LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Prices are declining in line with the widening imbalances between housing demand and supply, and we can expect this trend to continue.”
Michelle Meyer,
a senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research Article, 1DU.S. Steel’s quarterly loss $51 million
PITTSBURGH - U.S. Steel Corp. said Tuesday that it is still losing money because of weak demand for its products during the uneven global economic recovery. It doesn’t expect much improvement by year-end.
The Pittsburgh manufacturing giant reported a thirdquarter loss of $51 million. In late July, it predicted a profit for the quarter but tempered that outlook as the period progressed and economic growth stayed sluggish.
Although the results were better than in the third quarter of 2009, they were worse than in the June-July quarter.
Compared with the second quarter, shipments and prices fell for flat-rolled steel, which is used in everything from appliances and automobiles to construction. U.S. Steel blamed the decline largely on the poor construction market and seasonal buying patterns.
Although it shipped less pipe, U.S. Steel said that was offset by higher average prices and lower raw material costs.
The quarterly loss was 35 cents per share. A year ago, U.S.
Steel had a loss of $303 million, or $2.11 a share. Sales jumped 60 percent to $4.5 billion from a year ago, although they slipped 4 percent from this year’s second quarter.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John P. Surma said the results reflect “the uncertain economic situation in North America and Europe.”
U.S. Steel shares dropped $1.42, or 3.4 percent, to $40.85 in Tuesday trading.
Factory woes trip up drug approval
TRENTON, N.J. - U.S. regulators have told drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. that they won’t approve belatacept, an injected drug, until the company fixes multiple deficiencies at its Puerto Rico manufacturing plant, the company’s chief executive officer disclosed Tuesday.
The problems, including glass particles in drug vials and possible contamination of sterile drug products, were disclosed in an Aug. 30 warning letter sent to the company by the Food and Drug Administration.
Chief Executive Officer Lamberto Andreotti said Bristol-Myers is “taking all the actions that we think we need to take,” including hiring a manufacturing consultant to help.
New York-based Bristol-Myers, which sells the blood thinner Plavix, the world’s second-best-selling drug, also Tuesday reported third-quarter net income of $949 million, or 55 cents per share. That’s down nearly 2 percent from $966 million, or 48 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Excluding several minor one-time items, the company said income would have been $1 billion, or 59 cents a share.
That beat the 53-cent expectation of analysts. Bristol’s $4.8 billion in sales was slightly below the consensus of analysts.
Bristol’s shares dropped 30 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $26.86 in Tuesday trading.
U.K. economy-rise doubles forecast
LONDON - Britain’s economy grew by 0.8 percent in the third quarter, twice as fast as expected, according to official figures released Tuesday that could calm fears of a double-dip recession.
The growth followed a rate of 1.2 percent - a nine-year high - in the second quarter, when restocking of inventories and construction surged. The combined expansion was the strongest back-to-back performance by the British economy in a decade, the Office for National Statistics said.
Economic output is now 2.8 percent higher than in the third quarter of 2009, the last three months of a steep 18-month recession.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s government got more good news as Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services upgraded its outlook for British debt from “negative” to “stable” - indicating no threat of a downgrade - and reaffirmed the AAA rating on long-term debt.
“This is the second major [gross domestic product] growth surprise in a row and suggests that the U.K. economy is more resilient than many had feared,” economist James Knightley at ING said of the data release.
Output of the service industries grew by 0.6 percent, a rate matched by manufacturing and other production industries, while construction activity was up 0.4 percent in the third quarter.
Australians unsold on exchange deal
CANBERRA, Australia - Key lawmakers Tuesday signaled that they are considering an attempt to scuttle the Singapore Exchange’s $8.3 billion cash and shares takeover offer for the operator of the Australian bourse.
Opposition Liberal Party treasury spokesman Joe Hockey raised concerns that the takeover, announced Monday, was not in Australia’s national interest while Greens Party leader Bob Brown said he was swayed against the deal by Singapore’s human-rights record.
The two parties command a majority in the Senate where they could block the deal that has yet to be approved by a range of regulators.
The takeover of Australian Securities Exchange Ltd., the monopoly stock market operator known as ASX, by a company part owned by the Singapore government would create the world’s fifth-largest stock exchange company by market value.
Hockey said Singapore competed with Australia for jobs in the financial sector and the government needed to explain how Australia would benefit from a combined stock exchange company headquartered in Singapore.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said it would be “highly inappropriate” for the government to comment on the takeover, which has yet to be examined by the government’s Foreign Investment Review Board.
Business, Pages 26 on 10/27/2010