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Ameriprise Financial Inc. swung to a fourth-quarter profit of $237 million, or 90 cents a share. The financial services provider lost $369 million, or $1.69 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 70% to $2.3 billion.

Ameristar Casinos posted a smaller fourth-quarter loss. It lost $63.3 million, or $1.10 per share, compared with a loss of $101.1 million, or $1.77, a year ago. Revenue dipped 1 percent to $291.3 million. Ameristar has a casino in St. Charles.

Black & Decker said fourth-quarter profit fell on expenses related to its acquisition by Stanley Works. Earnings slipped to $33.9 million, or 55 cents per share, compared with $43.7 million, or 72 cents, a year earlier. Sales dropped 6 percent to $1.3 billion.

Cisco Systems Inc. reported a jump in second-quarter profit that beat Wall Street’s estimates. The networking-gear giant reported a profit of $1.85 billion, or 32 cents a share, compared with $1.5 billion, or 26 cents, a year ago. Revenue was $9.8 billion.

Comcast Corp.’s fourth-quarter earnings rose. Earnings were $955 million, or 33 cents per share, up from $412 million, or 14 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 2.9 percent to $9.06 billion.

Honda Motor Co.’s third-quarter profit soared sixfold on cost cuts and strong sales of green vehicles, boosting the Japanese automaker’s full-year forecast. Profit rose to $1.49 billion. But revenue slipped to $24.8 billion.

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc., the O’Fallon, Mo.-based maker of silicon wafers, posted a fourth-quarter loss on lower demand for renewable energy components and costs to expand into development. The loss was $7.1 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with net income of $70.3 million, or 31 cents, a year ago. Sales fell 16 percent to $356.7 million.

Town and Country-based Savvis Inc. reported a widening fourth-quarter loss. The firm, which recently announced the departure of CEO Phil Koen, reported a loss of $5.4 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a loss of $300,000, or 1 cent, in the same quarter of 2008. Fourth-quarter revenue declined 1 percent to $219.8 million. For the full year, the company reported a slight improvement, posting a loss of $20.8 million, or 39 cents a share, compared with a loss of $22 million, or 41 cents, in 2008. Savvis also reported a 2 percent increase in full-year revenue — $874.4 million in 2009 versus $857 million in 2008. (Tim Barker)

Time Warner Inc. said improving results at its movie studio and cable networks boosted fourth-quarter revenue. It earned $627 million, or 53 cents per share, compared with a loss of $16 billion, or $13.41, a year ago. Revenue rose 2 percent to $7.32 billion.

Visa Inc. said its profit rose 33 percent in the fiscal first quarter. The payment processing giant reported net income of $763 million, or $1.02 per share, compared with $574 million, or 74 cents, a year ago. Revenue climbed 13 percent to $1.96 billion.

Young Innovations Inc., an Earth City-based dental equipment supplier, said fourth-quarter earnings rose to $3.5 million, or 44 cents per share, compared with $3.1 million, or 40 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 2.5 percent, to $24.5 million. Healthy demand for consumable products — including preventive, infection control, endodontic and home care lines — led to increased fourth-quarter sales, the company said. Sales of diagnostic products declined from the prior-year quarter but at a slower rate than the last few quarters. For the year, earnings increased 11 percent, to $13.5 million, compared with $12.2 million in 2008. Revenue fell 1.4 percent to $97.7 million. (Tim Bryant)

Riding strong overseas growth, especially in China, restaurant operator Yum Brands Inc. posted a 6 percent gain in fourth-quarter profit. The company, which owns the Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut chains, earned $216 million, or 45 cents per share, up from $204 million, or 43 cents, a year ago. Revenue fell 1 percent to $3.37 billion.

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BioBehavioral Diagnostics Co., a developer of a diagnostic tool for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, has closed a $10 million round of venture funding.

The financing was led by Sevin Rosen Funds in Dallas and Tullis-Dickerson & Co. Inc. in Greenwich, Conn.

Based in Westford, Mass., BioBehavioral Diagnostics plans to use the funds expand its sales and marketing efforts as well as develop clinical work for its Quotient ADHD System.

Founded in 2006, BioBehavioral Diagnostics first landed a $8.5 million venture round in 2007, when the company was located in Cambridge, Mass.

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Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP, one of the nation’s largest pipeline companies, agreed to buy four Midwest terminals from St. Louis-based Slay Industries for $98 million.

The assets include a river terminal in Sauget, a liquid bulk terminal and a warehouse in St. Louis and a terminal in Muscatine, Iowa.

The purchase gives Kinder Morgan a toehold in the St. Louis terminal market and “unparalleled access to major markets via rail and waterway,” Jeff Armstrong, president of the company’s terminals business, said today in a statement.

