Bernanke's remarks ripple through market
NEW YORK, July 14 (UPI) -- U.S. stock indexes retreated Thursday after Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke told a Senate panel the Fed wasn't ready to act on a third stimulus now.
The Dow Jones industrial average was off 11.69 points, or 0.09 percent, to 12,479.90 in early afternoon trading.
The Nasdaq shed 24.39 points, or 0.87 percent, to 2,772.53.
The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 3.45 points, or 0.26 percent, to 1,314.27.
Bernanke, in giving his semiannual monetary policy update to senators, repeated what he said Wednesday before a House committee -- that the Fed had plans in place in case a third round of stimulus was needed, but wouldn't just jump in.
"We are not prepared at this point to take further action," Bernanke said during questioning by the Senate Banking Committee.
"You can almost predict it's going to sell off [when Bernanke speaks]," Alan Valdes, director of floor trading at DME Securities, told The Wall Street Journal. "Everyone thinks there will be a QE3 [third round of quantitative easing] ... He will not risk a double dip [recession] in this market."
The Labor Department said 405,000 new claims for jobless benefits were filed last week, down about 22,000 from the previous week. Other economic data released by the federal government indicated retail sales for June rose 0.1 percent and producer prices were down 0.4 percent for the month.
The 10-year treasury note was 2.92 percent.
The euro was $1.4183, up from $1.414 Wednesday. Against the yen, the dollar was 79.0845 from 78.985 yen on Wednesday.
In London, the FTSE 100 closed at 5.846.95, off 59.48.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei Average closed at 9.936.12, down 27.02.
ConocoPhillips announces plans to separate
HOUSTON, July 14 (UPI) -- ConocoPhillips, the largest oil refiner in the United States, announced plans said Thursday it will reorganize into two publicly traded companies.
After the proposed separation is complete, ConocoPhillips said in a release it would be a large, geographically diverse exploration and production company.
ConocoPhillips' board of directors approved the pursuit of separating the company's refining and marketing business from the exploration and production business, the Houston-based company said.
As a separate entity, the refining and marketing business will be a leading pure-play independent refiner, said ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. integrated energy company.
"Consistent with our strategy to create industry-leading shareholder value, we have concluded that two independent companies focused on their respective industries will be better positioned to pursue their individually focused business strategies," said Jim Mulva, ConocoPhillips chairman and chief executive officer. "Both companies will continue to benefit from the size and scale of their significant high-quality asset bases and free cash flow generation, allowing them to invest and create shareholder value in a changing environment."
The separation should be completed during the first half of 2012, ConocoPhillips said. Once the separation is complete, Mulva said he would retire.
The separation does not require a shareholder vote, but is subject to market conditions and standard regulatory approvals, among other things, ConocoPhillips said.
Report: No Samsung plant cancer link found
SEOUL, July 14 (UPI) -- A company-commissioned study found no links between Samsung Electronics' chip plants and cancer, the South Korean electronics giant said Thursday.
However, labor advocates and investors both ripped the report, challenging the study's transparency and independence, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
The study by a Chicago-based environmental consulting firm came after a court ruled in June that Samsung responsible for two workers' deaths and ordered a state agency to pay compensation to the surviving family members.
Environ International Corp. studied the cases of six people who developed leukemia and other blood-related diseases while they worked at the electronics maker's chip factories in Seoul. The six employees are suing the state welfare agency for denying their requests for compensation last year.
"We did not find any link between exposure to cancer-causing chemicals and the health conditions of six employees," Fred Boelter, a principal at Environ, said during a news conference at Samsung's Giheung plant in Yongin, a Seoul suburb.
Samsung hired Environ to conduct a one-year study of health and safety conditions on its three semiconductor lines after a rash of deaths and illnesses among young semiconductor workers, Yonhap reported. Samsung said 26 current and former employees were diagnosed with leukemia or lymphoma and 10 of them died, while others said at least 36 Samsung employees developed cancer and 15 died.
Samsung and Environ refused to disclose the data and the full report, citing confidentiality.
"If you are saying that your work is based on a scientific process, it should be opened to the public," Paek Domyung, dean of the graduate school of public health at Seoul National University, said. "There is no data here, just your conclusions."
Netherlands-based pension fund APG also expressed concern about the company's handling of the issue.
"What the company calls an independent third-party investigation is in fact neither independent nor transparent," APG said in a newsletter. "The environmental consultant was hired and is being paid for by Samsung."
First-time jobless claims drop
WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- First-time claims for unemployment benefits fell 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 405,000 for the week ending last Saturday, the U.S. Labor Department said.
For the four-week period ending last Saturday, the number of new claims fell 3,750, the department said in a release.
The advance number of actual first-time claims under state programs, based on unadjusted data, was 470,671 for the week ending last Saturday, an increase of 45,031 from the previous week, the department said. There were 515,991 initial claims filed for a similar period in 2010.
The Labor Department noted that Minnesota indicated about 11,500 of its reported initial claims resulted from state employees filing because of a state government shutdown.
