Daniel Henry, president and chief operating officer of Euronet Worldwide Inc., will retire at the end of the year.
Mike Brown, Euronet s chairman and chief executive officer, and other executives will take on Henry s duties.
The company does not plan to fill his position immediately.
Henry, who co-founded Euronet with Brown, will assist the management team during a transition period through the first quarter of 2007. After that, he largely will provide support as an adviser on special projects, though he also is to continue serving on Euronet s board at least for the remainder of his three-year term set to expire in 2009.
Henry intends to spend more time with his family and pursue other entrepreneurial ventures, the company said in a statement issued early today. His decision to retire was based purely on personal considerations, the company stated.
Also, Euronet announced the addition of three new executives.
Larry Fogelson was selected as managing director of Euronet s Veloz money transfer business, Steve Adams is the director of operations of Euronet s Europe, Middle East and Africa electronic funds transfer business segment and Karyn Clewes Zaborny is the new senior vice president of human resources.
In midday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Euronet shares were down 16 cents at $32.20.
Shares have traded in a 52-week range of $23.34 to $39.78.
To reach Jason Gertzen, call (816) 234-4899 or send e-mail to
About 250,000 U.S. service men and women leave the military each year for civilian life.
Take a serious look at them for your workplaces, Major Christopher Phelps told several hundred Kansas City-area human resource professionals this morning.
Speaking at a breakfast meeting of the Employment Practices Network at the Ritz Charles in Overland Park, Phelps told how his 18 years in the U.S.
Marines have provided leadership training and skills that translate into corporate life.
And virtually every occupation imaginable is present in the military, he said. It s not just driving tanks.
Phelps remarks echoed those from a variety of sources published in the lead article Tuesday in The Star s business section. Only one-half of one percent of Americans serves in the military, Phelps said, so there s often a divide between the civilian and military world, given that few Americans have active-duty experience.
But, he said, today s service men and women are a microcosm of American society, and he strongly refuted what he said was a misinformed notion that the military is top-heavy with the uneducated or ne er-do-wells.
Phelps said the military is better than any other organization at requiring continuous learning and leadership training. Career military personnel are leaders, he said, defining leadership with three primary components: character, judgment and ambition.
Phelps, who is preparing for his own job transition with assistance from CSG Partners, an Overland Park-based career transition consultancy, offered his impressions of the qualities that allow good soldiers to become good employees in the civilian world:
Character includes the ability to connect with people, to draw the line between passion and runaway emotions, and having an ethical foundation or gut values.
Judgment includes the ability to learn from experience, to be open to lifelong learning, to be able to take control of situations and to be strategic instead of myopic about the tasks at hand.
Ambition only a negative if it s totally self-interested includes focusing on improvement, being a good communicator, and providing the mission and inspiration so that others will follow.
Phelps, who is serving his last year of active duty at Fort.
Leavenworth, closed his remarks with a quotation that defines leadership from former Secretary of State Colin Powell: You set them on a path to accomplish things and they get the work done.
Overland Park-based Ferrellgas Partners LP said its first-quarter loss grew, citing the seasonal nature of the propane industry.
In the three months ended Oct.
31, Ferrellgas reported a net loss of $29.5 million, or 47 cents per trading unit, from a loss of $25.8 million, or 42 cents, a year ago.
Sales in the quarter fell 2 percent to $345 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial, on average, were expecting Ferrellgas to report a loss of 34 cents.
The company said its fixed costs exceeded cash flow in its historically slow first quarter.
It said the increased net loss primarily related to fixed costs associated with recently completed acquisitions and growth capital investments.
Ferrellgas said gross profit in the quarter of $127.1 million approached the record gross profit of $127.
6 million of a year ago.
In midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Ferrellgas units were down 72 cents, or 3.10 percent, at $22.
54. Ferrellgas units reached a 52-week high of $23.94 on Tuesday.
Monsanto Co. paid Chairman and Chief Executive Hugh Grant a $1.96 million bonus for the fiscal year ended Aug.
