Actual finance blog

First-time homebuyers will have until Sept. 30 to close on their purchases and land an $8,000 tax credit under a bill passed by the Senate late Wednesday.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill, which was overwhelmingly approved by the House on Tuesday. The deadline had been June 30.

The bill doesn’t help anyone currently shopping for a home. Buyers must have signed a contract by April 30 to qualify for the tax break. At issue is when the deal must be finalized.

Qualified existing homeowners also have until Sept. 30 to close on new homes and receive a tax credit of up to $6,500.

Congress has been trying to pass the extension for the last month, but it got caught up in Washington politics. Only when it was separated from a larger jobs bill did deficit-wary lawmakers sign off on it. The extension will lower the deficit by $9 million over a decade since it is offset by certain other provisions cashadvance.

An estimated 200,000 people have missed out on the tax credit because they wouldn’t have been able to close by the end of business Wednesday. Many are trying to take advantage of short sales, which are complicated deals to complete.

The Senate approved the stand-alone homebuyers tax credit shortly after a failed attempt to advance a bill that combined the credit with an unemployment benefits extension.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the chamber will take up the benefits bill again once a replacement for the late Senator Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., is named. Byrd, the longest serving member of Congress in history, died Monday at age 92. 

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Expedia Inc. said it plans to add 130 jobs to its Las Vegas office by the end of the month.

The Bellevue online travel agency (NASDAQ: EXPE) said the new jobs will be mostly travel agents and support staff for Egencia, the corporate travel arm of Expedia that services corporate travel accounts.

Here's Expedia's press release:

LAS VEGAS, June 18 /PRNewswire/ — Expedia, Inc., the world's largest online travel company, today announced they will add 130 new jobs to the online travel company's Las Vegas operations by month's end, bringing the local office total to 500 employees. Las Vegas is home to a number of operational functions serving a number of the company's travel brands, including Expedia.com, Hotels.com and Egencia. The company will host an open house in late June to celebrate the expansion and provide tours to several local elected officials and community leaders.

"Expedia has long been a partner of the Las Vegas travel and tourism industry, and we are pleased to be able to add jobs in this community," said Michael Reichartz, Las Vegas-based vice president of market management for Expedia. "This expansion means new jobs for 130 Nevadans and we are hopeful for further growth, which is always something to celebrate. We applaud Senator Reid for his leadership in passing the HIRE Act, which has assisted us with this expansion."

"Extending our service network into Las Vegas is a key part of our strategy and ability to support clients worldwide," said Noah Tratt, vice president, Egencia Americas. "Egencia has been pleased with the wealth of talent and experience in Nevada. We are looking forward to expanding our service center here and bringing jobs to the area."

Expedia officials said the company will benefit from incentives provided by the federal "Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act," which was designed to create or restore employment to previously unemployed individuals.

The new jobs, mostly travel agents and support staff, will serve Egencia operations, the corporate travel arm of Expedia that services corporate travel accounts for companies globally. Other operations at the Las Vegas office include telesales, customer support and additional functions. Expedia's Las Vegas office is located at 10190 Covington Cross Drive in Summerlin.

About Expedia, Inc.

Expedia, Inc. is the largest online travel company in the world, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes more than 90 localized Expedia.com®- and Hotels.com®-branded sites; leading U.S. discount travel site Hotwire®; leading agency hotel company Venere.com™; Egencia™, the world's fifth largest corporate travel management company; the world's largest travel community TripAdvisor® Media Network; destination activities provider ExpediaLocalExpert®; luxury travel specialist Classic Vacations®; and China's second largest booking site eLong™. The company delivers consumers value in leisure and business travel, drives incremental demand and direct bookings to travel suppliers, and provides advertisers vast opportunity to reach the most valuable audience of in-market travel consumers anywhere through TripAdvisor Media Network and Expedia Media Solutions. Expedia also powers bookings for some of the world's leading airlines and hotels, top consumer brands, high traffic websites, and thousands of active affiliates through Expedia® Affiliate Network. (Nasdaq:EXPE)

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Electronic Arts Inc. won't have a new March Madness NCAA basketball game for the first time since 2003, another sign of the company's recent struggles.

