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More Americans than anticipated filed jobless-benefit claims last week, indicating companies remain focused on cutting expenses as the economy emerges from its worst recession since the 1930s.

Applications fell by 4,000 to 570,000 in the week ended Aug. 29, exceeding the 564,000 median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The total number of people collecting unemployment insurance climbed.

The firings are one reason economists project consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, will be slow to strengthen. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg forecast a Labor Department report tomorrow will show August payrolls fell by 230,000, the smallest decrease in a year.

“We’re not making much progress in terms of the layoff picture,” said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Holdings USA Inc., which correctly forecast the first-time filings figure. “These levels of initial claims are still consistent with declines in payrolls.”

Service industries, which account for almost 90 percent of the economy, shrank at a slower pace in August, the Tempe, Arizona-based Institute for Supply Management also reported today. The group’s index of non-manufacturing businesses rose to 48.4, exceeding forecasts and the highest level in 11 months, from 46.4 in July.

Markets

Stocks trimmed gains following the services data as optimism dimmed over the pace of the economic recovery. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was little changed at 994.76 at 10:33 a.m. in New York. Stock futures were boosted earlier in the day by the biggest rally in Chinese shares in six months. Treasuries trimmed losses, with benchmark 10-year notes yielding 3.33 percent, up from 3.31 percent late yesterday.

The median claims forecast reflected estimates from 40 economists surveyed. Projections ranged from 550,000 to 580,000. The Labor Department revised the prior week’s applications level up to 574,000 from a previous estimate of 570,000.

The jobless claims report showed the four-week moving average of initial applications, a less volatile measure, climbed to 571,250 last week, the highest level in more than a month, from 567,250.

Continuing Claims

Continuing claims jumped by 92,000 in the week ended Aug. 22 to 6.23 million. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, rose to 4.7 percent in the week ended Aug. 22 from 4.6 percent the prior week.

Thirty-two states and territories reported a decrease in claims, while 21 showed an increase. These data are reported with a one-week lag.

Initial jobless claims reflect weekly firings and tend to rise as job growth — measured by the monthly non-farm payrolls report — slows.

The economy has lost 6.7 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007, the most of any downturn since the Great Depression. Even so, the 247,000 drop in payrolls reported for July was lower than economists projected.

Manufacturers are still cutting staff. Whirlpool Corp., the world’s largest appliance maker, will close its Evansville, Indiana, manufacturing plant, resulting in the elimination of 1,100 jobs as the housing slowdown hurts demand.

Job Cuts

The job cuts, which represent about 1.6 percent of Whirlpool’s workforce, will occur in 2010, the Benton Harbor, Michigan-based company said Aug. 28 in a statement.

Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense company, plans to cut about 800 jobs at its Space Systems unit by yearend, the company said in a statement on Aug. 17.

Carmakers are among companies boosting production after a jump in sales following the government’s incentive program helped clear out inventories.

General Motors Co. called back 1,350 union workers, its biggest one-time increase in jobs since 2006, partly in response to demand from the government’s “cash for clunkers” program.

“We are adding production to almost all of our operations in the United States,” Tim Lee, GM group vice president overseeing global manufacturing and labor, said during a conference call on Aug. 18.

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President Barack Obama said it will take “many more months” for the U.S. to fully recover from the recession as employers continue to eliminate jobs.

The president said in his weekly address on the radio and the Internet that yesterday’s government report on the gross domestic product showed the recession was “even deeper than anyone thought” when he took office in January. The stimulus legislation passed by Congress in February and measures to stem home foreclosures have helped stem the slide, he said.

“Important steps that we have taken over the last six months have helped put the brakes on this recession,” Obama said. “But history shows that you need to have economic growth before you have job growth.”

Obama is putting the economy back at the forefront of his remarks to the public as polls show it remains the top concern of Americans. Next week he’s heading to Elkhart, Indiana, for an event focused on his economic policies. Obama said earlier this week that the U.S. “may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession.”

The Commerce Department reported yesterday that the gross domestic product shrank at a 1 percent annual pace in the second quarter, less than forecast, after a 6.4 percent drop in the first three months of the year. The economy has lost 6.5 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, and economists surveyed by Bloomberg this month forecast the jobless rate will exceed 10 percent by early 2010. The Labor Department is scheduled to release the July unemployment rate Aug. 7. The June rate was 9.5 percent.

