China penalizes trading firm $101M
SHANGHAI -- China handed down a $101 million penalty and two suspended prison sentences in its first criminal case against a high-speed trading firm.
The case had been closely watched by the trading community on the mainland, looking to shed light on Chinese authorities' stance on high-frequency trading, which remains a controversial practice in jurisdictions across the world.
Yishidun International Trading was fined $44 million for manipulating China's futures markets and ordered to disgorge about $57 million in profits. As well as the suspended sentences, two of its executives were fined about $260,000, according to an announcement Friday by the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court.
Yishidun, also known as Eastern Dragon, said that it was one of a number of foreign-owned firms that China investigated after the $5 trillion market crash in 2015. An independent audit of the company's trading model did not find "anything consistent with 'market manipulation,' as this term is understood outside China," the firm said Friday.
"The court's verdict does not suggest that Eastern Dragon's trading strategy distorted the market, but that the trading system [Eastern Dragon] employed merely gave it a speed advantage over other traders," the firm said in an emailed statement after the ruling. "Because of this holding, the fine imposed by the court was at the lowest end of the options available to it."
-- Bloomberg News
Talk of wall sends solar stocks higher
NEW YORK -- Shares of solar manufacturers rose sharply after President Donald Trump told supporters that mounting photovoltaic panels atop his proposed Mexican border wall would allow the project to pay for itself.
SunPower Corp. shares rose 5 percent Friday in New York. Canadian Solar climbed 4.7 percent and JinkoSolar Holding Co. rose 2.5 percent.
During a campaign-style rally on Wednesday evening in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump publicly described for the first time the idea that a wall along the 1,990-mile Mexican border could double as a solar power plant.
"We're thinking of something that's unique, we're talking about the southern border. Lots of sun, lots of heat," Trump said. "We're thinking about building the wall as a solar wall, so it creates energy, and pays for itself. And this way Mexico will have to pay much less money, and that's good. Is that good?"
Analysts have expressed skepticism about the plan, saying it could take more than a century for solar panels to generate enough power to cover the cost of the wall.
Jeff Osborne, an analyst for Cowen & Co. in New York, said Trump's mention of solar in positive terms helped the stocks.
"Just the the fact that he used the word 'solar' in a sentence and that perhaps he is not entirely anti-renewables helps," Osborne said in an interview.
-- Bloomberg News
Northern U.S. drought spurs cattle sales
ABERDEEN, S.D. -- It's so hot and dry in northern parts of the U.S. that cattle ranchers are frantically selling off animals to trim their herds as hay crops and pasturelands wither.
There were so many cows, calves and pairs of the animals available for sale at a recent livestock auction in Aberdeen, S.D., that bidding lasted 15 hours until 1:30 a.m., said Steve Hellwig, the co-owner and auctioneer of Hub City Livestock Auction. Sales for the day reached a record 2,480 lots, or more than three times the normal weekly total.
Drought conditions have swept the northern reaches of the Great Plains this year, parching grazing pastures and grain fields while demonstrating how quickly severe weather can upend commodity markets. Prices for spring wheat, grown in the area, have soared 16 percent this month as volatility jumped.
While the rush of cattle to auctions probably won't have an immediate impact on U.S. meat supplies, some of the ranchers who are being forced to sell their animals early or pay more for feed may see their incomes suffer.
"Probably more than 70 percent of the cows that sold would have ended up as hamburger later this year -- the drought sped up the liquidation," Hellwig said.
-- Bloomberg News
Ex-CEO of failed Texas plant sentenced
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- An ex-leader of a failed project to build a south Texas power plant must serve two years in prison after prosecutors say he embezzled $1.5 million from the company.
Former Chase Power Development Chief Executive Officer John David Upchurch of Spring was sentenced Thursday by a federal judge in Houston. The 54-year-old Upchurch in January pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and has repaid the stolen funds.
Prosecutors say Upchurch, who was hired in 2008, submitted fake invoices as part of the Las Brisas Power Plant planned for Corpus Christi. Investigators say Upchurch, until mid-2012, embezzled company funds for personal expenses including travel, country club memberships, fishing equipment and a hunting trip.
The Texas coal-fired plant project was abandoned in 2013 amid regulatory issues and pollution concerns.
-- The Associated Press
Sears to close 20 more stores this year
NEW YORK -- Sears is closing another 20 stores as the retailer tries to turn around its business.
Real estate investment trust Seritage, which owns the 20 real estate properties, confirmed the closings -- 18 Sears stores and two Kmart stores -- in a government filing Friday.
In 2015, Sears Holdings Corp. sold 235 Sears and Kmart store locations to Seritage as part of an agreement in which Sears leases the stores back from the real estate company. Under the agreement it has with Seritage, if a store is unprofitable, Sears Holdings has the option to exit the lease by making a payment equal to one year's rent. The stores are located in 14 states around the country, though half are located in Maryland, New York, Ohio and Texas.
"We have been strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity, and have accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores as previously announced," Howard Riefs said in a statement.
Riefs said the stores will close in mid-September; liquidation sales will begin by the end of June.
These closures come in addition to the closing of 226 stores -- 164 Kmart stores and 62 Sears stores -- already announced this year, according to research firm Fung Global & Retail Technology, which tracks retailers' closings.
On Thursday, Sears announced the opening of its first Sears Appliances & Mattresses concept store, located in Pharr, Texas. The company said the store builds on the success of the Sears Appliances store that opened in Fort Collins, Colo., last year.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 06/24/2017