FACTORY ORDERS HOP UP: The Commerce Department reported Monday that orders to U.S. factories in June rose 1.7 percent from May, the second month in a row that orders went up. Gains were fairly broad-based, with orders rising for machinery, household appliances and automobiles, as well as "nondurable" goods, such as food products and chemicals. June's performance, which followed a 0.3 percent rise in May, was stronger than economists were expecting; they were forecasting a 1.5 percent increase in factory orders.
OOPS - CONSTRUCTION ROSE, TOO: An error in a government economic report caused spending on construction projects in June to be underestimated. Construction spending rose last month by 0.3 percent as opposed to being flat, the Commerce Department said Monday. With the correction, construction spending climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $872.5-billion in June, a 0.3 percent increase from May's level. The department had reported Friday that construction spending was flat at $864.3-billion.
NONSTOP TO SYRACUSE: TransMeridian Airlines, a low-fare charter carrier, will begin scheduled non-stop service between St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport and Syracuse, N.Y., on Aug. 28, Pinellas County marketing officials said Monday. The flights, which will operate every day but Tuesday, will leave at 8:10 p.m. and arrive at the Syracuse Hancock International Airport at 10:45. The airline will fly Boeing 727-200 jets configured to seat 172 passengers.
TAUBMAN OFFER EXTENDED: Taubman Centers Inc. said Monday the number of shares holders have offered to sell to Simon Property Group Inc. - about 30.16-million - is well short of the amount needed to acquire Taubman. That is about 37 percent of the shopping-mall developer's 81-million voting shares. Taubman said about 54-million shares must be tendered to Simon for the $1.68-billion hostile takeover attempt to succeed. However, Simon and Westfield America Inc. have again extended their $20-a-share offer for Taubman, this time until Aug. 29. Simon, Taubman and Westfield all operate malls in the Tampa Bay area.
GE SELLS INSURANCE UNIT: General Electric Co. announced Monday it has agreed to sell its financial guarantee insurance business to a group of investors led by the PMI Group Inc. for about $1.86-billion in cash. GE Insurance had $23-billion in revenue last year. The sale of Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. reflects its strategy of selling slower-growth businesses. With the new ownership structure, FGIC is better positioned to grow under the buyer group's domestic and international expansion strategies, GE said.
GART, SPORTS AUTHORITY MERGE: Gart Sports Co. and the Sports Authority Inc. announced completion of their merger Monday. In separate meetings in Denver and Fort Lauderdale, shareholders of both companies approved the deal, in which Sports Authority shareholders will receive 0.37 share of Gart Sports for each share of Sports Authority. The combined company will retain the name the Sports Authority Inc. and will be headquartered in Englewood, Colo. The company will operate 389 stores in 45 states that generated combined revenue of approximately $2.5-billion in fiscal 2002.
SYKES NAMES DIRECTOR: Sykes Enterprises Inc. said Monday it has appointed Mark Bozek to its board of directors. The former Home Shopping Network chief executive formed a film production company, Halo Entertainment, earlier this year. Sykes, a Tampa company that provides customer support on behalf of clients via a global network of call centers, did not assign Bozek to sit on any board-level committees.
LAY SELLS LAST ASPEN HOUSE: Former Enron chairman Ken Lay unloaded the last of his four Aspen, Colo., properties Thursday, selling a four-bedroom, 51/2-bath home for $5.525-million, about $620,000 less than he and wife Linda paid for it three years ago, listing broker Joshua Saslove said. The Lays have been selling their Aspen holdings since he resigned as Enron's chairman and CEO. One of the homes, a so-called cottage valued at about $3.1-million, sold for $10-million. A vacant lot near the Aspen Art Institute sold for $2.15-million. Another home sold in May for $4.7-million.
AOL DROPS MONSTER: AOL Time Warner Inc. reached a four-year, $115-million agreement with CareerBuilder.com, replacing a contract with Monster.com to provide job listings to America Online customers. Monster.com probably won't renew a similar agreement with Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, chief financial officer Michael Sileck said. The combined agreements with AOL and MSN account for about 25 percent of the company's user traffic.
2 EX-DYNEGY EXECS IN COURT: Gene Shannon Foster and Helen Christine Sharkey, two of three former Dynegy Inc. executives charged with fraud for booking debt as cash flow in 2001 to make the energy company appear healthier, were scheduled to be re-arraigned today. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby in Houston, Kesha Handy, would not discuss the Dynegy case, but said typically a re-arraignment is scheduled for a change of plea. Foster, Sharkey and Jamie Olis, 37, each pleaded innocent July 1 to three counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and mail fraud.
LINUX GETS SECURITY CLEARANCE: Linux software has been approved for use on the most sensitive computers in corporations and the federal government, including those inside the Pentagon, an important step for software widely considered the top rival to Microsoft Corp. The Common Criteria organization, an international technology standards body, certified Linux for the first time on "mission critical" computers, including those in America's top-secret spy agencies and those used to deliver ammunition, food and fuel to soldiers. The certification is akin to the technology industry's seal of approval.
"MIMAIL' WORM HARMLESS: The "Mimail" e-mail computer worm that exploits a security flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows to find addresses and reproduce, does no harm but may be a test for the creation of a malicious program, security experts said. The worm arrives disguised as a message from a company e-mail administrator and claims the recipient's e-mail account will expire. The worm slips through most filters because it says the attachment is a .zip message, said Steven Sundermeier, vice president at Central Command Inc., a security-software company in Ohio. Microsoft said the program is harmless but the company is offering patches to end the vulnerability.
AMR CORP. WITHDRAWS DEBT ISSUE: American Airlines parent AMR Corp. withdrew a plan, announced Monday morning, to sell $250-million in convertible notes to institutional buyers. The sale was withdrawn because of "market conditions as they evolved" Monday, the Fort Worth, Texas, company said in a release. Shares of AMR fell after the initial announcement. AMR had said it would use money raised from the offering for working capital and general purposes. The company said in July it had $2.4-billion in cash, up from $1.8-billion at the end of March.
T-BILL AUCTION MIXED: The Treasury Department sold $16-billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.945 percent, unchanged from the previous week. An additional $17-billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 1.025 percent, up from 0.980 percent the previous week. The six-month rate was the highest since June 2, when the rate was 1.095 percent. The Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills rose to 1.22 percent last week from 1.13 percent the previous week.
Earnings
U.S. Steel Corp.
The nation's largest integrated steelmaker reported a net loss for the second quarter and blamed increases in the cost of pensions and natural gas as well as higher spending on planned outages. Still, its results were well ahead of analysts' projections and its shares rose strongly.
