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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) has put roughly 300 items back on its U.S. store shelves after the retailer said it "disappointed" customers by not stocking certain products.

"We did discontinue some things that people didn't buy very often, but were aggravating to a customer to lose," said Walmart U.S. Chief Operating Officer Bill Simon, speaking at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference, which was broadcast over the Internet.

"Mostly in food and consumables, there were flavors, items, sizes that customers are very accustomed to and like very much and we disappointed them by taking them out."

As part of its Project Impact U.S. store remodeling program, the retailer has been removing slower-selling items from its shelves, looking to boost sales by replacing them with faster-selling or more popular products.

But Simon said that by not having certain sizes or flavors of food in stock, Walmart missed out on an entire shopping trip from a customer and not just on the sale of that one particular product it no longer sold.

For instance, he said if customers know they cannot find a one-pound bag of brown rice at Walmart and they also cannot afford the two-pound bag of brown rice that it does sell, they will spend their entire grocery budget at another retailer that does carry one-pound bags of brown rice.

"(We) lose an $80 basket or a $60 basket and not just the dollar for the one-pound brown rice," he said.

The retailer is also now working to improve its remodeling process so sales are not disrupted as much while the stores are being renovated, Simon said direct payday loans.

When Wal-Mart reported fourth-quarter results in February, it said its program to overhaul stores hurt sales as shoppers adjusted to new store layouts and product selections.

Simon also said that when it comes to lowering prices, Walmart is focusing on "rollbacks" — cutting prices for the longer term — instead of shorter-term promotions, such as a month-long promotion on turkeys it offered in November.

Ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, Walmart sold select turkeys for 40 cents per pound, meaning a 12 pound turkey could be purchased for $4.80. At the time, Walmart would not comment on whether it was selling the turkeys at a loss.

Simon said customers snapped up the turkeys and also filled their shopping carts with other items.

"But with that relatively short burst … we weren't able to generate the volume, the sales dollar volume, to offset the price reductions on turkeys and the food deflation that was in the rest of the basket," he said.

"So rather than investing the dollars on the month-long burst, we're focusing on … longer-term price reductions on key food and consumable items that the customer wants."

(Reporting by Nicole Maestri; editing by Andre Grenon)

Walmart returns items to shelves after lost sales

WASHINGTON — There are no crown princes at the Ford Motor Company, its late chief executive, Henry Ford II, was fond of saying about the family business.

But for a quarter-century, there has been a crown prince at Toyota.

And now it is up to Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company’s founder, to steer his family’s battered company back on course.

When he testifies on Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Mr. Toyoda, 53, will be making his debut before the American public under a harsh spotlight.

In his prepared testimony, released on Tuesday, Mr. Toyoda said he took personal responsibility for the situation. In the past, he said, the company’s priorities were safety and quality, and sales came last.

But as Toyota grew to become the world’s biggest carmaker, “these priorities became confused, and we were not able to stop, think and make improvements as much as possible,” Mr. Toyoda said.

Although the Toyoda family is among Japan’s most prominent, Mr. Toyoda was all but unknown in the United States before the recalls for sticking accelerator pedals that have put him at the center of the crisis.

He was groomed for decades to hold the same job as his father Shoichiro, now Toyota’s honorary chairman, and his grandfather, Kiichiro. In the last few days, Mr. Toyoda has undergone intense preparation from company officials here about what to expect in a Congressional hot seat.

“It’s a critical juncture,” said Ulrike Schaede, professor of Japanese business at the University of California, San Diego. “If there are no further recalls and everything goes well on Wednesday, people in the U.S. will be just as happy to go on and forget about it.”

But if Toyota is forced to recall more cars and Mr. Toyoda stumbles, “Toyota could go another decade trying to recover.”

Mr. Toyoda got a preview of what might be in store for him when the House Energy and Commerce Committee held the first of a series of hearings on the recalls on Tuesday.

Committee members asked questions of James E. Lentz III, the president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., for more than two hours, meaning Mr. Toyoda, at the very least, is in for a long day.

As on Tuesday, the oversight committee will hear from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and safety advocates as well as family members of Toyota owners involved in crashes who say those accidents were caused by vehicle defects.

Until last week, Toyota officials had said it was not necessary for Mr. Toyoda to testify. But they were put on the spot when the oversight committee issued an invitation, making it difficult for Mr. Toyoda to refuse.