Houston-based Kinder Morgan and Slay Industries also formed a joint venture at Slay’s Kellogg Dock coal terminal in Modoc, Ill., and new North Cahokia terminal in Sauget, which includes 175 acres for development.

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Malaysia’s central bank may refrain from raising its benchmark interest rate, choosing to keep borrowing costs at a record low to boost growth even as inflation returns amid an economic recovery.

All 19 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expect Bank Negara Malaysia to maintain its overnight policy rate at 2 percent in the decision due at 6 p.m. today in Kuala Lumpur. The benchmark is at its lowest level since it was introduced in April 2004, and has been unchanged since February last year.

Some Asian policy makers are raising borrowing costs or taking steps to remove excess cash in their banking systems to fend off inflation as the world emerges from its slump. Bank Negara expects price gains to remain manageable and any changes in interest rates will be small, CIMB Investment Bank Bhd. said Dec. 24, citing a meeting with Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

“Judging by its history, Bank Negara will be among the last to tighten policy as global rates head higher this year and next,” said Sean Callow, a currency strategist in Sydney at Westpac Banking Corp. “Domestically driven inflation doesn’t seem imminent.”

Malaysia’s consumer price index climbed 1.1 percent in December from the year earlier, the first gain in seven months. The inflation rate was 0.6 percent last year, slowing from 5.4 percent in 2008, the government said Jan. 20.

Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy will probably expand 4.1 percent this year after a 2.3 percent contraction in 2009, the World Bank said last week. Prime Minister Najib Razak said Jan. 20 gross domestic product may increase 3.5 percent or more this year.

Room to Wait

Exports by companies such as Unisem (M) Bhd. rose in October after a yearlong slump, before declining in November no fax needed payday loans. The ringgit traded near a three-week low yesterday, at 3.3995 per dollar as of 5:08 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur.

“Risks on inflation and growth remain well balanced for the time being and with that, Bank Negara has enough room to sit on the current level of policy rate for another few more meetings before making the move in the third quarter,” said Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS Bank Ltd. in Singapore.

Seah expects the central bank to raise interest rates by 0.75 percentage point in the second half of 2010.

Other regional central banks are already acting on price increases in their economies. China this month unexpectedly raised the proportion of deposits that banks must set aside as reserves as a credit boom threatens to stoke inflation and create asset bubbles. Vietnam raised its benchmark interest rate by one percentage point to 8 percent late last year.

Financing Programs

Signs of improvement in the Southeast Asian economy prompted Bank Negara to keep to its schedule of ending financing programs aimed at helping companies secure funds during the slowdown. In neighboring Singapore, the government extended by a year measures to help companies get financing and prolonged a wage-subsidy program.

“As the domestic economic conditions show further improvement and with available ample liquidity, latest indicators have shown an upward trend of business loan applications and approvals in the banking system,” Malaysia’s central bank said Dec. 31, when it announced it will stop accepting new applications under its 2 billion ringgit ($588 million) assistance guarantee program for small and medium-sized companies.

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Vale Inco has taken exception to reports that it is seeking workforce cuts of up to 50 per cent at its strikebound Sudbury operations during the next five years.

A Vale official said Thursday the United Steelworkers union and the Star misinterpreted internal company documents from a "strategy workshop" that discussed goals for job reductions.

"Misunderstanding and misrepresentation are unfortunate by-products of a labour dispute," said Cory McPhee, Vale’s vice-president of corporate affairs. "That appears to be what happened here."

About 3,100 workers have been on strike at the mining giant’s Sudbury operations for more than six months in a bitter contract dispute.

The documents, which are in the form of a presentation and a summary of discussions with mine managers last June before the strike, includes references to Vale’s objective of reducing the workforce to 1,800 employees by the end of 2009 and to 1,500 within the next few years fast cash loans.

However, McPhee said the reductions relate to the mines, which employed about 2,000 at the end of 2008, and not all local operations. Vale employs 3,100 workers at its local mine, mill, smelter and refinery operations. He noted Vale reached the 1,800-job level at its mines by the end of 2009 through a workforce reduction and attrition.

The documents also provide information on how mine managers can boost cash flow, improve productivity, justify capital spending and engage workers in its efforts.

The union submitted the documents in exhibits to support a recent complaint to the Ontario Labour Relations Board that the company has bargained in bad faith. Vale has said the allegations are "baseless."

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Hydro-Québec plans to launch the largest electric-vehicle trial in the country later this fall, a $4.5 million project over three years that will put 50 electric cars on the streets of Boucherville. The utility has partnered with Mitsubishi Motors, which will supply its i-MiEV electric cars for the trial.

"This is a major step for us," said Stacey Masson, a spokeswoman for Hydro-Québec. "We want to make sure we can support this kind of transition (to electric vehicles) with the necessary infrastructure."

