Stocks up as consumer mood rises
NEW YORK, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. stocks opened higher Wednesday ahead of key consumer confidence and home sale data.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 39.55 or 0.37 percent to 10,817.32 in late-morning trading. The Nasdaq composite was up 6.08 or 0.27 percent to 2,232.97, and the Standard & Poor's 500 climbed 4.06 or 0.32 percent to 1,260.60.
The Conference Board was expected to report that consumer confidence posted a strong increase this month.
The 10-year Treasury note fell 7/32, or $2.19 for every $1,000 invested, to yield 4.36 percent.
The dollar rose to 117.45 yen from 117.43 as the euro rose to $1.1906 from $1.1834 on the back of surging German consumer confidence.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 closed at 16,194.61 after gaining 225.21 or 1.41 percent.
DaimlerChrysler sells engine divisions
STUTTGART, Germany, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- DaimlerChrysler AG expects to get $1.19 billion from selling two engine-making units to a private equity fund based in Sweden.
EQT Partners AB is buying the MTU Friedrichshafen heavy-engine division and Detroit Diesel Corp. unit's off-highway business for an enterprise value of $1.9 billion, a sum that includes payment and debt assumption, the German automaker said Wednesday.
DaimlerChrysler, which expects its net income to rise by about $357 million because of the deal, said the divestment was calculated to help it focus on its core business.
Sedgwick CMS sold for $635 million to FNF
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Florida-based Fidelity National Financial Inc., the top U.S. title insurer, is buying Sedgwick CMS Holdings Inc. for $635 million.
Sedgwick, based in Memphis, Tenn., offers third-party claims management services to big corporations, FNF said Wednesday.
The principal selling shareholders are Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., via its risk and insurance services firm Marsh Inc., and Trident II LP, a private equity fund managed by Stone Point Capital LLC.
Sedgwick will become an FNF operating company, with Sedgwick's current chief executive remaining in that post and reporting to FNF's chief executive.
U.S. refinery freeze hikes 'dependency'
NEW YORK, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- A 25-year-old inability to permit new refineries in the United States is making the nation more dependent on foreign facilities.
In a manner reminiscent of how U.S. dependency on foreign crude oil developed, the United States is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign petroleum products like gasoline and heating oil refined from crude oil, the feedstock that refineries process into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil.
Scottish consulting firm Wood Mackenzie found that there are about 100 refining expansion projects representing as much as 12 million barrels a day of new capacity being built globally -- nearly all outside the United States.
Saudi Arabia, the world's dominant supplier of crude oil, is building the most new refining capacity, thus positioning itself to also become the world's dominant supplier of gasoline and other refined petroleum products.
No refinery has been built in the United States since 1976, most due to "regulatory barriers and the not-in-my-backyard attitude of communities around the country," the Wall Street Journal said Wednesday.
U.S. refineries are operating at their virtual maximum utilization rate, and have been for many months.
