Treasuries erased losses as German and French finance ministers meet before a summit of regional leaders to discuss ways to contain the European debt crisis, stoking demand for government debt.
U.S. 10-year yields rose earlier on speculation record-low yields may limit demand as the government auctions $99 billion of coupon-bearing debt this week starting tomorrow. The U.S. will start this week
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After a precipitous four-year plunge in its share price, Research In Motion Ltd. has tumbled from its perch as Canada
Laclede Group Inc., the owner of Missouri’s largest natural gas utility, overcame one of the mildest winters on record to post a higher fiscal second-quarter profit.
Net income for the three months ended March 31 rose 6 percent to $29.7 million, or $1.32 a share, from $27.9 million, or $1.25 a share, for the same period last year, the St. Louis-based company said.
Sales fell more than a third to $358.2 million.
Earnings for the company’s gas utility, Laclede Gas Co totally free credit score., fell slightly to $25.9 million as customers ran their furnaces less because of the warmer winter.
The company’s wholesale natural gas marketing business more than made up the difference, more than doubling its profit to $3.8 million.
Europe may add an annex to its budget treaty spelling out how countries can boost growth as the bloc shifts its emphasis on tackling the debt crisis, a German government official said.
Steps to raise competitiveness along with structural reforms are likely to feature in the prescriptions for growth, with a target date for completion by the June 18-19 Group of 20 leaders
Americans are buying record numbers of hybrid and electric cars as gas prices climb and new models arrive in showrooms, giving the vehicles their greatest share yet of the U.S. auto market.
Consumers bought a record 52,000 gas-electric hybrids and all-electric cars in March, up from 34,000 during the same month last year.
The two categories combined made up 3.64 percent of total U.S. sales, their highest monthly market share ever, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank. The previous high was 3.56 percent in July 2009, during the Cash for Clunkers program.
And while their share of the market remains small, it’s a big leap from the start of the year, when hybrids and electrics made up 2.38 percent of new car sales.
Buyers were drawn by new models like the Toyota Prius C subcompact, the Prius V wagon and Camry hybrid. Gas prices near or above $4 per gallon added to the cars’ attraction.
Stronger sales of the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf were a positive sign for electric car makers. The two have struggled to gain acceptance from buyers worried about how far they can drive on a battery charge.
Another concern: Volt maker General Motors Co. had to change the car’s charging system because its batteries caught fire after government crash tests.
GM sold just 7,671 Volts last year, below its goal of 10,000. But in March, it set a new monthly record of 2,289 for the Volt, an electric car with a small backup gas engine personal loan for poor credit. Sales of the all-electric Leaf nearly doubled to 579.
Gas prices helped sales. The nationwide average for a gallon of gas jumped 19 cents in March, from $3.73 to $3.92, and it crossed the $4 mark in California even earlier. The $4 mark was a significant psychological milestone, said Paul Lacy, who forecasts sales trends for consulting firm IHS Automotive.
Lacy expects hybrids and electrics to make up about 4 percent of U.S. sales this year, although sales could drop if gas prices fall or if buyers get more accustomed to higher prices.
Lacy predicts hybrids and electrics will double their market share to 8.5 percent by 2017, in part because there will be more options on the market. Last month, 35 hybrids and electrics were on sale, double the number from 2008.
The proliferation of models will also bring down costs. Hybrids cost around $2,000 to $4,000 more than their gas counterparts, which can make them less attractive. Edmunds.com estimates it takes 11 years’ worth of gas savings to recoup the $4,595 premium on the Honda Civic hybrid, or 5.2 years to make back the $3,400 premium on the Toyota Camry hybrid.
Toyota Motor Co.’s Prius hybrid cars were the runaway best-sellers last month. They made up 57 percent of all hybrids and electrics sold.
Iran is signaling a possible compromise offer heading into critical talks with world powers deeply suspicious of its nuclear program: offering to scale back uranium enrichment but not abandon the ability to make nuclear fuel.