Nothing big has been announced in Ontario, but at least one major project appears to be in the works. That would make sense, given Premier Dalton McGuinty’s eagerness to demonstrate how "we are a truly electric-car friendly jurisdiction."

Tanya Bruckmueller-Wilson, a spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro, said the utility is involved with a project of similar scale and criteria to that being deployed in Quebec. "There’s nothing in writing yet, but we’ll be close to having an answer within the next month or so," she said. "Realistically, we’d be doing something at the same time as Hydro-Québec."

There are many who think plug-in vehicles are just a fad that will pass. I’m not so quick to prejudge. Sure, there are still challenges related to battery life, vehicle cost and reliability, and it will likely take two or three product generations before the market expands beyond early adopters.

But utilities are gearing up, and at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last week it was clear that electric vehicles are just one piece of a larger puzzle that’s starting to come together.

Nissan, for example, announced that it has teamed up with AeroVironment for the supply of 220-volt home charging stations that would support the automaker’s Leaf electric car. The all-electric Leaf will go on sale in the United States in December and buyers will want a safe way to charge at home.

They’ll also want a way to charge when on the road. Ricardo LLC unveiled its PEP Station, the equivalent of your typical gas-station fuel pump. The PEP Station has a 220V power supply and when its system is plugged into the car an LCD screen lights up and gives the driver kilowatt-hour pricing information. The driver can then swipe an access card or credit card to activate the charging.

Coulomb Technologies announced it had installed six charging stations in Michigan, a month after touting the first of several charging stations installed in Vancouver – a first in Canada – in time for the Winter Olympics. This company has dozens of its stations in California and is aggressively expanding across the United States.

Together, they represent Coulomb’s ChargePoint Network, no different really than a chain of Esso or Petro-Canada stations but potentially much more ubiquitous because they can be placed pretty much anywhere, including street curbs. And they truly are networked. For example, you could use your BlackBerry, iPhone or any mobile device to locate the closest station and determine whether it’s unoccupied or not.

If you leave the car charging for a few hours – for example, when at work or shopping or at some kind of event – the station will text message or email you status updates and let you know when the battery is fully charged. Coulomb also gives you the option of becoming a member of the network, similar to signing up for a mobile phone plan that gives you free roaming and so many minutes, or in this case kilowatt-hours, per month. If you’re not a member, you simply pay by credit card on an as-needed basis at non-member prices.

The problem, skeptics correctly point out, is the "few hours" component of this. Having to stop and charge your car for a few hours while on the go is a non-starter. This is the reason Coulomb and others are embracing fast-charge technologies. At the Detroit show, Coulomb announced a deal with Aker Wade Power Technologies to integrate its so-called Level III technology into Coulomb’s product line, allowing most electric vehicles to fully charge in less than one hour.

"Field studies in Tokyo have shown that deploying fast chargers increases vehicle usage by more than 50 per cent," said Aker Wade chief executive Bret Aker in a statement. "With coming improvements in lithium-ion technology, charge times will be reduced to as little as 15 minutes. This is the point where consumers will abandon gasoline for electricity. This is the tipping point for electric vehicles."

It would be a mistake to underestimate the challenges. Faster charging means higher voltage or higher currents, which create risks for both the car battery, which can heat up, or the grid, which could be overwhelmed if too many cars decide to fast-charge at the same time.

All the more reason why utilities need to start studying the interaction between electric vehicles and the grid.

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OTTAWA—Statistics Canada says new motor vehicle sales decreased to 124,764 units in November, down six per cent from October, on weaker sales across all of the provinces.

But Statistics Canada says sales were still up 1.4 per cent compared to the same time a year earlier _ a period when a global credit crunch made it difficult for consumers to borrow for large purchases and many people were cautious.

Passenger car sales were down 7.4 per cent to 63,170 units in November, with sales of North American-built cars falling 9.1 per cent, more than offsetting the increase made a month earlier bad credit unsecured personal loans.

The sales of passenger cars built overseas were also weaker, down 5.2 per cent.

New truck sales — which include minivans, sport-utility vehicles, light and heavy trucks, vans and buses — slipped 4.6 per cent to 61,594 units, the first decline in four months.

The agency says preliminary industry data indicates that new motor vehicles rose by two per cent in December.

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Suffolk Construction is acquiring northern Virginia’s Dietze Construction in a deal that will increase the Boston firm’s presence in the hot Washington, D.C., market and in the business of building government installations with strict security requirements.

Terms were not disclosed.

“In this economic environment, it is critical that we continue to seek opportunities to expand our business, diversify our work and exceed client expectations. Dietze is a highly respected firm with a strong reputation in the mid-Atlantic region,” John Fish, chairman and CEO of Suffolk, said in a prepared statement.

