UPI NewsTrack Business

Markets rally Monday

NEW YORK, July 13 (UPI) -- U.S. bank stocks led a general rally Monday as the corporate reporting season began its second week.

Reports due this week include Intel, Johnson & Johnson and New York bank Goldman Sachs, where profits were likely to exceed the $1.66 billion reported in the first quarter, The New York Times reported.

On Monday, Bank of America closed 9.34 percent higher while Citigroup gained 7.34 percent.

By close, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 185.16 points, or 2.27 percent, to 8,331.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 2.49 percent, 21.92 points, to 901.05. The Nasdaq composite index added 37.18 points, 2.12 percent, to 1,793.21.

On the New York Stock Exchange, 2,526 stocks advanced and 489 declined on a volume of 4 billion shares traded.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond fell 16/32 to yield 3.35 percent.

The euro fell to $1.3982, compared to Friday's $1.3996. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar fell to 92.895 yen, compared to Friday's 92.93 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei average lost 236.95 points to 9,050.33, off 2.55 percent.

In London, the FTSE 100 index gained 1.82 percent, 74.96, to 4,202.13.

Judge says GM can bid on Delphi

NEW YORK, July 13 (UPI) -- General Motors Corp., fresh out of bankruptcy, can proceed with a deal to help U.S. parts supplier Delphi out of its own bankruptcy process, a judge said.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber, presiding over the GM bankruptcy case, said Monday the automaker can join with Parnassus Holdings LLC for a deal in which GM will invest $2 billion in Delphi and provide the company a $500 million loan. Platinum Equity LLC, the parent company of Parnassus, will invest $250 million and loan $250 million to the parts supplier, which has been in bankruptcy since 2005, The Detroit News reported.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, presiding over the Delphi case, scheduled a hearing for July 23 to review the GM bid, the only one submitted before the deadline on bids expired Friday.

The plan calls for GM to assume obligations for Delphi's hourly workers' pension plan, but not the pension plan for salaried workers, which will be turned over to the government.

On Friday, GM sold the bulk of its viable assets to the U.S. and Canadian governments and the United Auto Workers union.

McGraw-Hill shops BusinessWeek for sale

NEW YORK, July 13 (UPI) -- U.S. publisher McGraw-Hill is shopping around for a buyer for its 80-year-old magazine BusinessWeek, a source close to the company said.

Ad sales for the magazine plunged 30 percent in the second quarter to $43.9 million, steeper than the industry average of 22 percent, Publishers Information Bureau reported.

At business periodicals, ad sales fell 34 percent at Fortune in the second quarter and 40 percent at Forbes, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday. Conde Nast said in April it would close its business magazine Portfolio.

A spokesman for McGraw-Hill declined to comment on the possible sale, but a source said the company has hired Evercore Partners Inc. to help find a buyer. Evercore also declined to comment, the newspaper said.

A movie hit can transform toy industry

HOLLYWOOD, July 13 (UPI) -- U.S. toymaker Hasbro Inc. could post a banner year in 2009, thanks to a blockbuster movie based on one of its toy lines.

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" has made $340 million at the box office in the United States and Canada so far, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

But the Michael Bay hit will have a huge influence on toy sales. Analysts say Hasbro could make $600 million this year on Transformer toys in a year filled with box office hits that will prove to be bonanzas for toys stores.

Makers of Star Trek, X-Men and G.I. Joe toys also have movies driving toy sales.

"This year might be a peak" in movie-related toy sales, said industry analyst John Taylor at Arcadia Investment Corp.

"People are thinking if everything goes well, "Transformers" could rival "Star Wars" as the single best-selling property," he said. "With G.I. Joe on top of that, you've got a shot at breaking $700 million."

Predicting a movie hit has not always been easy. "Monsters vs. Aliens," was a box-office smash, but neither Wal-Mart nor Target Corp. carried plush toys based on its characters, the newspaper said.