Fitch Ratings is withdrawing its underlying A rating on the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority’s $203 million refunding revenue bonds, series 2008A.
Due to market conditions, the Expressway Authority did not issue the refunding bonds.
The Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority is responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of toll roads in Central Florida bad credit payday loans.
Central bank governors of five Gulf states will probably approve a new draft accord for monetary union at a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this week, the latest step toward a single currency for the region.
Gulf finance ministers will discuss the draft at the same meeting, scheduled for Sept. 15 and 16. Heads of state may give final approval at a meeting in Muscat, Oman, before the end of the year, said Salim Al Gudhea, head of the monetary union unit at the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat General, in an interview.
Progress toward a single currency eases pressure on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain to revalue their currencies or drop pegs to the dollar after inflation accelerated. The five agreed in 2001 to form a European Union-style monetary union by 2010 to boost regional trade.
Central bankers “are expected to pass the draft and that is a positive step,'' said Monica Malik, Dubai-based chief economist at EFG-Hermes Holding SAE, Egypt's largest investment bank. This week is “the easy part. The stages after that will be tricky.''
Contracts to buy dirhams in a year have fallen 3.1 percent since a March 18 high. Saudi riyal forwards dropped 2.2 percent in the same period.
The five states are pushing ahead with monetary union after Oman, the sixth Gulf Arab state, pulled out last year. The agreement allows for the creation of a monetary council, a precursor to the Gulf central bank, the location of which will be decided at the meeting this week http://paydayintime.com.
`Difficult Bit'
The council will be responsible for deciding the level at which the Gulf currency is pegged to the dollar, aligning interest rates, monetary tools and goals.
“Technical issues won't be tackled until the monetary council is set up, and that may be a long way into 2009, depending on how quickly it is ratified by national parliaments,'' said Malik. “That's going to be the difficult bit and is likely to result in much-greater delays.''
The central bank governors will also vote on whether to create the monetary council after three or five countries have ratified the agreement, Naser Al-Kaud, deputy assistant general for economic affairs at the GCC Secretariat, said by phone yesterday.
“We are suggesting it; I am not sure if they will agree,'' said Al-Kaud. “It may help start the council sooner.''
Last week, the seven Persian Gulf benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg declined last week. The Dubai Financial Market General Index slumped 9.2 percent. Oman's Muscat Securities Market 30 Index declined 7 percent and Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All-Share Index fell 4.4 percent.
Tamweel PJSC, the U.A.E.'s second-biggest mortgage lender by market value, tumbled 14 percent following the arrest of the company's deputy chief executive officer.
The attorney general of New York is negotiating settlements with eight student loan companies to reform deceptive practices in the industry. A particular focus is the marketing of products so they appear to be federal loans, an official said Friday.
"Some of the seals [used by lenders] looked very similar to those of the federal government," said Alex Detrick, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
The distinction is important because federal loans have fixed interest rates that are often lower than private loans.
The student loan companies also misled consumers at times about the best loan options on the market, he said.
This group of direct-to-student lenders sends advertising material by mail or market to students online, but does not necessarily have a presence on campus. Students are sometimes offered iPods or gift cards as an incentive to sign up, Detrick said.
The attorney general’s office is also preparing to sue student lender Goal Financial LLC for deceptive practices, Detrick said. Unlike the lenders currently negotiating settlements, Detrick said Goal Financial did not signal a willingness to reform its practices. He did not know how many, if any, of the companies would reach a settlement.
Calls to Goal Financial’s headquarters in San Diego went to voicemail Friday and were not immediately returned. The company’s attorney, Lewis Rose of Kelley Drye & Warren, did not return requests for comment.
Goal Financial was the sixth largest lender of consolidated student loans in the country in 2006, according to Student Marketmeasure, which tracks the student loan industry. Goal Financial made 111,426 loans worth $2.5 billion that year, according to the group.
The attorney general’s office sent a letter to Goal Financial in July notifying the company of its intent to sue.
The letter said Goal Financial enlisted students to promote loans on campus and offered incentives for students who secured applicants.
The letter also said Goal Financial’s advertising materials gave misleading examples of monthly payment amounts and annual savings.
