Wednesday markets rally in U.S.
NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. markets spent the first half of Wednesday in decline, then rallied to post gains for the day.
Analysts said January meeting minutes released Wednesday afternoon by the U.S. Federal Reserve had a counter-intuitive effect. The minutes revealed Fed concerns about inflation and predictions of a near-stagnant first half of 2008, and investors concluded the Fed would cut interest rates again soon.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed late to 12,427.26, up 0.7 percent, a 90.04 point gain.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 11.25 points to 1,360.03, up 0.83 percent.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index climbed 20.90 points to 2,327.10, up 0.91 percent.
On the New York Stock Exchange, 1866 stocks advanced and 1,227 declined on a volume of 3.778 billion shares traded.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 1/32, yielding 3.910 percent.
The dollar gained. The euro traded at $1.4719, from $1.4726 Tuesday, while the dollar traded at 108.11 yen, compared with 107.69 yen Tuesday.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei average plunged 3.2 percent Wednesday to 13,310.37, down 447.54 points on news that a major financial concern, KKR Financial Holdings, was having trouble meeting obligations.
In London, the FTSE 100 index dropped 73.02 points to 5,893.60, down 1.23 percent.
Georgia cancels Office Depot contract
ATLANTA, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- The State of Georgia has canceled a multi-million-dollar contract with Office Depot after warning the company of pricing irregularities, it was reported.
Office Depot's contract was worth $40 million annually, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Wednesday.
Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Administrative Services Brad Douglas said he warned the company about incorrectly priced items and found more irregularities months later.
"The supplier simply failed to perform," Douglas said.
An office supply trade organization estimated that Office Depot overcharged the state $1.2 million in the past 10 months, the report said.
Office Depot issued a brief response, saying it had worked "in good faith with the State of Georgia."
Sears agrees to fix stove problems
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Sears Holding Co. settled a class-action suit Wednesday by agreeing to install brackets on as many as 3.9 million stoves sold from 2000 to last September.
Consumer groups complained that light-weight new stoves are easy to tip with force applied to an open door. More than 100 people, mostly children and the elderly, have been injured or killed by the weight of the stoves or by items falling off the tops, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said in a statement.
The total settlement could run as high as $500 million.
Sears has agreed to offer customers free installation of brackets that bolt stoves to walls or $100 if they already have had the stove brackets installed. They will also offer a $50 gift card to help pay for a new Sears stove if customers decline to have the anti-tipping bracket installed.
Former Broadcom employee acquitted
SANTA ANA, Calif., Feb. 20 (UPI) -- A U.S. judge in Santa Ana, Calif., found a former Broadcom Corp. engineer not guilty Wednesday on charges he stole 4,700 company files before leaving his job.
Tien Shiah, who said "it feels great, great to be exonerated," still faces a civil suit, The Orange County (Calif.) Register reported.
Shiah worked in Broadcom's ethernet division from 2001 to 2003, but left to take a position at Marvel Semiconductor Inc. Before doing so, he downloaded files on pricing and designs that Broadcom described as the company's "crown jewels," the report said.
In his own defense, Shiah said he took the files as part of a personal work record, not to share with his new employer.
"A contrary holding," Judge David O. Carter wrote, "would have a chilling effect on the ability of employees to move freely from one company to another."