31, down from the $2.21 million he was awarded in the previous fiscal year.
The St.
Louis-based seed and herbicide giant said that it determined the bonus after evaluating Grant s performance against corporate goals and objectives, according to a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Monsanto increased Grant s salary 4.9 percent for the fiscal year to $1.
09 million and agreed to raise his base pay to $1.14 million starting Jan. 1.
The company also said Grant realized $8 million from the exercise of options during the fiscal year.
At midday, Monsanto shares were up 24 cents at $48.24.
You might be getting a little something extra from your boss this December.
Emphasis on might. And little.
According to a survey of 1,150 hiring managers by CareerBuilder.com and ShopLocal.com, 56 percent of the responding supervisors plan to give holiday gifts to their staffs.
About half are spending less than $15 per staff member.
For more on this topic and others, read Diane Stafford's Workspace blog at .
Her blog also has links to archived columns and resources for job-hunting and career development.
Raytheon Aircraft appears to have entered exclusive negotiations for a potential sale of the company with a team composed of Onex Corp. and Goldman Sachs, according to sources close to the deal.
They were one of three leveraged buyout firms who recently emerged as final bidders for the company, sources told The Wichita Eagle.
The other firms are the Carlyle Group, based in Washington, D.C., and Cerberus Capital Management in New York.
The three are logical bidders for the planemaker, analysts say.
The asking price for the maker of Beechcraft and Hawker products is about $3 billion, sources say.
Onex Corp.
has become a familiar name in Wichita after buying Boeing Co. s Wichita s commercial aircraft division in 2005 and forming Spirit AeroSystems.
Raytheon Aircraft, Goldman Sachs, Cerberus and Carlyle Group officials declined to comment Wednesday.
Onex did not return calls for comment.
In July, Raytheon Co. said it was exploring a variety of possibilities for its Wichita division, including a potential sale.
It employs about 6,300 in Wichita.
A sale would not involve Flight Options, its fractional ownership business, or Raytheon Airline Aviation Services, its charter business.
Liberty Media Corp.
will gain control over the satellite television broadcaster DirecTV Group Inc. in a deal that will settle a long-running dispute between two powerful media figures, Rupert Murdoch and John Malone, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions.
Murdoch, who controls News Corp.
, has reached a verbal agreement with Malone to swap News Corp. s 39 percent interest in DirecTV for Liberty s 19 percent voting stake in News Corp., according to the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been announced.
The agreement, assuming it is finalized, would settle a showdown that has been brewing for two years between two of the most powerful figures in the media industry.
The person said the deal would likely be announced within two weeks, confirming reports today in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The deal had been widely expected and was discussed by the two parties for several months.
Malone surprised Murdoch two years ago by suddenly accumulating a stake in News Corp. s voting shares, potentially challenging Murdoch s control of the global media conglomerate he built. News Corp.
adopted anti-takeover defense measures that were later challenged by shareholders.
In addition to News Corp. s controlling stake in DirecTV, the person said Malone s Liberty Media will also get three regional cable sports channels and $550 million in cash.
The deal was designed to save both parties huge tax bills since it is structured as a swap instead of a sale of assets.
Money virtually grows on trees in eastern Maine, where balsam fir branches are transformed into hundreds of thousands of Christmas wreaths worth millions of dollars each holiday season.
For Morrill Worcester, owner of the state s largest wreath company, the season is more about heart than money.
This month, for the 15th year, he ll send a truckload of 5,000 wreaths to be placed on gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery.
Worcester, 56, never served in the military. But he feels the need to show his appreciation to the nation s veterans.
Every day, people contact him to give thanks. Some call him a great American.
I m not a great American.
I m a grateful American, Worcester said.
This year, Worcester is extending his gratitude nationwide. Besides sending wreaths to Arlington, he is leading wreath-laying ceremonies at nearly 230 veterans cemeteries and monuments in every state and Puerto Rico.
He s donating about 8,000 wreaths.
