DELTA, NORTHWEST RAISE RATES: Delta Air Lines raised fares as much as $10 on roundtrip flights that require a connection to cover passenger fees charged by some airports. Delta said it has been absorbing the charge, which can be as much as $18 round trip, for customers' connecting flights. Separately, Northwest Airlines said it raised some roundtrip fares by $10 to match an ATA increase. The airlines declined to say how many fares are affected by the increases. A bid by Delta and Continental and American Airlines to boost fares $10 to cover higher fuel costs was abandoned Monday when Northwest declined to join in.
TARGET DUMBS DOWN CARD: In a blow to "smart card" technology, Target Corp. plans to phase out chip-embedded credit cards that allowed cardholders to download special coupons. About 9-million customers have the Target smart Visa card, which is used in a special reader attached to home computers or at in-store kiosks. Newly issued Target Visa cards won't have the chips, which got limited use, spokeswoman Lena Klofstad said. Target's was the largest use of the technology nationally, according to Catuity Inc., the company whose software runs the system for Target.
INTEL LOWERS ESTIMATES: Semiconductor giant Intel Corp. lowered the midpoint of its first quarter revenue estimates Thursday, saying demand for its microprocessors was at the lower end of seasonal expectations. The company said it now expects sales of between $8-billion and $8.2-billion in the first quarter, traditionally the weakest period. In January, it predicted revenues of $7.9-billion to $8.5-billion. Analysts expect Intel to post earnings of 27 cents per share on sales of $8.28-billion, according to a survey by Thomson First Call.
NEW JOBLESS CLAIMS DROP: The number of people filing new applications for unemployment benefits dropped last week, a sign that companies may be feeling better about the economic recovery's durability and less inclined to lay off workers. The Labor Department reported Thursday that for the work week ending Feb. 28 new filings for jobless benefits declined by a seasonally adjusted 7,000 to 345,000, the lowest level in two weeks. The decline was a bit steeper than the decrease of 5,000 that some analysts were forecasting.
PRODUCTIVITY SLOWED IN FOURTH QUARTER: The Labor Department reported Thursday that the productivity of American workers grew at a modest 2.6 percent annualized rate in the final three months of 2003, according to revised figures. The new figure, which matched economists' expectations, was slightly slower than the 2.7 percent pace first estimated a month ago. Productivity measures the amount a worker produces for each hour on the job. For all of 2003, productivity grew by a solid 4.4 percent.
NYSE PEPPERED WITH SUBPOENAS: Up to 65 former members of the New York Stock Exchange board of directors have received subpoenas from regulators asking for documents detailing deliberations over the pay of former chairman Dick Grasso, the Associated Press reported, citing unnamed people close to the investigation. The subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission targeted directors who were involved in approving Grasso's $187.5-million compensation package, the furor over which led to his resignation in October.
KKR BUYS SEALY CORP.: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. agreed to pay about $1.5-billion for Sealy Corp., the fourth time in 15 years that the largest U.S. mattress maker has changed hands. Kohlberg Kravis, based in New York and run by first cousins Henry Kravis and George Roberts, is acquiring Sealy with the company's management from a group led by Bain Capital LLC, a private equity firm in Boston, Sealy said in a statement. Sealy has been bought and sold by leveraged buyout firms since 1989 when its inability to refinance a short-term loan became known as the "burning bed."
