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Investing is never easy.
One of the nation’s largest railroad services companies plans to reopen a Tacoma Tideflats locomotive and rail car repair and rebuilding facility that closed last summer because of the recession.
A deal for Comcast Corp. to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal and create one of the most powerful media companies in the world is taking longer than expected as the current owners tussle over price.
The Salvation Army plans to serve 10,000 free dinners across New York this Thanksgiving – meals planned by a star chef, cooked by one of New York’s ritziest caterers and cleaned up by employees of one of Wall Street’s most vilified financial firms.
The stock market ended a down week with light selling as investors grew uneasy about a rising dollar and spiking demand for the safest government debt.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday that it is dropping a clause from its credit card contracts that required disputes with customers to be handled through binding arbitration, a move that could lead to consumers filing class-action and other lawsuits.
J.M. Smucker Co. nearly tripled its profit in the second quarter as the addition of Folgers coffee gave a jolt to its lineup and lower commodity prices fattened its profit margins. The company also raised its outlook for the year, sending its shares soaring Friday.
MILWAUKEE – A lawsuit in Wisconsin is bringing a fresh challenge to the practice of paying for keywords on Google and other search engines to boost one company’s link over a rival’s.
Aetna Government Health Plans of Hartford, Conn., appears to have gained an unfair advantage in competing for TRICARE’s North Region support contract, valued at $16.7 billion, by hiring a former chief of staff at TRICARE headquarters to help the company draft its winning proposal.
NEW YORK – Hershey Co. may bid $17 billion for UK candy company Cadbury PLC, topping the recent $16.5 billion hostile offer by Kraft Foods Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The Boeing Co. could get as much as $400 million in incentives to build its new 787 Dreamliner factory in South Carolina, Gov. Mark Sanford said in an interview Friday.
Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest coffee-shop operator, approved a pay raise for Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz to $1.3 million after three quarters of profit growth.
Investors can't shake their fears that the economy isn't keeping up with the stock market.
Amid a surf-n-turf lunch of chicken and salmon at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, the Tacoma Regional Convention and Visitor Bureau celebrated its 20th year Thursday by naming the annual Tourism Celebrity Award winners.
Boeing employment will continue downward through 2010, Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney told a Middle East business publication Thursday.
GM’s top sales analyst says U.S. auto sales in November could top an annual rate of 10.8 million for the first time year besides this summer, which was helped by the Cash for Clunkers rebates.
Dell Inc. said Thursday that its net income dropped 54 percent in the latest quarter and amid signs the company isn’t fully benefiting from the computer industry’s fledgling recovery.
Shoppers increased their spending at Kmart stores for the first time in at least seven years this fall, picking up cheap toys, shoes and items for their homes.
Shoppers spent more money at low-price Old Navy stores in the third quarter this year, helping Gap Inc.’s profit climb 25 percent compared with last year, the retailer said Thursday.
in Port
As we dash to the end of the year, many parents aren’t likely to want to sit down and review the investments in the 529 college savings plans for their children.
McLEAN, Va. – Rates on 30-year mortgages stayed below 5 percent this week but remained above the record set earlier this year, Freddie Mac said Thursday.
SAN FRANCISCO – The struggling Internet company AOL plans to shed up to 2,500 jobs – more than a third of its work force – as it prepares to separate from Time Warner and finally sever their ill-fated marriage.
Google Inc.’s new operating system, which is designed to bypass computer hard drives and work totally by way of the Internet, got its first public preview Thursday.
Microsoft Corp., holding its first so-called say-on-pay vote, said Thursday that shareholders voted to indicate support for the company’s compensation policies.
Boeing delivered Wednesday the first of five long-range 777-300ER to GE Capital Aviation Services and its leasing customer, Philippine Airlines.
Horizon Air, a regional carrier headquartered in SeaTac, will launch services to two California cities from Spokane next spring, the airline announced this week. The new flights will serve Sacramento, the California capital, and San Jose.
WASHINGTON – The foreclosure crisis likely will persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of homes, pulls down housing prices and raises concerns about the broader economic recovery.
The foreclosure crisis likely will persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of homes, pulls down housing prices and raises concerns about the broader economic recovery.
ATLANTA – Kellogg Co. says there will be a nationwide shortage of its popular Eggo frozen waffles until next summer because of interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.
Stocks are set to continue their slide as the dollar is strengthening, and after a week of mixed economic reports. Futures are modestly lower.
