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Amazon shares plunged 13% in after-hours trading Thursday after the company’s second-quarter earnings came up far short of analyst expectations.

Amazon’s sales are still growing fast: The company had revenue of $6.6 billion in the quarter ended June 30, up 41% from a year ago. Amazon’s profit also rose, increasing 45% to $207 million.

But analysts hoped for better, and are keeping a close eye on Amazon’s bottom line to see if intensifying competitive pressures knock the e-commerce giant off its game.

Forced by Barnes & Noble (BN) into an e-reader price war, Amazon.com slashed the price of its flagship Kindle to $189 last month. It later cut its high-end Kindle DX price tag by more than $100, to $379. Meanwile, Apple’s (AAPL, Fortune 500) popular iPad — which can store thousands of e-books — could obliterate the entire stand-alone e-reader market within the next year or two No teletrack payday loans.

Amazon tried earlier this week to draw attention to its bright spots. The company announced that sales of e-books for its popular Kindle reader now outnumber Amazon’s sales of hardcover books. The company also said Kindle sales have picked up since last month’s price cut, though it once again refused to disclose how many Kindles it has actually sold.

Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) said it expects third-quarter revenue to come in between $6.9 billion and $7.63 billion in revenue this quarter, in line with analyst estimates. 

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A Colorado delegation's weeklong economic development mission to Israel was "a success on all fronts — business, academic and research," said Gov. Bill Ritter, who led the group.

“We created a solid foundation for future economic activity, set the stage for immediate follow-up meetings in Colorado and laid the groundwork for long-term collaboration. I’m confident this mission will lead to increased jobs, investments and economic growth for Colorado,” Ritter said in a statement upon the group's return from the July 12-18 trip.

Ritter's group met with Israeli President Shimon Peres; Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Benjamin (Fuad) Ben-Eliezer; Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau; and Deputy Foreign Minister and former ambassador to the United States Danny Ayalon, among other officials.

In a statement, Ayalon applauded Colorado's interest in establishing cooperation with Israeli companies on such matters as renewable energy and water conservation.

"Renewable energy is the solution to the oil problem, and offers a solution to the reduction of negative oil politics around the world. Delegations such as these are important in strengthening the relationship of the people of Israel and the United States, and in the strengthening of future economic cooperation," Ayalon told Ritter during their meeting.

Among the accomplishments of the mission as cited by Ritter's staff:

• The Colorado delegation agreed to help establish workforce-development ties among Noble Energy Inc., the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) and Colorado School of Mines. "Last year, Noble Energy discovered a vast natural gas reserve off the coast of Israel, but the country lacks the workforce to develop the resource," Ritter's office said in a statement.

In a statement, Houston-based Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL) — which has a Denver office — calls the Tamar natural-gas find "the largest exploration discovery in the history of Noble Energy, as well as the largest conventional gas discovery in the world in 2009."

• Ritter and Ben-Eliezer signed a bilateral agreement between Colorado and Israel to advance research and collaboration between companies and institutions in both areas.

• Colorado State University and Ben Gurion University’s Desert Research Center signed a collaborative agreement on water-conservation and related technologies.

• The State of Colorado, through its Departments of Natural Resources and Agriculture, entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Desert Agro Research Center focused on water and agriculture research and development in arid and semi-arid climates. The agreement focuses on such water technologies as desalination, treatment and conservation.

• The Governor’s Energy Office entered an agreement with BrightSource Energy to examine whether cogeneration technologies involving large-scale concentrated solar and natural gas can be utilized on projects in Colorado. Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource officials will be in Colorado later this month to begin those discussions.

• Ritter, Colorado Economic Development Director Don Marostica and state Energy Director Tom Plant met with a number of Israeli clean-energy, water-technology, bioscience and venture-capital companies that may be interested in doing business in Colorado.

• Colorado Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp promoted Colorado beef exports to Israeli officials, some of whom will be in Colorado next month for livestock discussions.

• Colorado Chief Operating Officer Don Elliman met with Israeli officials regarding homeland security, including discussions about an upcoming homeland security expo taking place in Denver later this year.

• The delegation visited Ramat Negev, the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado’s "partnership region" in Israel, where Ritter and the delegation were hosted by Mayor Shmulik Rifman.

The privately-supported trip was sponsored by the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado. A state ethics panel created under voter-approved Amendment 41, which bars gifts of more than $50 to public officials, agreed to participation by Ritter and other state employees in the trip in a ruling beforehand.

"The mission was a great success for Colorado citizens,” Doug Seserman, CEO of the Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with both Colorado and Israel in the months and years ahead to further the business relationships built on this trip.”

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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.

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The board of directors of Computer Services Inc. has approved a 15.8 percent increase to its quarterly cash dividend.

The dividend was raised to 11 cents per share from 9.5 cents per share. The dividend is payable Sept. 24 to shareholders of record Sept. 1.

It is the 22nd annual increase of the quarterly dividend, according to a news release issued by Computer Services Inc. The company announced last week it recorded a record first-quarter net income and revenue.

