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| 2005-7-6 |
Surge in energy stocks sends TSX to best close of year; N.Y. gains on data
TORONTO (CP) - High-flying resource stocks, particularly in the energy sector, sent the Toronto stock market to its strongest close in 4 1/2 years Tuesday on its best single-day advance since last Sept. 13.
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| 2005-7-6 |
Dollar firm in quiet trade due to US holiday
LONDON (AFP) - The dollar remained firm in quiet trade, with US markets closed for the Independence Day holiday, as it continued the positive trend seen towards the end of last week.
LONDON (AFP) - The dollar remained firm in quiet trade, with US markets closed for the Independence Day holiday, as it continued the positive trend seen towards the end of last week.
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| 2005-7-6 |
Investors to watch earnings, jobs
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's attention will shift from worrying about oil and the Federal Reserve to tracking corporate profits this week as U.S. companies prepare quarterly results -- and possibly warn investors if they expect to miss consensus.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's attention will shift from worrying about oil and the Federal Reserve to tracking corporate profits this week as U.S. companies prepare quarterly results -- and possibly warn investors if they expect to miss consensus.
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| 2005-7-6 |
Urban sprawl produces rich pickings for farmland owners
Urban sprawl in the US is sending the value of farmland soaring to record levels as investors pump money into property development or buy land for recreational purposes, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
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| 2005-7-6 |
Dollar sets new 14-month high against euro
The dollar hit a 14-month high against the euro and an 18-month peak against sterling underpinned by the strengthening US economy and expectations of further interest rate increases.
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| 2005-7-6 |
Dow, Nasdaq End Up on Economic Optimism
NEW YORK - An improving sales outlook at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sent stocks higher Tuesday as investors, also cheered by a jump in factory orders, looked past another uptick in the price of oil.
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Wal-Mart raised its sales projection for June to the highest level since May 2004. That means "2 percent of the economy is coming out and saying their sales are better than forecast," said John Lynch, chief market analyst at Evergreen Investments. "That's the best news of the day."
Investors also latched on to the strongest increase in factory orders in 14 months. Although most of the gain reflected demand for airplanes and parts, the data also indicated that June orders may have been stronger than May.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 68.36, or 0.66 percent, to 10,371.80.
Broader stock indicators were also higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 10.55, or 0.88 percent, to 1,204.99, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 21.38, or 1 percent, to 2,078.75.
Stocks may be helped by "a developing consensus on Wall Street that the market is poised to have a better second half of the year," said Tim Connors, chief investment officer for value equities at Delaware Investments in Philadelphia. Investors are predicting the end of the Federal Reserve's yearlong run of interest rate hikes and a move by international central banks to stop increasing interest rates, he said.
Bonds declined, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.10 percent from 4.04 percent late Friday. The dollar hit a 13 1/2 month high versus the euro, but retreated after that. Gold prices were higher.
Wal-Mart's news was particularly comforting to Wall Street because the retailer and a number of other discounters had partly attributed sluggish sales gains to higher gas prices that limited consumers' ability to spend on non-necessities. The upbeat outlook allowed investors to shrug off oil's higher price.
Crude oil futures rose on persistent fears that the heating oil supply would run short this winter and that aging refineries will have to push production levels to the limit. A barrel of light crude settled at $59.59, up 84 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Stocks fell in recent sessions as crude hit new highs, but some analysts say investors are putting too much emphasis on oil prices.
"Energy is 10 percent of business costs," Lynch said. "Wages are a bigger concern; they're 70 percent of business costs." Investors who watch wages closely for signs that they're on the upswing are waiting for labor cost data in the second-quarter productivity report, which will be issued in late July.
Wal-Mart was up $1.52, or 3.15 percent, at $49.80. Other retailers gained on the news; J.C. Penney Co. Inc. rose 94 cents to $54.05, and Gap Inc. rose 44 cents to $20.26.
In other company news, Merck & Co. rose 4 cents to $31.10 after a judge declined to postpone jury selection in the nation's first state-level wrongful death trial related to painkiller Vioxx. Merck had argued that it couldn't receive a fair trial if the Texas if the case begins as scheduled. The judge said he would examine questionnaires answered by 100 potential jurors next week before making a final decision on delaying the trial.
General Motors Corp. gained 15 cents to $34.80 after saying it would extend its employee discounts offered to all buyers through Aug. 1. The incentives took GM's June sales to their highest monthly level in 19 years. DaimlerChrysler AG fell 38 cents to $40.10 after the company denied rumors it would issue a profit warning for the second half of the year and said its Chrysler division will offer a similar deal to the GM discount.