The game was missing from the product release list that Redwood City-based EA (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced last week but it wasn't until Saturday that it acknowledged that it was dropping March Madness.

"We do not have an NCAA Basketball game in development at this time, and we're currently reviewing the future of our NCAA Basketball business," an EA Sports rep told the GameSpot Web site. "This was a difficult decision, but we remain a committed partner to the NCAA and its member institutions."

In its most recent quarter, EA posted a third quarter loss of $82 million, or 25 cents a share, narrowed from a loss in the same period last year of $641 million, or $2 a share business cards design.

Its revenue was $1.24 billion, down from $1.65 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The company said it expects fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of between 2 cents and 6 cents a share, far below analyst projections of 13 cents a share.

It said fourth-quarter net revenue is expected to be $925 million and $1 billion. Adjusted revenue is expected to be between $800 million and $850 million, below Wall Street's projection of $851 million.

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The road for another stimulus bill just got tougher following Tuesday’s election of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate in Democratic stronghold Massachusetts.

After health care, Congress’ next big priority is to pass something that shows voters in an election year that they’re on top of the nation’s unemployment scourge.

But the Democrats’ loss of a filibuster-proof super-majority in the Senate throws hurdles onto an already rocky path toward a new stimulus bill aimed at saving jobs.

Given how controversial the first stimulus package remains, passing a new jobs bill, or "second stimulus," was never going to be easy. Republicans have especially targeted the first stimulus package as a prime example of the kind of big government spending they aim to end.

"There is a reason the nation was focused on this race," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "The American people have made it abundantly clear that they are more interested in shrinking unemployment than expanding government. They are tired of bailouts."

Experts and policy analysts say the Republican win in Massachusetts will shore up Republican opposition to anything that looks like big spending.

"I think it’ll be very hard," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. "Democrats will be under more pressure to pass a jobs bill, because if they don’t do something about the economy, voter dissatisfaction will increase. But Republicans are going to be more emboldened not to vote for it." (Democrats scramble on health care - CNN.com.)

The bills: The House passed a $154 billion jobs bill in December, but Senate Democrats are planning to debut their own jobs-creation bill in coming weeks.

The two bills were developed independently but share some components, like infrastructure spending to build roads and bridges, as well as state aid to plug budget holes and keep teachers and police officers employed.

Senate Democrats have been brainstorming in backrooms since last summer to come up with a package that incorporates ideas from all parts of their caucus, according to congressional aides. Party leaders Dick Durbin of Illinois and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota have been running the negotiations.

The final package will offer something for the left, like spending for green sector jobs, and something for the right, like tax breaks for small businesses that hire new workers.

On the tax breaks, Senate leadership is considering a proposal that Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., plans to introduce this week incorporating ideas Republicans have touted.

Casey wants to give a one-year payroll tax break to companies that create new jobs offering wages up to $50,300. Small companies would qualify for a 20% tax break and larger companies with more than 100 employees would qualify for a 15% break fast cash loans.

Another way to make a jobs bill more palatable to both fiscally conservative Democrats and Republicans is to craft a bill that pays for itself and doesn’t add to the deficit. That’s a big goal of the jobs proposal, Democratic aides say. But they wouldn’t spell out how.

The bill may try to take advantage of money freed up in the budget by the fact that the Troubled Asset Relief Program is coming in under budget.

Wooing Republicans: Will such fiscal carrots be enough to woo any Republicans?

"Small business tax breaks are great," said Brian Darling, director of Senate relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "But when they’re basically being used just to get some Republican support and the balance of the proposal is just federal spending, this sounds very similar to the first stimulus plan."

