Many of the state's elected leaders are landlords and have vacation homes; several work other government jobs or have interests in businesses that at least occasionally sell to the state; and only a few received significant gifts, according to their latest financial disclosure statements.
Among 34 legislators in leadership posts in the General Assembly about one-third are landlords. That includes the presiding officers, the majority leader and whip in each chamber, the minority leader and whip in each chamber and the chairmen and chairwomen and vice chairs of six standing Senate and seven standing House committees.
Among the landlords are Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. and longtime Judiciary Chairman Joseph F. Vallario Jr., according to the financial statements, which were filed April 30 with the State Ethics Commission.
Lawmakers and their spouses who hold down state or local government jobs include House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis, whose report showed he made $120,000 last year as assistant to the director of Anne Arundel County's recreation and parks department; and Economic Matters Chairman Dereck E. Davis (D-Dist. 25) of Upper Marlboro, who left the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission midyear to work for Prince George's County's Office of Community Relations.
Some defend the practice of lawmakers working for other governmental jurisdictions, saying it helps the part-time lawmakers in their legislative roles, but others say ethics laws don't cover enough contingencies when it comes to lawmakers' outside employment.
As it currently stands, legislators are prohibited from gaining new employment with state or local governments in Maryland after they are elected, but the legislative leaders all held their government jobs at the time they were elected.
Also, General Assembly members who held government employment before Oct. 1, 1999, are exempted and may continue to take government jobs for which they are qualified, said William G. Somerville, who is Counsel to the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics and ethics adviser to the General Assembly.
With the approval of the ethics committee, legislators may move to new government jobs along their career track or take teaching or direct human services jobs that are not managerial.
Property loversBesides Miller (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach, Judicial Proceedings Chairman Brian E. Frosh (D-Dist. 16) of Chevy Chase and committee Vice Chairwoman Lisa A. Gladden (D-Dist. 41) of Baltimore are landlords.
Other landlords are Senate Majority Leader Robert J. Garagiola (D-Dist. 15) of Germantown and Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Chairwoman Joan Carter Conway (D-Dist. 43) of Baltimore and committee Vice Chairman Roy P. Dyson (D-Dist. 29) of Great Mills.
In the House, besides Vallario (D-Dist 27A) of Upper Marlboro, who owns property in six of the state's 24 jurisdictions, landlords include Judiciary Vice Chairwoman Kathleen M. Dumais (D-Dist. 15) of Rockville. Others are Appropriations Chairman Norman H. Conway (D-Dist. 38B) of Salisbury and committee Vice Chairman James E. Proctor Jr. (D-Dist. 27A) of Accokeek and Environmental Matters Chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh (D-Dist. 43) of Baltimore.
Some own just one rental property, but a few — including Frosh, Garagiola, Miller, Vallario, McIntosh and Conway — have several or extensive rental holdings.
A company partly owned by Vallario and his wife rents office space in Oxon Hill to District 26 Sen. C. Anthony Muse and District 26 Dels. Veronica Turner and Jay Walker.
Most of the business and residential properties for which landlords in leadership roles collect rent are in or near their districts, but some are in Washington, D.C., Virginia and South Carolina.
Property near the water appears to be a draw for several Maryland lawmakers, including Sens. Miller, Dyson, Rules Chairwoman Katherine A. Klausmeier (D-Dist. 8) of Perry Hall, Finance Chairman Thomas McLain Middleton (D-Dist. 28) of Waldorf and Vice Chairman John C. Astle (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis.
Others with property near water are House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve (D-Dist. 17) of Gaithersburg, Health and Government Operations Chairman Peter A. Hammen (D-Dist. 46) of Baltimore and, perhaps, Ways and Means Vice Chairman Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg (D-Dist. 41) of Baltimore.
Vacation homes listed are in Ocean City (Astle and Dyson); a canal community in Selbyville (Del. Klausmeier and Hammen, on the same road); Naples, Fla. (Miller); Edwardsville, Va., on the south bank of the Potomac River (Middleton); and Myrtle Beach, S.C. (Barve, timeshare).
