Engulfed by economic and financial turbulence, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, 54, has taken extraordinary steps to ease the nation’s problems. His own finances are a bit more straightforward. The chairman’s financial disclosure form, released Monday, showed his holdings last year were in no-frills investments, including U.S. Treasury securities, Canadian Treasury bonds, mutual funds and annuities.
Economy contracts; drop may continue
Factories laying off workers, stocks tumbling and shoppers ditching their credit cards forced the economy to contract in June, a trend likely to continue in the second half of 2008, a private business group said Monday. The New York-based Conference Board’s forecast of future economic activity fell 0.1 percent last month, in line with forecasts by Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Financial/IFR. The group also revised May’s number downward to a 0.2 percent decrease, from a 0.1 percent increase.
Yahoo gives Icahn seats on its board
Yahoo Inc. averted a showdown with rabble-rousing investor Carl Icahn on Monday by giving him three seats on its board of directors in a truce that still leaves the door open for a possible sale to Microsoft Corp. The compromise spares Yahoo from more bickering with Icahn, an acerbic billionaire who had spent the past two months spearheading a rebellion to replace the Internet company’s entire board in retaliation for its rejection of Microsoft’s $47.5 billion takeover bid in May. The duel had been scheduled to culminate in a shareholder vote at Yahoo’s Aug. 1 annual meeting. It now appears there will be fewer fireworks at that gathering, although some Yahoo shareholders are still expected to vent about the board’s inability to get a deal done with Microsoft after six months of wrangling.
American Express profits tumble
American Express Co. said Monday its second-quarter profit tumbled 38 percent, well below Wall Street’s forecast, as consumer spending slowed and credit indicators deteriorated beyond the lender’s expectations. For the period ended June 30, American Express reported net income of $653 million, or 56 cents per share, compared with $1.06 billion, or 88 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Analysts, on average, expected earnings of 83 cents per share on revenue of $7.6 billion, according to Thomson Financial.
T-bill rates fall in Monday auction
The Treasury Department auctioned three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.52 percent, down from 1.61 percent last week. Six-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 1.92 percent, down from 1.955 percent last week. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,961.58 while a six-month bill sold for $9,902.93. That’s an annualized rate of 1.547 percent for the three-month bills and 1.966 percent for six-month bills. The Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable-rate mortgages, fell to 2.21 percent last week from 2.25 percent.
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