The ceremonies are to be held simultaneously at 11 a.m.
Central on Dec. 14.
About 600 workers at Worcester Wreath Co.
assemble and pack wreaths at four plants in Maine. This year, the company will ship more than 500,000 wreaths and other holiday greenery. Most of the products are sold through L.
L. Bean.
Worcester s donations began in 1992 after he found himself with an extra 5,000 wreaths in mid-December too late to bring them to market.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida is buying the Hard Rock business, including its massive collection of rock n roll memorabilia, in a $965 million deal with British casino and hotel company Rank Group PLC, the tribe said today.
The Hard Rock business includes 124 Hard Rock Cafes, four Hard Rock Hotels, two Hard Rock Casino Hotels, two Hard Rock Live! concert venues, and stakes in three unbranded hotels.
With it, the tribe acquires what is said to be the world s largest collection of rock memorabilia, some 70,000 pieces including Jimi Hendrix s Flying V guitar, one of Madonna s bustiers, a pair of Elton John s high-heeled shoes and guitars formerly owned by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Chuck Berry.
This is a proud moment for the Seminole Tribe of Florida and for all Indian tribes, said Mitchell Cypress, chairman of the elected Tribal Council. It is also an opportunity for the Seminole Tribe to diversify its business operations and help a very successful company to achieve even greater growth.
Cypress and Seminole Gaming Chief Executive James Allen said in a statement that the tribe would work with current Hard Rock International management to build on existing growth plans.
In addition to its two Seminole Hard Rock hotels casinos, the Seminole Tribe owns and operates five other casinos in Florida. More than 90 percent of the tribe s budget now comes from gaming revenue.
Studio owner NBC Universal unveiled an ambitious plan to revamp its 390-acre Universal City complex in California that includes movie sets, office space and a theme park.
The 25-year master plan outlined Wednesday envisions an 80,000-square-foot expansion of the theme park, new high-tech soundstages and a residential development called Universal Village.
The studio has been hampered in recent years by complex zoning and environmental regulations from building new rides at the park or developing its vast back lot.
A succession of corporate owners with conflicting business plans also stunted the studio s growth.
Universal City, in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the San Fernando Valley, was founded in 1915 by Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Studios.
Universal was purchased in 2004 by NBC, a unit of General Electric Co.
The company soon began developing a master plan for the entire parcel, consulting nearby homeowners as well as Los Angeles and county officials.
The new plan calls for selling 124 acres of mostly undeveloped land to a builder for a new residential community. Some movie sets and soundstages would be moved while new state-of-the art facilities would be built.
The proposal would especially benefit the theme park, which would be able to more easily add rides and attractions to help it compete with nearby Disneyland, owned by The Walt Disney Co., and Six Flags Magic Mountain, part of Six Flags Inc.
NYC skyscraper sells for highest price paid for U.
S. office building
Another day, another New York City real estate record.
This time, a Fifth Avenue skyscraper is shredding previous records for prices paid for a single office building anywhere in the country.
A New Jersey real estate family, the Kushners, will buy 666 Fifth Ave. from Tishman Speyer Properties for $1.8 billion, beating a $1.
72 billion record that Tishman Speyer set in buying the MetLife Building a few streets over.
The family says the office tower will raise its profile in New York City. The company also owns a smaller building downtown, but the bulk of its holdings are in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
This is a great acquisition for our company, said Jared Kushner, a principal at Kushner Companies.
Tishman Speyer broke another real-estate record last month. It bought a massive Manhattan apartment complex, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, for $5.
4 billion, in the biggest real estate deal of any kind in the country.
Whirlpool Corp. plans to sell its Hoover floor-care business to a home improvement and construction tools supplier for $107 million, the appliance maker said today.
The sale to Hong Kong-based Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd. could close as early as the first quarter of 2007, following regulatory clearance, the company said.
Techtronic will assume control of the Cleveland, Tenn.-based vacuum and floor-cleaner manufacturer while Whirlpool will retain pension and post-retirement benefit liabilities for retired Hoover employees.