Rosenberg listed among his holdings a Palm Beach, Fla., condo on the coast, but did not tag it as a vacation or rental property.
Maryland Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D) and Treasurer Nancy Kopp (D) go north to catch an ocean breeze — he at a vacation home in Orleans, Mass., on Cape Cod; she at a vacation home in Gloucester, Mass.
On the public payroll
Lawmakers who have government jobs include Economic Matters Vice Chairman David D. Rudolph (D-Dist. 34B) of Rising Sun, who works for Cecil College; Budget & Taxation Chairman Edward J. Kasemeyer (D-Dist. 12) of Columbia, who is under contract to the state's Injured Workers' Insurance Fund; and Budget & Taxation Vice Chairman Nathaniel J. McFadden (D-Dist. 45) of Baltimore, who lists employment with Baltimore City Public Schools.
And Gladden works as a public defender in Baltimore, while Rosenberg made less than $5,000 teaching legislation classes at University of Baltimore and University of Maryland law schools.
Lawmakers in a part-time legislature such as Maryland's are expected to have outside employment, Somerville said. It benefits the state in having them bring their outside knowledge to the debate, he said.
On the flip side, even in cases in which legislators have a presumed or apparent conflict of interest, the lawmakers may vote on legislation if they file a disclaimer with the ethics committee stating they can vote fairly and in the public interest.
The “compelling public interest” argument, however, doesn't extend to lawyer-legislators and the clients they represent in court, said former Common Cause Maryland executive director James Browning. That detail often goes unreported because of lawyer-client privilege, he said.
“We need to look at [requiring] confidential disclosures of clients to the State Ethics Commission or Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, so someone can vet that list,” said Browning, who now is Common Cause regional director for the mid-Atlantic and Midwest states.
Browning noted House Judiciary Chairman Vallario, who is a defense lawyer, has been accused of putting defendants' interests above the public interest because of his opposition to measures that would toughen drunken-driving and gun control laws.
Browning said when a lawmaker's pocketbook benefits from other legislators' political expenditures — as was the apparent case when Vallairo rented office space to three District 26 legislators — it's akin to legislators contributing to each other's political campaigns, which can create a “sense of obligation.”
Vallario disclosed the District 26 legislative office rental in his disclosure, but did not return a call for comment.
Del. Turner, one of the three legislators renting the space, said she did not initiate the rental and did not know Vallario had an ownership interest in the building. She said she was told former judge and former delegate Richard Palumbo, a close friend of Vallario's, was an owner.
Some state spending or purchases that benefit lawmakers' business interests are allowed.
Although legislators are generally prohibited from participating directly in state or local government procurements, they may be employed by, or own a business, that has government contracts — as long as they are not involved directly in contacts with the government agency, including discussing or setting terms of the contract, according to a Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics guide.
Dyson Lumber Co. in Great Mills, of which Roy Dyson owns a one-ninth share, did business with the state's Department of Natural Resources, the State Highway Administration, state-supported St. Mary's College and Historic St. Mary's, Dyson disclosed.
In an interview, Dyson said he does not run the company's day-to-day business and that the purchases were small, such as waterproof boots that highway workers realized they needed after they arrived in southern Maryland to work in the aftermath of storms.
Then, there are the spouses of legislators.
Joan Carter Conway's husband, Vernon Conway, is a Baltimore City liquor inspector; Middleton's wife, Joan, is associate vice president at the College of Southern Maryland; Norman Conway's wife, Jan — like her husband, she is a retired educator — made $5,000 last year under an agreement with Wicomico County Public Schools to mentor new principals and vice principals.
Wicomico schools spokeswoman Tracy Sahler said Jan Conway is one of two recently retired, longtime principals who are mentoring new school principals under similar specialized services agreements. Because there's a limited pool of individuals who know the school system so well and have as much experience, the services were not put out for bid, Sahler said.
Barve's wife, Maureen Quinn, was appointed to a 12-year term on the state's Workers' Compensation Commission in 2002, before she married him in 2004.
