UPI NewsTrack Business
Published: Feb. 14, 2008 at 11:13 AM
U.S. markets start Thursday with drop
NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. markets were lower Thursday despite a drop in unemployment claims of 9,000 for the first week of February and a decline in the 2007 U.S. deficit.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 21.21 points to 12,531.03, down 0.01 percent.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index also declined in mid-morning trading, down 0.14 percent, or 1.97 points, to 1,365.24.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 12.05 points to 2,361.88, off 0.51 percent.
The 10-year Treasury note lost 4/32 to yield 3.692 percent.
The dollar was mixed. The euro traded at $1.4581 from $1.4569 on Wednesday, while the dollar traded at 108.53 yen, up from 108.27 yen on Wednesday.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei average followed U.S. markets' strong posting on Wednesday with a big jump, rising 558.15 points, or 4.25 percent, to 13,626.45.
Revenues soar among wary customer group
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Revenues from e-commerce have grown nearly 500 percent since 2000, the Pew Research Center said Thursday, but the e-shopper is still a wary customer.
After polling 2,400 U.S. Internet users, researchers found online revenues, which grew from $7.4 billion in the third quarter of 2000 to $34.7 billion in the third quarter of 2007, increased far faster than positive attitudes about shopping online.
Especially among low-income groups who use the Internet, caution about revealing personal information and credit card numbers online remain, researchers said.
"Their concerns about their financial safety online make them reluctant to make full use of e-shopping," the report said.
While online revenues increased fivefold, those who said they shopped online more than doubled, from 22 to 49 percent.
What holds people back is confusion and caution, the report said. Three-quarters of those polled said they did not like divulging personal information online. And 58 percent said that online shopping was frustrating, confusing or overwhelming.
Online banking increased -- from 27 percent in 2005 to 39 percent in 2007 -- and a vast majority (93 percent) have done "something related to e-commerce," researchers said, including research, booking reservations and bidding at an e-auction.
Plant in China linked to troubled drug
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has traced the active ingredient in Baxter International Inc.'s troubled blood-thinning drug to a facility in China.
Baxter, which makes half the U.S. supply of heparin, stopped production of the anti-clotting drug this week. Baxter's version of heparin, which sells at the rate of 100,000 vials a day, has been implicated in four deaths. Additionally, 350 allergic reactions have been reported to the FDA this year.
The FDA said they haven't inspected the Chinese plant that makes the ingredient and that it only inspects around 7 percent of foreign pharmaceuticals each year. The FDA told the Government Accountability Office it "cannot provide the exact number of foreign establishments that have never been inspected," The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
APP Pharmaceuticals Inc., another major supplier of heparin, which is used before heart surgery and kidney dialysis, also imports an active ingredient from China, the report said. But, APP Pharmaceuticals hasn't reported any problems.
The cause of the problem with Baxter's drug hasn't been discovered. "There have not been changes," in the Chinese facility recently, a Baxter spokeswoman said. Implicating the Chinese plant is "not a foregone conclusion," she said.
Crude oil prices top $94 per barrel
NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices jumped Thursday morning to more than $94 a barrel in New York on news that gasoline sales in the United States climbed 23 percent in January.
Crude oil climbed 84 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange, reaching a high for the year at $94.11 per barrel.
Heating oil prices also climbed, rising 1.79 cents to $2.6335 per gallon.
The price of reformulated gasoline blendstock gained 2.22 cents to $2.4121 per gallon.
Natural gas prices rose 11.7 cents to $8.505 per million British thermal units.
The national average price for a gallon of unleaded stood at $2.979 Thursday morning, up from $2.972 Wednesday, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.
NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. markets were lower Thursday despite a drop in unemployment claims of 9,000 for the first week of February and a decline in the 2007 U.S. deficit.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 21.21 points to 12,531.03, down 0.01 percent.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index also declined in mid-morning trading, down 0.14 percent, or 1.97 points, to 1,365.24.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 12.05 points to 2,361.88, off 0.51 percent.
The 10-year Treasury note lost 4/32 to yield 3.692 percent.
The dollar was mixed. The euro traded at $1.4581 from $1.4569 on Wednesday, while the dollar traded at 108.53 yen, up from 108.27 yen on Wednesday.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei average followed U.S. markets' strong posting on Wednesday with a big jump, rising 558.15 points, or 4.25 percent, to 13,626.45.
Revenues soar among wary customer group
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Revenues from e-commerce have grown nearly 500 percent since 2000, the Pew Research Center said Thursday, but the e-shopper is still a wary customer.
After polling 2,400 U.S. Internet users, researchers found online revenues, which grew from $7.4 billion in the third quarter of 2000 to $34.7 billion in the third quarter of 2007, increased far faster than positive attitudes about shopping online.
Especially among low-income groups who use the Internet, caution about revealing personal information and credit card numbers online remain, researchers said.
"Their concerns about their financial safety online make them reluctant to make full use of e-shopping," the report said.
While online revenues increased fivefold, those who said they shopped online more than doubled, from 22 to 49 percent.
What holds people back is confusion and caution, the report said. Three-quarters of those polled said they did not like divulging personal information online. And 58 percent said that online shopping was frustrating, confusing or overwhelming.
Online banking increased -- from 27 percent in 2005 to 39 percent in 2007 -- and a vast majority (93 percent) have done "something related to e-commerce," researchers said, including research, booking reservations and bidding at an e-auction.
Plant in China linked to troubled drug
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has traced the active ingredient in Baxter International Inc.'s troubled blood-thinning drug to a facility in China.
Baxter, which makes half the U.S. supply of heparin, stopped production of the anti-clotting drug this week. Baxter's version of heparin, which sells at the rate of 100,000 vials a day, has been implicated in four deaths. Additionally, 350 allergic reactions have been reported to the FDA this year.
The FDA said they haven't inspected the Chinese plant that makes the ingredient and that it only inspects around 7 percent of foreign pharmaceuticals each year. The FDA told the Government Accountability Office it "cannot provide the exact number of foreign establishments that have never been inspected," The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
APP Pharmaceuticals Inc., another major supplier of heparin, which is used before heart surgery and kidney dialysis, also imports an active ingredient from China, the report said. But, APP Pharmaceuticals hasn't reported any problems.
The cause of the problem with Baxter's drug hasn't been discovered. "There have not been changes," in the Chinese facility recently, a Baxter spokeswoman said. Implicating the Chinese plant is "not a foregone conclusion," she said.
Crude oil prices top $94 per barrel
NEW YORK, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices jumped Thursday morning to more than $94 a barrel in New York on news that gasoline sales in the United States climbed 23 percent in January.
Crude oil climbed 84 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange, reaching a high for the year at $94.11 per barrel.
Heating oil prices also climbed, rising 1.79 cents to $2.6335 per gallon.
The price of reformulated gasoline blendstock gained 2.22 cents to $2.4121 per gallon.
Natural gas prices rose 11.7 cents to $8.505 per million British thermal units.
The national average price for a gallon of unleaded stood at $2.979 Thursday morning, up from $2.972 Wednesday, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.
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This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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