New L.L. Bean ad visible only in sunlight
NEW YORK -- L.L. Bean fans who want to see the retailer's new ad will have to step outdoors.
The company took its mission to get people outside to a new level Friday by publishing an ad in The New York Times in ink that can only be seen when the newspaper is taken outside and exposed to sunlight.
The advertising insert features L.L. Bean's new "manifesto" that reiterates its commitment to the outdoors and underscores the Freeport, Maine-based company's willingness to try new things to get shoppers' attention.
L.L. Bean is positioning itself as an outdoor brand focused less on individual pursuits and more on family and friends enjoying the outdoors, whether it's a remote lake or local park. The ad tells shoppers, "Just step outside your front door and you've arrived."
-- The Associated Press
Steel-tariff decision delayed for tax bill
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the Trump administration has decided to defer a decision on steel tariffs as it focuses on getting a tax overhaul bill through Congress.
"The policy decision has been made to postpone that until the tax bill," Ross said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television, when asked about his department's review of the national security implications of steel imports.
Shares of major U.S. steel-makers declined after Ross' remarks. U.S. Steel Corp. dropped the most, falling as much as 6.1 percent and extending its two-day decline, while Nucor Corp., AK Steel Holding Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc. also fell.
The Commerce Department will give President Donald Trump a range of options when it reports its findings on the steel investigation, said Ross. But overhauling the tax system is the "single most important"' thing on the administration's agenda, one that will drive job creation, he said.
"It's not so much a question of backing away, it's a question of timing," Ross said earlier Friday in an interview on CNBC, in which he was asked repeatedly about when his department would announce trade decisions, including on steel. "Tax is extremely important because that's the biggest single incremental factor in getting growth over 3 percent," he said.
-- Bloomberg News
Russia cashing in on world barley slump
Smaller barley harvests from Europe to Australia are helping Russia offload its bumper crop faster than anywhere else.
Russian exports of the grain used mostly for animal feed surged 60 percent so far this season, government data show. For the whole of 2017-18, the country's sales will jump more than any other major shipper, while global exports fall to a four-year low, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
World output is falling, partly because dry weather hurt crops in Australia and a heat wave was followed by heavy rains in parts of the European Union, the top two exporters. With the market heading for a second-consecutive shortfall, global inventories will shrink to their lowest level in more than three decades. That's giving top producer Russia a chance to grab more of the export market after its crops benefited from ample rains.
"Russia has been the only barley exporting country that was able to significantly increase its production in 2017," said Stefan Vogel, head of agricultural commodities research at Rabobank International in London. "Thus, exports are flowing at a much stronger pace."
While global output will decline 4 percent to 156.5 million tons this season, Russia's harvest will increase 17 percent to a nine-year high of 22.6 million tons, USDA data show.
-- Bloomberg News
China says S&P wrong to cut credit rating
BEIJING -- China's Finance Ministry on Friday criticized the cut in the Standard & Poor's rating agency's credit rating on Chinese government borrowing as a "wrong decision" and said it ignores the country's economic strength.
S&P announced the change Thursday, citing rising debt it said increased financial risk. The move added to warnings China's debt burden might drag on economic growth or threaten the financial system. It followed a similar downgrade by Moody's Investors Service in May.
The timing is awkward for the ruling Communist Party, which wants to project an image of stability ahead of a twice-a-decade congress next month at which President Xi Jinping is set to be named to a second five-year term as leader.
S&P followed its China downgrade a day later by cutting its credit rating for Hong Kong, citing risks posed by their close ties. The agency said Friday that it was reducing its long-term rating on Hong Kong by one notch, to AA+ from AAA, reflecting potential spillover risks.
The Finance Ministry complained that S&P ignored China's stable economic growth and reform efforts. It noted official data showed the economy grew by 6.9 percent in the first half of 2017 compared with a year earlier and government revenue rose by nearly 10 percent.
-- The Associated Press
Drought forces Canadians to sell cattle
The pastures on Craig Todd's ranch in western Canada are so scorched by all the hot, dry weather in recent months that his cattle have little to eat. After spending $8,110 on extra feed pellets -- an unplanned expense for a herd that should be munching on free grass -- Todd is now considering selling as many as 50 animals to get through winter.
"I might knock a few more off" to reduce costs, said Todd, whose raises cattle on land an hour's drive west of Swift Current, Saskatchewan. "Going into next year, if we don't get any rain, I'm in as much trouble as most people are."
For Canada, the world's sixth-largest beef exporter, a worsening drought across the southern prairie provinces has probably ended any chance of a rebound for the domestic cattle industry. The herd was hit by several cases of mad-cow disease more than a decade ago, followed by floods and labor shortages. In 2015, it shrank to a 22-year low.
The herd was expected to expand slightly this year, but deteriorating grazing conditions have driven up the price of hay used as feed to as much as $162 a ton, twice as much as a year earlier. Some ranchers will cull more animals from their herds to reduce costs after parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta got less than 60 percent of normal rainfall since April 1, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, a government agency.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 09/23/2017