Busch, Davis, Rudolph, Garagiola and House Minority Leader Anthony J. O'Donnell (R-Dist. 29C) of Lusby reported their wives work for local, or neighboring, county public school systems.
Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) listed the Screen Actors Guild as a source of outside income because, according to his spokeswoman Raquel Guillory, he gets some small residual payments from his appearance, as then-Baltimore mayor, in the 2004 movie “Ladder49,” filmed in Charm City.
Almost no legislators reported gifts of significant value above the thresholds that require reporting: more than $20 for a single gift or $100 for a series of gifts from people who lobby, do business with or are regulated by the state.
Beyond a few who noted they had received hats, shirts, mugs, bags and complimentary meals valued below those thresholds at community and civic group meetings, McFadden reported receiving $200 in tickets from the University of Maryland, $150 in tickets from his alma mater Morgan State University, $150 in tickets from the Maryland Stadium Authority and $600 in tickets from Baltimore's mayor.
The tickets from the mayor's office were for the circus, concerts and Orioles games and were passed on to constituents, said Dominque Mattocks, an aide to McFadden.
Norman Conway reported using the Maryland Stadium Authority and governor's boxes with his family and friends to watch Orioles games in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
A proposal that would have allowed online access to legislators' financial disclosures was defeated in the last legislative session. Instead. lawmakers approved a measure requiring a study and recommendation to be delivered to lawmakers by Dec. 31 on how best to provide access.
The measure will require some statements of potential conflicts of interest to be filed online and made accessible to members of the public, who must register in order to view them.
mhyslop@gazette.net
Stocks Recover From Early Weakness And Close Firmly Positive - RTT News
6/8/2012 4:27 PM ET
(RTTNews) - With traders expressing renewed optimism about the financial situation in Europe, stocks showed a significant turnaround over the course of the trading day on Friday after coming under pressure in early trading.
The major averages bounced off their early lows and climbed firmly into positive territory as the day progressed. The Dow rose 93.24 points or 0.8 percent to 12,554.20, the Nasdaq advanced 27.40 points or 1 percent to 2,858.42 and the S&P 500 climbed 10.67 points or 0.8 percent to 1,325.66.
The gains extended the upward move seen over the past few days and the major averages all posted strong gains for the week. The Dow jumped 3.6 percent, while the Nasdaq and the S&P surged up by 3 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively.
The early weakness on Wall Street was partly due to waning optimism about the possibility of further stimulus from the Federal Reserve following Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before the Joint Economic Committee on Thursday.
While Bernanke said that Fed "remains prepared to take action" if the economic situation worsens, he made no explicit reference to further easing measures.
Disappointing trade data from Germany also contributed to the initial downward move, with a report from the Federal Statistical Office showing a 4.8 percent drop in imports in April.
Selling pressure remained relatively subdued, however, with investors seemingly reluctant to continue selling stocks following the sharp drop seen over the past month.
The subsequent turnaround by the markets was partly due to optimism about the outcome of a weekend meeting of European financial officials, with rumors suggesting that Spain could be in line for a bailout.
Some traders also likely used the early weakness as an opportunity to pick up stocks at reduced levels, doing some bargain hunting after the recent pullback.
In U.S. economic news, the Commerce Department released a report showing that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed to $50.1 billion in April from a revised $52.6 billion in March. Economists had expected the deficit to narrow to $49.3 billion from the $51.8 billion originally reported for the previous month.
The narrower trade deficit for the month came as the value of U.S. imports fell at a faster rate than the value of U.S. exports
A separate report from the Commerce Department showed a slightly bigger than expected increase in wholesale inventories in April along with a notable increase in wholesale sales.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved back to the downside on Friday after closing higher in the three previous sessions. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 2.1 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped by 0.9 percent.
Stocks, home values help lift Americans' wealth - Columbia Daily Tribune
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CHICAGO (AP) — A burst of stock gains and the first rise in home values in six years helped Americans regain more of their wealth in the January-March quarter.
But since then, that effort has hit another bump. Stock prices sank in May on fears about Europe's debt crisis and a weaker U.S. economy.