Whirlpool completed its $2.
6 billion acquisition of Maytag Corp. in March and said it would shed some of its brands.
Members of the Financial Planning Association of Greater Kansas City have volunteered to provide free advice to KansasCity.
com users who have personal finance questions. Ask your questions about issues like retirement planning, investing or finding money for higher education. Answers will typically be posted within 48 hours.
The is for educational purposes only and participants should be aware that a financial planning engagement has not been established.
Oil prices edge up after inventories fall, more violence in Nigeria
Oil prices rose today after U.S.
government data showed that domestic inventories of crude oil, gasoline and heating oil fell last week.
In Nigeria, officials said gunmen attacked an oil export terminal in the south belonging to a subsidiary of Italy s Eni SPA, killing one person and taking three Italians hostage.
Since the beginning of 2006, militant groups in Nigeria have attacked pipelines and taken workers hostage in violence that has cut crude output by about 25 percent in Africa s largest oil producer.
The West African country would normally expect to produce about 2.5 million barrels daily.
Also supporting prices was the uncertainty ahead of a meeting next week of oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
OPEC officials have been pressing in recent days for a cut in output on top of a production cut of 1.2 million barrels a day, approved in October.
Light, sweet crude rose 6 cents to $62.
25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. January Brent crude at London s ICE Futures exchange rose 30 cents to $63.37 a barrel.
In its petroleum supply report released Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy s statistical arm, said domestic inventories of crude oil fell by 1.
1 million barrels last week to 339.7 million barrels, or 5.4 percent above year-ago levels.
Gasoline stocks declined by 1.1 million barrels to 200 million barrels, or 2.6 percent less than a year ago.
Inventories of distillate fuel, which include heating oil and diesel, shrank by 400,000 barrels to 132.4 million barrels, or 1 percent below year-ago levels.
In Moscow, Russian water protection authorities have suspended the licenses of a subcontractor of the Royal Dutch Shell PLC-led liquefied natural gas project Sakhalin-2 because of alleged violations.
The company, Starstroi, has two months to correct the problems or it will see its 12 licenses annulled, the Natural Resources Ministry said in a statement.
Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Co. today said 2007 earnings would come in below Wall Street s current expectations because of the effect of its pending acquisition of Icos Corp.
The company said sales are seen growing in the high single or low double-digit percentages, with earnings of $3.25 to $3.35 a share on a reported and adjusted basis.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial on average forecast earnings per share of $3.39 in 2007, but Lilly spokesman Phil Belt said the analysts estimates do not include the effect of Lilly s pending $2.1 billion acquisition of Icos.
Airbus today said it plans to invest some $1 billion in India, setting up an engineering facility and a pilot training school.
The European airplane maker had committed to investing in India as part of a deal with the government, which is purchasing 43 Airbus aircraft for the state-run Indian Airlines in a deal valued at $2.25 billion.
However, Airbus plans to double the $500 million required under that agreement, Kiran Rao, Airbus executive vice president of marketing told a news conference.
Some $300 million is to be invested in a pilot training center and another $250 million in an engineering center, both in the southern city of Bangalore.
Airbus also released a study predicting a huge growth in the Indian airline industry, saying that the country will need 1,100 airplanes worth $105 billion by 2025.
The editor in chief of Playboy Indonesia went on trial today on charges of publishing indecent material a crime that carries a maximum punishment of more than 2 1/2 years in prison.
A prosecutor told the South Jakarta District Court that Erwin Arnada oversaw photo shoots and published revealing pictures of female models in underwear, some showing partially exposed breasts.
The models also had inviting expressions on their faces, said Resni Muchtar, adding that the magazine included lascivious and lustful comments.
The defense, which was not required to enter a plea, said it would respond to the charge at a later hearing.
Indonesia is the world s most populous Muslim nation, with some 190 million practicing a mostly moderate form of the faith.
Playboy launched a toned-down version of its magazine in the country in April to protests from conservatives demanding it be taken off the streets.