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director, said that the Massachusetts win should send a signal to Democrats to start from scratch on the jobs bill and start working with Republicans. He said Republicans would prefer a bill that focuses more on bigger and more effective tax cuts, like blanket breaks on payroll taxes and capital dividend taxes.

"The landscape has changed," said Holtz-Eakin, who advised 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. "They’re going to have to go back and think about what policies are going to get the Republicans on board."

Indeed, a couple of Republican senators’ offices said they can’t imagine a Democratic proposal on jobs that could win them over.

"A second stimulus bill, packed with more spending, is the wrong way to approach this," said Jeff Sadosky, spokesman for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas. "Obama’s budget has already ballooned the debt. More spending is not the answer."

But Democrats may be able to peel off someone like Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of three Republicans who last February voted with Democrats to pass the original stimulus package. But she’d only be game if the jobs bill really didn’t add to the deficit, a spokesman said.

"Senator Collins has said that she is open to considering the possibility of a jobs bill but her main concern is how it would be paid for?" said Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley. "She believes that the debt levels we are accumulating now, and that are projected, are simply not sustainable and pose a considerable threat to the health of our economy." 

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The Federal Reserve is telling Centrue Financial Corp. to fix its lending practices, write off bad loans and keep enough capital. The company, parent of Centrue Bank, was also forbidden from paying dividends to stockholders or interest on some subordinated debt without Fed permission.

The enforcement action, in the form of a written agreement with the bank, was announced Friday.

Centrue Bank lost $22 million in the first nine months of this year, and 8 percent of its loans were seriously behind in payments. That’s more than double the percent of problem loans at similar banks.

Centrue, with $1.3 billion in assets, is based in Clayton. It has four branches in the metro area, but most of its operations are in northern and central Illinois.

The agreement requires the bank to quickly write off loans that bank examiners had declared a loss unless the bank manages to collect on them sam day payday loan. The bank is banned from extending new loans to borrowers whose old loans were charged off as uncollectable. It must also give the Fed a plan for collecting on overdue loans or doubtful loans of more than $2.5 million.

Centrue was also told to improve its lending practices, and come up with compensation policies that don’t encourage excessive risk-taking.

In a news release, the bank said it has "aggressively taken steps" to address the examiners’ findings.

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Carolina Diaz-Silva says she believes that learning a foreign language at an early age can give children a cognitive advantage in the future. Diaz-Silva is founder and director of International Schoolhouse, a Spanish-immersion preschool in Olivette. She started the school in August with 10 children and will be adding eight more in January.

Diaz-Silva, who speaks in English, Spanish, Italian and German, hails from Peru and moved to St. Louis 16 years ago. She spent her time teaching Spanish at MICDS in Ladue and also at Washington University.

In 2006, she received a master’s degree in Spanish Literature from Washington University and received an MBA from the university in May. She serves as an adjunct lecturer in the romance languages department of Washington University, teaching Spanish.

Diaz-Silva says she is trying to weather the economic challenges that come with her new venture and the competition from other preschools in the area.

Are the children enrolled in the program from different backgrounds?

We have a lot of diversity in our student body as well as our teachers. Out of 18 students, we have four Hispanic children, one Indian and one African-American.

What kind of economic challenges are you facing with the school?

I would say that I had a lot of interest in the school, because it is not a day care, it is only a preschool that has part-time hours.

But in today’s economy, preschool has become an option for a mother who stays home with her child. A lot of families are choosing not to make that expense. And that has an impact on the enrollment.

But I am happy that we are small and are able to gradually grow.

Has the performance of the school, so far, met your expectations?

I was naive no fax payday loan. I thought the school would fill up from the first day, because it is such a great idea.

It is also important to realize that I have to build trust with the parents. And that is exactly what we are doing right now.

We had an open house for children coming in January and we had the current parents be at the open house and talk to the prospective families. That made all the difference in the world. Because it wasn’t the director or the teacher selling what a great program we have, but the parents telling them how delighted they were with the program and how fantastic the teachers are.