That eroded the first quarter's gains in wealth.
And there's scant evidence of a sustained recovery in the housing market despite an uptick in home equity.
Household net worth rose 4.7 percent to $62.9 trillion last quarter, according to a Federal Reserve report released yesterday. The main reason was a 12 percent jump in the Standard & Poor's 500 index, which padded the wealth of Americans who own stocks.
Home values increased 2.3 percent.
Household wealth, or net worth, is the value of assets such as homes, bank accounts and stocks, minus debts such as mortgages and credit cards. It bottomed during the Great Recession at roughly $49 trillion in the first quarter of 2009.
Americans have been gradually recovering the wealth they lost to the recession. But it remains about 5 percent below its pre-recession peak of $66 trillion.
The Fed report also found that:
PAmericans' borrowing rose at an annual rate of 5.8 percent in the January-March quarter. It was the first time consumers have boosted their borrowing by at least 5 percent in two straight quarters since mid-2008, just before the financial crisis.
PHousehold debt dipped 0.4 percent last quarter. Americans have been steadily shrinking their debt loads for the past four years.
PHome mortgage debt, which has been declining since 2008, fell an additional 2.9 percent. But the drop can be deceiving. Mortgage debt is falling mainly because many Americans have defaulted on payments and lost homes to foreclosure — not just because people are paying off loans.
PCorporate debt jumped 7.2 percent, the ninth straight increase. But corporations also boosted their cash stockpiles 0.7 percent to a near-record $1.74 trillion. Their rising cash levels reflect their wariness about expanding and hiring in an uncertain economy. The Fed had previously estimated corporate cash at $2.2 trillion in the October-December quarter but has since updated its data.
PFederal government debt grew at an annual rate of 12.4 percent. That was slower than all but two other quarters since the 2008 market meltdown. By contrast, state and local government debt declined at a 1.8 percent annual rate. This debt has been shrinking since 2010 as states and localities cut costs after the recession.
The overall gain in Americans' net worth was driven by the biggest quarterly rise in the S&P 500 stock index in 14 years, though the index has since shed about half that increase.
The surge in stocks didn't help as many Americans as it would have in the past. The percentage of U.S. households that own individual stocks or stock mutual funds declined to 46 percent last year, down from 59 percent in 2001, according to the Investment Company Institute.
For most American households, home equity, not stocks, represents their main source of wealth.
"It's a mixed outlook for the typical household," said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody's Analytics.
Consumers are more affected, Hoyt said, by other factors: a job market that's improving only fitfully, generally flat home values and gasoline that peaked near $4 a gallon in April but has since dropped to a national average of $3.56 a gallon.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Green makes pledge to Rangers fans: I will not abuse your money in takeover - Daily Mail
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Pledge: Prospective Rangers buyer Charles Green
Charles Green has told Rangers fans he will not 'abuse' their money and insists he will not use cash from season ticket sales to fund his takeover.
The former Sheffield United chief executive - who is leading the consortium in place to buy the administration-hit club - was responding to comments made by Ibrox director Dave King.
King urged fans to reject the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which will be voted on by creditors next Thursday, while calling on supporters not to renew their season tickets until Green reveals the details of his plans.
Craig Whyte completed his own takeover of Sir David Murray's majority shareholding last May with money from the sale of future season ticket income to investment firm Ticketus.
Green told Rangers' official website on Friday night: 'On the basis the receiver is already holding cash and we haven't put the season tickets up for sale yet, I struggle to see how I can use season ticket money to buy the club.
'The season ticket renewal letters are actually going out today and I have already deposited money with the administrator to buy the club.
'We have provided the money to buy the club and we have documented the fact we are going to raise another 20-30million on top of that.
'The important thing - which is in the letter I've sent out to fans - is that season ticket money, when it comes in, will actually be sat in an account specifically to hold it there.
Takeover turmoil: Rangers future hangs in the balance
'For legal reasons, there is a 28-day cooling period after next Thursday should the CVA go ahead.
'Until that period ends, any monies that come into the club are held in a secure account and I have no access to that money.
