LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "I noticed the turn the economy was taking, and decided it would be best to go directly to China."
Andrew Carr,
a 23-year-old Cornell University graduate Article, 1D6-month Treasury bill rates at new low
WASHINGTON - Interest rates on six-month Treasury bills hit a record low for the fourth consecutive week.
The Treasury Department on Monday auctioned $29 billion in six-month bills at a discount rate of 0.190 percent, down from 0.210 percent last week. The government started issuing six-month bills on a weekly basis in December 1958.
Another $29 billion in three-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 0.100 percent, down from 0.135 percent last week. It was the lowest level since those bills sold for 0.050 percent on Dec. 29.
Rates on three- and six-month bills have been selling below 1 percent for months, reflecting a campaign by the Federal Reserve to push down short-term borrowing costs in an effort to help support a recovery from the country's worst recession since the 1930s.
Fed officials meet again this week, and it is widely expected they will keep the federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other on overnight loans, at an alltime low of zero to 0.25 percent. The funds rate has been at that level since December.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,997.47, while a six-month bill sold for $9,990.39.
That would equal an annualized rate of 0.101 percent for the three-month bills, and 0.175 percent for the six-month bills.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, was unchanged last week at 0.40 percent.
Netflix contest winners get $1 million
NEW YORK - Netflix Inc. declared a seven-member group of researchers, scientists and engineers from around the world as winners Monday of its three-year, $1 million contest to improve its movie recommendation system by at least 10 percent.
It was a close call, but BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos narrowly beat out a rival group called the Ensemble for the Netflix Prize, the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company said at an awards ceremony in New York.
Tens of thousands of people have pored over the problem since the contest began in October 2006. At last count, there were more than 51,000 contestants from 186 countries.
In the end, one-time rivals joined forces to form the two remaining powerhouses, BellKor and the Ensemble.
According to Netflix's prize leaderboard, the Ensemble improved predictions for what movies people will like by 10.1 percent, while BellKor had improved predictions by 10.09 percent. Upon further evaluation, the two teams were actually tied at 10.6 percent, and BellKor was awarded the prize because it submitted its entry first.
Late pumpkins too little for Halloween
PORTLAND, Maine - New England pumpkin growers, who spent the early summer mostly losing a battle with rain that destroyed many pumpkins, face the frightening prospect that the rest won't be ready before Halloween.
Rain in June and July caused some seedlings to turn to mush in the soil and delayed the harvest up to two weeks, meaning pumpkins may not turn orange or grow large enough in time to be shipped to stores.
Some New England growers lost their entire crops, but others fared much better. Maine's harvest is expected to be off by about 50 percent, said Lauchlin Titus, a crop consultant with AgMatters LLC in Vassalboro and president of the Maine Vegetable and Small Fruit Growers Association.
LeBlanc says his yield will be down by half.
Consumers need not worry, though.
There's sufficient supply elsewhere to compensate for problems in New England, said Gary Lucier, an agricultural economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Slowed supertankers decrease surplus
A glut of supertankers competing to ship Middle East crude shrank for a second week as unprofitable lease rates prompted owners to anchor some vessels and sail others more slowly.
There are 20 percent more very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, for hire than there are cargoes, according to the median estimate of four ship brokers and three owners surveyed Monday by Bloomberg News. The surplus shrank for the first time in four weeks last week, declining to 30 percent from 35 percent.
Some owners are leaving ships at anchor off Singapore and elsewhere because income fails to cover costs, said Halvor Ellefsen, a tanker broker at SeaLeague A/S in Oslo. Some are also ordering captains to slow to conserve fuel, he said.
The number of supertankers in service globally has shrunk 1.1 percent to 525 ships since Aug. 7, according to Lloyd's Register-Fairplay data.
Business, Pages 20 on 09/22/2009