The proposal _ floated by the country’s nuclear chief as part of the early parrying in various capitals before negotiations get under way Friday _ suggested that sanctions-battered Iran is ready to bargain. But this gambit, at least, appeared to fall short of Western demands that Iran hand over its most potent nuclear material.
Still, the public jockeying ahead of the talks pointed to an attempt to ease a standoff that has rattled nerves and spooked markets with seesaw oil prices and threats of Israeli military strikes. The talks involving Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council nations plus Germany, to be held in Istanbul, are the first direct negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program since a swift collapse more than 14 months ago.
Despite far-reaching complexities, the dispute effectively boils down to one issue: Iran’s stated refusal to close down its uranium enrichment labs.
For Iran, uranium enrichment is a proud symbol of its scientific advances and technological self-sufficiency. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called the nuclear program on Sunday “a locomotive” for other showcase projects such as Iran’s space effort.
The U.S. and its allies contend that the same sites that make fuel for reactors could also eventually churn out weapons-grade material. Iran has repeatedly insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
The ideas put forth late Sunday by the nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, are an attempt to at least acknowledge this huge divide.
Abbasi said Tehran could eventually stop its production of the 20 percent enriched uranium needed for a research reactor, used for medical research and treatments. But, he added, Iran would continue enriching uranium to lower levels of about 3.5 percent for power generation.
The framework addresses one key Western concern. The U.S. and others worry the higher-enriched uranium could be turned into warhead strength _ more than 90 percent enriched _ in a matter of months.
Yet Abbasi also directly snubbed a demand backed by the U.S. and some other countries. They want Iran’s stockpile of 20 percent-enriched uranium to be transferred out of the country. Abbasi indicated that it would remain in Iran.
“Such a stockpile could enable Iran to make a bomb in the future, should it decide to do so,” said Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born political analyst now based in Israel.
“Unless an agreement is reached whereby this stockpile is transferred abroad for conversion into nuclear fuel or, at the very minimum, placed under international supervision in an another country, it will be very difficult for the (world powers) to accept Iran’s current offer,” he said.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said it was up to Iran to show that its claim of rejecting nuclear weapons is “not an abstract belief but it is a government policy.”
“And that government policy can be demonstrated in a number of ways, by ending the enrichment of highly enriched uranium to 20 percent, by shipping out such highly enriched uranium out of the country, by opening up to constant inspections and verifications,” she said at a conference in Istanbul to seek ways to aid opposition forces in Syria _ Iran’s main Arab ally.
Clinton will not be attending Friday’s conference on Iran. The State Department’s third-ranking diplomat, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, will lead the U payday loan companies.S. delegation.
Abbasi also insisted that Iran will never close down its new underground enrichment facilities south of Tehran, saying it would be “illogical” for the West to raise such a demand.
It’s unclear, however, whether Abbasi was conveying a real negotiating position or simply testing the waters.
The proposal came from an unconventional venue, airing just before midnight on a state-run TV channel for Iranians and other Farsi-speakers abroad. Iran has used its array of government-controlled media, such as its Arabic-language Al-Alam channel, to make regional and international policy statements.
Abbasi said production of uranium enriched up to 20 percent is not part of the nation’s long-term program _ beyond amounts needed for its research reactor in Tehran _ and insisted that Iran “doesn’t need” to enrich beyond the 20 percent levels.
“The job is being carried out based on need,” he said. “When the need is met, we will decrease production and it is even possible to completely reverse to only 3.5 percent” enrichment levels.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted on the Iranian parliament’s website Monday as saying he hopes for some progress in the talks. But he warned that Iran would not accept preconditions _ an apparent reference to last year’s impasse.
The U.S. and its allies have sought to press Iran to suspend uranium enrichment in exchange for receiving reactor-ready fuel from abroad. Iran has pushed back by refusing to curtail enrichment, which is permitted under the U.N. treaty overseeing the spread of nuclear technology.