While the Grinch was out stealing Christmas, Mother Nature was sneaking off with a slice of Thanksgiving.
slowdown: Slumping housing starts, increase in consumer prices show recession may still be with us PHILADELPHIA – The light at the end of the recessionary tunnel flickered Wednesday as a Commerce Department report showed housing starts fell in October and the Labor Department said consumer prices rose slightly more than anticipated during the month.
The Tacoma Executives Association has announced its 2009 Business of the Year as C.I. Shenanigan’s/Ram International in Tacoma.
The International Academy of the Visual Arts has awarded The Martin Firm in University Place with its Silver Award in the 2009 international Davey Awards competition. The award is for its video production work on behalf of Wilcox Farms’ TV commercial recognizing the Northwest egg producer for its century of farming and business operations.
J.C. Penney will stop publishing its twice-yearly “big book” catalogs, now that customers increasingly shop online.
Hershey, hoping to expand its overseas presence, has lined up a potential partner as the most recognizable name in American chocolate considers starting a bidding war for British candy maker Cadbury PLC.
Wells Fargo & Co. on Wednesday agreed to repay customers about $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit and regulatory investigations alleging the company improperly marketed risky investments as safe.
Delta Air Lines and its alliance partners said Wednesday that they are making a billion-dollar offer to lure loss-making Japan Airlines from its affiliation with American Airlines.
Health insurer Aetna said Wednesday that it will cut 625 jobs immediately, or nearly 2 percent of its staff, and will make a similar number of cuts by the end of the 2010 first quarter due to the lagging economy and the potential impact of health care reform.
in Port
“Come out from under your security blanket and go take risks with your investments.”
LOS ANGELES – In a major game changer for both the industry and the company, Microsoft has launched its cloud.
At 27, five-time Olympic medal winner Apolo Ohno is beginning to think about what he’ll do when his competitive speed skating career is over.
Only the Tri-Cities among 12 metropolitan areas in Washington is showing signs its recovering from the recession, according to an update from Moody’s Economy.com and MSNBC.
The Port of Tacoma Commission is scheduled to adopt the 2010 budget at a meeting at noon Monday – not Thursday as was reported in Wednesday’s story on A1.
Three new companies are headed for Sunrise Village, a retail center located on Meridian Avenue south of Puyallup. Tarragon – the Sunrise Village developer – recently announced that Party City, Kaiten Sushi and State Farm will move into the retail hub in early to mid-2010.
Inflation? What inflation?
When five-time Olympic medalist and “Dancing with the Stars” winner Apolo Ohno sat down with his dad and his advisers early this year to sort out potential sponsors, they considered dozens of companies.
Unemployment in the Tacoma area inched higher in October according to new figures from the Washington Employment Security Department.
The Port of Tacoma will end this year $17.9 million in the red – the first time the agency’s bottom line has been negative in recent memory.
The Obama administration has formed a new task force to target financial fraud – replacing an earlier corporate fraud task force.
Consumers are buying washers to fix leaky faucets rather than replacing the faucets themselves, and professional contractors are spending less overall on projects, Home Depot Inc. reported Tuesday.
The value of loans held by the largest banks who received the largest amounts of government bailout support fell for an eighth consecutive month in September, according to the Treasury Department.
Commercial lender CIT Group Inc. provided a further glimpse into its troubled finances, saying it lost $1.07 billion during the third quarter as customers jumped ship and it tried unsuccessfully to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection.
Deal-craving shoppers helped three prominent U.S. retailers report Tuesday that their third quarter managed to improve this year.
ATLANTA – Costco customers may have to look elsewhere for Coca-Cola products now that the retailer has stopped carrying them because the pair are fighting over prices.
Bellingham-based Horizon Financial Corp., parent of troubled Horizon Bank, reported in a brief news release Monday that it accepted the resignation of Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer Steven Hoekstra last Friday.
Pierce County, bid goodbye to casino keno.
Officials with Venture Financial Group, the former bank-holding company for Venture Bank, said Tuesday in a federal filing that they won’t file financial data for the third quarter of the year.
As retail banks both large and small face various tribulations, credit unions are benefiting. In a release Tuesday, the Washington Credit Union League reports that in the third quarter “173,464 consumers joined one of the state’s 119 financial cooperatives.”
Tacoma Water officials have refined the cost estimates for new drinking water treatment equipment, and they’re about $10 million to $20 million higher than rough initial numbers.