Shin Tanaka, an expert on crisis management issues, said it should not have taken Congressional hearings for Mr. Toyoda to appear before the American public. “Any crisis that involves safety is a matter for the C.E.O.,” said Mr. Tanaka, president of Fleishman-Hilliard Japan, a global communications company. “Mr. Toyoda should have been on a plane straight away.”

But that would not have been in character for Mr. Toyoda, whose nickname changed from “the prince” to “no-show Akio” in some Japanese media during the first weeks of the recall crisis (he has since appeared at three news conferences).

Although it now holds only 2 percent of the company’s stock, the Toyoda family has played an active role in running Toyota since it was founded in 1937 as an offshoot of the automatic loom works started by Mr guaranteed payday loans. Toyoda’s great-grandfather, Sakichi.

Visitors to Nagoya, Japan, can see the small white building where the papers were signed to start the company, a sprawling museum that exhaustively details every aspect of loom making and car building, as well as the elegant arts-and-crafts-era house where Sakichi lived.

Every generation of Toyodas since Kiichiro has played an active role. Eiji Toyoda, 96, a cousin of Kiichiro, built the company into a global competitor in the 1980s.

Akio Toyoda’s father, who turned 85 this month, was in charge during the 1980s and 1990s, and remains akin to automotive royalty both in Japan and the United States. The 2007 dinner marking his induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame drew top executives from every Detroit automaker.

But Akio Toyoda initially resisted following in his ancestors’ footsteps. After earning an undergraduate degree in Japan, he came to suburban Boston to earn an M.B.A. at Babson College, taking his classes in English. He spent the next few years in New York, living near the Frick Collection and working for two consulting firms.

Only when colleagues repeatedly asked him about the car business was Mr. Toyoda tempted to return home, only to be told by his father that he would have to go through the same apprenticeship in manufacturing and sales as any other trainee.

Yet his name has always set him apart, and his tutelage, which included stints in the United States, China and Japan, has taken place under Shoichiro Toyoda’s watchful eye.

Last year, amid the company’s worst financial crisis since his grandfather’s days, the company promoted Akio Toyoda, expecting that his biggest challenge would be to stem a flood of red ink — not the recalls that have tarnished Toyota’s sterling image for quality.

“The final part of the production process — the buffing wheel to make him presentable in public — wasn’t yet done when he was called to the bridge,” said James P. Womack, an author and expert on Toyota’s manufacturing system.

Given that, Professor Schaede said, the elder Mr. Toyoda is believed by many in Japan to be acting as a “shadow shogun,” wielding considerable authority behind the scenes, although he is not involved day to day.

His family’s stature, and Mr. Toyoda’s own brief tenure thus far as chief executive, most likely will protect his job despite the crisis, Professor Schaede said. “He isn’t at fault, and he’s the one to fix it,” she said.

So, as Mr. Toyoda sits before the American public, members of other global automotive families, like the Fords, the Quandts at BMW, the Piëchs at Porsche and the Peugeots at PSA Peugeot Citroën, will be watching to see how the Toyoda scion fares.

“It is the family’s case to make in every generation that they really do add value,” Mr. Womack said. “Akio must try to make the case for his generation a lot sooner than he or anyone else anticipated.”

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting from Tokyo.

A Tough Test Before Congress for Toyota’s Chief

Hot News: Flagging confidence intensifies economic fears

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private-sector economists see the economy growing more quickly than previously forecast in the first three quarters of 2010, but growth would be slower than expected toward the end of the year, a Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia survey said on Friday.

For the full year 2010, economists raised growth estimates for annualized real gross domestic product (GDP) to 3 percent from their earlier projections of 2.4 percent.

They said job growth would be greater than expected for the next two quarters, but downwardly revised estimates for after that no fax payday loans. While jobs are now expected to grow by 600 a month in the first quarter and 117,600 a month in the second quarter, they are forecast to grow on average by 96,000 in the second half of 2010.

(Reporting by Emily Flitter, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Economists see slower growth toward year-end

BRUSSELS (Reuters) — The technology giant, Hewlett-Packard, won approval from competition regulators in the European Union on Friday for its takeover of the 3Com Corporation, reinforcing its presence in the network equipment market.

H.P. agreed in November to pay $3 billion for the network equipment maker, 3Com, aiming to expand its product portfolio, increase sales in the fast-growing Chinese market and better compete with Cisco Systems.