The magazine kept publishing, but moved its editorial offices to mostly Hindu Bali island.
Unlike its American version and editions in dozens of other countries, Indonesian Playboy contains no nudity.
Kazakhstan, Russia to produce fuel for nuclear reactors
Kazakh and Russian officials today launched a joint venture that will mine uranium to make fuel for Russian-designed nuclear reactors, Kazakhstan s national atomic company said.
The Zarechnoye mine in southern Kazakhstan contains 19,000 metric tons (21,000 short tons) of uranium and is expected to produce 1,000 tons (1,100 short tons) of uranium annually by 2009, KazAtomProm said.
Under deals struck earlier this year Kazakhstan and Russia are planning to create two more joint ventures: one to build a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan with a capacity of 300 megawatts and another, in Russia, that will enrich uranium for atomic power stations.
The cost of the projects has not been announced.
Japan s largest mobile-phone provider today said it is recalling 1.3 million battery packs because some of them could generate excessive heat and rupture.
The battery packs, made through May by Sanyo Electric Co.
and installed in Mitsubishi Electric Corp s D902i phones, are sold only in Japan, according to Kazunori Higuchi, a spokesman for cell-phone carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc.
Owners of the phones will be directly notified, NTT DoCoMo said.
The problem results from deformed parts installed in the battery, NTT DoCoMo said.
Kyodo News agency reported that NTT DoCoMo s handsets used lithium-ion batteries and that the recall could cost up to $35 million. The news agency also said NTT DoCoMo had learned about the battery trouble about six months ago but did not disclose it then.
The move follows a massive recall of laptop batteries that could overheat and burst into flames.
Those batteries also were lithium-ion. The laptop recall cost the battery maker, Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp., $438 million in the third quarter.
Nintendo s president today acknowledged the just-launched Wii video-game machine may have a problem with a strap that secures its trademark wandlike remote-controller to the player s wrist.
President Satoru Iwata also said Nintendo may raise its sales target for the Wii, which is selling out at retailers since it went on sale in recent weeks in the U.S.
and Japan.
The console from the maker of the Pokemon and Super Mario games is locked in a fierce three-way battle with Sony Corp. s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.
s Xbox 360.
We are investigating, Iwata said of reports about the Wii s strap coming off as players swung around the controller, at times causing the remote to fly out of their hands.
Players use the Wii remote like a tennis racket, sword and other devices to play games.
Some people are getting a lot more excited than we d expected, Iwata said. We need to better communicate to people how to deal with Wii as a new form of entertainment.
The company has not decided on any specific measures to change the strap, Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said.
DaimlerChrysler s Japan unit today told the Transport Ministry it is recalling 4,122 Jeep Cherokees to replace a defective ball joint in the vehicle s front wheel with the new one.
The vehicles involved were imported between July 2001 and May 2006.
There were no reports of accidents because of the defect, which might corrode inside the joint and could come off the vehicle s steering knuckle in worst case, the ministry said.
Now you can look good and smell good, too. Gwen Stefani is launching a perfume for her L.A.
M.B. fashion and accessories line.
Stefani says her deal with Coty Inc., announced Wednesday, is a sign that her success with L.A.
M.B. (an acronym for Love Angel Music Baby) isn t fleeting.
It s very prestigious as a designer to have a fragrance. It s a milestone with L.A.
M.B., and I don t want L.
A.M.B.
to go away. The fragrance makes it feel real, like it ll be here for a little while, Stefani told The Associated Press in an interview.
Stefani s fragrance, which hasn t yet been named, will debut next fall.
Coty also produces fragrances for Vera Wang, Marc Jacobs, Jennifer Lopez and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Financial terms of the agreement weren t disclosed.
Hennes Mauritz, Europe s largest fashion retailer, has once again sealed a deal with Madonna for a new fashion line.
Madonna has teamed up with Margareta van den Bosch, H M s head of design, to create the M by Madonna women s wear collection, scheduled to be launched globally in March, the company said today.
