Actual finance blog

A gender discrimination lawsuit filed two years ago by Francine Katz, a former high-ranking female executive at Anheuser-Busch, will finally go to trial in St. Louis Circuit Court after the Missouri Supreme Court declined the brewer’s request for a transfer.

Katz, a lawyer who formerly worked at the Armstrong Teasdale law firm, joined Anheuser-Busch’s legal division in St. Louis in 1988 and ultimately rose to vice president of communications and consumer affairs for the brewer. She also was a member of the company’s strategy committee. She resigned from A-B after it was acquired by Belgium-based InBev in late 2008. 

Katz filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against A-B in October 2009 that alleged she was given a smaller salary and bonuses than male executives and alleged the company had a “frat party” atmosphere that excluded females from informal social networks, in violation of the Missouri Human Rights Act personal loans for people with bad credit.

Anheuser-Busch sought to have the case go through arbitration rather than a trial, but the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled in Katz’ favor in June, allowing the lawsuit to proceed in the St. Louis Circuit Court. A-B sought a transfer to the state’s highest court, but on Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court denied A-B’s request.

Katz is seeking lost wages and compensatory and punitive damages.

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U.S. stocks fell sharply in afternoon trading after seesawing through most of the morning. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 190 points and the S&P 500 hit a new low for the year.

European markets slumped, dragging U.S. stocks down along with them, after Greece said it will miss deficit reduction targets it agreed to as part of its bailout deal. Benchmark indexes in Germany, France and Spain all fell 2 percent.

The Dow briefly turned higher after 10 a.m., when the Institute of Supply Management said its gauge of U.S. manufacturing did better than Wall Street had predicted in September. The Dow and S&P turned mixed within 20 minutes, then took a sharp slide shortly after noon.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 186 points, or 1.7 percent, to 10,729 at 1:15 p.m. Eastern.

The S&P 500 lost 22, or 2 percent, to 1,109. That’s below its closing low of 1,119 for the year, reached on Aug. 8.

The Nasdaq composite fell 52, or 2.2 percent, to 2,362.

All 10 company groups in the S&P index fell. Banks, energy, and consumer discretionary stocks had the steepest declines. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.79 percent from 1.91 percent late Friday as investors piled into lower-risk investments.

“The market is continuing to trade based on what is happening in Europe, and that is going to overshadow everything else,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. “The math (for the Greek bailout) didn’t add up a year ago, and the math doesn’t add up today. The market knows that and is waiting for the Europeans to acknowledge it.”

The renewed concerns about Europe’s debt problems pushed the U.S. dollar up 0.8 percent against the euro. That could hurt large U.S. companies that rely on exports by making their products more expensive overseas. Coca-Cola Co. fell 3 percent. Caterpillar Inc., which sells construction equipment globally, lost 3.8 percent.

Concerns that the U.S. economy is headed for another recession helped send the S&P 500 index, the basis for most mutual funds that invest in U.S. stocks, down 14 percent over the three months that ended in September. It was the worst quarter for the stock market since the financial crisis of 2008.

In corporate news, Yahoo gained 2.3 percent to $13.45, after the head of Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group Holdings said he would be interested in buying the company. Yahoo, which recently ousted Carol Bartz as its CEO, has been trying to decide whether to sell parts of the company.

Bank of America fell to its lowest price since the financial crisis in 2008. The bank lost 4.8 percent to $5.83. The company has fallen 56 percent since January.

Netflix rose 0.2 percent after an analyst from Morgan Stanley upgraded the company following a sharp drop in its stock price. Netflix has plummeted 60 percent from its recent high of $304 because of a drop in subscribers and a plan to split its streaming service from its DVD-by-mail business.

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ST. LOUIS 

Egypt’s benchmark stock index fell slightly on Sunday, weighed down by investor unease after the storming of Israel’s embassy and protests in Cairo over the weekend. Inflation, meanwhile, eased in August to 8.5 percent on a slower increase in food prices.

The Egyptian Exchange’s EGX30 index closed almost 1.2 weaker, at 4,698 points the first day of the trading week. The index’s year-to-date losses are at about 34 percent.

“To be honest, we were expecting a lot worse than this _ maybe a fall of 3 to 4 percent,” said Khaled Naga, a senior broker with Mega Investments. “Even so, I’m not recommending anyone buy at this time. … There could still be a lot of problems cropping up this week.”

