An edge-to-edge four-inch display, sleek curved edges, a touch-sensitive home button and gesture area, and a faster processor.
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Hyundai Motor’s net profit rose 37 percent in the second quarter amid higher revenue and global vehicle sales.
Hyundai, South Korea’s largest automaker, earned 2.31 trillion won ($2.2 billion) in the three months ended June 30, according to a regulatory filing Thursday. It earned 1.68 trillion won the same period last year.
Sales revenue during the period rose 19 percent to 20.1 trillion won from 16.9 trillion won a year earlier.
Hyundai Motor Co. said separately that vehicle sales in the first six months of the year increased 11 percent to 1.96 million. It did not provide a breakdown for the second quarter. But subtracting first-quarter sales from that figure shows that sales for the period totaled 1 payday advance lenders.04 million.
The second-quarter profit was the latest in a string of strong results for Hyundai, which has benefited from its overseas factories and sales operations.
Hyundai has pursued an aggressive overseas expansion and has plants in China, India, the United States, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Russia. It is building one in Brazil.
The Hyundai Motor Group, which includes South Korea’s Kia Motors Corp., is the world’s fifth-largest automotive group.
The BBC is reporting that former News International executive Rebekah Brooks will testify to a parliamentary committee examining the phone hacking scandal.
Brooks once edited the News of the World tabloid, where the offenses allegedly occurred.
She was arrested Sunday on hacking charges, so her appearance had been in question. Rupert and James Murdoch are to be grilled by British lawmakers Tuesday over the scandal.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
LONDON (AP) _ Britain’s Serious Fraud Office says it will give full consideration to calls for an investigation into phone hacking allegations relating to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
The statement came after lawmaker Tom Watson asked for a probe Monday.
The Serious Fraud Office says it “will give full consideration” to Watson’s letter.
It added that it is willing to cooperate with U.S. authorities if they open an investigation into News Corp.-related matters.
Securities analyst Juli Niemann puts the matter bluntly: “Nobody could possibly be that stupid.”
Thus she summed up the attitude of Wall Street as President Barack Obama and the Republicans play chicken over the Aug. 2 debt limit deadline.
Investment pros don’t believe the nation’s leaders would dare default on the national debt. So, investors are chugging along as if all were well in Washington quick pay day loan.
If you look closely you can see a couple of nervous tics in the markets, says Gary Thayer, chief macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in downtown St. Louis. There’s a little extra volatility, slight changes in yield spreads on bonds.
Still, on Friday investors were accepting a paltry 0.01 percent
Asian stocks markets were mixed Friday as investors weighed positive economic indicators against a new warning on U.S. debt.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average gained 0.4 percent to close at 9,974.47, recovering slight losses with brokers largely on the sidelines. July 18 is a national holiday in Japan that celebrates the ocean.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.5 percent to 21,824.01 and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.7 percent to 2,145.20. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.3 percent to 4,473.50.
Amid concerns about the U.S. government credit rating, investors had positive news about the American economy to counter that.
U.S. retail sales unexpectedly rose in June while weekly jobless claims dropped by a surprisingly large 22,000 to 405,000, helping European markets trim losses overnight.
Koji Takeuchi, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo, said investors are watching for signs of a recovery in the U.S. economy and trying to gauge if the government debt crisis in Europe will worsen.
“Basically, a wait-and-see attitude is prevailing,” he said.
Meanwhile, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s said on Thursday that there is a 50 percent chance it will downgrade the U.S. government’s credit rating within three months because of the congressional impasse over approving an increase in the debt ceiling. The rating agency said it is placing the United States on a credit watch.
The S&P action marked the second credit warning in the past two days. On Wednesday, Moody’s Investors Service said it is reviewing the government’s triple-A bond rating.
Todd Martin, Asia equity strategist for Societe Generale in Hong Kong, said markets were looking at a range of factors, including pluses such as positive U.S. earnings reports and China growth data along with negatives, putting Asian markets on what he called “pause.”