After 10 years as the executive director of the Foss Waterway Development Authority, Don Meyer is resigning and taking on new challenges. He recently was elected to the Port of Tacoma Commission.
Washington's unemployment rate increased slightly to 9.3 percent in October from the revised September rate of 9.1 percent, state officials said Tuesday.
The Tacoma office of the state attorneys general will be moving to downtown’s newest office building – if the city agrees to change its agreement with the developers.
Stock futures are pointing to a modestly higher opening as investors await a new report on housing and the dollar resumed its slide.
General Motors Co. said Monday it lost $1.2 billion from the time it left bankruptcy protection through Sept. 30, far better than it has reported in previous quarters and a sign that the auto giant is starting to turn around its business.
Time Warner says it will spin off its Internet business, AOL, as a separate company on Dec. 9.
The Federal Reserve on Monday proposed new rules to protect consumers from unexpected costs or restrictions on gift cards.
Lowe’s Cos. said Monday it is expecting consumers will spend cautiously this holiday season on trees and gifts such as power tools but said it sees signs the housing market is slowly improving.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday the central bank will keep a close eye on the sliding U.S. dollar even as he pledged anew to keep interest rates at record lows. Economists expect the Fed will hold rates near zero at its next meeting on Dec. 15-16 and into part of next year.
Taxes are probably the last thing you want to think about during the holiday season. But if you do, you may be able to save yourself some money and a lot of heartache in 2010.
UPS Inc., the world’s largest shipping carrier, expects to deliver roughly 22 million small packages on its busiest day this year – projected to be Dec. 21.
Retail sales rose more than expected in October due largely to a big rebound in auto sales. But broader consumer spending remains under pressure, raising questions about the durability of the recovery.
Boeing workers finished modifications to the wing-body joint of two more 787 Dreamliners last weekend bringing to three the number of 787s that have undergone the reinforcements.
Boeing rival Airbus announced a modification to its existing A320 aircraft it says will cut fuel consumption by as much as 3.5 percent.
Black and Latinos are at a disproportionate risk in the ongoing foreclosure crisis because they are more likely than whites to have higher-cost mortgage loans and face higher unemployment rates, a report says.
A Texas judge has issued final approval of Grupo Mexico SAB’s plan to regain control of copper miner Asarco LLC, ending a lengthy takeover battle with rival suitor Sterlite Industries.
Stock futures are pointing to a modestly lower opening as investors sort through another round of economic data and retail earnings.
CHICAGO – They’re antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance too.
Improved retail sales gave Wall Street a boost Monday but provided little hope for a robust holiday shopping season that might invigorate the economic recovery.
Nearly three years after Heather Ellis switched checkout lines at a southeast Missouri store and touched off what she calls a racially charged dispute with white customers and authorities, the young black schoolteacher faces a trial that could send her to prison for 15 years.
A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago.
That Brian Haynes’ great-great-grandfather started the family fortune by winning a telephone company in a pinochle game should not reflect on Haynes’ position as the new head of the Tacoma Angel Network.
The Puget Sound region can fret about Boeing. Tacoma may be despondent over Russell.
When it comes to retirement planning, it’s important to measure risk. But it’s just as important not to mismeasure it.
MINNEAPOLIS – Google’s latest brainchild, Google Wave, is all the rage among bleeding-edge technology enthusiasts. But corporate information technology executives say that while they’re intrigued by Wave – a replacement for e-mail, the most widely used of all Internet services – they’re not ready to adopt it.
NEW YORK – Somebody on a bus asks a friend, “How about that stock market?” The response: “Unbelievable.” Caribbean vacationers lounging poolside check their Blackberries for stock prices. Suburban gym members chat about the latest market gains during their morning workouts.
Ask the fool: I own some stocks that have dividend yields of 2 to 5 percent, and others with yields of 10 percent or more. Since all the companies seem sound, why shouldn’t I move all the money into the higher-dividend ones? – C.R., online
The housing bust’s most visible Tacoma casualty, a nine-story, 162-unit waterfront condominium, has quietly been put back on the market.
Born on the Fourth of July, business pioneer and downtown Tacoma survivor Hazel Winfield Zweibel Farber died peacefully Thursday in Seattle at age 90.
Regulators have shut down two Florida banks, boosting to 122 the number of U.S. bank failures this year as loan defaults rise.
Dell Inc. is officially jumping into the “smart” phone market this month in a deal with China’s biggest wireless carrier, China Mobile Ltd.