Who are your competitors?

Preschool is very local. We did a lot of market research before starting the school and found out that families drive less than three miles for a preschool and a lot of families just walk.

There aren’t any Spanish-immersion preschools in our area, but there are a couple in St. Charles and Ballwin. My direct competition are other preschools in the area.

How do you publicize the school?

Most of our publicity comes from word-of-mouth. But we also do some advertising, like in St. Louis Kids Magazine, Ladue News, direct mailing, postcards.

We need to do more effective marketing. But I don’t believe marketing is going to get me more students. It is going to be my current families talking to their friends. Basically, I have 10 advocates, and I will have 18 in January.

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India’s policy makers can’t ignore the link between higher food costs and inflation, central bank Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn said, signaling the monetary authority may quicken measures to curb the increase in prices.

Gokarn is the second official in as many days to flag concerns over accelerating inflation after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s economic adviser on Dec. 3 said rising food prices may “require monetary policy action.” The wholesale food-price index climbed to an 11-month high in November, a government report showed this week.

“Persistently rising food prices may spill over into inflation expectation” and “do have an expectation impact,” Gokarn told reporters in New Delhi today. “We can’t ignore that linkage.”

India’s gross domestic product expanded 7.9 percent in the three months to Sept. 30 from a year earlier, the fastest pace in six quarters, as a $130 billion cash injection through monetary stimulus shielded the $1.2 trillion economy from a global recession. China grew at a faster pace of 8.9 percent last quarter, while U.S. GDP rose 2.8 percent, Europe contracted 4.1 percent and South Korea increased 0.9 percent.

“With strong GDP growth and rising inflation, we think the pressure is rising on the Reserve Bank of India to partially pull back the monetary stimulus,” said Rahul Bajoria, an economist at Barclays Capital in Singapore no faxing 1 hour payday loans. Accelerating inflation will likely “trigger action in the form of hikes in the cash-reserve ratio.”

Bonds Drop

Benchmark 10-year Indian government bonds posted their worst week since June as Chakravarthy Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council said higher food prices may push up wages and manufacturing costs. The Reserve Bank may start raising interest rates as early as January, increasing borrowing costs by 3 percentage points in 2010, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a research report dated Dec. 3.

The index of wholesale primary articles, comprising mainly of food items such as pulses, fruits, vegetables and cereals, rose 12.53 percent in the week to Nov. 21, the highest since November 2008, a government report showed Dec. 3. The central bank forecasts wholesale-price inflation at 6.5 percent by March 31 from 1.34 percent in October and 0.5 percent in September.

India needs to ensure that the economic recovery isn’t hurt while keeping inflationary pressures under control, Gokarn said today.

“There’s nothing off the table but all options have to be considered with the information that is available to us,” Gokarn said when asked if the central bank may consider raising the cash-reserve ratio.

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A map showing minute-by-minute online sales activity across the country was posted on Saturday by eBay Inc.

The map shows where sales were made using the San Jose company's (NASDAQ:EBAY) online marketplace throughout the big shopping day.

As could be expected, the big population centers on the East and West Coasts glow red throughout almost the entire day, while some other regions twinkle on and off in shares of yellow and orange.

EBay launched a "12 days of Deals" shopping promotion on Black Friday in which it is showcasing special deals each day. It also launched an app for Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and iPod touch, saying it believe it will sell about $500 million in merchandise via mobile devices by the end of the year.

On Friday, eBay's payment processing subsidiary PayPal Inc. said it saw a 30 percent jump in online transactions on Thanksgiving Day, compared to a last year.

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Stocks fell Friday, capping a mostly down week, as investors remained jittery about the economy and the outlook for the technology sector.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 14 points, or 0.1%, to close at 10,318.16. The S&P 500 (SPX) slipped 0.3% to end at 1091.38. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (COMP) dropped 0.5% to 2146.04.