“First you had Moody’s. Now you have S&P. That has the markets spooked,” he said. “There are more countering forces that have caused global equity markets to move sideways. I think it is more of a consolidation.”
In the U.S., remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that dimmed hopes for a third round of bond-buying dragged stocks lower. In a second day of testimony, Bernanke told lawmakers the Fed expects the economy to improve. He said the central bank would only step in with more economic stimulus if there is a significant downturn in the economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 54.49, or 0.4 percent, to 12,437.12 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 8.85 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,308.87. The Nasdaq composite fell 34.25, or 1.2 percent, to 2,762.67.
Investors are also keeping a close watch on developments in Europe amid worries Italy and Spain would be dragged into the debt crisis that has already seen Greece, Ireland and Portugal bailed out.
Oil prices rose to near $96 a barrel as a weaker U.S. dollar made commodities such as crude cheaper for investors with other currencies.
Benchmark oil for August delivery was up 12 cents to $95.81 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude fell $2.36 to settle at $95.69 on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro was down 0.2 percent to $1.4128. The dollar inched up 0.1 percent to 79.25 yen.
Hospital expansion plans in the Metro East have inspired a debate on the best way to serve areas of population growth along the Interstate 64 corridor.
Memorial Hospital in Belleville jumped in front of the eastward expansion last week when its plans to build a 94-bed hospital in Shiloh were approved. Memorial Hospital-East, at Frank Scott Parkway and Cross Street, is expected to cost $118 million and open in 2016.
A few days before the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved Memorial’s expansion, Hospital Sisters Health System announced plans to purchase a nearby 105-acre property across I-64 in O’Fallon. Hospital Sisters, which operates St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Belleville, said a full-service hospital was an option for the property.
The health system had earlier filed an objection with the state board saying that Memorial’s plans were an unnecessary duplication of current medical services. Memorial responded by saying its two facilities would result in a net decrease of hospital beds by allowing the Belleville campus to convert to single-patient rooms.
Belleville Mayor Mark Eckert supports Memorial’s expansion plan but fears St. Elizabeth’s will ultimately relocate to O’Fallon.
“Memorial has promised, pledged and has produced evidence that Belleville will always be their flagship hospital,” Eckert said.
St. Elizabeth’s intentions for its 135-year-old downtown institution are less clear, Eckert believes.
“We’ve fought hard to really grow this city in recent years, and we want to partner with them to strengthen that hospital at that location,” Eckert said. “I don’t believe they solve any of the concerns they currently have by running out to the interstate.”
St. Elizabeth’s posted a loss of nearly $14 million in 2008, the latest figures available. Memorial Hospital turned a profit of close to $11 million the same year.
St. Elizabeth’s officials say they won’t abandon their outpatient services in Belleville.
“We’ve got several hundred thousand square feet of space in downtown Belleville, and we’re not talking about walking away from that anytime soon,” said Jim Burke, Hospital Sisters’ vice president of business development. “We don’t know yet what we’re going to do on that (O’Fallon) site, but all options are being considered up to and including a new inpatient facility that would replace the inpatient portion of the downtown Belleville campus guaranteed online payday loans.”
BJC HealthCare, the St. Louis region’s largest hospital system, also owns a large tract in Shiloh across the street from Memorial’s project, but a company spokeswoman said there were no current plans for the property.
Hospital projects in Illinois have to be approved by the planning review board, which has historically been conservative. Memorial Hospital-East became only the second new hospital to be approved by the board in 20 years; the other was near Chicago.
The board’s mathematical models show an excess of hospital beds in the Metro East. But Memorial’s argument for new facilities included an estimate that more than 8,000 Southern Illinois residents travel to receive care at hospitals in Missouri each year.
Hospital analysts say it’s getting harder for health care companies to upgrade aging buildings that were designed for longer inpatient stays that are no longer necessary.
At the same time, state governments have cut funding to Medicaid insurance programs for the poor, placing more of a burden on urban hospitals.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn cut $276 million from his 2012 budget for Medicaid payments to hospitals.