Jobs and Recovery

“As far as I’m concerned, we will not have a recovery as long as we keep losing jobs,” Obama said. “And I won’t rest until every American who wants a job can find one.”

The GDP report is a “an important sign that we’re headed in the right direction” as business investment stabilizes, which may lead to more hiring.

“That’s when it will really feel like a recovery to the American people,” he said cash advance lenders.

The revised government data showed that GDP has tumbled 3.9 percent since the second quarter of last year — the biggest drop since quarterly records began in 1947. GDP has fallen four straight quarters, the longest ever.

“I know that there are countless families and businesses struggling to just hang on until this storm passes,” Obama said. “But I also know that if we do the things we know we must, this storm will pass. And it will yield to a brighter day.”

In a July 24-28 poll by the New York Times and CBS News, 36 percent of Americans said the economy was the most important problem facing the country. Twelve percent cited health care.

Republican Address

In the Republican address, South Dakota Senator John Thune said the party is committed to an overhaul of the U.S. health- care system while criticizing Democratic proposals for being “government-run” and too expensive.

“The Democrats who control Congress have been spending money and racking up debt at an unprecedented pace,” Thune said. “Their plan for government-run health care would only make things worse.”

Thune said the proposals being considered in the House and Senate would cost more than $2 trillion. The Congressional Budget Offices has estimated the Congressional proposals will cost around $1 trillion.

The Republican alternative, Thune said, would let small businesses join together to buy health insurance plans for their employees, protect hospitals and doctors from lawsuits and extend tax benefits to people who don’t get insurance through their jobs.

“These and other commonsense solutions would provide real reform for our health-care system rather than the dangerous and costly experiment that Democrats are proposing,” he said.

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Russia’s central bank cut its main interest rates for the fourth time in less than three months after the economy contracted 10.2 percent through May and government spending failed to reverse the decline.

Bank Rossii cut the refinancing rate to 11 percent from 11.5 percent and the repurchase rate charged on central bank loans to 10 percent from 10.5 percent effective July 13. The bank cut rates for the first time since 2007 on April 24 and again on May 13 and June 5.

“Despite the ongoing rate cuts conducted by Bank Rossii in April to June 2009, interest rates remain high,” the bank said in a statement. The latest reductions will lower borrowing costs and lead to the “restoration of lending activity of the banking sector.” The average rate in May for one-year loans for non- financial companies was 15.9 percent, the statement said.

The key interest rates of the world’s biggest energy exporter are among the highest in emerging markets, while its economic contraction is one of the steepest. Policy makers aim to spur lending and help pull the country out of its first recession since 1998.

Industrial production slumped a record 17.1 percent in May and capital investment shrank the most since December 1998, dropping an annual 23.1 percent. Inflation last month slowed to an 18-month low of 11.9 percent from 12.3 percent in May.

‘Small Step’

Previous cuts failed to revive lending, First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said in an interview last month. Lenders aren’t passing on the lower rates to companies on concern slumps in manufacturing and consumer demand may trigger a second wave of problems as companies fail to repay loans.

Lending to companies fell 1.5 percent in May compared with the previous month, while retail loans dropped 1.9 percent, the central bank said this week. Overdue bank loans reached 4.6 percent of the total in May, versus 4.2 percent a month earlier.

“It’s a small step toward reanimating lending,” said Stanislav Ponomarenko, a fixed-income analyst at ING Groep NV in Moscow. Rates need to be cut by as much as 4 percentage points to have an effect on lending, he said.

The central bank will watch the inflation rate as well as lending patterns and financial and currency markets as it sets its policy on rates in the future, the statement said.

‘Momentous Shift’

Consumer-price growth is slowing “intensively” and the inflation rate will be significantly less than the government’s original forecast, allowing the bank to continue cutting rates, Chairman Sergey Ignatiev told Russia’s parliament on June 24 business

The International Monetary Fund, which has rescued economies from Pakistan to Iceland in the past year, raised its outlook for the U.S. and called for steps to reduce concern about rising public debt and inflation.

