Business Highlights

Business Highlights

	Published : Fri, 25 May 2007 22:19 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street rose smartly in a quiet session Friday as investors adjusted positions ahead of a long holiday weekend and tried to determine whether a lackluster week presaged a departure from the market's months-long run-up or merely a temporary pause.

Stocks rose Friday coming off a pullback Thursday and as investors drew some optimism from the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.'s deal to acquire Sweden's OMX AB. Investors showed little reaction to the National Association of Realtors' report that sales of existing homes fell 2.6 percent in April to 5.99 million units, the slowest sales rate in almost four years.

The gains followed four mostly negative sessions for Wall Street's major indexes. Given Wall Street's robust performance in recent months, a pullback in which investors consolidate gains wasn't unexpected. However, the week began with a flourish that could have suggested a further climb: The Standard & Poor's 500 index traded above its record close for the first time in more than seven years.

ATLANTA (AP) -- The Coca-Cola Co., which has been looking to expand its water and energy drink portfolio and jump-start sales in North America, said Friday it has agreed to buy Vitaminwater maker Glaceau in a cash deal valued at $4.1 billion.

The world's largest beverage maker said the agreement to acquire privately held Energy Brands Inc., known as Glaceau, provides Atlanta-based Coca-Cola with a strong platform to grow its 'active lifestyle' beverages.

The acquisition, Coca-Cola's largest ever, will be financed with debt, and is expected to add to Coca-Cola's earnings starting in 2008, but will slightly dilute profits this year, executives said.

Coca-Cola's chief financial officer, Gary Fayard, said in a conference call with analysts that Coke will take full ownership of Glaceau, which for now is 30 percent owned by holdings of India's Tata Group, a conglomerate with interests spanning steel, software services, hotels, chemicals and insurance. The Tata stake will be acquired later than the majority stake, Fayard said.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sales of existing homes fell more than expected in April while prices slid for a record ninth consecutive month, indicating further troubles ahead for the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors reported Friday that sales of existing homes dropped by 2.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million units, the slowest sales pace in nearly four years.

The median price of a home fell to $220,900, an 0.8 percent decline from the median price a year ago. The median is the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less.

The slide in existing home sales came after a report Thursday that showed a big 16.2 percent surge in sales of new homes in April that occurred as the median price of a new home fell by a record 11.1 percent from the previous month.

Analysts said the disparity in sales of new and existing homes for April reflected in part the decision by builders to aggressively cut prices to unload inventory while homeowners are still reluctant to lower their asking prices.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Nasdaq Stock Market Inc., which lost its battle to cross the Atlantic with a failed bid for the London Stock Exchange, agreed Friday to buy Nordic stock exchange operator OMX AB for $3.67 billion.

The acquisition is a breakthrough for the Nasdaq, which still owns almost 30 percent of the London exchange and could use the purchase of OMX to persuade LSE shareholders to agree to a deal creating a giant European exchange.

Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld tried to avoid commenting on the matter, saying 'this day is about Nasdaq and OMX.' But later he told a conference call that his position on its LSE stake has not changed.

Magnus Bocker, the CEO of OMX -- the largest stock market in the Nordic region -- declined comment on whether he would like to see a combination with LSE. OMX failed in its own attempt to buy the London exchange, in 2000.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- An independent European Union panel is investigating whether Google Inc.'s Internet search engine abides by European privacy rules, which tend to be stricter than those in the United States.

EU spokesman Pietro Petrucci said Friday that the 28-member panel, which advises the European Commission and EU governments on data protection issues, wants Google to address concerns about the company's practice of storing and retaining user information for up to two years.

Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, said the company was doing a lot to protect personal data gathered from users on its search engine.

Google said it would answer the EU's privacy concerns before the panel's next meeting at the end of June.

TOKYO (AP) -- In the race for ever-thinner displays for TVs, cell phones and other gadgets, Sony may have developed one to beat them all -- a razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-color video.

Sony Corp. released video of the new 2.5-inch display Friday. In it, a hand squeezes a display that is 0.3 millimeters, or 0.01 inch, thick. The display shows color images of a bicyclist stuntman and a picturesque lake.

Although flat-panel TVs are getting slimmer, a display that's so thin it bends in a human hand marks a breakthrough.

Sony said it has yet to decide on commercial products using the technology.

Tatsuo Mori, an engineering and computer science professor at Nagoya University, said some hurdles remained, including making the display bigger, ensuring durability and cutting costs.

But he said the display's pliancy is extremely difficult to imitate with liquid crystal displays and plasma display panels -- the two main display technologies now on the market.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Road warriors will receive little relief as they head out the door for this year's Memorial Day weekend as retail prices hover at all-time highs and gasoline futures plow higher on supply fears.

Gasoline futures gained 4.68 cents to settle at $2.407 a gallon Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Light, sweet crude for July delivery followed to close at $65.20 a barrel, up $1.02.

The average retail price inched back from its record high of $3.227 on Thursday to $3.225 a gallon, AAA said, compared with $2.862 a gallon a year ago and $2.109 a gallon in 2005.

A spate of new refinery outages this week threatens to boost future and retail prices, with retail nearing the inflation-adjusted peak of $3.29 a gallon reached in March 1981 according to the Energy Department.

NEW YORK (AP) -- As gasoline prices flirt with all-time highs ahead of Memorial Day weekend, the drivers hit hardest aren't the ones paying the highest prices.

In an index released this week, Oil Price Information Service, a source for petroleum pricing, broke down who's paying the most taking into account local gasoline prices and local monthly income.

The biggest losers are drivers living in Clay County, Ky., who shell out 14.78 percent of their monthly income to buy gasoline costing $3.156 a gallon. While the price there is far lower than the retail average in San Juan County, Wash., which is the highest in the country at $3.926 a gallon, Clay County's average monthly income of $1,423.67 is the lowest nationwide, making any increase in gasoline prices much more painful.

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Chinese stocks rose to a fresh record high Friday as foreign currency shares rebounded from losses the day before.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.7 percent to 4,179.78, its highest closing level. The indicator is up 56 percent since the start of this year, after soaring 130 percent last year.

The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.6 percent to 1,235, also a record.

Shares denominated in U.S. dollars in Shanghai and Hong Kong dollars in Shenzhen, known as B-shares, recovered recent losses on bargain hunting. The Shanghai B-share Index surged 8.8 percent to 323.62 and the Shenzhen B-share Index rose 1.7 percent to 723.28.

By The Associated Press

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.15, or 0.49 percent, to 13,507.28.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 8.22, or 0.55 percent, to 1,515.73, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 19.27, or 0.76 percent, to 2,557.19.

Gasoline futures gained 4.68 cents to settle at $2.407 a gallon Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Light, sweet crude for July delivery followed to close at $65.20 a barrel, up $1.02.

Brent crude ended down 3 cents at $70.69 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other trading, heating oil futures added a penny to settle at $1.9391 a gallon, while natural gas prices lost 4.1 cents to $7.640 per 1,000 cubic feet.