News Briefs - July 25
The Latest Headlines:
- Congress Reaches Corporate Crime Compromise
- White House Says Economy Is Growing Solidly
- Despite Slumping Markets, Fed Unlikely to Lower Rates, Bloomberg Says
- API Report Spurs Oil Prices Higher
- Ryder Earnings Up 42% in 2Q
- C.H. Robinson Reports 2Q Earnings Up 11.1%
- White House Says Economy Is Growing Solidly
Congress Reaches Corporate Crime Compromise
Negotiators from the House and Senate reached a compromise on a massive corporate reform package Wednesday, Reuters reported.Recent accounting scandals involving major companies such as Enron Corp. and MCI Worldcom have hurt investors' confidence and sent the stock market plummeting.
The compromise preserves much of a Senate bill requiring stricter oversight of auditors, but also adopts stiffer criminal penalties passed by the House, Reuters said.
White House Says Economy Is Growing Solidly
The White House said on Wednesday the economy is growing solidly and that new legislation cracking down on corporate fraud will boost confidence in the stock market, Reuters reported Wednesday.If investors and consumers have a positive outlook, they are more likely to increase spending, which increases the demand for trucking services.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the hard cold facts about the economy show it is growing solidly and the fundamentals are strong. Transport Topics
Despite Slumping Markets, Fed Unlikely to Lower Rates, Bloomberg Says
Despite the recent slide in stock prices, it appears unlikely the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates below the current 40-year low, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.The Fed cut interest rates 11 times in 2001 in an attempt to stimulate spending, which boosts the demand for trucking services.
Chairman Alan Greenspan has said central bankers don’t need to reduce rates unless falling stocks prices affect production, jobs or price stability, Bloomberg said.
A survey by the news service found not one of the 22 security firms that deal directly with the Fed expects the overnight bank lending rate to be lowered from the current 1.75%.
Analysts said a rate cut now would be bad for the markets and U.S. economy because it would send a signal the Fed is losing confidence, Bloomberg said. Transport Topics
API Report Spurs Oil Prices Higher
A report by the American Petroleum Institute that showed U.S. oil reserves were lower than expected pushed the price of crude oil higher in trading Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.Diesel fuel and gasoline – the fuels that drive commercial trucking – often see their prices track the price of crude oil.
The price of crude oil rose as much as 50 cents, or 2%, to $25.54 a barrel, in Wednesday trading on the International Petroleum Exchange in London, Bloomberg said.
The API report said that U.S. crude oil reserves were down 2.5% from the same week in 2002. Transport Topics
Ryder Earnings Up 42% in 2Q
Ryder System Inc. announced Wednesday earnings per share up 42% to 47 cents in the second quarter ended June 30.Net revenue, however, was down 7% to $1.21 billion, which the company attributed to the slow, unsteady global economy’s impact on the transportation industry.
Based in Miami, Ryder provides logistics, supply chain and transportation management solutions in North American, Latin American, Europe and Asia.
Ryder is ranked No. 3 on the 2002 Transport Topics 100 list of U.S. and Canadian trucking companies. Transport Topics
(Click here for full press release.)
C.H. Robinson Reports 2Q Earnings Up 11.1%
C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc., a Minneapolis-based logistics firm, said Tuesday that its net income for the second quarter rose 11.1% from the same period last year to $25.2 million or 30 cents per share."We continue to aggressively manage our operating expenses and overall are pleased with our earnings growth for the quarter," said John Wiehoff, chief executive officer of C.H. Robinson. "During the second quarter, we experienced increasing volumes in our truckload business; however, our gross margin declined due to overall tight truck capacity."
The company said that in the second quarter, transportation profits rose 1.7% due to better performances from its less-than-truckload, intermodal, international and transportation management businesses. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