In addition, the company referred students to a comparison Web site, www.eStudentLoan.com, which is operated by a Goal subsidiary, according to the letter payday loan low fee. The site does not disclose that it only lists lenders that pay Goal Financial a fee, Detrick said.
Last year, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office helped bring about reforms in the student lending industry when he investigated deals that gave colleges "kickbacks" in exchange for being listed as a preferred lender.
At least 22 schools agreed to adopt codes of conduct with regard to their financial relationships with lenders as a result of the investigation. Several of the lenders targeted in that investigation, including Sallie Mae (SLM, Fortune 500), formally SLM Corp., and Citibank, a unit of Citigroup Inc. (C, Fortune 500), agreed to reforms and to pay a combined $6.5 million into a national fund to educate families and students about loans.
The attorney general’s office is now investigating other possible conflicts of interest on college campuses - including deals with credit card, textbook and catering companies, Detrick said.
A study from research group FlightStats found that JetBlue Airways was one of the most-delayed airlines in August, while Northwest Airlines had one of the best track records for being on time.
JetBlue (JBLU) flights arrived on-time 64.7% of the time in August, FlightStats said on Wednesday. This was the worst percentage among the leading airlines.
Only one carrier had a worse record: Freedom Airlines, a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group (MESA), with an on-time arrival rate of 58.1%
Northwest Airlines (NWA, Fortune 500) was the top-performer among the leading carriers, with an on-time arrival record of 85.3% in August, FlightStats said. Four regional carriers had a better rate, with Hawaiian Airlines taking the lead with an on-time arrival record of 91%.
The industry average for being on-time was 77.3%, according to FlightStats.
Among airports in North America, FlightStats found that Salt Lake City International was the most efficient, with an on-time arrival rate of 87.3% in August. Detroit Metro was second-best, with a success rate of 86.4%
Three of the bottom four airports in terms of on-time arrivals were in the New York City area, according to the research group.
John F. Kennedy International came in dead last, with an on-time arrival rate of 55.2% payday advance. Newark Liberty International, with an on-time rate of 64.2%, and LaGuardia Airport, at 64.5%, were the third and fourth worst airports for timely arrivals. Miami International was the second worst, with 64% of flights arriving on time in August.
The on-time average for North American airports was 76.5%.
The Department of Transportation released similar findings on Wednesday for the month of July, pointing to the New York-area airports and JetBlue as having some of the worst rates for on-time flights.
New York City is a major hub for JetBlue, which is preparing to open a new terminal at JFK. When asked about the DOT report, JetBlue spokesman said the reliance on New York was part of the airline’s problem in terms of delays, but said that JetBlue has made improvements.
Pasquale DiFulco, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said his agency had made numerous requests to the Federal Aviation Authority and the DOT to alleviate the severely congested New York-area airports by adding capacity.
Prudential, Washington Mutual and State Farm are among the companies participating in a diversity career and college expo hosted by the Tampa Bay chapter of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs on Sept. 13. Other companies taking part include the American Cancer Society, Granite Services International and Yum Brands.
The University of South Florida, Nova Southeastern University, DeVry University, Walden University, the University of Phoenix and other educational institutions will provide information about admission to graduate programs, financing a masters in business administration and scholarships.
The expo’s diversity partners include the National Black MBA Association, the Association of Professional Latinos in Financing and Accounting, Hispanic Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs, Tampa Bay Higher Education Alliance, CENTRO, National Association of African-Americans in Human Resources and Jobing.com.
The event is scheduled for 10 a.m freecreditscore. to 2 p.m. at the Carrollwood Cultural Center in Tampa.
The National Society of Hispanic MBAs has 32 chapters and more than 7,000 members in the United States and Puerto Rico. Its mission is “to foster Hispanic leadership through graduate management education and professional development,” said a release.
Southend Building Products Inc. in Charlotte has promoted Paul Atkinson to chief executive, succeeding company founder Will Dellinger.
Atkinson most recently was director of sales.
“Paul has helped grow Southend Building Products into the company that I envisioned when I started it in 2001,” Dellinger says. He notes the company’s sales in the first half of the year were up 27 percent from a year earlier. The business declines to disclose revenue figures.