Home prices are expected to grow modestly next year, and sales will keep rising as the housing market continues to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.
Encouraging earnings news from major retailers and The Walt Disney Co. drew investors back into the stock market one day after a big drop.
Department store chain J.C. Penney Co. reported a 78 percent drop in its third-quarter earnings because of a big expense for its pension plan, and its revenue slipped from a year earlier.
A small group of U.S. war veterans, the age difference among them as wide as 70 years, gathered Nov. 7 at American Legion Post 177 in Virginia for a special event at the annual Veterans Day Community Fair.
WASHINGTON – The government-chartered company that insures the pensions of 1 in 7 Americans said Friday that its deficit this year nearly doubled to $22 billion.
NEW YORK – Two former employees for Bernard Madoff programmed an old IBM computer to generate false records that concealed the crooked financier’s massive Ponzi scheme and were given hush money when they threatened to stop lying, federal prosecutors said Friday.
NEW YORK – They’re the spoils of a feast that’s over forever: Bernard Madoff’s stuff on a government auction block.
Home prices are expected to grow modestly next year and sales will keep rising as the housing market continues to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.
Seattle-based department store operator Nordstrom Inc. said Thursday that its profit rose 17 percent in its fiscal third quarter as affluent shoppers started spending again.
Encouraging earnings news from major retailers and The Walt Disney Co. drew investors back into the stock market to cap a second big week of gains.
For Paul Fagan, the last five months have been a blur of activity.
The I Bond – which enraged savers when its rate dropped to zero percent – is back in business thanks to renewed inflation.
WASHINGTON – Banks will have to get their customers’ consent before charging overdraft fees on ATM and debit card transactions, according to a new rule announced Thursday by the Federal Reserve.
The Obama administration’s pay czar said Thursday that he is “very concerned” about scaring away top talent at firms that took big bailouts.
A drop in energy stocks dragged the market lower Thursday following a government report that consumers and businesses cut back on their use of oil and gas.
Iberia and British Airways have approved an agreement establishing the basis for a merger, the Spanish carrier said late Thursday.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. posted a 3.2 percent increase in third-quarter profit, helped by cost-cutting measures such as slashing inventories, and raised its full-year earnings outlook.
NEW YORK – Capitalism is still alive and well, say the world’s two richest men, despite lingering shocks from the longest, deepest recession since the Great Depression.
WASHINGTON – Rates this week for 30-year home loans stayed below 5 percent for the second week in a row.
Settlement: It ends four-year lawsuit that charged chip producer with unfair market dominance SAN FRANCISCO – Intel Corp. will pay $1.25 billion to make peace with Advanced Micro Devices Inc., as the companies whose microprocessors run nearly all personal computers finally found common ground.
Boeing Co. said Thursday it has finished fixing structural flaws in the first of its long-delayed 787 jetliners. The problem forced the company to postpone test flying the jet for a fifth time earlier this year.
WASHINGTON – Thousands of employers are forgoing layoffs and taking advantage of state “work-sharing” programs in which they cut the hours of full-time workers, who then recoup a portion of their lost wages from unemployment insurance benefits.
Stock futures are signaling a higher open Friday on Wall Street after a sharp sell-off a day earlier.
Millions of people may be able to take advantage of the new and improved first-time homebuyer tax credit now, and it’s not just for first-time homebuyers anymore. You may qualify.
CHICAGO – The new gold rush is on.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., the seller of Keurig single-cup coffee makers, fell short of analysts’ predictions for its first-quarter earnings forecast. Earnings per share will probably be 11 cents to 15 cents in the first quarter ending in December, the coffee seller said in a statement Wednesday. That’s less than the 23-cent average of three analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company earned 37 cents a share in the year-earlier period.
American International Group Inc. CEO Robert Benmosche said Wednesday that he plans to stay in his job at the embattled insurer.
Hewlett-Packard Co., looking to expand into a business long dominated by Cisco, said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy networking software and equipment maker 3Com Corp. in a deal the companies valued at $2.7 billion.
Macy’s Inc.’s third-quarter loss shrank as tight inventory controls and a move to localize merchandise at its department stores by region paid off. The company also raised its full-year profit and sales outlook.
BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores said Wednesday that it will keep its stores open 24 hours and take new crowd-control measures Thanksgiving weekend after a temporary employee was trampled to death in a Black Friday rush last year.