Technology companies like I.B.M. and Oracle are rapidly transforming into one-stop shops for computing, networking and data storage small personal loans.

The European Commission concluded the deal “would not significantly impede effective competition” in Europe, it said in a statement. The deal was cleared without any concessions required from the companies .

H.P., the world’s biggest technology company by sales, has said it expects to close the deal early in the fiscal second quarter. It has acquired more than 30 companies since 2005.

Europe Approves H.P’s Takeover of 3Com

NEW YORK – The Dow Jones industrial average jumped back above 10,000 on hope that a resolution was near for Greece’s debt crisis.

The Dow rose 150 points Tuesday, a day after closing below 10,000 for the first time in three months. The major indexes all gained more than 1 percent. Treasury prices slid as demand for safer investments fell.

Global markets bounced back on reports that plans are being developed in the European Union to rescue Greece. That raised hopes that policymakers will take bigger steps to contain debt troubles in other weak European economies including Portugal and Spain.

Though Greece’s economy is small, that country’s yawning budget gaps were undermining faith in the euro, Europe’s common currency. Investors also believed that other countries might have trouble raising money in debt markets, which would hamper efforts to get their economies going again.

World stock markets have been tumbling in recent weeks on concerns that debt problems would spread. The euro is still down about 5 percent for the year, but rose for a second day against the dollar as the outlook improved for Greece.

Greece took steps Tuesday to calm markets, pledging to slash spending and raise fuel taxes.

The European debt problems are the latest obstacle to trip up the stock market after 10 months of steep gains. Stocks began retreating in mid-January after China said it would try to control its economy to avoid speculative bubbles. Things got worse when President Barack Obama announced plans to curb trading by large financial institutions.

“There’s some euphoria that maybe it’s not going to be blowing up,” said Erik Davidson, managing director of investments for Wells Fargo Private Bank in Carmel, Calif., referring to easing fears over Greece. Davidson said some of the market’s slide had been over concern that stocks had risen too far. The problems in Greece provided a handy excuse to sell, he said.

Meanwhile, the Dow also got a boost from Morgan Stanley’s upgrade to shares of Caterpillar Inc. It was Morgan’s first upbeat take on the stock in three years. A cautious forecast from the equipment maker hurt stocks late last month.

The Dow rose 150.25, or 1.5 percent, to 10,058.64, its steepest percentage gain since Nov. 9. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 13.78, or 1.3 percent, to 1,070.52, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 24.82, or 1.2 percent, to 2,150.87.

Bond prices fell, pushing yields higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.65 percent from 3.57 percent late Monday.

Stocks have become more volatile in recent weeks on concern about the strength of a global economic recovery. The Dow fell almost 104 points Monday and has posted triple-digit moves in 11 of the last 17 trading days. The index has retreated 6 cheap payday advance.2 percent since hitting a 15-month high in the middle of January.

The easing worries about Greece came on scattered reports about plans for a rescue. Even if the country’s financial wounds are bandaged, however, investors will still face questions about other strapped European countries.

“We can’t look at Greece in isolation,” said Robert Froehlich, senior managing director at Hartford Financial Services. He added that the market’s reaction to Greece’s troubles was overblown and that he doesn’t expect the country to default on its debt.

Froehlich said as concern quiets about Europe, investors will be able to pay more attention to the gains in earnings and revenue that most companies in the S&P 500 index have been reporting for the past month.

“I would’ve been much more concerned if the market was selling off in the face of bad earnings,” he said.

The market’s latest leap higher illustrates how reliant investors around the world are on soothing words from policymakers. In the U.S., stocks have barreled higher for nearly a year because the Federal Reserve has pledged to hold interest rates low to help revive the economy. The flow of cheap cash has perhaps been the biggest driver of the market as investors look for places to stick their money.

Analysts are asking how markets will fare as the Fed dismantles some of its emergency support programs for the economy, as it has started to do. There are concerns, for example, that home loan rates will rise will rise as the Fed ends a program to purchase mortgage debt to drive up demand.

“It’s sort of like last call at the bar,” Davidson said. “People have to start to look what the world is going to look like without being awash in liquidity.”

In other trading, crude oil rose $1.86 to settle at $73.75 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating oil prices jumped as a snow storm expected to bring heavy snow moved toward the East Coast. Gold rose.

Caterpillar was the biggest gainer among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow. The stock rose $2.75, or 5.4 percent, to $53.53.

