Tech stocks fall, broader market up
WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- Weakness in the U.S. tech sector hammered the Nasdaq composite index Thursday, but falling oil prices lifted the broader market.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 45.89 or 0.42 percent to 10,851.51 on a volume of 1.3 billion shares. The Nasdaq composite was off 1.57 or 0.08 percent to 2,059.72 and the Standard & Poor's 500 inched up 2.24 or 0.19 percent to 1,209.25.
Intel shares fell 1.5 percent and the Internet search engine Google dropped 1.9 percent, CNN said.
Oil fell $1.23 to $53.54 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury note rose 13/32, or $4.06 for each $1,000 invested, cutting the yield to 4.48 percent.
The dollar rose to 104.05 yen from 103.96, and the euro rose to $1.3426 from $1.3387.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 101.78 or 0.9 percent to 11,864.91, and London's FTSE 100 closed at 4,962.40 after sliding 33.70 or 0.67 percent.
Ford scion to retire
DETROIT, March 10 (UPI) -- William Clay Ford Sr., a scion of the Ford Motors' founding family who guided the company since 1948, will retire from the board of directors in May.
A Ford director since 1948 and the board's vice chairman during the 1980s, Bill Ford Sr. has been a major figure in Ford's corporate history. The company has no plans to find a replacement for him on the board, the Detroit News reported Thursday.
During his leadership, the company was transformed from a family-held business built by his grandfather, Henry Ford, into a global automotive giant now headed by his son, Bill Ford Jr., the newspaper said.
"Leaving the board will relieve me of formal duties and give me more flexibility," the patriarch, who also owns the Detroit Lions, told the board Wednesday. He turns 80 next Monday.
He was instrumental in the board's decision in 2001 to fire Ford's then-chief executive, Jacques Nasser, and turn the reins over to his son.
Bill Ford Sr. remains the company's largest individual stockholder, owning 21 percent of the powerful Class B shares held solely by members of the Ford extended family.
Productivity loss from basketball to soar
CHICAGO, March 10 (UPI) -- Productivity loss at U.S. firms may hit $890 million this year because of workers tuning in to the NCAA men's basketball playoffs, it was estimated Thursday.
The process begins next Tuesday with the start of the last 16 contest in the tournament which is also known as the March Madness, says the estimate prepared by the Chicago-based global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.
The productivity loss could be much higher than in previous years because for the first time, three Web sites -- cstv.com, cbssportsline.com and ncaasports.com -- will be available for real-time Internet broadcasts through the round of 16 surviving teams.
The company says conservative estimates put the impact on the bottom lines of U.S. companies at $889.6 million over the 16 business days of the tournament.
The March Madness will be an instant productivity loss as workers, including college basketball fanatics and participants in office betting pools, spend an inordinate amount of time monitoring their favorite teams.
S. Korea officially joins IDB
WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- South Korea has been formally been accepted as a member of the Inter-American Development Bank, the agency reported Thursday.
An official ceremony to mark the occasion will be held March 16 at IDB's Washington headquarters, which will be attended by senior South Korean finance officials as well as IDB executives, the bank said.
South Korea will be the 47th member country of the group, and the second member country from Asia, after Japan.
The IDB provides low-interest loans to help fight poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean.