“Without adequate support, it becomes much more challenging for hospitals to provide services,” said Danny Chun, spokesman for the Illinois Hospital Association.
Last month, Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital in East St. Louis closed down after transferring most of its services to Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville.
Local hospital companies have reduced their inpatient beds and added more profitable radiology services, surgery centers and urgent care clinics in community settings.
“There are these shifts where a lot of the care that traditionally might have been provided within the walls of a hospital might be in other settings, community-based facilities,” Chun said.
That didn’t hold true for St. Elizabeth’s expansion into Monroe County. The hospital closed its satellite clinic between Columbia and Waterloo at the end of last year, just four years after it opened. St. Elizabeth’s officials said people in Monroe County preferred to travel to south St. Louis County for medical care.
Authorities have recorded France’s first death from the European E. coli outbreak.
Health officials in Bordeaux said the 78-year-old woman died early Saturday morning.
She had been hospitalized in Bordeaux since June 24 with hemolytic uremic syndrome _ the rare kidney condition that the most seriously ill victims of the outbreak are suffering from need a personal loan with bad credit.
Bank of America’s $8.5 billion settlement with investors is the largest any bank has ever paid.
It might help assuage worries about how deep the bank’s mortgage problems might be and how long it might take to settle them. But for the nation’s largest bank and its CEO Brian Moynihan, the slate is far from clean.
The payout settles claims by just 22 investors who said Bank of America Corp. sold bonds based on substandard home mortgages. The bonds fell in value when the housing market collapsed and left the investors with losses on $424 billion worth of mortgages. The $8.5 billion settlement eclipses the last three years of earnings at the Charlotte, N.C. bank.
The uncertainty about just how bad Bank of America’s mortgage issues might be has scared investors and led to a 31 percent decline in Bank of America’s stock price since January of last year when Moynihan took over.
“This is a major step forward for our company,” Moynihan said in a conference call with investors on Wednesday.
Wall Street is cheering the move, sending the stock up 3 percent, to $11.14 Wednesday. It has been one of the worst performing stocks in the S&P 500 index in the past year.
But that rally could be short-lived. Analysts say the $8.5 billion is about double the amount they’d expected. The bank continues to fight other investor groups that are demanding similar settlements. Lawsuits from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, bond insurers MBIA and Syncora Holdings linger. And Bank of America is likely to be ordered to pay a hefty portion of the estimated $20 billion multi-bank settlement over the mishandling hundreds of thousands of home foreclosures.
Paul Miller, a bank analyst at FBR Capital Markets, says he’s concerned about the bank’s ability to increase earnings at a pace that would make up for these higher costs. These worries are magnified by the fact that the economic recovery in the U.S. is slowing. That could reduce the number of loans the bank is able to make to consumers and businesses.
Bank of America is in worse shape than other major banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. because of its purchase of Countrywide for $4 billion in 2008. What seemed like a bargain price for the country’s largest mortgage lender has cost the bank tens of billions more in mortgage losses, regulatory fines, repurchases of poorly-written loans and expensive litigation. At the same time, Bank of America itself had written a fair amount of bad mortgages. As it stands, the bank services one out of every five U.S. mortgages.
So even though most of the major banks sold the same kind of securities and have bad mortgages on their books, analysts say they are in better shape than Bank of America, which has $2.2 trillion in assets.
The other banks don’t have the same pressure to put the mortgage woes behind them. In March, the Federal Reserve didn’t allow Bank of America to increase its dividend, citing uncertainty about the depth of its mortgage problems. It was the only denial issued to any of the four largest U.S. banks. And it raised questions over whether the bank was strong enough to withstand another economic downturn.
The combined effect of the losses and the uncertainty prompted a reversal in the bank’s longtime strategy of fighting claims from investors, Moynihan admits. Since the beginning of the year, the bank has struck large settlements with multiple investors totaling $12.7 billion.