Coca-Cola Co. reported fourth-quarter profit that matched analysts expectations. Its revenue topped forecasts as sales rose globally. Coca-Cola rose $1.36, or 2.6 percent, to $54.01.

More than three stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.2 billion shares compared with 1.1 billion Monday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 8.68, or 1.5 percent, to 595.17.

Overseas, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent, Germany’s DAX index and France’s CAC-40 each rose 0.2 percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.2 percent.

Stocks jump on hopes for Greece debt rescue

Hot News: Gas explosion at Conn. plant kills at least 5

MILPITAS, Calif. – JDS Uniphase Corp. reported a much smaller net loss for its fiscal second quarter than a year ago, when it recorded a big accounting charge.

The company’s sales fell, but the results were better than Wall Street expected, and its shares rose after it reported the results after regular trading closed Tuesday.

The maker of optical communications equipment and testing gear for communications companies, JDS Uniphase said it lost $19.5 million, or 9 cents per share, in the three months that ended Jan. 2.

A year earlier, it reported losing $722.9 million, or $3.36 per share, in large part due to a nearly $700 million write-down on the value of parts of its business.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 12 cents per share in the latest period easy payday loans.

That tops the average forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters for 9 cents per share, also excluding one-time items.

The company’s revenue fell 3 percent to $342.9. Analysts forecast revenue of $334.2 million.

JDS Uniphase predicted its revenue would be $325 million to $350 million in its fiscal third quarter. Analysts were expecting $323 million.

JDS Uniphase shares rose 28 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $8.57 in after-hours trading.

During the regular session, the stock closed at $8.36, up 20 cents or 2.5 percent. It rose another 25 cents, or 3 percent, to $8.61 in after-hours trading Tuesday.

JDS Uniphase quarterly loss down, shares rise

TOKYO — As Toyota’s problems mounted in North America with the announcement of a halt to sales and manufacturing of the bulk of its cars, commentators in Japan fretted Wednesday that the automaker’s problems could seriously hurt the reputation of the rest of Japan’s manufacturing sector.

“Toyota’s reputation for safety is in tatters, and it is inevitable that its image among consumers will suffer,” the Sankei Shimbun daily said.

The Japanese feel a certain sense of pride that, despite the nation’s long economic slump, a handful of prominent exporters like Toyota dominate overseas. Toyota has led the way in gas-electric hybrid systems and other environmental technology.

“The discrediting of Toyota could even destroy the world’s trust in Japanese manufacturing, which relies on its reputation for high quality,” the Tokyo Shimbun daily warned.

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. announced Tuesday that it would stop selling and building models that were already the subject of a recall over a problem with accelerator pedals.

The eight models, including the popular Camry and Corolla sedans, accounted for more than a million sales in 2009, 57 percent of Toyota’s American total for the year.

Toyota officials said that the company was considering what measures to take in Europe but that it had not made any concrete plans.

Analysts in Japan have raised concerns for some time that Toyota’s rapid growth in recent years was over-stretching the company. Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, has himself berated the company for excessive confidence, which he said had set the company up for a painful fall in the global economic crisis. He said last year that Toyota was “grasping for salvation.”

“We have had fears for quite a while now that Toyota lacked the human resources and production capacity for such rapid expansion. By chasing numbers, they were becoming seriously outstretched,” said Masahiro Fukuda, manager of research at Fourin, a global automotive research company based in Nagoya, Japan pay day loan lenders. “Many of us weren’t surprised over the big recalls; we were more surprised that it took Toyota so long.”

Other analysts faulted Toyota’s zealous pursuit of efficiency and cost-cutting. “The same parts were used here, there and everywhere, on major models,” said Koji Endo, managing director at Japan Advanced Research, a Tokyo-based think tank. “That’s very efficient, but very risky. If the part turns out to be faulty, you suddenly have a problem on your hands involving millions of cars.”

Now, halting its factories, especially if the interruption drags on, could have a “tremendous impact” on Toyota’s bottom line, Mr. Endo warned. “Toyota will have to change the design of the gas pedal, get relevant approvals, set up production, then exchange parts for millions of cars on the road, cars sitting at dealerships and cars they were assembling at their factories,” he said.

Toyota’s woes are throwing the carmaker’s recovery into flux, analysts say. Toyota this week said it expected group sales to grow 6 percent from the previous year to 8.27 million. The company reports third-quarter results on Feb. 4.