'The season ticket money is crucial. The very suggestion we would be using it to buy the club is ridiculously untrue.
'The more season tickets any club sells, the more that can be invested back into the club and into players.
'If we are looking and speaking to the real, true Rangers fans, I'd say to them if there was ever a time to support the club it is now.
'They will know for the first time in many, many years that their money will not be abused the way it was before.'
Green is adamant his consortium will complete its purchase of Rangers, whether the CVA is accepted or whether the club has to opt for a newco route instead.
He added: 'We said from day one that our intentions were to acquire Rangers and the CVA was always the preferred option.
'I have no control over that. Only creditors have and next Thursday there will be a meeting and either the CVA will go ahead or it will be rejected.
'If it is rejected, we will immediately default into a newco route.
'There is nothing anyone can say on the outside to change the fact my consortium will acquire the business next Thursday.'
Green says King's comments were 'disruptive' at a time when he is attempting to gain the trust of a disillusioned Rangers support.
He said: 'Dave is someone I've never met but I contacted him last Friday in South Africa and we had a conversation.
'I sent him a copy of the presentation we've made public to tell him what our vision was. He owns 5% of the club and I felt it was important he had a chance to buy into it.
'I was expecting some reply but clearly the comments he made were outrageous and I'm disappointed.
'I have great difficulty where someone purports to be acting in the best interests of the club then recommends creditors should vote down a CVA. That is exactly what the club doesn't want.
'Real fans want to keep the tradition but what Dave King is saying is that the history and tradition of Rangers is of no consequence.
'It's not helpful to hear his thoughts and I think it is disruptive because the fans are getting mixed messages.
'We've said consistently because of what has happened historically at the club that there's a lack of trust and we have taken that on board.
'I understand the nervousness of fans, particularly after the issues of the last few years, but my upbringing was to treat someone as you find them and we've not let anyone down.'
However, he did agree with King's claim that Green - like Whyte - will not last a year at Ibrox.
He added: 'He's absolutely right on that because the minute I finish doing my job here I will leave the club.
'My job is to remove the debts, get Rangers on a sound footing and put 20-30million in the bank. Once that is done, I'm of no use to the club at all.'
Detroit's Chief Financial Officer says Detroit will go broke in 1 week; state threatens takeover - ClickOnDetroit.com
Jack Martin, Detroit's Chief Financial Officer under a consent agreement with the state of Michigan, said Friday the city would run out of cash within a week if the state withdraws $80 million in revenue sharing.
"We're looking at a week from today, June 15, I think, would be the day," Martin said.
Detroit's City Attorney is suing to stop Detroit from entering into a financial stability agreement with the state of Michigan. The claim is that Michigan is in default to Detroit and that the state has not paid the city enough in shared revenue for years. It's to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The state of Michigan wants the lawsuit pulled immediately because of bond financing. The state floated Detroit $80 million to refinance bonds. Jack Martin said the city has already spent $35 million from the fund.
The state is threatening to send in an emergency manager. That's something Gov. Rick Snyder said he wants to avoid but will have to if the city can't settle on an agreement.
An emergency meeting between Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and City Council was postponed Friday, because Council members said not enough notice was given ahead of time and they were concerned about violating the open meetings act.
"If we were sued based on having a meeting that was not properly noticed, I would get in trouble, not mayor Bing," said City Council President Charles Pugh. "I am very fond of mayor Bing but I am not going to jail for him."
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing scheduled the meeting Thursday evening.
He said his frustration level was "off the charts."
"I never anticipated that it would be this difficult to get things done," Bing said. "It's really, really tough. When you start adding fuel to the fire like this, it doesn't help us from an administrative standpoint at all and it's no good for the city."
Bing released this statement Thursday night, but did not respond to interview requests.
"My team is working closely with the state to mitigate any negative impacts on my administration's plan to financially stabilize the city," the mayor's statement read. "We want this matter resolved expeditiously for the sake of the citizens of Detroit."
The meeting has been rescheduled for Monday morning.
