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IKAR in Mass Media

Business news in brief

26 апреля 2016 года

5 Madoff workers' convictions upheld

NEW YORK -- A New York court has upheld the convictions of former employees of imprisoned Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that evidence was sufficient to convict five former workers, including Madoff's longtime secretary.

Madoff is serving a 150-year sentence after revealing his multidecade, multibillion-dollar fraud of thousands of investors in 2008.

Lawyers for the ex-workers had challenged their convictions on multiple counts, including conspiracy, securities fraud, bank fraud and falsifying records. They said court rulings, prosecutors' misconduct and insufficient evidence cheated their clients of a fair trial.

But the three-judge panel that heard the case less than a month ago disagreed.

The ex-employees were sentenced in 2014 to prison terms ranging from 2½ years to 10 years.

-- The Associated Press

Russian wheat harvest seen at 8-year high

Russia is set to harvest the most wheat in eight years after the warmest winter on record protected crops and as planting conditions remain favorable for spring grains, according to researchers.

The world's biggest wheat exporter will collect 68.9 million tons in 2016, the Moscow-based Institute for Agriculture Market Studies said on Monday. French farm adviser Agritel SA pegged the amount at 68.7 million tons. The Agriculture Ministry is less optimistic, predicting a crop of 63.9 million to 66 million tons, down from 68.1 million tons in 2015.

The mild winter meant crops avoided significant damage from cold, while Agritel said spring seeding will take place with moisture levels better than last year. A bigger crop would follow bumper harvests that sent benchmark prices in Chicago to near their lowest level since 2010. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is among those predicting Russia will ship out a record amount this year.

"Crop conditions currently are good, especially in the southern district," Olivier Bouillet, the manager of Agritel's Kiev office, said by phone. "The acreage of winter wheat was slightly higher, and usually the yields are better with winter crops than with the spring ones."

Not everyone expects a bigger crop. Farmers will collect at most 66.1 million tons this year if the weather remains favorable, the Agriculture Ministry said by email Wednesday. Winter wheat was killed on 3.4 percent of the planted area by Tuesday, it said.

-- Bloomberg News

Fed urged to fortify news-release policy

The Federal Reserve's inspector general said the central bank's board should beef up its safeguards for releasing market-sensitive economic data and policy statements, highlighting risks of its practice of giving journalists some information under embargo.

In a report released Wednesday, the inspector general said board officials should "more strictly adhere" to controls already established and put in place new measures to "more effectively safeguard embargoed economic information."

The inspector general took the unusual step of issuing an "early alert memorandum" in July because of matters "that warranted the Board's immediate attention."

The inspector general audit follows a 2013 report that criticized board staff members for weak controls after a member of the Fed's congressional liaison office accidentally emailed Federal Open Market Committee meeting minutes to a contact list that included Wall Street banks, trade groups and congressional staff member hours before public release.

In July, the Fed accidentally released staff projections for interest rates and the economy on a public website. The projections are normally released with a five-year lag.

The inspector general's report said the Board had noted that improvements in its procedures were being planned before the review was undertaken and have since been implemented.

-- Bloomberg News

Global hedge-fund industry contracts

The global hedge-fund industry shrank in the first quarter as investors redeemed the most cash from money managers since 2009 after market volatility threatened returns.

Investors withdrew $15 billion more than they allocated between January and March, reducing money under management to $2.86 trillion from $2.9 trillion, Hedge Fund Research Inc. said Wednesday. The last time outflows were higher was in the second quarter of 2009 when $43 billion was pulled out.

Money managers have struggled to navigate turbulent markets, with hedge funds losing an average 0.7 percent in the first quarter after a 1.1 percent loss in 2015, according to the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite Index. New York City's pension fund for civil employees voted to exit its $1.5 billion portfolio last week, deciding that the loosely regulated investment pools didn't perform well enough to justify the high charges. They typically charge investors a 2 percent management fee and keep a fifth of profits.

Managers deciding to return capital to investors were responsible for some of the drop, Hedge Fund Research President Ken Heinz said in a statement.

-- Bloomberg News

Yum Brands' 1Q profit beats forecasts

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Yum Brands Inc. on Wednesday reported first-quarter profit of $391 million.

The Louisville-based company said it had profit of 93 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for nonrecurring costs, came to 95 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 83 cents per share.

The parent company of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut posted revenue of $2.62 billion in the period, which fell short of Wall Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.66 billion.

Yum shares have climbed 13 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed roughly 3 percent. The shares rose in the final minutes of trading Wednesday to close at $82.53. They are up about 2 percent in the past 12 months.

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Source: arkansasonline.com  |  #grain   |  Comments: 0   Views: 77

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