It had net income of $5 fast payday loans.3 million, or 36 cents per share, on revenue of $39.7 million, in the fiscal first quarter, ended May 30.

Paducah, Ky.-based Computer Services (Pink Sheets: CSVI) provides core banking services such as payment processing, Internet, card services, risk assessment, fraud prevention, network management and regulatory compliance to financial institutions and corporations.

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Seeking to appease deficit hawks, Senate Democrats scaled back unemployment benefits and Medicare physician reimbursement measures on Wednesday.

The revised jobs bill eliminates a $25 weekly supplement for the jobless that had been part of the last year’s stimulus act. Those currently receiving the supplement in their unemployment benefits check will continue to do so until they exhaust their extended benefits, or until the week of Dec. 7, whichever comes first. That cut will reduce the bill’s cost by $5.8 billion over the next decade.

The new version of the bill would also freeze a 21% cut to Medicare physician reimbursement rates only through November, instead of through 2011. This will reduce the bill’s size by $16.4 billion over 10 years.

The legislation, which has been stuck in the Senate for more than a week, originally came in at about $140 billion and would have added about $78.7 billion to the deficit. The revised bill would raise the deficit by $55.1 billion.

Lawmakers are hoping to vote on the bill as early as Thursday. But if Democratic leaders can’t rustle up enough support, the vote could be pushed back to next week.

The Senate’s actions mirror what happened in the House, which twice had to shrink its version of the jobs and tax extenders bill to secure enough votes among members wary of raising the federal deficit even further. Representatives ultimately passed a measure in late May that would increase the deficit by $54.3 billion.

The grab-bag legislation pushes back the deadline to file for federal unemployment benefits until the end of November, renews expired tax provisions, lengthens a small business lending program and adds to infrastructure investments.

It also increases the tax on money paid to managers of hedge funds and investment partnerships to ordinary income levels instead of the much-lower capital gains rate. Under the revised bill introduced Wednesday, investment fund managers would have to treat 75% of this money as ordinary income, beginning in 2011.

The revised bill further hiked a tax on oil that finances the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to 49 cents, up from the 34 cents in the House version. The current tax is 8 cents. This measures is now projected to raise $18.3 billion over 10 years.

The revised Senate bill retained $24 billion in Medicaid funding to states, a provision the House had to jettison. President Obama and governors pressed lawmakers to keep the money, which many state officials have already included in their fiscal 2011 budgets, which begin July 1.

Senate lawmakers also voted Wednesday to include a measure in the bill that would push back the deadline to close on home purchases and still qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $8,000. Homebuyers would have until September 30, instead of June 30, to complete the transaction. The provision will cost $140 million over 10 years. 

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The banking industry in St. Louis isn’t quite over the recessionary hump, but it’s heading in the right direction, industry observers say.

Overall, the 78 banks headquartered in St. Louis turned a small profit — $15 million — in the first quarter after losing $433 million in 2009. Only nine banks lost money from January through March.

"These are the best numbers we’ve seen since the first quarter of 2008," said Julie Stackhouse, chief bank regulator at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. "It is a turning point, and that’s a good thing to see."

That doesn’t mean that it’s easier to get a loan. As of March, loans were down 4 percent from last December and down 9 percent from March of last year.

That drop isn’t solely due to fearful bankers’ becoming tight-fisted. Bankers say their best business borrowers are hoarding cash and not ready to borrow to fund expansions.

"They’re still waiting," said Rick Sems, regional president for PNC Bank, which owns National City Bank in St. Louis. Local business have seen their profits rise, but that’s because of cost cutting.

"They’ve completely rationalized their organizations, and now we’re seeing a little bit of top line growth," Sems said. That revenue growth should lead to more borrowing over time.

The Fed’s national survey of lenders shows that bankers have at last stopped tightening their lending standards for business loans, although they haven’t begun to loosen. "We expect that credit is going to continue to be tight," said Craig Fehr, financial services analyst for the Edward Jones brokerage.

The count of problem loans held steady at local banks from December through March, although it’s still up 43 percent from March 2008.

"Unless we have an economic shock, it’s reasonable to expect that we’ll see stabilization," says Stackhouse.

About 4.6 percent of loans are troubled at local banks — more than double the figure that banks see in normal times. The count includes loans where payments are far behind, foreclosed loans and loans that were modified because borrowers couldn’t pay.

The wild card involves commercial real estate. Loans for office buildings, apartment complexes and the like make up 36 percent of loan portfolios at local banks.

Commercial real estate loans go bad with a lag — landlords can keep up their loan payments for a while even after tenants have moved out payday loans no faxing. The Congressional Oversight Panel, set up to monitor the federal bank bailout, warned in February that "a wave of commercial real estate loan failures could threaten America’s already-weakened financial system."

Meanwhile, banks are benefitting from a widening profit spread between the interest they must pay depositors and what they can charge borrowers, says Joe Stieven of Stieven Capitol Advisors, a longtime St. Louis bank analyst.

The recession killed off much competition from non-banks — insurance firms, business finance companies and other lenders who often undercut the interest rates offered by banks. "They had destroyed rational loan pricing for about five years," said Stieven.