This is the second time the 48-year-old pop singer has collaborated with the Swedish clothing chain. H M supplied Madonna and her entourage with an offstage wardrobe for her Confessions world tour.
H M said the new collection will reflect Madonna s timelessness, unique and always glamorous style.
The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week by the largest amount in six months, relieving worries about a big jump in claims in the previous week.
The total number of claims filed last week fell to 324,000, a decline of 34,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported today.
That represented the biggest one-week drop since the first week in June.
The decrease was in line with expectations of economists, who believed that an unexpectedly large jump of 35,000 claims the previous week was an aberration.
The four-week moving average for jobless claims edged up slightly to 328,750, the highest level since May, while the number of Americans receiving claims rose to 2.
52 million, the highest level since January.
Even with those increases, analysts said the labor market appears to be withstanding this year s economic slowdown, which has been brought on big a big drop in the once-booming housing market and weakness in other areas such as auto sales.
The Federal Reserve engineered the current slowdown with a two-year campaign to raise interest rates in an effort to achieve a soft landing in which economic growth slowed enough to keep inflation in check but not enough to trigger a full-blown recession.
While the Fed appears close to achieving this goal, some economists worry that a bigger-than-expected drop in housing activity could trigger a more severe slowdown, especially if job layoffs intensify in such areas as construction.
So far, businesses have trimmed their plans to hire new workers but have resisted pressures to lay off existing workers. Economists believe that Friday s report on employment in November will show a moderate gain of 105,000 workers, slightly better than the 92,000 jobs added in October.
Analysts believe that the unemployment rate, which fell to a five-year low of 4.4 percent in October, will edge up slightly to 4.5 percent in November.
For the week ending Nov. 25, claims had risen by 35,000 to 358,000. Economists attributed the big swings in the two weeks to trouble seasonally adjusting the figures for weeks that include a holiday such as Thanksgiving, when state claims offices are open one less day.
The regional economy in East Asia will post slower growth in 2007 because of a slowdown in America and Europe, and the region could be upset by global market turbulence triggered by U.S. recession jitters, the Asian Development Bank said today.
The average gross domestic product growth for East Asian economies would slow to 4.4 percent next year from 4.9 percent in 2006, according to the Manila-based bank s forecast in its twice-yearly report.
Excluding Japan, the most developed economy in the region, growth for East Asia is projected to fall back to 7 percent from 7.7 percent this year.
With economic growth in the U.
S. and euro zone slowing to a more tempered pace, the external environment facing East Asia in 2007 is likely to be somewhat less supportive of economic growth, but more conducive to containing inflation, the report said.
The bank warned that East Asia could suffer from heightened global market volatility because of worries about the risk of a U.
S. slowdown and a sliding U.S dollar.
The ADB report surveys 13 other East Asian economies, namely South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The European Central Bank raised its key interest rate a quarter of a percentage point to 3.5 percent today, but a strong euro suggests the bank could pause after boosting rates six times over the past year.
The Bank of England, meanwhile, held its key lending rate steady at 5 percent.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said that disorderly movement by currencies on foreign exchange markets were undesirable, but did not say if the rising euro would pose a threat to monetary policy. Instead, he said that people should let the markets judge the euro s exchange levels.
With the 12-nation euro hovering around 20-month highs against the dollar, the ECB may feel pressure to back off future increases for fear of seeing the shared currency rise so high it stunts growth in the euro zone, which accounts for nearly 15 percent of the global economy.
After Trichet s comments, the euro was fairly steady against the dollar. In afternoon European trading, the currency stood at $1.
3290, up from $1.3285 in New York late Wednesday.
Stocks meandered today as a drop in energy stocks offset positive jobless claims data a day before the government s widely anticipated November jobs report.
Today s Labor Department report, which showed the number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell last week by the largest amount in six months, helped ease some concerns about weakness in the job market. A spike in jobless claims last week stirred concern among investors that perhaps the economy was losing steam too quickly.
