Stocks struggle against terror attacks
NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Fears of terrorism hit Wall Street Thursday following the latest bombings in Turkey, with all major indexes losing points despite good news on the economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average sank 71.04, or 0.75 percent, to 9,619.42 on Big Board volume of 1.28 billion shares. The Nasdaq composite index dropped 17.73, or 0.93 percent, to 1,881.92. The Standard and Poor's 500 index lost 8.79, or 0.84 percent, closing at 1,033.65.
Leading economic indicators and jobless claims improved, as did earnings for Dow component Hewlett-Packard. But the terror attacks in Istanbul, which killed at least 27 people and injured about 450 Thursday, left business developments in the back seat.
Overseas, London's FTSE-100 share index was off 19.40, or 0.45 percent, at 4,308. In Asia, markets rose. The Nikkei 225 index increased 251.1, or 2.61 percent, to 9,865.70.
The euro rose to $1.1914 from Wednesday's $1.1878 and the dollar fell against the Japanese yen to 109.03 from Wednesday's 109.285.
Greenspan: Trade deficit not hurting US
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday the steady rise in the U.S. trade deficit has not yet hurt the country's growth prospects.
But at the same time, he warned excessive protectionism across the globe could hurt the international economy.
"It is imperative that creeping protectionism be thwarted and reversed," Greenspan said at a monetary conference hosted by the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think-tank. "Over the years, protected interests have often endeavored to stop in its tracks the process of unsettling economic change," he added.
He made no comment on the state of the U.S. economy
AT&T files patent suit against eBay
WILMINGTON, Del., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- AT&T Corp. has filed a patent-infringement suit against eBay Inc. and its PayPal unit.
In the suit, filed in federal district court in Delaware, AT&T alleges that PayPal and eBay have infringed AT&T's U.S. patent covering transactions "in which a trusted intermediary securely processes payments over a communications system such as the Internet."
The use of an intermediary ensures that one party won't have to disclose sensitive information, such as a credit-card number, to the other party. AT&T said its lawsuit seeks compensation for unauthorized use of its patented technology.
EBay runs the world's most popular online auction service, while PayPal is a popular service used to make online purchases.
AT&T, of Bedminster, N.J., said it warned both PayPal and eBay they were using technology covered by AT&T's patent and offered to settle the dispute by licensing the patented technology to them, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Creditors: Kmart executives looted company
NEW YORK, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Kmart creditors filed a federal court suit in Detroit against six former company executives saying they wasted $1 billion dollars.
Kmart Creditor Trust, a group of creditors who lost millions of dollars when Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection in January 2002, say the executives simply looted their employer.
The creditors accuse the executives of taking payments from vendors and mismanaging the retailer into bankruptcy court, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The suit seeks damages to be determined by the court and names as defendants Charles C. Conaway, Kmart's former chief executive officer and five other executives.
Kmart, based in Troy, Mich., is not itself involved in the litigation.