Atkinson will continue to lead the company’s sales operations.
Southend Building specializes in reclaimed and green building materials how to get a free credit report. The company focuses on finding old mills and factories and extracting building materials for resale. The products it sells include lumber, flooring and antique bricks. Southend Building, based at 2130 S. Tryon St., has 10 employees.
U.K. house prices posted the biggest annual decline in August since at least 2002 as reduced mortgage lending deepened the property slump in London, Rightmove Plc said.
The average asking price for a home fell 4.8 percent from a year earlier to 229,816 pounds ($426,929), Britain's most-used property Web site said in a statement today. On the month, home values fell 2.3 percent, the most since December, led by London.
“The lack of mortgage finance is central to the problem,'' Miles Shipside, commercial director of Rightmove, said in the statement. “London, in particular, appears to be having its own special summer sale, with over 21,000 pounds off in a month.''
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said last week that the housing market faces “a significant adjustment'' as banks ration loans for homebuyers. Falling prices may exacerbate the economic slowdown as the threat of a recession looms and unemployment rises the most in 16 years.
Prices in London fell 5.3 percent on the month and 3.8 percent from a year earlier. Each of the 32 districts in the capital showed a decline, and the biggest drop was in the southwest area of Wandsworth, where values fell 7.9 percent. Hackney, in east London, was the best performer, with a 0.6 percent decline.
The stock of unsold property per real estate agent rose for a seventh month to 78, from 77 in July. The number of transactions may reach the lowest since 1959, Rightmove said.
Market `Standstill'
Banks have starved the market of loans after more than $500 billion in losses and writedowns worldwide from the U.S. mortgage market collapse. U.K. mortgage approvals fell to the lowest since at least 1999 in June, the Bank of England said July 29. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said last week that the housing market is at a “virtual standstill.''
King said on Aug internet payday loans. 13 that “there is a feeling of chill in the economic air'' and that “the British economy is going through a difficult and painful adjustment'' that “cannot be avoided.''
Weakness in the housing market may “amplify'' the impact of the lending squeeze on household spending, the central bank said last week. Retail sales probably fell for a second month in July, dropping 0.2 percent, according to the median forecast of 32 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The government's statistics office will release that data on Aug. 21.
Britain's gross domestic product will either stagnate or contract in the next two or three quarters, meaning the economy may fall into a recession, the British Chambers of Commerce said in forecasts released today.
Company Confidence
Confidence on business prospects fell to the lowest level in at least 6 years, according to a survey of more than 200 companies released by Lloyds TSB Group Plc today. The index of sentiment on the next 12 months fell to 22 in July, the lowest since the survey began in 2002, from 32 in June.
The economy probably grew 0.1 percent in the second quarter, less than previously estimated and matching the slowest pace since the aftermath of the last recession in 1992, the median forecast of 34 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News shows. The statistics office will publish the figures on Aug. 22.
The central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 5 percent on Aug. 7 for a fourth month, as policy makers weighed the risk of accelerating inflation against the threat of a recession. Minutes of their meeting, showing how the panel voted, will be released on Aug. 20.
France's gross domestic product rebounded less than initially estimated in the first quarter as household spending, the driving force of the economy, failed to grow.
Europe's third-biggest economy expanded 0.5 percent in the quarter from the previous three months, when it grew a revised 0.4 percent, Paris-based government statistics office Insee said in an e-mailed statement today. In its preliminary report on May 15, Insee said GDP grew 0.6 percent in the latest quarter.
The first quarter “was a bit supernatural,'' said Jean- Christophe Caffet, an economist at Natixis in Paris. “From there on, growth figures will be particularly bad.''
Soaring energy and food prices are stoking inflation, crimping consumers' spending power across the 15-nation euro region. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said June 5 that the ECB may increase its benchmark rate next month to rein in inflation expectations even as economic growth slows.
French inflation, based on a non-EU harmonized method, will peak at a 17-year high of 3.6 percent in the coming months before slowing to 2.8 percent in December, Insee forecast earlier this month. Inflation will average 3.2 percent in 2008, the highest since 1991 and up from 1.5 percent last year, Insee said.