The local bank numbers exclude banks with big St. Louis operations but that are based elsewhere — such as U.S. Bank and Bank of America. They generally don’t break out their results by region.

Among local banks, nearly all of last year’s loss came from a single player, First Bank of Clayton. The bank lost $405 million last year, much of it on development loans made in California. First Bank lost money in this year’s first quarter, but the loss was down dramatically to $23 million.

First Bank has been selling off pieces of its business, including some loans, to raise cash and improve its capital levels. Only about a third of the bank’s operation is in St. Louis. Excluding First Bank, loans by St. Louis banks are down only 3 percent from a year ago.

Three small locally based banks — Westbridge, First Advantage and People’s Bank & Trust — failed to meet the federal standards as "well capitalized" as of March. A spokesman for First Advantage said it climbed back to the well-capitalized level in April. David Thompson, president of Peoples, called it a "temporary setback" and said the bank had a plan to improve capital.

Westbridge was below the level of "adequate" capital under federal guidelines. A bank without adequate capital is considered in danger of failure. Westbridge CEO Rick Hummell said that a group of investors still planned to buy and rescue the bank, and that they hoped to get regulatory approval in June.

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Rutgers announced Thursday that the new dean at Rutgers School of Business–Camden will be Jaishankar Ganesh.

Ganesh is associate dean for administration and executive education at the University of Central Florida’s College of Business Administration.

He will take over at Rutgers on Aug. 1 for Mitchell Koza, who is stepping down as dean after three years because he wanted to return to the faculty, a college spokesman said.

Rutgers said Ganesh’s “scholarship focuses on issues of marketing management and international marketing strategy, emphasizing such issues as customer satisfaction, retail patronage behavior, and the cross-national diffusion of products easy pay day loans.”

“Dr. Ganesh is an exceptional administrator and scholar, and an energetic visionary,” Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick said. “I am confident that he will help to advance the Rutgers School of Business–Camden to its rightful place as a premier center for education and business development in our region.”

Ganesh, 45, earned a Ph.D. in marketing and international business and an MBA from the University of Houston.

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From avid to involved to casual, two out of three New York residents consider themselves sports fans and the favorite team in the Empire state is the defending World Series champion Yankees.

A poll released Monday by the Siena College Research Institute finds that a total of 68 percent of residents statewide — 16 percent are “avid” fans, 27 percent are “involved” fans, 25 percent are “casual” fans — while 32 percent are “non-fans.”

At the same time, the cost of attending a sporting event is keeping more and more fans away from stadiums and arenas. Over 50 percent of New Yorkers attend at least one professional sports event each year, but despite 63 percent saying they “love to go,” 88 percent say costs have gotten out of control and 77 percent now prefer watching the game on TV to attending in person.

New York City-area teams are among the highest-priced tickets in all sports while the top major professional sports teams in the Upstate region — Buffalo’s Bills and Sabres — rank among the lowest, respectively, in the National Football League and National Hockey League.

Asked about their favorite team, the Yankees came out of top at 28 percent and another 10 percent described the Yanks as their second favorite. The Yankees received three times the support of their closest rival, the Mets for the single top spot and almost double the overall support when looking at each respondent’s first and second favorite team. Overall, the Yankees are named by 38 percent, the Mets by 20 percent and the New York Giants by 20 percent. Further down the list are the Bills and New York Jets at 8 percent, the Sabres at 4 percent. Also, the Boston Red Sox were at 4 percent, followed by Syracuse University and the Pittsburgh Steelers at 2 percent, and the New York Knicks and Rangers at 1 percent.

The SRI Sports Poll showed that New Yorkers are engaged in athletics as 68 percent of regularly watch or listen to sports, talk about the games with friends or read about sports in newspapers or on the Internet.

“When it comes to sports fanship, actions speak louder than words. When asked whether or not they see themselves as a sports fan, 61 percent say 'yes' and 39 percent say 'no,'" said Dr. Don Levy, SRI’s director. "But, we looked at whether or not New Yorkers watch sports or sports news on television or listened on the radio, surfed the net for sports news, read about sports or talked to friends and family about sports. We found that nearly seven out of every 10 residents walks the walk of a sports fan and for 16 percent of all New Yorkers being a sports fan is a major part of what they do each and every day.”

The SRI New York Sports Poll was conducted March 22-26, 29 by random telephone calls to 876 New York adults.

The survey can be found here.

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A federal grand jury returned indictments against two Roseville residents, charging them with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

The indictment alleges that Nicholas Summerlin and Angelica Parson, both 22, sold illegal copies of Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection 3, Microsoft Office 2007, and Rosetta Stone language software. The software had a combined retail value of $561,430.

Both received a cease-and-desist letter from Rosetta Stone, but they allegedly kept selling their pirated software in 330 transactions in 2008 and 2009.

The Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Unit of the Sacramento U.S. Attorney’s office is prosecuting the pair, said a release from Benjamin Wagner, U.S. Attorney in the California Eastern District, based in Sacramento.

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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.

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