Most of the settlements are with investors that had purchased mortgages or mortgage backed securities. They want banks to buy back mortgages that had misinformation about qualifications of borrowers who received them. During the housing boom, lenders such as Countrywide routinely gave mortgages to people without documenting their income or ability to pay. This was a key driver of the financial crisis.
In January, the financial institution paid $2.6 billion to settle buyback claims on home loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In April, the bank agreed to pay up to $1.6 billion to Assured Guaranty Ltd., an insurer that also pressed the bank to repurchase shoddy mortgages.
Some industry analysts say the string of settlements could open the door for similar agreements between investors and other large banks that sold mortgages, including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup.
“It’s like the tobacco lawsuits _ if Phillip Morris loses, it affects everyone else,” said Matt McCormick, a portfolio manager and banking analyst at Bahl & Gaynor Investment Counsel in Cincinnati, which manages about $4 billion in assets. He says banks face multiple issues, “”none of which are easy or inexpensive fixes.”
Even if other banks are pushed into settlements now, the amounts will likely be less eye-popping, because Bank of America has more exposure to bad mortgages.
Bank of America’s chief financial officer Bruce Thompson said in a conference call with analysts that by the end of the second quarter the bank would place $20 billion in reserves to cover costs related to future litigation and investor demands.
As a result of Wednesday’s settlement and other mortgage-related costs, Bank of America said it will take a $14 billion charge in the second quarter and will report a net loss of $8.6 billion to $9.1 billion in the second quarter of 2011. That’s up to 93 cents per share. The bank reports second quarter results on July 19.
The European Union said Thursday it would help Greece access billions of euros in EU development funds in an attempt to boost the country’s struggling economy and sweeten unpopular austerity measures ahead of a tight parliamentary vote.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU was prepared to reduce the amount of money Greece has to come up with to co-fund projects under its regional funds to 15 percent, from the usual 50 percent. The Commission, which manages the funds, and other EU member states will also set up a program of technical assistance to make sure debt-laden Greece uses the money to stimulate economic growth and create new jobs.
The EU funds are designed to help underdeveloped regions catch up with richer parts of the 27-nation bloc. About euro15 billion ($22 billion) is still available for Greece until 2013, but the country has been struggling to prove it can use the funds well and come up with matching financing.
EU leaders hope that the prospect of some EU funds _ which, in contrast to the rescue loans Greece has been receiving for the past year, do not have to be repaid _ will offer some hope to Greek citizens who have been suffering through a steep economic recession and unemployment above 16 percent.
The Greek debt crisis, which has already spilled over into Ireland and Portugal and threatens to take a larger toll on the 17-country eurozone, has reached a new boiling point in recent weeks. Barely one year after first being granted euro110 billion in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund, it has become clear that Greece will need tens of billions more to avoid defaulting on its massive debts in the coming years.
But eurozone governments have blocked a final deal on a new aid package _ as well as the payment of a crucial euro12 billion installment of the existing bailout _ until the Greek parliament passes euro28 billion in additional spending cuts, tax increases, economic reforms and public asset sales. The new measures, which will allow Greece to meet the deficit targets set out in its bailout program, have sparked sometimes violent protests and been strictly opposed by the conservative opposition party.
In their statement Thursday night, the leaders said the comprehensive package of reforms “must be finalized as a matter of urgency in the coming days” for the new funds to be disbursed. Earlier in the day, they also piled pressure on Greek opposition leader Antonis Samaras, who was in Brussels for a meeting of European conservatives, to back the new measures.
“We call on the opposition to fulfill its historical responsibility,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said as she arrived at the summit. Samaras’ conservative party had been in power for years before Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou took over in late 2009 and discovered that Greece’s deficits were much bigger than previously disclosed.
But in their final statement, the leaders also made a stronger commitment to a second aid package for Greece, saying the promised austerity measures “will provide the basis for setting up the main parameters of a new program jointly supported by its euro area partners and the IMF.”