As a result of soaring prices, consumer spending, which has been the main engine of French growth in the past decade, remained flat in the first three months of 2008 after growing 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter, and 0.8 percent in the third, Insee said.
Purchasing Power
French households saved 16 percent of their disposable income in the first quarter, unchanged from the fourth quarter, Insee said. Their gross purchasing power failed to grow after having added 1 percent in the earlier quarter.
France's economy will expand 1.6 percent this year, the slowest pace in five years, as rising prices damp consumer spending and the housing market slumps, Insee said on June 20 no fax payday loans. Confidence among French consumers fell to a record low in June, a report said yesterday.
Producer prices rose 1.3 percent in May from April and jumped 6.7 percent from a year earlier, Insee said in a separate report today. Economists polled by Bloomberg expected a 0.6 percent increase on the month, according to the median of 15 forecasts.
Consumer Spending
“If consumer spending clearly slows in relation to the faster inflation and the decrease in households' purchasing power, we may hope trade will in turn contribute to growth'' through lower imports and stronger exports to countries such as Germany, said Mathieu Plane, an economist at Paris-based Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques.
Exports jumped a revised 3.2 percent in the first three months of the year. In a June note, Insee said it expects exports to drop 0.1 percent in the second quarter and show little growth in the second half.
Imports also increased by 2.3 percent in the first three months after having fell 1.1 percent he previous quarter. Trade added 0.3 percentage points to the fist quarter compared with 0.7 percentage points the last three months of 2007, Insee said.
French GDP will grow 0.2 percent in the second quarter, the least in almost two years and a third of the pace of the first three months of 2008, Insee said last week. The economy will stagnate in the third quarter and expand 0.2 percent in the final three months, Insee said.
“The second quarter won't be as solid and strong as the first, but even so I think that Insee's forecasts are very gloomy,'' French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said in a Bloomberg Television interview on June 19. She cited job creation and falling unemployment as reasons to be optimistic.
Builders probably broke ground on fewer homes in May, signaling the residential real-estate market remains the biggest risk to growth, economists said ahead of reports this week.
Housing starts fell to a 980,000 pace last month, from 1.032 million in April, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Building permits, a signal of future construction, fell to a 960,000 rate.
Rising foreclosures, higher mortgage rates and declining property values threaten to keep home sales depressed in coming months, discouraging builders from starting new projects. Declines in construction will limit any rebound in economic growth, even as tax rebates give consumers a temporary boost.
“The first signals of stabilization are going to come from new-homes sales, which we haven't seen yet,'' said Julia Coronado, a senior economist at Barclays Capital in New York. Housing “will be on a downward trend.''
The Commerce Department's construction report is due June 17. Housing starts dropped to a 17-year low 954,000 annual pace in March.
Banks repossessed twice as many homes in May and foreclosure filings rose 48 percent from a year ago as falling house prices trapped borrowers in mortgages they couldn't afford, RealtyTrac Inc. said last week.
One in every 483 U.S. households either lost a home to foreclosure, received a default notice or was warned of a pending auction, RealtyTrac said.
Builder Losses
The five largest homebuilders have reported a combined $3.4 billion in losses in their most recent quarters as new-home sales fell. Stricter lending standards and rising foreclosures are reducing demand for homes.
A report tomorrow from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo is forecast to show builder optimism held at the second-lowest level on record this month.
The slump in construction will be one factor restraining economic growth in coming months, a report from the Conference Board may show on June 19. The New York research group's index of leading economic indicators was unchanged in May, according to the median estimate free credit report .com. The gauge points to the direction of the economy over the next three to six months.
Another concern is the spiraling cost of raw materials. Wholesale prices jumped 1 percent last month, pushed up by energy and food costs, a Labor Department report on June 17 may show, according to the Bloomberg survey.
So-called core producer prices, which exclude food and fuel, increased 0.2 percent after a 0.4 percent April gain.
Fuel Costs
The Labor Department's report on consumer prices last week showed a jump in fuel costs also contributed to a 0.6 percent increase in the cost of living in May. The core rate rose just 0.2 percent, indicating companies haven't been able to completely pass the increase in expenses along to customers.