Some in Japan questioned whether Toyota was taking too drastic a step in suspending production.

“Toyota says it has halted sales and production to show it will be thorough in its response, but the move carries the risk of further heightening consumer fears,” the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said. “Even a quick restart of sales might not be enough to ward off a serious shift away from Toyota.”

But Mr. Fukuda said he saw Toyota’s decision to suspend sales as a typical Toyota move. “At a Toyota factory line, when something goes wrong, they stop the whole line.” he said. “Now Toyota is doing the same thing, at the company level. That’s the Toyota way.”

Toyota’s Woes in U.S. Raise Concern in Japan

MILAN – Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said Monday that a new Chrysler plant that will build Fiat engines in southeastern Michigan represents “a huge step forward” for the integration of Chrysler into Fiat.

Marchionne told an investors conference call that the investment would bring Fiat’s 1.4 liter, four-cylinder engine technology into the United States, and that would mean that Fiat can bring those engines into Brazil without duties. Fiat has a large auto business in Brazil.

Marchionne is steering the turnaround of Chrysler, becoming CEO of the U.S. automaker after Fiat took a controlling share in Chrysler in June.

Chrysler is investing $179 million in the Dundee plant near Detroit, which is expected to begin production of the engines in the fourth quarter of next year cash advance no faxing. The engine will power the Fiat 500 minicar, which will be made in Mexico and go on sale in the United States by the end of the year, and will eventually replace engines in other Chrysler vehicles.

Marchionne told a Fiat analyst conference call that the Chrysler investment is not big but “it is a huge step forward in terms of the integration of Chrysler into Fiat.”

Michigan was competing with Saltillo, Mexico, for the plant.

Fiat CEO: Chrysler-Fiat integration moving forward

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Treasury Department can use its broad principles to justify almost any decision it makes when unwinding the government’s stake in the $700 billion bank bailout package, according to a congressional oversight panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

“The panel is concerned that, although Treasury has been consistent in articulating its principles, the principles as announced are so broad that they provide Treasury with a means of justifying almost any decision,” the Congressional Oversight Panel wrote in its latest report entitled “Exiting TARP and unwinding its impact on the Financial Markets.”

The statute creating TARP lists three principles that guide its determination of when to sell assets: maintaining the stability of the financial system, preserving the stability of individual financial institutions, and maximizing the return on the taxpayers’ investment.

However, the panel argued that these principles may sometimes be at odds with each other.

“The most profitable moment to sell a TARP asset may not be the moment that best promotes systemic stability or the moment that best serves a particular institution,” it reported. “This means that there is effectively no metric to determine whether Treasury’s actions met its stated goals. Because any approach may alternatively be justified as maximizing profit, or maintaining the stability of significant institutions, or promoting systemic stability, almost any decision can be defended.”

According to the COP, Treasury’s largest TARP assets as of Dec. 31 include $58 billion in preferred securities issued by banks, a $25 billion stake in Citigroup Inc.’s common stock, $46.98 billion in preferred stock of American International Group Inc. and $61 billion in General Motors Corp. and Chrysler shares and debt.

Moral hazard

The report also raised concerns about implicit guarantees associated with so-called “too-big to-fail” financial institutions that were bailed out Internet Payday loans.

“Belief remains widespread in the marketplace that, if the economy once again approaches the brink of collapse, the federal government will inevitably rush in to rescue financial institutions deemed too big to fail,” the report said. “This belief distorts prices, giving large financial institutions an advantage in raising capital that mid-sized and smaller banks — those not too big to fail — do not enjoy.”

Panel members added that the guarantees also encourage financial institutions to take “unreasonable risks” with the belief that if they fail, taxpayers will be there to prop them up.

“So long as markets continue to believe that an implicit guarantee exists, moral hazard will continue to distort prices and endanger the nation’s economy, even after the last TARP program has been closed and the last TARP dollar has been repaid,” they said.

However, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are working on legislation that they believe will limit moral hazard while protecting the financial markets. Legislation approved in the House in December would have big banks pay fees to create a $150 billion fund that could be used to dismantle a large Lehman-like failing financial institution, so that its collapse doesn’t cause collateral damage to the markets.

The goal of the insurance fund would be to have funds available to make payouts to creditors and counterparties of the failing institution so that they don’t collapse as well, driving the market into a financial crisis. Its creation would also mean taxpayer dollars won’t be needed to avert another financial crisis.

