Markets wake up slowly on Monday
NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. markets woke slowly Monday after the fifth week of declines since the beginning of 2008.
Since Jan. 1, the Dow Jones industrial average has slipped 8.2 percent, the S&P 500 index has dropped 9.3 percent and the tech-dominated Nasdaq board has declined 13.1 percent.
In midmorning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 71.37 or 0.5 percent to 12,120.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 6.45 or 0.48 percent to 1,324.84 The Nasdaq composite index dropped 4.00 or 0.17 percent to 2,300.85
The 10-year U.S. Treasury note gained 20/32, yielding 3.6 percent.
The dollar was lower. The euro traded at $1.4506, compared with $1.4473 Friday. The dollar traded at 106.65 yen, compared with 107.52 Friday.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei average lost 189.91 points Monday to 13,0417.24, off 1.4 percent.
Russia cancels $12 billion of Iraq's debt
MOSCOW, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Monday that Russia would cancel 93 percent of Iraq's debt following a major trade agreement.
The agreement wipes out $12 billion out of $12.9 billion that Iraq owed Russia and comes on the heels of an agreement, signed earlier in the day, spelling out cooperation in trade, science and technology, the RIA Novosti reported.
After signing the agreement, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would be heavily involved reconstruction of Iraq.
"We are counting on long-term joint projects in the oil and natural gas and energy sectors," he said.
Kudrin said Russia was also considering as much as a $4 billion investment in Iraq.
CEO turnover rose in January
CHICAGO, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Turnover among chief executive officers of U.S. corporations climbed 57.6 percent in January, Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported Monday.
In January, 134 CEOs resigned, retired or were fired, the report says, compared with 85 in December 2007 and 114 in January 2007.
"As companies try to survive this economic slowdown and possible recession, CEOs are going to be under heightened scrutiny," Chief Executive Officer John Challenger said.
Layoffs trim operating costs. Outsourcing can help a corporation. "But, eventually, all eyes turn to the head of a company," Challenger said.
The health care sector led the CEO turnover rankings with 19. Departures of CEOs among technology companies ranked second with 18.
Among January's turnover at the top job, 35 retired and 28 stepped down, the report said.
Fourteen percent of those leaving CEO jobs were women and of the 101 CEO replacements that came on board in January, 11.8 percent were women, the report said. A majority (66 percent) of the women taking over a corporation were replacing a man.
Internal Notes
Europe demands wireless rate reductions
LONDON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The European commissioner for the Information Society and Media called on mobile operators Monday to reduce text messaging rates or face regulatory changes.
"Text messaging or downloading data via a mobile phone while in another EU country should not be substantially more expensive for a consumer than sending text messages or downloading data at home," Commissioner Viviane Reding said.
"Higher retail charges abroad must be justified by additional cost of operators or they will have to disappear."
Reding suggested operators use a flat rate fee system -- known as "all you can eat," the Times of London reported.
Operators, such as Vodafone and O2 have already lowered rates of text messaging while the consumer is abroad and Tom Phillips, head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at the GSM Association, told the Times, "it's a very new service" and "prices are coming down very quickly."
Reding said that companies have until July to lower rates or face "regulatory interventions."
Internal Notes