“The energy shock not only boosts headline inflation, but also erodes consumer purchasing power and squeezes profit margins,'' said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in New York.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke last week said policy makers are paying “close attention'' to rising commodity costs and will “strongly resist'' any surge in inflation expectations.
At the same time, the risk the economy has entered a substantial downturn “appears to have diminished over the past month or so,'' Bernanke said.
Fed policy makers are scheduled to next vote on the direction of the benchmark overnight lending rate between banks at the conclusion of their June 24-25 meeting.
Rising costs and slowing demand have taken a toll on manufacturing. A report from the Fed on June 17 may show industrial production increased 0.1 percent in May, after a 0.7 percent drop the prior month. Improving sales overseas are helping to prevent a deeper factory slump.
Hungary's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in more than three years to prevent food and energy prices pushing up other costs, and said it may refrain from lifting borrowing costs again.
The Magyar Nemzeti Bank in Budapest raised the two-week deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 8.5 percent with a “safe'' majority, President Andras Simor said at a Budapest press conference. The decision was expected by 16 of 21 economists in a Bloomberg poll.
Hungarian consumer prices have been rising more than twice as fast as the central bank target for 19 months, and were 6.6 percent higher in April than a year earlier. The bank may now pause to gauge the effect of raising rates by a full percentage point since March.
“There is just as much a possibility for further tightening as there is that the tightening won't happen,'' Simor said. Monetary conditions “must remain tight for us to approximate inflation to the target.''
The forint traded at 244.39 per euro by 5:25 p.m. in Budapest from 244.35 late on May 23. The yield on the benchmark five-year bond rose to 8.87 percent from 8.80 percent.
Budget Measures
Hungarian inflation in the past 1 1/2 years has been fueled partly by tax increases implemented by Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany in 2006 to narrow the European Union's widest budget deficit. The measures slowed economic growth to 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the lowest rate in 11 years.
Economic expansion picked up to a 1.6 percent annual pace in the first quarter and the central bank predicts that it will quicken to 2.2 percent this year, 3.2 percent next year and 3.7 percent in 2010.
The bank, in its quarterly update of its inflation forecast published today, raised its forecast for average inflation this year to 6.3 percent from 5.2 percent and for 2009 to 4.2 percent from 3.6 percent. Inflation will be probably reduced to 3 percent in 2010, instead of 2009 as is its official target.
“Inflation is expected to remain above the long-term target on the 5-8 quarter horizon of monetary policy,'' the bank said in its inflationreport.
`Close to Peak'
The pace of consumer-price increases has slowed for four months through April, to the lowest rate since September, while the forint has gained 3.6 percent to the euro this year, cutting the cost of imported products payday loan.
This gives policy makers a chance to pause before potentially raising rates again, economists said.
“Interest rates are close to the peak, if not at the peak,'' Anders Svendsen, an economist at Nordea Markets in Copenhagen, wrote in a note to clients. “In the absence of'' food or energy price “shocks, we expect today's rate hike to be the last in this cycle.''
Risks that inflation will be faster than the current predictions are “more pronounced'' than factors that may potentially slow price increases, Simor said today.
Core inflation, which strips out some volatile food and energy prices and is one of the central bank's most closely watched figures, rose in April to an annual 5.6 percent from 5.3 percent in March.
`Biggest Problem'
Producer prices, an early indicator of inflation, also rose at a faster pace in March than the month before, rising to an annual 5.7 percent from 4.9 percent in February.
“The biggest problem is that cost shocks are being prolonged and there's an increasing chance that inflation expectations will get stuck at a level that is not in line with the inflation target,'' Simor said. “That is the biggest worry of the Monetary Council.''
After three consecutive rate increases, the monetary council wants to “keep the door open'' for holding rates unchanged next month and also for raising them again. He said policy makers today also discussed holding the rate unchanged and cutting it to 8 percent.
“We think the rates will hold at the current level until year-end, and no longer see the scope for rate easing in late 2008 as we find it unlikely that the central bank will become more confident about the pace of disinflation,'' Pasquale Diana, an economist at Morgan Stanley in London, wrote in a note to clients.
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