Panel: Treasury has no metric for its TARP goals

Hot News: American Airlines sweetens offer as JAL shares plunge

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The biodiesel industry is revving up efforts to reinstate the U.S. biodiesel tax credit, warning that as many as 23,000 jobs could be at risk if lawmakers don’t revive the program that expired on Jan. 1.

During the health-care showdown in the Senate last month before the holidays, Congress failed to take some of its usual end-of-the-year actions on the biodiesel tax credit — seen as vital to the producers of 500 million gallons of the fuel sold in 2009.

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Usually made from byproducts of soybean processing for cattle feed, biodiesel received a $1 per gallon credit, which expired on Dec. 31.

The subsidy, in place since 2004 and last extended in October 2008, has helped biodiesel grow as an affordable blending component of petroleum-based fuels.

Despite Washington’s promotion of “green” jobs, the biodiesel industry could instead deliver green-collar layoffs if the program isn’t revived, industry proponents argue.

“Production has pretty much dropped to zero since the tax credit expired,” said Michael Frolich, a spokesman for the National Biodiesel Board, a trade association. “Plants are running idle and they’re cutting back more hours.”

Flolich added that the industry hasn’t announced any layoffs yet, but without the tax credit, the business would not thrive.

While biodiesel production still lags well behind corn-based ethanol, it’s still a significant business, with players such as Cargill , Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Valero Energy Corp. taking part.

All told, some 150 companies count themselves as voting members of the National Biodiesel Board.

Agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland runs a biodiesel plant in Velva, N.D., and jointly owns a second in Jefferson, Mo., but does not disclose its biodiesel capacity. A company spokesman referred comments on the biodiesel tax credit to the National Biodiesel Board.

Spring hopes

Biodiesel advocates hope to get the tax credit back on the agenda shortly after Congress begins its 2010 session in coming days, with optimism about a reinstatement by February or March.

Late last year, Sen credit reports free. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, got the ball rolling by launching a bill to extend the tax credit for five years and make it a production tax credit instead of a blending credit. The move would make the tax credit more beneficial for companies that make biofuel, rather than refiners that use it to blend into their products.

“Without an extension of the tax credit, all U.S. biodiesel production will grind to a halt,” Grassley remarked in a speech last month. “Plants will be shuttered and workers will be let go.”

The biodiesel industry already is working at just 15% capacity in the face of the global economic slowdown and falling prices.

He said the industry already is working at just 15% capacity in the face of the global economic slowdown and falling prices for biodiesel, with employment in the industry now down by about 29,000 jobs from the healthier months of 2008.

While the Senate formally reconvenes on Jan. 20, Houston-based Renewable Biofuels continues to operate its big plant in Port Neches, Texas, at a lower rate of production a year after it opened. Spokesman Charles Deister said the facility employs up to 50 people and that the tax credit remains vital for its business.

“The investment community has placed several billion dollars behind the industry, and the lapse of the tax credit and the EPA’s failure to enforce the Renewable Fuel Standard does not send a positive message to Wall Street,” Deister commented.

While the petroleum industry uses biodiesel as a blending ingredient, the main fossil-fuel trade group in Washington, the American Petroleum Institute, hasn’t issued any major statements supporting the biodiesel tax credit.

“The API believes that the market should determine what fuels are economically viable, and that all fuels should stand on their own merits and not rely on government subsidies,” said its spokeswoman, Karen Matusic. “If there is a biodiesel tax credit, it should be applied to all forms of biodiesels.”

She added that a joint project between Tyson Foods Inc. and ConocoPhillips to convert animal fats into renewable diesel did not qualify for the tax credit.

Biodiesel industry stunted as tax credit expires

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) — Net income at Walt Disney Co. in Burbank near Los Angeles fell 25 percent in fiscal 2009 from a year earlier, the company said.

The company saw significant declines at its movie studio and sagging earnings at the company’s theme parks because of aggressive discounting, said a company statement published by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.

As a result of the declines, Disney’s chief executive Bob Iger’s bonus of 9.3 million dollars was down 33 percent from a year earlier, reflecting the company’s weaker financial performance, according to the statement filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Iger received a total compensation package worth 29 million dollars in 2009, slightly less than the 30.6 million he made last year.