With federal spending soaring and executives wanting their companies near federal operations, commercial real estate in Greater Washington remains extremely strong even as the best of the remaining markets in the country pull back.

“Our partnership with Suffolk will provide us the resources, investments and proven processes to expand our offerings to our existing clients, strategically create opportunities to work in new market segments, and uncover more opportunities to work with new clients,” Ralph Dietze, president and CEO of Dietze Construction Group, said.

The deal follows Suffolk’s September 2009 acquisition of William A. Berry & Son., a 150-year-old company based in Danvers, Mass., that bolstered Suffolk’s presence in the health care sector.

Suffolk has 1,200 employees and posted revenue of about $1.7 billion in 2009.

Dietze, which will formally be called “Dietze, a division of Suffolk Construction,” has 80 employees and does about $150 million in busniness a year. Suffolk was founded in 1982. Dietze was founded in 1993.

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Target Corp. said late Friday it has bought Smith & Hawken’s brand name and some of the upscale garden store chain’s intellectual property.

The Minneapolis-based retailer didn’t disclose how much it paid for what remains of Smith & Hawken, which was owned by Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. Marysville, Ohio-based Scotts announced in July of 2009 that it planned to close the 56-store chain by the end of the year.

At the time, Smith & Hawken CEO Jim Hagedorn attributed the closure to the recession and a “lack of scale.”

Target (NYSE: TGT) has sold Smith & Hawken products at its stores as part of an exclusive agreement since 2006. Target plans to reveal what it will do with the brand at a later date, the company said in a statement.

“We’re thrilled to own such an admired and iconic brand,” said Kathee Tesija, Target’s executive vice president of merchandising, in a press statement instant payday loans. “We believe the Smith & Hawken brand complements our existing portfolio of owned brands and provides our guests with another compelling reason to shop Target.”

Scotts paid $68.5 million for Novato, Calif.-based Smith & Hawken in 2004.

Target's last major acquisition was in 1998, when the company, then called Dayton Hudson Corp., bought Rivetown Trading Co. from St. Paul-based Minnesota Communications Group (MCG). Rivertown, which had 400 employees at the time, produced and distributed consumer catalogs.

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Starting Jan. 1, new rules go into effect that simplify and clarify exactly what mortgage lenders will charge for a loan.

The initiative from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)requires that a new "Good Faith Estimate" form be given to all applicants, one that makes it easier to compare true costs of loans from different lenders.

"The main purpose is to give consumers the tools to be able to compare apples to apples," said Robert Grosser of Luxury Mortgage, a New Jersey-based direct lender. "All lenders must use a specific form and disclose fees in the same spots on the same forms." (See the new form.)

Until now, borrowers might have focused on interest rates or monthly payments to compare mortgages options. But fees play a big part in total cost, said Vicki Bott, HUD’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Programs

There are generally two blocs of fees.

One covers origination charges, what the lender receives for providing you with the loan.

The second bloc consists of settlement fees, for say, title insurance or an appraisal.

If borrowers accept the offers as outlined, lenders must issue the loans under the costs listed — with little room for surprise.

If the mortgage originator provides services in the second bloc, it must stick to the original fees within 10%. If, for example, the lender tells you the title insurance it arranges will cost $2,000, the final fee for that cannot exceed $2,200. (If you decide you’re going elsewhere for title insurance, you’re on your own.)

"It truly drives accountability," said Bott. "It makes the lender say, ‘What I quoted is what you get.’"

The estimate is not iron clad, and can be altered if there’s a material change in circumstances high quality business cards. If the appraisal comes in lower than expected, for example, that could affect the mortgage rate, though the lender must quickly tell the borrower, according to Bott.

The new 3-page form has lines covering all the settlement fees, such as the origination fee and points charged up-front to reduce the interest rate. It also clearly lists the initial loan amount, the term length in years, the monthly payment, the initial interest rate, and whether that interest rate can rise plus any prepayment penalties or balloon payments.

There’s also a "shopping chart" on the third page in which up to four different deals can be placed side-by-side and their costs easily compared.

Say two lenders both offer a 5% loan on a $200,000 mortgage that has a monthly payment of $1,074 a month. One lender may charge $5,000 for it and another just $3,000. The new form should make it simpler for consumers to recognize the better deal.

"It’s definitely a step in the right direction toward simpler and straightforward key information on mortgages," said Alex Pollock, an American Enterprise Institute fellow who has developed and advocated for the use of a one-page mortgage form to better help consumers understand their obligations.

He does not, however, think the new form goes far enough.

"It focuses on the question of whether this is the best deal," Pollock said. "In my opinion, it’s more important to ask if I can afford this mortgage. This might be the best deal I can get but I still may not be able to afford it." 

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