standards, but over 30 years every 1 percentage point increase adds roughly 10 percent to the cost of the loan.

That, as much as anything, may push more people to buy this spring, Cottrell said, even if they don’t hit the tax credit’s timeline.

"What does your total cost of ownership look like if rates go above 6 percent?" he asked. "It’s really not about the $8,000 credit, it’s about what you’re going to spend to own the thing."

But the recovery is still tentative, and nobody is expecting the market to roar back, especially in the area that most interests sellers: price.

Prices have bounced back a bit in the past six months but are still well off their mid-decade peaks. Median prices in St. Louis have dropped 6.5 percent over the past three years, said David Stiff, chief economist for Fiserv, a financial data firm. He said he expected a roughly 1 percent decline in both 2010 and 2011. It’ll be 2014 before prices fully rebound here, he said.

"Unemployment is still quite high, and that will remain a drag on housing demand," Stiff said. "We’re expecting prices to bottom out at the end of the year. And then I think it’ll be a pretty slow recovery."

Still, he said, the housing market is on the way to recovery. There may be some stops and starts. Sales may drop again after April 30. But a recovery is coming.

"We’re far closer than we have been," Stiff said.

Just how close, we will find out soon.

Source

Former U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall died Saturday. He was 90.

Udall served under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson during the 1960s. He previously served as a congressman from Arizona.

Stewart Udall was the brother of the late Morris Udall and the father of U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. He is viewed as one of the early leaders in the modern U no teletrack payday loan.S. environmental and conservation movements.

He died of natural causes in New Mexico, according to statements by his family.

Source

Sales of Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computers are reportedly on a pace that could beat the debut sales of the iPhone.

The Wall Street Journal cited estimates from unnamed sources on Thursday who said Apple has sold hundreds of thousands of iPads since orders began on Friday.

It quoted one person it said is "familiar with the matter" that Apple could sell more iPads in its first three months than it sold iPhones in its first three months personal loans for people with bad credit.

The Journal reported that as the April 3 delivery of the first iPads approaches, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is still working to secure content for the devices.

Among the features it said it still being negotiated with media companies is a price cut on TV shows that people can be downloaded onto the device.

Source