"Take my money, HBO!": Why you won't be able to watch Game of Thrones online anytime soon in the UK - New Statesman
Take My Money, HBO is a growing online campaign aimed at getting HBO, the American subscriber-TV network and home of the Sopranos, Game of Thrones and Curb Your Enthusiasm, to provide those without American cable, both "cord-cutters" and international audiences, a way to pay directly for the channels HBO streams through its HBOGO online service.
Currently, you can only receive HBOGO – the company's equivalent of BBC's iPlayer – if you subscribe to a participating American cable channel. Which isn't the best thing to tell people who want to move all their TV viewing online, or who don't actually live in America.
There are other ways to get HBO content, of course; you can wait until the DVD box set comes out, or buy it from iTunes once it is released there. But both of those are on a huge delay; the downloads and DVDs for Game of Thrones were finally made available this March, 11 months after the series started airing.
Alternatively, there is piracy. The day after most episodes aired, they were available in HD, for free, on sites like The Pirate Bay.
Clearly, that's not optimal. This comic, from earlier this year, neatly sums up the issues many had: Programs have aired, people are talking about them, but without a 1990s-style TV set-up, you can't actually watch them legally.
Hence, "Take My Money". The site asks users to tweet at HBOGO the amount they would be willing to pay for a subscription to the service; the average suggestiong is around $12 a month, according to TechCrunch
The business rationale at the first instance seems compelling. Digitopoly's Joshua Gans explains:
HBO has 29 million subscribers in the US paying around $10 per month. HBO receives $8 of that. That would seem to suggest that HBO couldn’t lose by offering a $12 per month subscription.
The fear for the company could be that, if they made another way to access their content, the cable companies would reduce their cut of the premium. But as Gans points out, in the US, where cable is the main form of broadband, most will keep a subscription of some sort anyway, and internationally, many have no option to get HBO at all.
The bigger problem is that HBO is far more intricately tied-up in the standard model of TV distribution than they might like to be. For one thing, it is in fact owned by Time Warner, the American broadcasting giant. For another, as Dan Frommer points out, there simply isn't the right infrastructure for such a thing to happen. HBO would have to support every major video game console, Mac OS, Windows, and probably Apple TV just to have a hope of getting on enough TV screens to even pay the money it cost to set up the system, let alone recoup the lost revenue from cancelled subscriptions.
And internationally the situation isn't much better. In the UK, Sky has forked out a reported £150m for a five-year exclusive with HBO; you can bet they wouldn't have paid nearly that much if it was available to anyone paying £10 online.
All of which means that if you are in the small (but likely over-represented in the New Statesman's readership) percentage of the UK population which watches barely any TV except for high-quality US imports, you are likely to have to carry on waiting or pirating for some time. Disruption may come to the market, but unless they are forced to, HBO just aren't going to take your moeny.
Stocks trading higher on wholesale report - Des Moines Register
Stocks rose for the fourth day in a row on Friday, capping their best week so far this year.
It was a relief for investors after the big drops of the previous week.
The Dow finished 93.24 points higher, or three-quarters of a percent, at 12,554.20. It ended the week up almost 3.6%.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 10.67 points, or 0.81%, to close at 1,325.66. The Nasdaq composite rose 27.40 points, or 0.97%, to close at 2,858.42.
Stocks fell in morning trading, with the Dow Jones industrial average down almost 63 points. But they turned around after the government said that wholesale businesses restocked faster than analysts had expected.
The Commerce Department said U.S. wholesale stockpiles grew 0.6% in April. That's twice as fast as they grew in March and a sign that businesses are ordering enough goods to lead to increased factory production and sales. Investors had been braced for more sluggish growth.
Oil fell 72 cents to $84.10 per barrel. Sure, it was pushed down by long-term economic worries. But lower energy costs help consumers.
"If you had some doubts about an economic recovery, oil in the $80s is a lot better than oil at $110," said Jim Dunigan, managing executive of investments for PNC Wealth Management in Philadelphia. Oil traded just below $110 in late February.
Nine out of the ten industry groups in the S&P 500 rose. Only energy stocks declined, following energy prices lower.