The IMF forecasts the world’s largest economy will contract 2.5 percent this year before expanding 0.75 percent in 2010, according to a statement today after an annual staff analysis of the U.S. In the IMF’s World Economic Outlook report released in April, the U.S. was forecast to contract 2.8 percent this year before stalling in 2010.

The Washington-based lender said a “gradual” recovery is likely with downside risks “tilted to the upside.” The Federal Reserve could ease credit further if conditions worsen and additional fiscal stimulus “could also be considered” in the event the economy doesn’t bounce back, the IMF said.

“The combination of financial strains and ongoing adjustments in the housing and labor markets is expected to restrain growth for some time, with a solid recovery projected to emerge only in mid-2010,” the IMF staff report said.

Today’s statement said a solid recovery is unlikely until the middle of next year as unemployment peaks close to 10 percent.

The report praised the efforts of the Fed, the Obama administration and Congress, calling the economic stimulus package “well targeted” and saying monetary policy is relieving financial strains. It also warns that the extraordinary measures required to stabilize the economy and financial markets must be followed by a plan to unwind them as soon as possible to avoid a rise in inflation.

Inflation Concern

“Monetary and fiscal stimulus may stoke concerns about inflation and rising debt, exerting upward pressure on interest rates,” the statement said. “Unwinding interventions will pose major challenges, and — given the high level of cross-border competition in the financial sector — will need to be coordinated internationally to facilitate a smooth exit multiple car insurance quotes.”

The U.S. jobless rate climbed to 9.4 percent in May, the highest since 1983, according to Labor Department data. Falling home prices, coupled with near-record low mortgage rates and tax credits for first-time buyers, may help bring an end to the worst residential construction slump in seven decades. Reports this week are forecast to show builders began work on more houses as sales steadied and consumer prices rose.

The IMF projects the U.S. stimulus package will raise gross domestic product growth by 1 percent this year and 0.25 percent in 2010. The fund also said additional spending could also be considered.

Deficits Rising

The IMF staff projects federal deficits will average 9 percent of GDP from 2009 through 2011, and public debt will almost double to 75 percent of GDP.

The increased debt “may put significant pressure on Treasury bond rates,” the fund said.

Along with fiscal measures, the IMF staff mission offered its analysis of the American financial industry, saying that while steps taken by the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have “done much to stabilize financial conditions,” its unclear whether the administration’s Public- Private Investment Program will be used effectively.

The fund cautioned that the “ramping up” of the Term- Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility, known as TALF, and further purchases of Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities could “substantially” inflate the Fed’s balance sheet.

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Indonesia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for a seventh straight month to help bolster Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy.

Bank Indonesia reduced its reference rate by a quarter- point to 7 percent, the lowest level since the benchmark was introduced in 2005, according to a statement in Jakarta today. The cut was predicted by 18 of 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Policy makers across Asia have slashed interest rates and increased spending to counter the worst global recession since the Great Depression. Bank Indonesia has room to continue to reduce borrowing costs as inflation has slowed to a 23-month low and its benchmark rate remains the highest in East Asia.

“It’s defensible for Bank Indonesia to further cut its rate,” said Kenny Soejatman, director of equity investment at PT Mandiri Manajemen Investasi, which manages about $982 million. “To say that this is the last one would be too strong. We foresee a few more, though beyond this the probability is obviously becoming smaller.”

Lower interest rates may help economic growth in Indonesia remain above other nations in Southeast Asia. The $433 billion economy, which has been less affected than its neighbors by the global slump as it isn’t as reliant on exports, expanded 4.4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier.

Malaysia, Thailand

Malaysia’s economy shrank 6.2 percent in the three months to March 31 from a year earlier, its first contraction since 2001. Thailand’s gross domestic product fell 7.1 percent in the same period, pushing the nation into its first recession since the Asian financial crisis.

Indonesia’s economy may expand between 3 percent and 4 percent this year, the central bank said in today’s statement Internet Payday loans. Growth next year may range from 4 percent to 5 percent, senior deputy governor Miranda Goeltom said June 1.

Economic growth may benefit in the second half of 2009 and in 2010 from an improvement in consumer sentiment. An index of consumer confidence from the Danareksa Research Institute jumped to a 33-month high of 89.5 in May from 84.1 in April, according to a statement in Jakarta today.

