Saturday, December 15, 2012
LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“A free and open Internet with limited restrictions has been critical to its development into one of the greatest tools
for empowering people to connect and share information globally.” Zoe Lofgren, U.S. representative, D-Calif.
Article, 1D
Active oil, gas rigs decrease by one
HOUSTON - Oil-field services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. fell this week by one to 1,799.
Baker Hughes, based in Houston, said Friday that 1,381 were exploring for oil and 416 were searching for gas. Two were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, Baker Hughes counted 2,019 rigs.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, New Mexico gained eight rigs, Alaska gained four and Colorado and North Dakota each gained one.
Louisiana lost six rigs, Texas lost five, Oklahoma lost three and Arkansas lost one. California, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wyoming were unchanged.
The rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
Southwest Airlines adds no-show fee
Southwest Airlines Co., the discount carrier with the “Bags Fly Free” slogan, forecast $100 million in annual revenue from fee changes that will include the first charges for no-shows on flights and premium boarding positions.
The new fees and increases to existing charges will start in the first quarter, Chief Commercial Officer Bob Jordan said Friday at an investor meeting in New York.
Dallas-based Southwest expects to boost revenue by $1.1 billion in 2013 as it works to cover rising labor and jet-fuel costs amid growing competition.
Southwest still will let passengers check two bags for free and change flights without penalty. The no-show fee would be levied on passengers who don’t cancel tickets before a flight.
Charges for a third checked bag will increase an unspecified amount, said Jordan, who also is president of the AirTran unit. The overweight-bag fee will double to $100.
Southwest already charges to reserve an early-boarding slot, and will increase that fee to $12.50 from $10. Starting next year, passengers can get an early-boarding slot by paying a fee at the gate.
At AirTran, which still is being merged into Southwest, the first checked bag fee will rise to $25 from $20 and a second bag to $35 from $25.
WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve is proposing that large foreign banks keep a bigger financial cushion against unexpected losses for their U.S. affiliates.
The Fed governors, including Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, voted 7-0 at a public meeting Friday to propose the rules. They are aimed at preventing another financial crisis. The rules were mandated by the 2010 financial overhaul and would apply to those foreign banks with $50 billion in worldwide assets that operate in the United States.
That means their U.S. affiliates would be subjected to the same capital reserve requirements as U.S. banks. The U.S. operations would have to take the form of a bank holding company, putting them under the Fed’s oversight.
Bernanke said the proposal “keeps a level playing field between foreign and domestic firms” without inhibiting foreign banks from doing business in the U.S.
The rules wouldn’t take effect until July 2015. The Fed estimates that about 107 foreign banks would be affected.
The Fed’s proposal would apply to 23 foreign banks that have both worldwide assets and assets in the U.S. of at least $50 billion each. Banks in that category include British bank HSBC, Germany’s Deutsche Bank, Canada’s TD Bank and Dutch bank ING.
A less stringent level would apply to 84 foreign banks with $50 billion or more in worldwide assets but less than $50 billion in U.S. assets.
BERLIN - Volkswagen AG said group sales through the first 11 months of 2012 have already surpassed last year’s record full-year result as deliveries outside western Europe more than offset declines in the debt-troubled region.
Europe’s largest automaker said Friday that it sold 8.29 million vehicles from January through November, up 10.4 percent over the same period last year and more than the 8.16 million it sold over the whole of 2011. November sales totaled 794,500 - up 11.7 percent from last year.
January-November sales to western Europe excluding Germany dropped 6 percent to 1.71 million vehicles, though German sales rose 3.4 percent to 1.10 million.
North American sales rose 26.1 percent to 757,300, while Asia-Pacific sales increased 19.5 percent to 2.86 million.
The Volkswagen group includes brands such as Audi, Skoda and Seat.
Chinese output hits 14-month high
BEIJING - China’s manufacturing activity rose to a 14-month high in December, adding to signs the world’s second-largest economy is recovering, but export orders weakened, a survey showed Friday.
HSBC Corp. said the preliminary version of its monthly purchasing managers’ index rose to 50.9 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 represent expanding activity. That was up from November’s 50.5.
The gains followed unexpectedly weak November trade data that prompted suggestions China’s economic recovery might be shaky.
The preliminary version of the HSBC index is based on responses from 75 percent to 80 percent of the 420 companies surveyed each month. The full report is due out at the end of the month.
The survey found new export orders changed direction and declined in December, more evidence of weak global demand.
The latest data “confirmed that China’s ongoing growth recovery is gaining momentum mainly driven by domestic demand conditions,” said HSBC economist Hongbin Qu in a statement.
“However, the drop of new export orders and the downside surprise of November exports growth suggest the persisting external headwinds,” Qu said.
November export growth fell to 2.9 percent over a year earlier from the previous month’s 11.6 percent. Imports were flat, down from October’s 2.4 percent growth.
Business, Pages 28 on 12/15/2012