Despite Friday’s decline, the Dow ended the week with a 0.5% gain. The S&P 500 fell 0.2% and the Nasdaq slid 1% over the last five days. The mixed performance came after all three major gauges posted two consecutive weekly gains.

The dollar rose against rival currencies for the second day in a row, helped by increased demand for safe-haven assets and supportive comments from Federal Reserve officials.

The stronger greenback weighed on the oil market, with crude prices closing below $77 a barrel. Gold prices recovered from early losses to close at another record high.

Wall Street started the week on a high note, closing at 13-month highs on Monday and Tuesday. A softer dollar and bets that U.S. interest rates will remain low for a prolonged period helped boost the S&P 500 above the key 1,100 level early in the week.

But the tone turned more cautious Wednesday after government data showed a surprise drop in new home construction and a pair of software makers issued bearish profit forecasts.

Housing and tech woes continued to plague the market Thursday after a report showed that nearly 10% of all mortgage loans were delinquent in the third quarter and analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the semiconductor industry.

On Friday, tech shares remained under pressure after PC giant Dell reported weak third-quarter results late Thursday. Homebuilder stocks fell after D.R. Horton posted a larger-than-expected quarterly loss and said conditions in the industry remain challenging.

"The market is suffering from mixed economic news this week," said John Wilson, chief technical strategist at Morgan Keegan. However, the declines were surprisingly small considering the market’s recent strength, he added.

"I think the market has to work-off a fairly overbought position," he said.

Analysts said the market was ripe for a move lower given growing concerns that stocks have come too far, too fast. After bottoming at 12-year lows in March, stocks have been on a near-continuous rally fueled by signs of economic stabilization.

"There’s a lot of concern that the stock market has gotten ahead of expectations," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. "There’s not much room to advance without a concurrent improvement in economic news."

Looking ahead, trading is expected to be volatile next week with a busy economic calendar, quarterly results from Hewlett Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) and thin trading volume.

Economic reports due next week include data on home sales and prices, a revised reading on gross domestic product and a monthly read on consumer confidence.

Dow component H-P reports quarterly financial results after the closing bell Monday.

U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday, and trading will end early on Friday. With many traders taking next week off, analyst said the number of shares trading hands will be small, which could exaggerate swings in the market.

Companies: D.R. Horton (DHI, Fortune 500), the nation’s second-largest homebuilder, said its quarterly loss narrowed to $231.9 million, or 73 cents a share, in the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30. Shares fell 15%.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting a loss of 30 cents per share.

After the closing bell Thursday,Dell (DELL, Fortune 500) reported a sharp drop in quarterly profit that fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. The stock tumbled 10%.

Also on Thursday, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the semiconductor industry. That came one day after two key software companies issued cautious profit outlooks.

But in other earnings news, retailer Gap (GPS, Fortune 500) said its quarterly profit surged 25%.

Economy: A government report showed more U.S. states suffered rising unemployment rates, though fewer reported joblessness above the national average in October.

World markets: Asian shares retreated. The Nikkei in Japan lost 0.5% while the Hang Seng fell 0.8%. Major European indexes also closed lower, with the CAC-40 in Paris falling 0.8%.

Money, gold and oil: The dollar rose versus major international currencies, including the euro, the yen and the pound.

Gold rose $4.90 to settle at a record $1,146.80 an ounce.

The price of oil fell 74 cents to close at $76.72 a barrel.

Bonds: Prices for U.S. Treasurys were mixed. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, fell to 3.36% from 3.50% late Thursday. The yield on the 3-month Treasury bill, which is seen as a temporary shelter from market volatility, stood at 0.015%.  

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Singapore raised its 2009 economic forecast after gross domestic product expanded for a second consecutive quarter, strengthening a regional recovery that has prompted policy makers to consider ending stimulus measures.