Investors are also more optimistic about Indonesia’s economic prospects after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democrat Party won the most seats in April parliamentary elections, bolstering his bid for re-election in July.

‘Challenging Backdrop’

Still, Indonesian GDP growth may be tempered if the worldwide economic downturn continues to weaken the nation’s overseas sales. Exports fell 22.9 percent in April from a year earlier, the sixth straight month of declines.

“This downward trend in Indonesian export growth is unlikely to reverse any time soon,” said Yip Yee Lan, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in Singapore.

April’s 44.5 percent drop in imports from a year earlier also suggests “sagging” domestic demand, Yip said.

“Indicators of domestic demand activity have not yet seen any clear signs of stabilization,” said Johanna Chua, head of Asia-Pacific economics research at Citigroup Inc. in Hong Kong. This “will likely continue to provide a challenging backdrop for growth this year.”

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Japan’s local and foreign-currency debt ratings were brought to the same level, Aa2, by Moody’s Investors Service to reflect that the repayment risk for each is equal.

Moody’s cut the foreign-currency debt rating from Aaa and raised the local-currency assessment from Aa3, saying it can no longer assume that Japan would be more likely to repay debt borrowed in currencies other than the yen. The outlook remains stable, Moody’s said in a statement today.

Moody’s said Japan’s “considerable strengths” in terms of foreign reserves and household savings need to be balanced against its burgeoning debt. Prime Minister Taro Aso has pledged to spend 25 trillion yen ($263 billion) to counter Japan’s worst postwar recession, adding to debt that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says will swell to almost twice the size of the economy next year.

“The upgrade of the local-currency debt rating is psychologically positive” for local bond investors, said Akitsugu Bandou, senior economist in Tokyo at Okasan Securities Co. Investors shrugged off the downgrade to the foreign- currency rating because Japan has “almost no exposure” to debt denominated in other currencies, Bandou said.

The yield on Japan’s benchmark 10-year bond fell two basis points to 1.405 percent at the close in Tokyo. The yen was initially little changed before weakening to 95.79 per dollar at 10:05 a.m. in London from 95.01 before the announcement.

Hong Kong, Italy

The rating is the third-highest investment grade, equivalent to Standard & Poor’s AA and one notch higher than Fitch Ratings’ AA-. It puts Japan on a par with Hong Kong and Italy. Within the Group of Seven industrialized nations, only Italy and Japan have assessments below Aaa.

Moody’s said Japan is cushioned by its large household savings and foreign reserves as well as a “strong home bias” of investors in government bonds. Japan had $1 trillion in foreign reserves as of April 30, the most after China, and households have financial assets totaling 1,400 trillion yen.

Meanwhile the debt, the world’s largest, “leaves the country’s fiscal position vulnerable to shocks or imbalances that would cause a sharp rise in interest rates,” it said.

New bond sales will climb to an unprecedented 44.1 trillion yen for the year ending March. Total bond sales will surge to 130.2 trillion yen, also the highest ever.

Absorbing Bond Sales

Moody’s said domestic investors “will absorb the record level of bond issuance this year to fund the government’s economic stimulus program low fee pay day loans.”

So far there’s no indication that investors will become hesitant about buying the debt, though “perhaps that could happen if the government doesn’t resume its course of fiscal consolidation, and that would have negative rating implications,” Thomas Byrne, senior vice president at Moody’s, said at a press conference in Tokyo.

The OECD said in March that Japan’s public debt, already the world’s largest, will balloon to 197 percent of gross domestic product in 2010.

“The Ministry of Finance has to be satisfied with this, given the additional borrowing that’s planned — plus the economy is hardly booming,” said David Cohen, head of Asian economic forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore. “The bottom line is that they’re still way ahead of where they were a couple years ago.”

Moody’s assigned Japan the top Aaa rating in 1993, and since 1998 made four cuts as the nation’s borrowings swelled. It began raising the assessment in 2007. In Asia-Pacific, only Australia, New Zealand and Singapore retain the top rating.

Fiscal Discipline

Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said last month that while fiscal spending is necessary to prop up the economy and employment during the current crisis, the government needs to keep a grip on its finances over the longer term.

