UPI NewsTrack Business

U.S. markets leap on Fed announcement

NEW YORK, March 11 (UPI) -- U.S. markets made strong advances Tuesday as a rally faltered in midday, then picked up again and soared to the day's close.

It was the market's biggest jump in five years with financial firms making strong gains on the U.S. Federal Reserve's plans to make $200 billion available in U.S. Treasury securities loans.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 416.66 points by close Tuesday, up 3.55 percent to 12,156.81 points.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index also rallied, up 3.71 percent Tuesday on a 47.28 point gain to 1,320.65 points.

The Nasdaq composite index climbed 86.42 points, or 3.98 percent, to 2,255.76 points.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note declined 1 5/32 to yield 3.605 percent.

The euro traded at $1.5315 from $1.5375 early Tuesday, while the dollar traded at 103.50 yen from 102.855 yen early Tuesday.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index gained 126.15 points Tuesday, up 1.01 percent to close at 12,658.28 points.

In London, the FTSE 100 index gained 80.20 points to close at 5,709.30, up 1.42 percent.

U.S. remittance rate turns a corner

WASHINGTON, March 11 (UPI) -- Growth in the amount of money U.S. migrants send home to Latin America and the Caribbean has turned a corner, the Miami Herald reported Tuesday.

Central and South American and Caribbean migrants sent a record $66 billion to their home countries in 2007, but the growth rate of remittances has declined. U.S. remittances sent to Brazil declined for the first time, the Inter-American Development Bank reported.

The bank has kept track of the figures since 2001.

Money sent home is key to many Latin American economies, but Don Terry, president of the bank's unit that tracks remittances, said part of the reason the transfers have slowed is the growing strength of Latin American economies.

Brazil's currency, the real, has strengthened from 3.7 per dollar in 2001, to 1.4 real to the dollar in 2008.

While remittances to Mexico gained $1 billion to $24 billion in 2007, a 4 percent increase, Terry is predicting the remittance rate will flatten in 2008, the report said.

Overall, remittances to Latin American and the Caribbean rose 7 percent last year, a decline of more than 3 percent compared to 2006.

Food prices soaring in Britain

LONDON, March 11 (UPI) -- Average food prices soared by 11 percent in England in the past year, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday.

A family of four has seen food bills rise by $1,150 over the last year, the report said.

The average prices of basic items, such as bread, milk and butter have risen 30 times faster than the country's rate of inflation. On average, food prices have soared 11 percent and experts predicted the rise in prices would continue, the newspaper report said.

Analysts said farmers turning fields to ethanol production and the rising demands of emerging markets were partly to blame for the high prices. And both dynamics were expected to continue.

Britain's biggest food producer, Premier Foods, paid $302 million for wheat above what they paid in 2006, the report said.

"It is no secret that many families are already struggling under the pressure of rising living costs," Johnny Stern, director of Mysupermarket.co.uk, which tracks food prices, told the Daily Mail.

Poll: Small in business is beautiful

PRINCETON, N.J., March 11 (UPI) -- Small business owners in the United States are a stick-to-it bunch, a Gallup Poll released Tuesday revealed.

An October survey found only 11 percent of small-business owners say they want to retire at all. Nine in 10 say they are happy with what they do -- with 58 percent saying they are very or extremely satisfied with their work.

"In other words, small-business owners overwhelmingly like what they do," Gallup said.

Further, small-business owners have the luxury of deciding when to retire. The poll revealed that 40 percent plan to keep working as long as their health allows. Another 47 percent said they would keep the business running, but cut back to part-time.

Money, apparently, is not the issue. In the survey, 79 percent of small-business owners thought their savings would allow them a comfortable lifestyle when they retired. "In part, this may be because small-business owners tend to have higher incomes than the average American," the report said.

The telephone survey of 600 small-business owners was conducted Oct. 4-14 and carries a margin of error of 4 percent.