U.S. stocks rise on strong retail sales
NEW YORK, April 12 (UPI) -- U.S. stock indexes closed up Thursday, with rising oil prices and inflation concerns quelled by strong retail-sales results.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 68.34 points, or 0.55 percent, to 12,552.96. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 stock index added 8.93, or 0.62 percent, to 1,447.80.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 2,203 stocks gained and 1,119 declined on volume of 2.9 billion shares traded.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 21.01 points, or 0.85 percent, to 2,480.32.
In London, the FTSE 100 index closed up 3.10, or 0.05 percent, at 6,416.40.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 129.65, or 0.73 percent, at 17,540.42.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 1/32, yielding 4.736 percent, while the 30-year bond was down 2/32, yielding 4.91 percent.
The U.S. dollar fell to 119.09 yen from 119.33 yen late Wednesday in New York. The euro rose to $1.3487 from $1.343.
Nestle buys Gerber for $5.5B
VEVEY, Switzerland, April 12 (UPI) -- Swiss package-food company Nestle SA said Thursday it would buy Gerber Products Co. from Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG for $5.5 billion.
The deal lets Nestle, the world's biggest food and drink company, get a baby-food brand it wanted for 13 years.
Nestle, of Vevey, Switzerland, tried to buy Gerber in 1994 but lost out to Sandoz AG, which later merged with Ciba-Geigy to form Novartis.
Thursday's deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year, subject to regulatory approvals, Nestle said.
Gerber, of Fremont, Mich., had revenue of $1.6 billion and an operating profit of $307 million last year. It has about 80 percent of the U.S. baby-food market and its products are sold in 80 countries.
It will become part of Nestle's nutrition division, which includes Jenny Craig diet foods and Neslac infant formula, Chief Executive Officer Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said.
Nestle bought Novartis' medical-nutrition division in December for $2.5 billion.
It is paying 2.8 times sales for Gerber, about the same valuation as its purchase of the other Novartis business.
Novartis, of Basel, Switzerland, is the world's fourth-largest drugmaker.
Mexico's Slim tops Buffet as No. 2 richest
MEXICO CITY, April 12 (UPI) -- Mexican telecom titan Carlos Slim Helu has quietly slipped ahead of Warren Buffet as the world's second-richest man, Forbes magazine said.
Slim, who controls traditional phone company Telefonos de Mexico, top Mexican cell phone carrier Telcel and its parent, America Movil, is worth $53.1 billion, compared with Buffet's $52.4 billion, Forbes said.
Buffet, the Berkshire Hathaway chief executive, was the world's second-richest man for the past seven years.
Slim, 67, is also close to passing Microsoft Corp. co-founder and Chairman Bill Gates, who is worth $56 billion. Gates, who co-founded Microsoft in 1975, has been the world's richest man for a record 13 years.
Slim's fortune has increased $4 billion since February, as key investment Carso Global Telecom jumped 15 percent, the magazine says. Carso holds stocks of companies including Slim's Telmex, Telcel and America Movil.
Slim's wealth -- in a country whose average income is $6,800 -- is the equivalent of roughly 7 percent of Mexico's annual economic output, the magazine said. Forbes estimated that if Gates had a similar proportion in the United States he would be worth $874 billion.
Iacocca: Administration 'clueless bozos'
DETROIT, April 12 (UPI) -- Former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca calls the Bush administration "a gang of clueless bozos" and attacks the U.S. auto industry in a new book.
"We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car," Iacocca and co-author Catherine Whitney write in the first page of "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?"
"I hardly recognize this country anymore," he writes.
In the book, Iacocca endorses higher federal fuel-economy standards, warns DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group could become a "shattered remnant" if sold, and suggests ways Detroit's automakers can turn their businesses around, The Detroit Free Press reports.
Iacocca also describes the 1998 morning when he learned of the Chrysler merger with Daimler-Benz as "the lowest low." The acquisition was announced May 7 and took place Nov. 12.
"I gave 15 years of my life to saving that company, and now I wondered if it was worth it," he writes.
The book, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, is due out Tuesday.