Analysts expect a Cabinet Office report on May 20 to show the world’s second-largest economy contracted the most since World War II last quarter as exports collapsed. GDP shrank an annualized 16.1 percent in the three months ended March 31, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed.

Still, recent reports suggest that represented the low point for Japan. Overseas demand is beginning to stabilize and Aso’s stimulus plans are providing at least temporary relief to consumers facing job losses and wage cuts.

Household confidence climbed to a 10-month high in April, the Cabinet Office said today. Industrial production rose in March for the first time in six months as manufacturers replenished inventories. Exports had their first month-on-month gain since May 2008.

The government will raise its assessment of the economy for the first time in more than three years later this month, the Asahi newspaper reported last week.

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Spain’s economy, shattered by a housing-market collapse and the global financial crisis, contracted the most in four decades in the first quarter as manufacturing sank and unemployment soared toward 20 percent.

Gross domestic product shrank 1.8 percent in the three months after a 1 percent contraction in the fourth quarter, the Madrid-based National Statistics Institute said in an e-mailed statement today. From a year earlier, the economy contracted 2.9 percent. Both numbers were the sharpest declines since at least 1970, according to the institute’s data.

Spain, whose construction boom made it a motor of job creation in Europe, now has 4 million people out of work, accounting for almost 70 percent of the annual increase in euro- area unemployment over the last year. The European Commission expects Spain to contract further next year even after other economies in the region start to recover. First-quarter data tomorrow may show the euro-region economy shrank 2 percent, a fourth consecutive contraction, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

“While at the moment you’re seeing less negative growth rates in Spain than in the euro zone, that will probably reverse in the next quarter and beyond,” said Ben May, an economist at Capital Economics in London, who forecasts a 5 percent contraction for Spain this year. The economy will return to growth “probably another two or three quarters after the euro zone turns positive,” he said.

Lagging Recovery

Spain’s unemployment rate rose to 17.4 percent in the first quarter, double the EU average, government data show. Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA forecasts its headcount may be 10 percent lower in a year, Chairman Fernando Conte said on May 12. Mecalux SA, Spain’s largest maker of warehouse equipment, said this week it plans to reduce the working hours of almost 1,000 workers because of weak demand.

Joblessness will reach 20.5 percent in 2010 after the economy contracts 3.2 percent this year, the commission forecast this month. More than a million Spanish households lack a family member with a job, and a million unemployed people no longer receive government benefits.

Bad loans have more than tripled, according to the central bank, and the collapse of the debt-fueled building boom and the squeeze on credit pushed 475 construction and real estate companies into bankruptcy proceedings in the first quarter cheap car insurance.

Political Toll

“It’s too early to speculate about green shoots,” said Martin van Vliet, senior economist at ING Bank in Amsterdam. “It’ll be a long downturn and the recovery is certainly not in sight but at least the worst quarter is definitely behind us.”

The crisis is taking a political toll on Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who was re-elected last year after pledges of full employment.

A poll of 2,500 people by the state-run Sociological Research Center in April showed the prime minister’s Socialist Party would have won 40.8 percent of the vote if elections were held then, against 40 percent for the opposition People’s Party. In last year’s election, the Socialists won 43.9 percent of the vote, against the People’s Party’s 39.9 percent.

Consumer prices in Spain, which rose faster than the euro- region average for most of the past decade, fell 0.2 percent from a year earlier in April, the second straight negative inflation rate, data yesterday showed. In the euro zone, prices increased 0.6 percent in April from a year earlier.

Swelling Deficit

Spain has implemented stimulus measures valued at 2.3 percent of GDP this year, more than any other country in Europe, according to the government. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced additional measures this week in a bid to encourage Spaniards to buy homes and cars, while promising to trim spending by 1 billion euros.

The budget deficit will grow to 9.8 percent of output next year, more than three times the EU limit, according to the commission. Spain had a budget surplus for the three years ending 2007.

As Spain’s deficit swells, the extra interest that investors demand to hold its bonds instead of German equivalents rose to the most since the euro was created in February. The difference, 65 basis points today, is more than double what it was a year ago.

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Japan’s wholesale prices fell at the fastest pace in almost seven years, adding to signs the world’s second-largest economy may return to deflation.

