Business news in brief

McDonald's: Russia to check 100 stores

MOSCOW -- McDonald's said Russia's consumer-safety regulator is inspecting more than 100 of its restaurants after the world's largest fast-food chain by revenue was forced to close 12 locations in the country.

McDonald's temporarily closed four restaurants in Krasnodar, in southern Russia, on an order from Rospotrebnadzor, as the agency is known, company spokesman Svetlana Polyakova said by phone. Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's has shut eight other outlets since Aug. 20, including its first and largest location in central Moscow.

The chain, which said it has total of 440 restaurants in the country, has come under pressure amid tensions between Russia and the U.S. and its allies over Ukraine. The U.S. and European Union imposed sanctions against Russian companies and officials, while President Vladimir Putin has reciprocated by banning some food imports.

"It's Russian retaliation to the sanctions -- first it was a ban of food imports and then McDonald's," said Sabina Mukhamedzhanova, a fund manager at Promsvyaz Asset Management in Moscow. "This is a prominent symbol of the U.S., it has a lot of restaurants and therefore is a meaningful target. I don't recall McDonald's having consumer-safety problems of such a scale in over more than two decades of presence in Russia."

-- Bloomberg News

Chrysler expected to go back on market

DETROIT -- U.S. investors should soon be able to buy stock in Chrysler for the first time in seven years.

Italy's Fiat and Chrysler are merging to form Fiat Chrysler Automobile. Fiat said Friday that an ongoing tally of investors suggests there is not enough opposition to derail the deal.

Earlier this month, Fiat shareholders approved combining the companies. But Italian law gives dissenters the right to cash out. Fiat has said that if investors offered more than $650 million in shares, the merger would be off.

Fiat SpA will announce the final tally by Sept. 4. So far, the number of shares to be cashed out is below the cap.

Shares of Chrysler haven't been publicly traded since 2007, when it was still combined with German automaker Daimler.

-- The Associated Press

High demand drives record butter cost

Butter futures reached an all-time high Friday in Chicago as demand and rising exports erode U.S. inventories.

Domestic consumption is projected to rise 0.8 percent to 868,612 tons in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That would be the second-highest amount in data going back to 1965. Shipments in the first six months of the year were up 42 percent from 2013. Demand is rising as milk production trailed analyst expectations, while fat content, used to make butter, is also dropping, according to Eric Meyer, the president of Chicago-based HighGround Dairy.

Consumers have increased purchases for five straight years, according to researcher Nielsen NV. The gains left U.S. stockpiles in July 42 percent lower than a year earlier, USDA data show. Tight butter supplies are contributing to higher costs for buyers including Panera Bread Co.

"Ultimately, there's good demand for cream-based products that's tightening up the market," said Dave Kurzawski, a Chicago- based senior broker at INTL FCStone Inc. "We haven't had a tremendous amount of milk to deal with either, and the quality of fat in milk has gone down."

Butter futures for October settlement climbed 1.1 percent to $2.55 a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange after touching $2.5500002, the highest-ever price for a most active contract. The commodity is up 62 percent this year.

-- Bloomberg News

Kurdish oil tanker anchored off Texas

A tanker carrying 1 million barrels of disputed Kurdish oil remains in the Gulf of Mexico off Texas, according to the vessel's operator.

The United Kalavryta, which left Ceyhan, Turkey on June 23, arrived off the coast of Galveston July 26.

The tanker is caught in a protracted legal fight in Iraq over rights to Kurdish oil production and billions of dollars in overdue payments claimed by the Kurds. The U.S. government recognizes Kurdistan as part of Iraq.

"The M/T United Kalavryta is still anchored off Galveston awaiting charterer's discharge orders," Lygia Pirounaki, a spokesman for Marine Management Services M.C. of Piraeus, Greece, said Friday in an email.

The ship was anchored about 60 miles southeast of Galveston in the Gulf of Mexico early Friday, according to AIS data compiled by Bloomberg.

A federal judge in Houston said in an order Monday that he lacks authority to stop the Kurdish government from bringing the approximately $100 million of crude ashore in Texas. He threw out a seizure order that would have required federal agents to hold the cargo for the Iraqi Oil Ministry until a court there decides who owns the oil. That would have only applied if the vessel entered U.S. territorial waters, and during the dispute it has remained in international waters.

-- Bloomberg News

Jet-fuel supplies in NYC hit record low

The lowest seasonal supply of jet fuel on record is pushing prices higher and leading to voluntary restrictions in the New York region as the nation's busiest air hub prepares for a holiday rush.

Spot jet fuel in New York Harbor, the trading center for the U.S. East Coast, jumped to 22 cents a gallon above diesel futures this week, the biggest premium in three years. Stockpiles in the region fell to 8.83 million barrels last week, the lowest for this time of year since at least 1990, government data show. Airlines received an industrywide request Thursday to limit the fuel they take from John F. Kennedy International airport.

Airport deliveries were delayed after Buckeye Partners LP unexpectedly shut lines for inspections. The tight supplies underscore the New York region's dependence on a pipeline system delivering fuel to JFK and LaGuardia airports in New York, and Liberty International airport in Newark, N.J., from the Gulf Coast.

"Demand is strong, and that's the bottom line," said Mike Wittner, Societe Generale SA's head of oil market research.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 08/30/2014

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