The economy will shrink 2 percent to 2.5 percent this year, less than an earlier forecast for a contraction of 4 percent to 6 percent, the trade ministry said in a statement today. GDP expanded an annualized 14.9 percent last quarter from the previous three months, the second consecutive expansion.

Singapore’s benchmark stock index has surged 51 percent this year as a rebound in manufacturing helped the nation emerge from its worst recession since independence in 1965. Asia is leading the world’s recovery from its economic slump after policy makers slashed interest rates to unprecedented lows and governments announced more than $950 billion of stimulus.

“Singapore is always the first in the region to provide a reliable GDP report so a strong reading would be a positive sign for other outcomes in the region,” said Matthew Hildebrandt, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Singapore. “The worst of global economic turmoil is behind us,” reducing the need to further ease monetary policy, he said.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, known as MAS, maintained a neutral stance in its twice-yearly currency policy review today, favoring neither appreciation nor depreciation against its trade-weighted basket of currencies. The central bank opted for a de-facto devaluation of the Singapore dollar in April to help reverse a collapse in exports.

The currency fell 0.3 percent as at 8:08 a.m. in Singapore.

Raising Rates

Central banks around the world have begun to indicate a willingness to raise interest rates as inflation returns with economic recovery.

Australia last week became the first among the Group of 20 nations to raise borrowing costs since the height of the global financial crisis, and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the Fed is prepared to tighten monetary policy when the outlook for the economy “has improved sufficiently.”

“Uncertainties over the pace of the withdrawal of monetary and fiscal stimulus measures pose an additional risk,” the trade ministry said today. “While these factors may dampen growth in the second half of 2010 and result in an uneven recovery, the likelihood of a return to recessionary conditions is low in the absence of further financial shocks.”

Singapore is forecast by economists including JPMorgan’s Hildebrandt to delay any change in its currency policy until April. The government is due to say this week if it will extend a program that pays companies to retain workers.

‘Extremely Volatile’

“Singapore’s economy is extremely volatile” and the boost to growth from companies rebuilding inventory and government stimulus is starting to fade, said Hildebrandt low interest payday loans. “Because of this uncertainty, we do not expect the MAS to change its monetary policy stance. The risk to inflation is still low so the MAS has no need to tighten policy.”

The central bank expects inflation to be about zero this year, before accelerating to a range of 1 percent to 2 percent in 2010, it said in a statement today.

Singapore’s $182 billion economy grew 0.8 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, better than the median estimate for a 0.5 percent gain in a Bloomberg survey of 16 economists. The government has raised its 2009 economic forecast twice this year from an April prediction for a contraction of as much as 9 percent.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing, which accounts for about a quarter of the economy, rose 8.3 percent from a year earlier last quarter, after sliding a revised 1.1 percent in the three months through June.

Improving demand for pharmaceuticals and electronics has prompted companies including Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. to predict sales will increase. Singapore’s industrial output climbed in the first two months of last quarter, and the island’s exports fell the least in almost a year in August.

“The economy looks to have a broad-based recovery under way across most sectors,” said Philip McNicholas, an economist at IDEAglobal in Singapore. “The services sector, led by financial services and retail trade, should show further improvement and underpin the recovery. The same is true for much of the manufacturing sector, with the electronics cluster being a key driver.”

The island’s services industry declined 2.4 percent last quarter from a year earlier, after falling 4.8 percent in the previous three months. The construction industry gained 12.4 percent as real-estate developers including Frasers Centrepoint Ltd. built homes, hotels and office towers.

2010 Growth

The island’s private residential property prices rose last quarter for the first time in more than a year. The government said last month it would introduce new measures to prevent excessive price swings in the property market following signs that speculative home buying may be on the rise.

“Looking ahead, the economy is not expected to sustain the strong pace of expansion” seen in the second and third quarters, the central bank said. “GDP growth in 2010 is expected to be slower than in previous post-recession periods.”

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