“We will honestly try to have the two sides conclude with a win-win situation in which Iran achieves its rights while removing concerns of five-plus-one group,” Salehi said, using the name often used for the five permanent Security Council members and Germany. “But imposing any conditions before the talks would be meaningless.”
Abbasi’s remarks also could be a bid to tone down the rhetoric.
Last week, Iranian lawmaker Gholam Reza Mesbahi Moghadam claimed Tehran has the know-how and the capability to produce a nuclear weapon, but would never do so. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also has said that Iran does not seek nuclear arms and described them as against the tenets of Islam.
“The Iranians themselves have said, at the level of the supreme leader, that they don’t have any weapons intention,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday. “Well, if that is in fact the case, then it ought be relatively straightforward for them to demonstrate that to the international community’s satisfaction, and that’s what we’re talking about when we see them.”
After a protracted flap over the venue for the talks, Iranian state TV reported Sunday that both sides had agreed on Istanbul. It said a second round would be held in Baghdad, and that its timing would be decided during the meeting in Turkey. This suggested that Iran views the process as a potential slow, step-by-step series of talks.
The venue still has to be formally confirmed by the European Union’s foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton. But a diplomat familiar with the preparations for the talks confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday that Istanbul had been chosen for the first round.
The diplomat demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information ahead of the formal announcement.
European markets recovered some ground Friday, after sharp losses this week, as finance ministers from the 17 euro countries discussed whether to increase the amount of resources at their disposal for future bailouts.
Though the target of (EURO)1 trillion ($1.3 trillion) requested by a number of international institutions, as well as the U.S. and China, is unlikely to be met, it appeared the ministers would agree to increase the firewall to around (EURO)800 billion.
Some (EURO)300 billion ($398 billion) of that has already been spent in the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, meaning (EURO)500 million would be left to fund new rescue packages.
Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy and the biggest contributor to the bailout funds, has signaled it would agree to such a proposal.
“The hope is that Germany will soften its stance and allow the various bailout funds to be enlarged, providing more firepower to combat the crisis,” said Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG Index.
Many in the markets see increasing the firewall as a sure step in dampening down the debt crisis, which has crippled the eurozone for the past couple of years. The fear is that the euro bloc just won’t have enough resources to help out Spain and Italy, should they need outside help.
Worries that Spain will be dragged into the debt crisis mire has weighed on markets this week. The new Spanish government is expected to unveil a tough budget later as it attempts to get the deficit down to levels sanctioned by its partners.
Even if a deal to increase the bailout resources is approved at the euro meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, there are many doubts over whether Italy or Spain, the eurozone’s third and fourth largest economies could be saved if the markets lose confidence.
“The reality is that the firewall is likely to be both underwhelming and insufficient to deal with potential problems in Spain and Italy,” said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital pay day loans.
For now, European stocks have recovered some of their losses this week. Germany’s DAX was up 0.8 percent at 6,931 while the CAC-40 in France rose 0.9 percent to 3,413. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.5 percent to 5,769.
Wall Street was poised for a solid opening too, with both Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures up 0.3 percent.
The euro was also 0.3 percent higher at $1.337, supported by figures showing inflation in the eurozone in March only fell to 2.6 percent from the previous month’s 2.7 percent. The market consensus had been for a fall to 2.5 percent.
Earlier in Asia, sentiment in stock markets was hurt by news that Japan’s factory production fell a worse-than-expected 1.2 percent in February _ its first decline in three months _ as demand for exports weakened. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo fell 0.3 percent to close at 10,083.56.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3 percent to 20,555.58, while mainland Chinese shares were mixed. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.5 percent to 2,262.79 while the Shenzhen Composite Index lost 0.4 percent to 891.84.
Oil prices bounced back alongside equities _ benchmark oil for May delivery was up 32 cents to $103.12 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, the contract plunged $2.63 to $102.78 after French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said there’s a “good chance” that the U.S. and Europe will agree to release some of their oil reserves.
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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.
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