But in a measure of good news, the government’s statistical arm announced Saturday that annual urban inflation had dropped to 8.5 percent in August, from 10.4 percent in July. The decline came as food inflation, which accounts for over 40 percent of the consumer price index, increased at a slower pace in the month _ 12.2 percent compared with 16.7 percent the prior month.

Food inflation, in particular, was seen as one of the factors that fueled Egyptians’ frustrations ahead of the Jan. 25 revolution, and a decline in that key figure could help ease some of the economic pressure the country’s more than 80 million citizens feel daily.

In addition, Suez Canal revenues, a key source of foreign income for the government, climbed to $472.9 million in August, gaining 7.9 percent on the same month in 2010 and hitting a roughly three-year high, government figures showed.

Analysts warned that Egypt still faced major pressures in trying to retrench and rebuild its economy, which recorded GDP growth of 1.8 percent in the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Before the Jan. 25 uprising, economic growth had been projected at nearly 6 percent.

London-based Capital Economics, which is forecasting that GDP will contract by 1 percent in the current fiscal year, said in a recent research note that given the current global economic climate, “it is too early to expect a rapid recovery.”

In a reflection of the difficulty Egyptian officials have faced, the country’s net international reserves have slipped to slightly more than $25 billion, roughly $11 billion below their December 2010 levels. The slide, in part, is linked to efforts to support the Egyptian currency.

The storming of the Israeli Embassy over the weekend was the most serious challenge to relations between the two countries since the signing of their peace treaty in 1979. An angry mob, for hours, laid siege to the embassy, trapping six Israeli guards in a safe room before they were rescued by Egyptian commandoes.

The incident at the Israeli Embassy spoke not only to the anger over the shooting death of six Egyptian soldiers along the country’s border with Israel last month, but also the hostility toward the Jewish state many feel in the country despite the peace agreement. The soldiers were killed as Israeli troops pursued militants who had launched an attack inside Israel that killed eight Israelis.

It also reflected the pressures and challenges confronting Egypt’s military rulers, who are balancing often opposing ends of placating an irate Egyptian populace after Mubarak’s ouster and pushing the country toward an elected civilian leadership.

The 18-day uprising that began in late January opened the floodgates to decades of pent up resentment over a widening income disparity, shoddy salaries, poor social and educational systems and the general sense in the Arab world’s most populous country that opportunities were something that came through nepotism and cronyism versus skills and perseverance.

The continuing mass protests have battered Egypt’s economy, undercutting vital tourism revenue and crimping foreign direct investment.

In a reversal of an earlier decision that would likely have done little to spur tourism, the government froze a ruling requiring tourists and other visitors to apply for visas before arrival in the country, the official MENA news agency reported, citing the deputy tourism minister.

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World Bank President Robert Zoellick says the U.S. economy will likely limp along with slow growth and high unemployment but avoid a recession.

Zoellick told reporters Tuesday in Singapore that Europe’s debt crisis threatens to undermine the confidence of consumers and investors.

Zoellick said the challenges facing Europe are more “imminent” than those in the U.S.

He said European countries may need to deepen fiscal integration _ implying governments should sacrifice some control over their budgets so spending policies can be coordinated among countries using the euro.

Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told reporters that weak economic growth in the U.S. and Europe was making them “extremely vulnerable to each new shock.”

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Japan’s new prime minister chose fresh faces and political unifiers for his Cabinet Friday, promising to steer the troubled nation through disaster recovery, a nuclear crisis and a lengthy economic slump.

Yoshihiko Noda tapped relatively unknown lawmakers as part of his 18-member Cabinet, including 49-year-old Jun Azumi as finance minister and 47-year-old Koichiro Gemba as foreign minister.

Both are young in a Japanese political world normally dominated by elder statesmen. And both are closely allied with Noda, who, at 54, is the third youngest prime minister in post-World War II Japan.

“They will work like loaches mired in mud and sweating to get the job done,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, another Noda ally, said when announcing the lineup. Loaches, a type of bottom-dwelling, eel-like fish, have become a bit of an odd buzzword after Noda described himself as one in what has largely been interpreted as a self-deprecating remark.

Noda’s effectiveness will in large part depend on whether he can contain intraparty bickering that has increasingly plagued the ruling Democrats. In a nod to rival faction leader Ichiro Ozawa, Noda appointed lawmakers close to the veteran powerbroker as defense minister and the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, which runs the police force.

Noda struck a confident tone in comments shortly after his full Cabinet was approved by the emperor. He pledged to do his utmost to improve disaster relief efforts following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that have left more than 20,000 people dead or missing, destroyed much of Japan’s northeast coast and is expected to be the most expensive natural disaster in history.

