UPI NewsTrack Business

Midday comeback holds in Tuesday markets

NEW YORK, May 6 (UPI) -- A rally from a tail-dragging morning lifted U.S. stock indexes out of the red by the close Tuesday afternoon.

The comeback pushed the Dow Jones from a loss of nearly 100 points to a gain of 51.29 points.

Resilient investors kept the rally going in spite of inflation-pushing crude oil prices closing at a record $121.85 per barrel Tuesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 13,020.83 points, up 0.4 percent.

The Standard and Poor's 500 index gained 10.77 points to 1,418.26, up 0.77 percent. The Nasdaq composite gained 19.19 points to 2,483.31, up 0.78 percent.

On the New York Stock Exchange 1,934 stocks advanced and 1,168 declined on a volume of 1.233 billion shares traded.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 12/32 to yield 3.916 percent.

The dollar fell. The euro traded at $1.5525 from Friday's $1.5488 and the dollar traded at 104.77 yen from Friday's 104.84 yen.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 78.18 points to 26,262.13, up 0.3 percent Tuesday.

In London, the FTSE 100 index gained 1.5 points to 6,217, up 0.02 percent.

In Japan, the stock market was closed Tuesday.



Judges reject huge Parmalat trial concept

PARMA, Italy, May 6 (UPI) -- Judges in Parma, Italy, ruled Tuesday that three trials involving Parmalat executives should not be incorporated into one trial.

Defense lawyers for Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi, his former Chief Financial Officer Fausto Tonna and 22 others argued that pulling two other trials into the main event were necessary to see "the full picture," Ansa reported.

The larger trial, involving the biggest corporate failure in Europe, would have brought the number of defendants to 56, Ansa reported.

Judges decided the attorneys could adequately defend their clients without pulling the three trials into one.

The main trial involves accounting fraud and criminal conspiracy charges. Lesser charges were split into two other trials to speed up the judicial process, Ansa reported.



Chrysler promotion locks in gas prices

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., May 6 (UPI) -- Chrysler announced it would provide cards that lock in gas prices at $2.99 a gallon for three years for most of its car buyers through June 2.

The company announced the "Let's Refuel America" promotion would provide most U.S. Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge buyers with enough gas purchases at the $2.99 price to cover 12,000 miles of driving a year, based on the car's federal miles-per-gallon rating.

Chrysler President Jim Press called the promotion, "an unprecedented program to help put customers' minds at ease and do something to help working people who are worried about the volatility of fuel prices."

The card, which consumers would swipe like a credit card at the gas pump, would be available for purchases of 87 octane regular, E85 fuel or diesel fuel, the company said.



Investigator recommends changes for BAE

LONDON, May 6 (UPI) -- An independent investigator in Britain recommended 23 reform measures for BAE Systems, Europe's largest defense contractor, a report issued Tuesday said.

Harry Kenneth Woolf, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2000 until 2005, recommended internal and external monitoring to raise the company's ethical standards, The Times of London reported.

Woolf said company executives "acknowledged that the company did not in the past pay sufficient attention to ethical standards."

BAE Chairman Dick Olver called the report, "an important step towards BAE Systems' objective of achieving benchmark standards of governance."

The investigation came in the wake of an arms deal with Saudi Arabia that included allegations of fraud and corruption.

Britain's Serious Fraud Office dropped its investigation into the allegations, but the country's High Court ruled last month that it did so illegally.

The Serious Fraud Office is set to discuss the issue with the before the House of Lords, the report said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International