Carpet and flooring company Mohawk Industries Inc. said Monday it would pay $2.6 billion for Unilin Holding NV, a leading maker of laminate flooring based in Belgium. Mohawk's brands include Karastan, Ralph Lauren, Lees, Bigelow, Dal-Tile and American Olean. Mohawk rose $5.30 to $87.50.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 10.19, or 1.6 percent, to 653.23.
Advancing issues led decliners 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 1.85 billion shares, compared with 1.62 billion at the same point Friday.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.30 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.11 percent, Germany's DAX index was down 0.43 percent, and France's CAC-40 was down 0.28 percent.
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| 2005-7-6 |
Affidavit Details Abuse in Idaho Abduction
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Eight-year-old Shasta Groene told authorities that a man later identified as a violent sexual predator tied up her family before she and her 9-year-old brother were taken away in a pickup truck, according to court papers released Tuesday.
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The affidavit makes no mention of the savage beating deaths of the abducted children's mother, older brother and mother's boyfriend, or whether the girl witnessed the killings.
Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, of Fargo, N.D., was charged with two first-degree kidnapping counts and ordered held without bail Tuesday. Duncan was shackled and appeared unshaven as he looked intently at the judge during a brief appearance via video link.
The intent of the crimes, court documents said, was to rape, seriously injure or commit a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 16 years old. Duncan has not been charged with anything other than the kidnapping counts, which can carry the death penalty or life in prison.
Kootenai County Sheriff's Sgt. Brad Maskell wrote in the terse, handwritten document that both Shasta and 9-year-old Dylan Groene "were repeatedly molested."
While it is the Associated Press' policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault in most cases, the search for the children and Shasta's recovery were so heavily publicized that their names was already widely known.
The children vanished May 16, when the bodies of their mother, older brother and mother's boyfriend were found at their rural home. Early Saturday, employees and customers spotted the girl eating breakfast with Duncan in Coeur d'Alene.
Authorities on Tuesday continued to wait for DNA test results of human remains found in western Montana earlier this week that may be those of 9-year-old Dylan, who authorities believe is dead. Those results are expected to take three days.
Duncan had spent more than a decade in prison for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint and was a fugitive at the time of his arrest, accused of molesting a 6-year-old boy in Minnesota.
A registered high-risk sex offender, Duncan was released on $15,000 bail earlier this year after being charged with molesting the boy. Police in Fargo, N.D. had been looking for Duncan since May, when he failed to check in with a probation agent.
Duncan has refused to cooperate with authorities in their search for the 9-year-old boy, officials said. Authorities have relied on information from his sister, evidence from Duncan's stolen red Jeep Cherokee and some 100 new tips from the public in the search for the boy.
At a news conference in St. Regis, Mont., FBI Special Agent in Charge Tim Fuhrman of Salt Lake City confirmed Tuesday that the children were with Duncan in the Lolo National Forest of northwestern Montana sometime over the past seven weeks. But he said officials had not yet confirmed whether Duncan was with them the entire time.
A gas station and convenience store clerk in the western Montana logging community of about 300 people told The Associated Press she recognized Duncan after seeing his photo.
Jackie Allen, 26, told police Duncan had been a customer several weeks after the children disappeared. Neither of the children were with him at the time, she said.
"It's been crazy. I mean, if I would have known I probably could have saved those babies," said Allen, a mother of two.
Authorities believe Shasta may have tried to get patrons at another gas station and convenience store to recognize her, hours before she was found at the Denny's restaurant.
Security camera videotape showed the girl and her alleged kidnapper at the store Friday evening in Kellogg, about 40 road miles east of Coeur d'Alene.
"In the small takes I saw out of that surveillance video, she's walking around, stopping, looking right at the faces of the different patrons there," Kootenai County Sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Cameron Conoco owner Ted Beamis told The Associated Press that the girl's alleged abductor, "acted like he didn't have a care in the world" until one point during his visit.
"He was walking around. You could see him kind of watching her. One time in the store she's wandering up and down the aisles, and he kind of loses track of her, and you can see him looking around in a panic."
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| 2005-7-6 |
IBM??s Palmisano addresses security analysts
IBM??s Palmisano addresses security analysts
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| 2005-7-6 |
Corporations hear siren call of Internet telephone service
Corporations hear siren call of Internet telephone service
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| 2005-7-6 |
Europe gets on demand supercomputing center
Europe gets on demand supercomputing center
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