He also pledged to bring under control the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, where workers continue to try to cool temperatures and stop radiation leaks.

“We need to speed up and revitalize our restoration efforts,” he said. “Without the rebirth of Fukushima, there is no rebirth of Japan.”

He also said he and his Cabinet would work to jump-start an economy battered by the surging yen. A strong yen hurts Japan’s top exporters like Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. by reducing the value of their overseas earnings.

Noda, who was finance minister in the previous Cabinet, said more needed to be done to prop up the U.S. dollar, acknowledging that he was worried about a hollowing out of Japanese industry if companies move their operations abroad because of the high yen.

He noted that Japanese companies should take advantage of a strong yen by buying up foreign businesses.

Noda’s biggest surprise of the day was his unconventional pick for the powerful role of finance minister. A former television journalist from tsunami-devastated Miyagi prefecture, Azumi has little experience in economics and finance and has made few comments on key issues like foreign exchange.

Financial markets on Friday did not and could not react to the relatively unknown Azumi, said Masayuki Kichikawa, chief Japan economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Analysts had expected more of a political heavyweight for such a key position.

Kichikawa suspects Azumi got the job because he shares Noda’s concerns about Japan’s fiscal health and controlling the country’s massive public debt, now twice the size of gross domestic product.

The appointment represents a “continuity of a relatively fiscal conservative stance,” he said.

Azumi will have little time to settle into his new office. He travels to France next week to represent Japan at a Group of Seven meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors. He must then find money for a third supplemental budget needed to fund disaster recovery.

Noda, Japan’s sixth new prime minister in five years, is keeping around some ministers from the previous Cabinet. He’s retaining Goshi Hosono as the minister in charge of dealing with the nuclear crisis and Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano, who ran against Noda for the party leadership and is considered well connected to veteran legislators.

The Cabinet also includes two women: Yoko Komiyama as Health, Labor and Welfare Minister and Renho, who goes by a singular name, as Government Revitalization Minister, charged with reforming government and cutting waste.

Koichi Nakano, political science professor at Sophia University, said the picks were balanced enough that he felt optimistic the Cabinet would last at least a year _ a solid achievement given the records of recent prime ministers.

“The neo-liberal reformists who tend to be young and in their 40s are placed in eye-catching ministries,” Nakano said of several new ministers, including Azumi and Gemba. “Those youthful, new leaders of Japan are placed in high-visibility positions.”

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A military convoy escorting Yemen’s defense minister on Tuesday set off an explosive device that killed two soldiers, an official said, in a brazen attack on security forces fighting al-Qaida-linked militants.

The minister, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, was not injured.

Tuesday’s attack took place in the area of Wadi Dufas in the southern province of Abyan, where al-Qaida-linked militants have been establishing a strong power base in recent months.

The security official said it was not immediately known who planted the explosive or when. He declined to characterize it as an assassination attempt on the minister.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said Ahmed was in Abyan visiting troops on the first day of the three-day Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Security forces have been battling al-Qaida-linked fighters in Abyan for months. The militants have been taking advantage of political turmoil in Yemen around large demonstrations demanding the resignation of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

In June, Saleh was wounded in a bomb attack on his palace and departed for Saudi Arabia for treatment. He is still there, but he insists he will return home, defying international demands that he step down.

Near daily anti-Saleh protests and growing political disarray have created a security vacuum in southern Yemen, where al-Qaida-linked militants are battling the military for control no fax payday loans.

The West views al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen as one of the group’s most violent and dangerous.

The defense minister is a longtime ally of Saleh and has openly pledged the military’s support to him, though the army’s powerful 1st Armored Division is backing the protesters.

The swift takeover of Abyan’s capital city of Zinjibar by al-Qaida-linked militants in June sent tens of thousands of residents fleeing for safety elsewhere.

Also Tuesday, a Yemeni medical official said six suspected al-Qaida militants were killed in clashes in Wadi Dufas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

An official statement by Yemen’s Interior Ministry said 300 militants have been killed since May.

Abyan Governor Saleh al-Azari said that the Yemeni army has dealt a heavy blow to the al-Qaida-linked militants in the province over the past few days.

The army has also suffered losses. At least nine soldiers and an army colonel have been killed since Sunday in battles near Wadi Dufas, according to security officials.

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Sinopec, Asia’s largest refiner by capacity, said its profit rose 12 percent in the first half of the year as higher oil and gas revenues helped offset a loss in its refining sector.