The leaders decided that the European Commission’s bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Mechanism, won’t be part of the new Greek bailout, EU President Herman Van Rompuy said. That’s a win for British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had strictly opposed using the euro60 billion EFSM, which is backed by the EU budget.
On his way out of the summit, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said “very important decisions” had been made at Thursday’s meeting. “We got the support of our partners. This is not only a green light but a positive sign for the future of Greece,” he said. “I believe we are on a stable on a stable course. It is a difficult course for Greece.”
The leaders put off another decision originally slated for Thursday’s talks. The formal appointment of Mario Draghi as the next president of the European Central Bank won’t be debated until Friday, Van Rompuy said. However, others implied that even on Friday no agreement will be found on Draghi, as fellow Italian executive board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi has so far refused to leave his post.
The French, who with the departure of current ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet on Oct. 31 would not have a representative on the board, will only support Draghi if a Frenchman or woman takes over Smaghi’s spot.
“I do know that French expectations concern the succession of Mr. Draghi,” said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker. “The rule is that the members of the governing council are appointed for eight years and it is up to them to decide” when to leave.
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Raf Casert, Don Melvin and Angela Charlton contributed to this story.
Asian stocks were mostly lower after European finance ministers delayed a decision to extend emergency help to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debts.
Oil slipped below $92 a barrel while the dollar rose against the euro and the yen.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.2 percent to 9,368.16 despite data showing Japan’s exports dropped for the third straight month in May due to massive production losses following the March 11 earthquake.
Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s No. 1 automaker, rose 0.2 percent after it announced expansion plans aimed at ramping up production and sales in India, top business daily the Nikkei reported on its website.
South Korea’s Kospi sank 0.3 percent to 2,027.10, although autos helped staunch the fall. Hyundai Motor Co., the country’s biggest car maker, rose 2.2 percent after data showed the company sold more vehicles in Europe last month than any other Asian brand, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.4 percent to 21,614.04, with oil-related shares dropping. Sinopec, Asia’s biggest oil refiner by volume, and China National Offshore Oil Corp., known as CNOOC, were both down 0.1 percent.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was 0.5 percent lower at 4,461.90. Benchmarks in Singapore and Indonesia were higher while those in Taiwan, New Zealand and mainland China were down.
Early Monday, Eurozone finance ministers postponed a decision on a vital installment of rescue loans needed to avoid bankruptcy next month. Greece will get the next euro12 billion of its existing euro110 billion bailout package in early July, but only if it manages to pass euro28 billion in new spending cuts and economic reforms by the end of the month, said Jean-Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg.
“All eyes remain on Greece,” strategists at Credit Agricole CIB wrote in a research note. “News this morning that the Eurogroup’s final decision on the country’s second bailout package has been delayed until early July will result in more uncertainty filtering through markets free online credit report.”
Aside from the risk that Greece poses, markets were jittery as the end of the Federal Reserve’s $600 billion bond-buying program draws near. The quantitative easing program, dubbed QE2, was intended to keep interest rates low and encourage economic growth. It ends in late June.
Another factor adding to investor uncertainty, analysts said, was whether China’s attempts to cool its runaway growth to more sustainable levels would result in severe consequences such as significant job losses.
“We are looking at some other concerns _ how the end of QE2 will affect the market overall and on the China side, whether it will be a hard or soft landing,” said Lee Kok Joo, head of research at Phillip Securities in Singapore.
On Wall Street last week, the U.S. stock market eked out its first week of gains since April, helped by signs a solution to Greece’s debt problems were near.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 0.4 percent at 12,004.36. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.3 percent to 1,271.50. The technology-focused Nasdaq composite index lost 0.3 percent to 2,616.48.
Oil prices fell below $92 a barrel as a stronger U.S. dollar made commodities priced in the greenback more expensive to investors spending foreign currencies.
Benchmark oil for July delivery was down $1.36 to $91.65 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $1.94, or 2 percent, to settle at $93.01 on Friday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.4231 from $1.4315 in late trading Friday in New York. The dollar rose to 80.21 yen from 80.06 yen.
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