LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If there is no stabilizing system, then you can have a situation where like today, you have a two-speed recovery and demand is not optimally allocated around the world.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
Article, 1DIntel to build $5 billion Arizona plant
HILLSBORO, Ore. - Intel’s chief executive said Friday that the company will build a $5 billion manufacturing facility in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler.
Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini made the announcement Friday at the company’s Hillsboro plant, after he gave a tour of the facility to President Barack Obama.
Otellini said the Arizona plant will create thousands of jobs and will be the most advanced high-volume semiconductor factory in the world.
The president came to Intel to highlight the company’s support for education in science, technology, engineering and math.
Obama said investments in education are critical for producing American workers qualified for high-tech jobs.
Caterpillar’s January sales up 49%
PEORIA, Ill. - Caterpillar said Friday that worldwide demand for its heavy construction and mining equipment continues to be strong, with sales growing 49 percent in January.
The Peoria, Ill., company said in a filing Friday that machinery sales were strongest in North America, where sales grew 58 percent from a year earlier, and Latin America, where sales surged 56 percent.
Engine sales also improved for Caterpillar but not as much as machinery sales. Caterpillar said total engine sales grew 23 percent.
Last month, the maker of yellow-and-black mining and construction equipment said its fourth-quarter net income more than quadrupled to $968 million as its sales surged 62 percent to $12.8 billion.
Spain OKs plan to buoy ailing banks
MADRID - Spain has approved a plan to shore up the ailing savings banks that are at the heart of worries the country might need a bailout.
The plan allows them more time than originally expected to boost capital buffers.
Finance Minister Elena Salgado confirmed the government will require unlisted savings banks, or cajas, to raise core capital ratios to 10 percent, up from the current 6 percent. The ratio for banks was set at 8 percent.
Salgado said Friday that the banks would be allowed until March 2012 to raise new capital, rather than September as announced last month.
Cajas bore the brunt of the collapse of Spain’s real estate sector. The Bank of Spain has bailed out two of them and forced many of the rest into mergers, reducing their number from 45 to 17.
China home prices rise despite curbs
SHANGHAI - China says newly calculated data show real-estate prices rose in most of its cities in January despite renewed efforts to cool the overheated market, with the biggest increases in smaller cities.
The National Statistics Bureau released data for 70 of the country’s largest cities Friday that showed prices declining from a year earlier in two cities and unchanged in five. It said that compared with December, 10 cities saw increases of 10 percent or more.
News this week of a change in how the data are reported raised eyebrows given its timing, since the trend of increases has remained stubbornly high despite various moves to discourage speculative property investments, such as requiring bigger down payments and limits on some types of purchases.
Shanghai and the southwestern city of Chongqing recently imposed taxes on property purchases, raising costs for new buyers.
This week, Beijing announced it will limit the number of homes each family can buy, prohibiting new home purchases by Beijing families who already own two or more apartments.
But such moves do nothing to alleviate the lack of good investment options for Chinese families looking for higher returns on their savings than what they can get from bank deposits.
In Beijing, prices have shot up to more than $3,000 per square yard, putting new homes out of the reach of many families, despite strong growth in personal incomes.
Campbell’s 2nd-quarter profit off 8%
PHILADELPHIA - The Campbell Soup Co.’s fiscal second-quarter income fell 8 percent as soup revenue slipped, the company said Friday.
The quarterly decline was expected, but it came with some other bad news from the food maker. The outlook for the rest of the year is cloudy enough that Campbell lowered its guidance for the second time in about three months.
Campbell says it now expects full-year revenue to be essentially flat - between a 1 percent decline and 1 percent growth, and earnings per share to fall by 1 to 3 percent.
The Camden, N.J., company earned $239 million, or 71 cents per share, for the period ended Jan 30. That’s down from $259 million, or 74 cents per share, a year earlier.
Revenue dropped 1 percent to $2.13 billion.
Previously, the company said it expected earnings for the year to be up by 2 to 4 percent, or between $2.52 and $2.57 for the full year. The revised guidance is for a profit between $2.40 and $2.45 per share.
Campbell Soup shares fell $1.36 to close Friday at $33.58.
Airline to hire 230 flight attendants
DALLAS - American Airlines is recalling 200 flight attendants who were furloughed from now-defunct TWA in 2003.
American said Friday that it also agreed to hire 30 Mandarin-speaking flight attendants to staff flights to and from Shanghai.
It’s American’s second announcement this month about hiring more flight attendants. Last week, the airline said it would bring back 368 furloughed attendants because of a pickup in international flying.
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants said half the 200 recalled workers would start by July 15 and the rest by Oct. 15.
AMR Corp.’s American Airlines has 14,906 active flight attendants; the recalled workers will raise that total by nearly 4 percent.
American spokesman Missy Latham said the latest group of recalled employees worked for TWA, which AMR bought in 2001 and combined with American.
Business, Pages 28 on 02/19/2011