The company, also known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., said Sunday that its net profit in January-June was 41.2 billion yuan ($6.4 billion), or 0.475 yuan (7 U.S. cents) per share, based on international financial reporting standards.

The results were better than analysts had forecast. Profit a year earlier was 36.8 billion yuan.

The company attributed the improvement to higher oil and chemicals prices and better integration of its upstream and downstream businesses. But it said the outlook for coming months was uncertain.

“We are and we will be facing a complicated macro-environment,” said Sinopec’s chairman, Fu Chengyu, noting the impact of the crises in the United States and Europe on the global economic recovery.

The 44 percent increase in global crude oil prices in the first half of the year was both a help and a hindrance cash advance. While its revenue surged 31.7 percent in January-June to 1.2 trillion yuan ($187.5 billion), buoyed by strong sales of oil, gas and chemicals, higher costs for imported crude oil pulled Sinopec’s refining sector into loss.

The company’s refining sector posted a 12.2 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) loss in the first half, compared with profit of 5.7 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.

Sinopec said its crude oil output fell 5.4 percent to 156.3 million barrels, as maintenance of machinery in its oil fields in Angola forced a sharp cutback in production. Its natural gas output rose 27 percent to 253.88 billion cubic feet (7.19 billion cubic meters).

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When I last checked in with the fellows at Aisle411, they had just launched their first smartphone application that helps users to locate products

Many St. Louis fashionistas have been wondering how the new Nordstrom that opens next month (September 23) will compare to the retailer’s West County Center store. Well, I finally have some answers.

As I noted in my Sunday story about luxury retail, the Galleria store will offer more upscale brands than its West County counterpart. (I have included a fairly extensive list of brands that will be carried at the Galleria store at the end of this post, so make sure you read this to the end if you want those specifics.)

The Galleria store will technically be smaller at 143,000 square feet compared to the West County store’s 193,000 square feet. But John Bailey, a company spokesman, said customers shouldn’t notice much of a difference in the retail space because most of the size differential will be behind the scenes. The West County store opened in 2002. But since then, the company has learned how to be more efficient with its backroom space, he said.

The new Galleria store will also include some new features Nordstrom is experimenting with such as new lighting and mirrors in the dressing rooms that provide more flattering, softer light. It will also have “girl friends” dressing rooms where a group of shoppers can try on clothes together with curtains to separate them. This could come in handy, for example, when friends try on bridesmaids dresses together.

The fact that the Galleria and West County stores will be less than 10 miles apart has led to some questions about whether St. Louis can support two Nordstroms so close together. But Nordstrom officials aren’t worried about. It has more than one store in many markets, they say.

In the beginning, there may be some shift of customers to the Galleria store as loyal shoppers check out the new store, Bailey acknowledged.

“But there is a lot of business to earn in St. Louis,” he said. “So we feel there is room for us to have both stores.”

OK, and as promised, here is the rundown on the new offerings at the Galleria store: Nordstrom is moving its designer collections — its “Collectors” department — from the West County store to the Galleria. Some of those brands include Roberto Cavalli, Piazza Sempione, Akris Punto, Armani Collezioni, Lida Baday, and Missoni. In addition, new brands will be added to the lineup including Jean Paul Gaultier, Michael Kors, and Donna Karan Casual.

But the West County store will not be left completely in the dark. In place of the designer collection, it will get a new “via C” section with up-and-coming and trendy brands such as Helmut Lang, Rag & Bone, Vince, and Alice + Olivia. The Galleria store will also have a “via C” that will carry those same brands as well as Alexander Wang T, Halston Heritage, Carven, Brochu Walker and others.

Some other unique labels at the Galleria store will be Jimmy Choo, Valentino and some exclusive styles of Tory Burch and Stuart Weitzman in the retailer’s infamous shoe departments. It will also have Jimmy Choo, Marc Jacobs and Burberry handbag boutiques.

But there will be lots of things in common between the two stores, too. Like the West County store, the Galleria store will have an eBar (coffee bar) and a Cafe Bistro restaurant.

Both stores will have free wifi. And you will be able to get those nifty e-receipts at both stores, as you can at any Nordstrom after they were rolled out company-wide in March.

Phew. That’s it for now. But there will be lots of more information coming out as the opening date draws near.

To drum up more excitement leading up to then, Nordstrom has planned a number of events. including a swanky $75-a-ticket gala on September 21.  (The proceeds will mostly benefit various arts organizations in town.)

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