News Briefs - May 26
The Latest Headlines:
- April New Home Sales Fall 11.8% to 1.093 Million Rate
- Moyes Cancels Stock Purchase After Record Gain
- OPEC Output Seen Rising With Prices
- Navistar Announces New Debt Offering
- DaimlerChrysler Considering Selling Trucks in India
- Arrow Air, Creditors Agree on Consensual Reorganization
- UPS Ocean Service Adds 30 Ports
- Moyes Cancels Stock Purchase After Record Gain
April New Home Sales Fall 11.8% to 1.093 Million Rate
Sales of new homes in April feel 11.8% to an annualized rate of 1.093 million, their lowest level in five months, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.Economists told Bloomberg that higher finance charges might be helping to slow the pace of home sales.
The report comes just one day after the National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose 2.5% in April.
Moyes Cancels Stock Purchase After Record Gain
Swift Transportation Co. announced Tuesday that Chief Executive Jerry Moyes will cancel his purchase of more than 200,000 shares of the truckload carrier bought before the company raised its earnings guidance, leading to the stock’s biggest one-day gain ever, Bloomberg News reported.Company spokesman David Barry told Bloomberg Moyes was reversing the trades “to avoid any appearance of impropriety” and he won’t realize any personal gain from the announcement of improved profit expectation and subsequent surge in the stock’s price.
According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Moyes bought 100,000 shares Tuesday from $15.50 to $15.55 a share and 103,000 shares from $15.14 to $15.32 each. The stock surged $3.08 a share on Tuesday after the company said earnings would exceed expectations.
Based in Phoenix, Swift is ranked No. 13 on the 2003 Transport Topics 100 listing of the largest trucking companies in the United States and Canada. Transport Topics
OPEC Output Seen Rising With Prices
OPEC, the cartel responsible for more than a third of the world’s oil production, will likely increase its production by 1.8% in May, an industry monitoring company told Bloomberg News Wednesday.PetroLogistics Ltd., a Geneva-based firm, said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would pump roughly 28.5 million barrels of oil per day in May, up 500,000 from its April production levels. The 10-country cartel is producing 2.85 million barrels a day more than its self-imposed production limit, Bloomberg reported.
Much of the increase in output is the result of Saudi Arabia’s effort to lower world oil prices by boosting production, PetroLogistics said.
Oil prices have remained high after setting a record of $41.85 a barrel on May 17 in New York, Bloomberg reported. Crude oil prices closed its New York trading session Tuesday at $41.83 a barrel. Transport Topics
Navistar Announces New Debt Offering
Truck manufacturer Navistar International Corp. said Wednesday it planned to issue $250 million in senior notes due in 2011.The company said it would us the proceeds of the debt offering to purchase outstanding notes on a previous debt offering that comes due in 2008.
The offering is being led by J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Credit Suisse First Boston LLC, the company said. Transport Topics
DaimlerChrysler Considering Selling Trucks in India
DaimlerChrysler AG is studying plans to sell trucks in India, where a $14 billion highway development program is boosting demand, Bloomberg reported.Demand for trucks and buses is rising in India, Asia's fourth-biggest economy, as the government builds 8,200 miles of highways through 2007, Bloomberg said.
Local sales of trucks and buses increased 37% to a record 260,345 in the year ended March 31, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Transport Topics
Arrow Air, Creditors Agree on Consensual Reorganization
Air cargo carrier Arrow Air Inc. announced Tuesday it had reached a deal with its creditors on a reorganization plan that will bring the company out of bankruptcy.Based in Miami, the company said it believed a U.S. bankruptcy judge would likely confirm the plan on June 10, after which the company will cease operating under Chapter 11 protection.
Arrow said in its statement it has more than 3,500 customers worldwide, including the United State Postal Service and the Department of Defense. Transport Topics
UPS Ocean Service Adds 30 Ports
UPS Inc. has added 30 ports worldwide to its Trade Direct Ocean service, bringing its total ports in the business-to-business service to 70.Miami is the only U.S. port the company added to the mix, joining New York and Los Angeles as ports of entry for the service, said Laurie Mallis, a UPS spokeswoman. Other nations included in the announcement were Japan, Chile, India and Indonesia.
Direct Ocean service “is basically a transportation system for freight and packages” that allows business-to-business bulk shipping, Mallis said.
Customers can track their packages through customs services in each location as they move across the oceans, she said.
Introduced in 2002, with links between ports in China, Brazil, New York and Los Angeles, the service packages goods at the port of origin, where they are labeled for U.S. delivery. After clearing U.S. Customs, the shipments are separated and delivered, she said.
The company said in a release that the service “allows customers to speed their merchandise directly into the UPS delivery system as soon as the goods clear customs, reducing the need for lengthy and costly warehouse stops before final U.S. delivery.”
UPS is the largest company on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers. Michael G. Malloy
This story appeared in the May 24 print edition of Transport Topics.