NEW YORK – The number of homeowners on the brink of losing their homes dipped in October, the third straight monthly decline, as foreclosure prevention programs helped more borrowers.
Pharmaceutical companies are pressing their case to market drugs via Google, Twitter and other Web sites. The Food and Drug Administration will convene a two-day meeting beginning today to hear the drug industry’s position on Internet marketing.
Work on a project that will bury forever one of the last quirky remnants of Tacoma’s Ruston Way industrial waterfront, the Ruston tunnel, begins today.
Wall Street is looking at a weaker open as investors await retail earnings reports that will give more clues about consumer spending.
Thirty-three years after its dedication, Tacoma’s Bicentennial Pavilion is about to change ownership.
WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats on Tuesday proposed stripping the Federal Reserve of its supervisory powers and creating instead three new federal agencies to police banks, protect consumers and dismantle failing institutions.
A real estate group says home prices fell in 8 out of every 10 U.S. cities in the third quarter of this year as heavily discounted distressed sales made up 30 percent of all deals.
A man who made billions of dollars off Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme signed a will leaving the bulk of his fortune to charity, but the gift’s ultimate size may depend on legal wrangling over how much of the money rightfully belongs to cheated victims.
The Obama administration’s mortgage relief program has reached 1 in 5 eligible homeowners, a government report says, but most of those borrowers are on temporary trial plans that have yet to be made final.
Job openings are at rock-bottom levels, according to government and private surveys released Tuesday, a trend that could keep the unemployment rate high even as layoffs slow.
Investors cooled their buying of stocks and commodities, pausing from a Monday surge that carried major stock indexes to their highest levels in more than a year. Stocks ended mixed Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrials tacked on 20 points one day after shooting up 200 points for the second time in three days.
I’m 23 and have been making a point of saving money in a savings account. I’ve been told that a savings account isn’t good for my future and that I should invest in a Roth instead. But I don’t want to choose anything risky. Would I lose money if I invest in a Roth?
NEW YORK – Robotic toy hamsters and the latest Barbie dolls are disappearing from store shelves as holiday shoppers start to get serious. But don’t confuse this with the days of Tickle Me Elmo.
Wall Street is looking at a stronger open as investors keep rallying around the expectation that interest rates will remain low for some time.
Tacoma-based Rainier Pacific on Monday posted the latest figures in a series of grim results for the troubled bank.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Plc and JPMorganChase & Co. are competing to sell shares for state-run companies in India as the government plans the biggest sell-off in at least five years.
MBIA Inc. said Monday that it incurred heavier losses in its insurance business than expected, saddling the bond insurer with a third-quarter loss after two straight quarters of profits.
Less than a month after buying Wyeth, drug giant Pfizer Inc. has mapped out a new structure for its research and development operations.
The Federal Reserve said Monday that GMAC is the only one of 19 stress-tested banks that needs more capital to withstand future losses if the economy softens. GMAC, a crucial player in the U.S. auto industry, has been unable to raise the $11.5 billion regulators said it needed. The Fed says the finance company is expected to close the gap with more money from the $700 billion financial bailout.
Kraft Foods has gone hostile in its bid to buy Cadbury but didn’t sweeten its first bid, drawing an immediate rejection from the British candy maker in what is likely to be a lengthy takeover struggle.
Members of Congress didn’t actually vote to end the confusion over mutual fund share classes last week, but they took a step that ultimately could go a long way to simplifying the way investors buy and sell fund shares.
DALLAS – The nation’s airlines are offering fewer flights, but at least they’re more likely to arrive on time now.
WASHINGTON – Banks expect to tighten terms on credit cards in response to a new law that aims to protect consumers from sudden rate hikes, the Federal Reserve said Monday.
economy: Weak dollar drives U.S. stock surge as G-20 announces it will continue stimulus efforts NEW YORK – The Dow Jones industrial average stormed to its highest level in more than a year Monday as a falling dollar boosted prices for gold, oil and other commodities. Stocks also jumped as investors grew more confident that governments around the world will keep interest rates low to help the global economy.
Casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment Inc.'s CEO and chairman resigned Monday, less than a week after allegedly telling a St. Louis County Council member that voting in favor of another company's casino was the worst move of the council member's career.
Banks expect to tighten terms on credit cards in response to a new law that aims to protect consumers from sudden rate hikes, the Federal Reserve said Monday.
Nokia Corp. announced Monday that some 14 million mobile phone chargers could be dangerous for users and said it will replace them free of charge.
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