Iger’s base salary of two million dollars remained effectively unchanged, although he collected an extra week’s salary in 2009 and received stock valued at 6 one hour payday loans.3 million and options worth an additional 8.3 million, according to the paper.

Among the perquisites Iger received was 589,102 dollars to cover the cost of security equipment and services, and his personal air travel cost 132,374 dollars.

Other expenses, including reimbursement for a health club membership or equipment and a vehicle, totaled 14,400 dollars.

The board’s executive compensation committee acknowledged the company’s slumping revenues and earnings in explaining the pay packages awarded to Iger and other top executives.

But it noted that this performance must be measured against “one of the worst national and global economic downturns in the postwar era” as well as changes made to position the company for future growth. Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

Disney’s earnings down

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Mortgage rates remained flat last week, but applications filed for mortgages dropped a seasonally adjusted 10.7% compared with the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey.

Applications to refinance existing home loans fell 10.1% for the week ended Dec. 18 from the prior week, the Washington-based MBA said Wednesday. Its survey covers about half of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.

The week-to-week volume of applications for mortgages to purchase homes dropped as well, down a seasonally adjusted 11.6%.

The four-week moving average for all mortgages was down 0.2%. Overall filing activity for mortgages had ticked up 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended Dec. 11. See full story.

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For the Dec. 18 week, refinancings made up 75 personal loans for bad credit.9% of all applications filed, up from 75.2% the previous week. Applications for adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for 3.8%, down from 4.1%.

The average interest rate charged on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages held steady at 4.92% last week. The rate on one-year ARMs, at 6.52%, also was unchanged from the prior week.

Fifteen-year fixed-rate mortgages carried an average rate of 4.34% last week, up from 4.33% in the previous week.

To obtain the rates, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage required payment of an average 1.23 points, the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage required an average 1.03 points and the one-year ARM required an average 0.39 point. A point is 1% of the mortgage amount, charged as prepaid interest.

The MBA said that its offices will be closed next week and that mortgage survey results will resume on Jan. 6.

Weekly mortgage applications drop 10.7%: MBA

NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana posted the largest drop in personal income during the third quarter of 2009.

That’s according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal income includes all forms of income, including employment pay, dividends and interest payments, rent payments and Social Security payments.

Between the second and third quarters of 2009, Louisiana’s personal income fell 0 cash advance loan.4 percent, putting it at the bottom.

Nationally, state personal income averaged a growth of 0.3 percent during the third quarter.

Louisiana posts biggest personal income drop

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — President Obama welcomed with a broad smile on Friday the news that the American economy had lost only 11,000 jobs in November as “another hopeful sign.” But he also expressed a note of caution during a swing through this Pennsylvania Rust Belt town, saying, “we have a lot more work to do before we can celebrate.”

Mr. Obama came to Allentown — a city memorialized in a 1980s Billy Joel tune as the place where “they’re closing all the factories down” — to spotlight his administration’s efforts to revitalize the sagging American economy. With millions still out of work, joblessness is the top issue on many minds.

Mr. Obama is under increasing pressure from Democrats in Congress to take new steps to promote job growth. The White House says he will address the issue in detail on Tuesday, and in a speech at Lehigh Carbon Community College here on Friday, the president made no specific promises.

“Even though our economy is growing again, many companies are still reticent to hire, they’re still worried about hiring,” Mr. Obama told a crowd in the college gymnasium. “Some are still trying to get out of the red brought on by this past year. Others have figured out how to squeeze more productivity out of the workers they have, instead of hiring new ones fast cash advance.”

This visit is part of what the White House says will be a series of events intended to get Mr. Obama out in the country to meet ordinary Americans and talk about how the economy is affecting their lives. Here in Allentown, he stopped by a metal works company before his speech; when it is over, he is scheduled to drop by a local diner and make other, as yet unannounced, stops.

In his speech, Mr. Obama tried to personalize the issue. “I know times are tough, Michelle and I were talking the other day, there are members of our families that are out of work,” the president said. “We’re not that far away from struggling to pay the bills. Five, six years ago, we were still paying off student loans.”

Mr. Obama also took questions from the crowd; the first came from a student who wanted to know if he would consider legalizing gambling, prostitution and drugs to stimulate the economy. Mr. Obama paused for a moment, as the audience laughed.

“I appreciate the boldness of your question,” he replied. “That will not be my jobs strategy.”

In Speech, Obama Calls Jobs Report a ‘Hopeful Sign’

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