Wall Street wants the job market to hold up to safeguard consumer spending, but investors also are concerned that high employment levels will make it more expensive for businesses to hire and retain workers.
As the Federal Reserve has said it remains concerned about inflation, a rise in the cost of hiring and retaining workers could make it harder for the central bank to justify a cut in short-term interest rates.
We think the market is moving closer to fair value, said Nicholas Raich, director of equity research at National City Investments private client group. There are going to be some people who are going to take profits here, he said, noting the run-up in stocks in recent months has seen very little selling.
In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 3.04, or 0.02 percent, at 12,312.
29. The Standard Poor s 500 index remained near a six-year high and was up 0.40, or 0.
03 percent, at 1,413.30, while the Nasdaq composite index was down 3.01, or 0.
12 percent, at 2,442.85.
Weakness in energy and consumer discretionary stocks added to overall selling pressure on Wall Street.
Bonds fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.49 percent from 4.48 percent late Wednesday.
The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
Light, sweet crude rose 6 cents to $62.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Raich said the latest job figures show the economy to be resilient. It s in a great spot right now in that it s not too strong and not too weak.
He contends the data suggest the economy can pull off a soft landing rather than slowing too quickly and tipping into recession.
Investors are looking to Friday s job number to gain further insight into whether such a gradual slowdown will occur. A continuation of robust consumer spending as important as it accounts for two-thirds of economic activity and has helped propel the economic expansion of recent years.
Wall Street was pleased when the Labor Department report met expectations.
The agency said jobless claims filed last week fell to 324,000, down 34,000 from the previous week. The decline had been expected by economists who regarded the previous week s jump as an anomaly.
In corporate news, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.
surged $10.40, or 67 percent, to $25.90, after the company reported an experimental schizophrenia treatment proved effective in a late-stage clinical trial.
Exxon was one of the average s weaker components and was down 75 cents at $75.56 after the Energy Department reported weekly natural gas inventories were essentially in line with expectations.
Home Depot Inc.
, also a Dow stock, fell 46 cents to $39.46 after it reported $200 million in unrecorded stock option expenses over a 26-year period.
Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Co.
fell 78 cents to $54.08 after its 2007 profit forecast came in below Wall Street s expectations due to the company s pending acquisition of Icos Corp.
American Italian Pasta rises on upgrade, though concerns remain
Shares of American Italian Pasta Co.
rose to a 52-week high today after a Stifel Nicolaus analyst upgraded the stock with some reservations.
At midday, shares were up 51 cents, or 5.43 percent, to $9.
90 after reaching a high of $10.38, eclipsing a previous year high of $9.49.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst George I. Askew in a client note lifted his rating to buy from hold and set a $12 target price on shares.
Over the past 18 months, Kansas City-based American Italian Pasta has restructured operations, replaced top managers, defaulted on a credit line, come under the scrutiny of federal investigators and investors because of errors found in past financial statements, the analyst noted.
Askew expects the company to file restatements within the month.
He also noted that about 35 percent to 40 percent of the company s outstanding shares are held in short positions, which indicates these investors expect the stock to decline ahead.
We caution investors that there remains much uncertainty in our investment thesis for American Italian Pasta .
.. and we do not believe a purchase of the shares is suitable for all investors, wrote Askew.
However, for sophisticated investors with a strong stomach, we believe that likely catalysts over the next few weeks and months, particularly the anticipated re-filing of the company s restated financial statements, support a buy rating on the shares of American Italian Pasta.
We believe the long, national nightmare at American Italian Pasta is finally ending, Askew added.
For the quickest, most complete local afternoon report on the financial and commodities markets, check out The Closing Bell report on .
Tomorrow in Business: Joyce Smith s Cityscape column takes a look at the conversion of Steve s Shoes stores.
Sunday in MoneyWise: The priciest hotel rooms in town. Are they reserved just for rock stars and political big-wigs?
And what do you get for $750 a night at the Overland Park Sheraton, which by the way, is not the most expensive room in town.
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