Wal-Mart Stores ( WMT) was the biggest gainer in the Dow, up $2.35, or 3.6%, at $68.22. Other companies that depend heavily on a strong economy grew too, including Intel ( INTC), up 47 cents, or 1.8%, at $26.41, and General Electric ( GE), up 20 cents, or 1%, to $19.20. Home Depot ( HD) rose $1.11, or 2.2%, to $52.35.
Facebook ( FB) rose 79 cents, or 3%, to $27.10 after announcing an "app center" that will recommend new add-on software for users. Anything that boosts user interaction is likely to help it sell more ads, which has been a key concern for investors in its new stock, which debuted three weeks ago at $38.
Chesapeake Energy ( CHK) shareholders punished their directors and were rewarded by the market. The stock rose 51 cents, or 2.9%, to $18.36 after shareholder votes prompted the resignations of two directors at the company's annual meeting Friday. Earlier in the day the company said it will sell pipeline assets in three deals for a total of more than $4 billion in cash.
Navistar International ( NAV) rose $4.25, or 17.6%, to $28.36 after the activist investor Carl Icahn boosted his stake in the truck maker.
Markets fell in Asia. Shanghai's stock index lost a half-percent, its fifth day of losses. Japan's Nikkei fell 2.1%.
Chinese leaders have been showing signs of urgency ahead of May trade and industrial data due out this weekend that might be even weaker than earlier pessimistic forecasts. The Chinese government cut interest rates for the first time in four years and has reduced gasoline and diesel prices for the second time in a month.
Over the long run, that will put more money in the pockets of Chinese consumers. In the short run it's a sign that the government is worried about growth.
"That shows they're being proactive, but on the other hand, it also makes you wonder, what's the data is really like?" said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners. "I'm wondering how bad the data's going to be. I'd be very surprised if it's good."
China is a key U.S. trade partner so its growth is important to U.S. companies. Its importance is magnified by the possibility that Europe's economy will go from slow growth to shrinkage, Landesman said.
Major European markets fell, although their declines were smaller after the U.S. inventory news came out. France's benchmark index lost 0.6%, Britain's and Germany's each dropped 0.2%.
Those losses came a day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated there were no immediate plans to boost growth in the world's largest economy, wiping out gains made on China's surprise interest rate cut.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Global stocks, euro fall on Spain bank worries - ibtimes.co.uk
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Rating agency Fitch slashed Spain's credit rating on Thursday, leaving it just two notches short of junk status. It signalled further downgrades could come as the country tries to restructure its troubled banking system.
MSCI's world equity index was down 1.1 percent at 297.81.
Top European shares were down 0.8 percent.
U.S. stocks fell in early trading. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 46.17 points, or 0.37 percent, at 12,460.96. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 0.14 points, or 0.01 percent, at 1,314.99. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 13.70 points, or 0.48 percent, at 2,831.02.
The euro fell 1 percent to $1.2448, retreating from a two-week high of $1.2625 hit on Thursday.
More losses would leave the euro vulnerable to a test of the 23-month low of $1.2286 hit on June 1, using Reuters data, after failing to break above chart resistance at $1.2623, the January low.
Adding to the bearish sentiment were data showing Italian industrial production fell far more than expected in April and German imports tumbled at their fastest rate in two years.
Brent crude for July dropped $1.68 to $98.25 a barrel, after hitting a low of $97.19.
U.S. crude prices fell $1,88 to $82.92 a barrel, having touched a low of $82.00. Both contracts are down for a second day.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 4/32, with the yield at 1.6473 percent.
(Additional reporting by Richard Hubbard and David Stamp in London; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Of course he's going to 'say' that. The plan is to get the money, put it in another account, show possible investors that there is a few bob in the kitty in an attempt to have them put in money he can actually use... Its Murray all over again, borrow from Peter, to Pay Paul only this time use the fans and their cash as the bait to reel in the big fish to line his pockets.. Sniff, Sniff. Ooh er, bit fishy mate.
- Byron, Livingston, Scotland, 08/6/2012 23:03
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