Producer prices, the costs companies pay for energy and raw materials, sank 2.2 percent in March from a year earlier, the biggest slide since May 2002, the Bank of Japan said in Tokyo today. That compares with a median estimate of 27 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News for a 1.8 percent decline.

The Bank of Japan’s quarterly Tankan survey this month showed manufacturers expect the costs they pay for goods and materials to fall to the lowest level in seven years. Expectations of lower prices ahead can prompt consumers to delay purchases, eroding corporate profits and forcing firms to cut wages, causing a downward spiral in demand.

“Price declines will probably gather momentum toward the middle of the year,” said Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Securities Japan Ltd. in Tokyo. “People are going to become more concerned about the risk of deflation in coming months.”

Prices tumbled a revised 1.6 percent in February compared with the same month a year earlier. They fell 0.2 percent in March from February, when they dropped a revised 0.5 percent, the central bank said.

The Bank of Japan’s overseas commodity index, which shows changes in costs including oil, steel, copper and wheat, slid 49.3 percent in March.

Lower Grain Prices

Japan’s agriculture ministry lowered prices of the grain sold to processors by 14.8 percent on average this month, the first drop in three years, after import costs fell on a higher yen and a slump in overseas markets. The country imports about 90 percent of its wheat needs.

Shikishima Baking Co., the country’s second-largest bakery, plans to cut bread prices in May to reflect a drop in wheat costs cash til payday loan. Takashimaya Co., a department-store operator, reduced retail prices of bread this month.

Costs of steel, scrap iron and plastic products also fell, causing the steeper decline in overall prices, the report showed.

“We’re seeing that the weak demand resulting from the recession is affecting prices in more industries,” said Masahiro Higo, a Bank of Japan official. Still, prices of copper have been rising since China unveiled its economic stimulus measures, he said.

Japan’s wholesale inflation rose to the fastest in almost three decades in August and has since slowed every month. Crude oil has lost more than two-thirds of its value since peaking at $147.27 in July. Soybeans, corn and wheat costs have dropped after climbing to records last year.

Fastest Since 1980

Wholesale prices rose 3.3 percent in the year ended March 31, the fastest pace since 1980, according to the central bank.

Price declines are spreading in the world’s second-largest economy. Corporate service prices, the costs businesses pay for services such as transportation and rent, fell at the steepest pace in February in seven years.

A deteriorating job market will probably cause consumers to spend less and prices to decline further, economists say. The jobless rate surged to a three-year high in February and wages slid for a ninth month.

Core consumer prices, which exclude fresh food, will fall in March, the first decline since September 2007, according to Hiroaki Muto, a senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset & Management Co. in Tokyo.

“On top of energy cost declines, falling wheat costs will also lower prices,” Muto said.

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Eden Bioscience Corp. said its stockholders will vote to dissolve the company on May 20.

The troubled Woodinville agricultural biotech company (NASDAQ: EDEN), which makes plant treatment products for home and garden, decided in December to dissolve the company.

A special meeting of shareholders to vote to dissolve the company will be held at 9 a low cost car insurance.m. May 20 in Bothell. Eden officials said shareholders have been mailed their proxy statements regarding the dissolution and liquidation of the company; a plan that was unanimously recommended by Eden’s board of directors.

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The Food and Drug Administration has approved a heart catheter used with a Stereotaxis Inc. system to treat irregular heartbeats, the St. Louis-based surgical device company said today. It expects shipments to customers will begin in the next few weeks.

The device is called the Navistar RMT Thermocool Catherer and it is manufactured by Biosense Webster, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company.

The catheter is used with Sterotaxis’ Niobe Remote Magnetic Navigation System to destroy tissue that disturbs normal heart rhythms.

"The magnetic irrigated catheter’s approval is the tipping point for Stereotaxis technology," Mike Kaminski, president and chief executive of the St no faxing 1 hour payday loans. Louis surgical device company, said in a press release. "We are confident that this product introduction will be transformative for our company."

Bloomberg reported that Johnson & Johnson will pay Stereotaxis a 15 percent royalty on the sale of each ThermoCool device, which cost $1,000 to $3,000 each.

gappleson@post-dispatch.com | Phone 314-340-8331

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