UPI NewsTrack Business - November 26, 2007 : Business

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26
U.S. stocks fall on continued credit fears
NEW YORK, Nov. 26 U.S. stock indexes fell Monday as continued credit fears dampened a strong initial start of the holiday shopping season.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 31.05 points, or 0.22 percent, to 12,99,03 in midmorning. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 9.03 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,431.67. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index shed 7.05 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,589.55.

U.S. retail sales rose 8.3 percent on Black Friday -- the day after the U.S. Thanksgiving and the traditional first day of the holiday shopping season -- compared with a year ago, ShopperTrak RCT Corp. reported.

But credit fears impelled shoppers to hunt for discounts, pushing sales per individual shopper lower than a year ago, the National Retail Federation said.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index on Monday finished up 246.44 points, or 1.66 percent, at 15,135.21.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note added 4/32, yielding 3.989 percent, while the 30-year bond was up 15/32, yielding 4.401 percent.

The U.S. dollar fell to 108.24 yen from 108.32 yen in New York late Friday. The euro was up to $1.4843 from $1.4838.

Oil falls amid hopes OPEC will raise output
NEW YORK, Nov. 26 U.S. oil prices fell below $97 Monday amid hopes OPEC would boost oil output as the U.S. dollar weakened and the U.S. Northeast anticipated colder weather.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $1.48, or 1.51 percent, to $96.70 a barrel in late morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Oil traders said record-high crude prices would pressure Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries representatives to raise output when they meet in Abu Dhabi Dec. 5.

The dollar traded at $1.4843 against the euro Monday after reaching a record low of $1.4967 last week.

The National Weather Service forecast colder-than-normal weather next week in the U.S. Northeast, the primary market for U.S. heating oil.

Natural gas gained 19 cents, or 2.43 percent, to $7.89 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Heating oil added 2.73 cents, or 1.01 percent, to $2.6769 a gallon.

Reformulated-gasoline blendstock for oxygen blending rose 4.51 cents, or 1.83 percent, at $2.4219 a gallon.

AAA said the average U.S. retail regular unleaded gasoline price was $3.085 a gallon, down 0.1 cent from Sunday's $3.086 a gallon.

Virgin is preferred Northern Rock bidder
LONDON, Nov. 26 The British government has chosen a Virgin Group Ltd.-led consortium as the preferred bidder to rescue Northern Rock PLC, the troubled bank said Monday.

Separately, U.S. investor Warren Buffett and other suitors may join the Northern Rock bidding "within the next few days," London's Telegraph reported.

The Virgin consortium -- including New York's W.L. Ross & Co., Britain's Toscafund Asset Management LLP and China's First Eastern Investment Group -- would rebrand the bank as part of Virgin Money and repay $22.7 billion of the $51.7 billion the Bank of England lent to Northern Rock on the completion of the deal, Northern Rock said in an announcement to the London Stock Exchange.

The remainder of the money would be paid "in due course," Northern Rock said.

The consortium would gain control of up to 55 percent of Northern Rock while existing shareholders would see the value of their holdings diminish to no less than 45 percent, the bank said.

The proposal also includes a new management team led by former Lloyds TSB Group PLC Chairman Brian Pitman as chairman, Virgin Money Chief Executive Officer Jayne-Anne Gadhia as CEO and former Royal Bank of Scotland PLC Chairman George Mathewson as senior adviser.

Shareholders will need to approve any deal. If they reject it, the bank would likely be nationalized or liquidated.

Northern Rock shares were up 33.29 percent or 59 cents to $2.37 a share in late-afternoon trading on the London Stock Exchange after falling 11.5 percent earlier to $1.57.

Airbus, Areva ink $26.7B in Chinese orders
BEIJING, Nov. 26 Pan-European aerospace giant Airbus SAS and French state-controlled nuclear-engineering company Areva SA signed $26.7 billion in orders Monday in China.

The deals, signed while French President Nicolas Sarkozy was on the second day of his first state visit to the Asian trading giant, include $14.8 billion for Airbus to deliver 160 passenger jets to Chinese airlines and $11.9 billion for Areva to supply two reactors, technology and uranium, the companies said.

The Airbus order includes 110 short- to medium-range A320 jets and 50 larger, wide-body, medium- to long-range A330s, Airbus said.

The European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. NV subsidiary, based in Toulouse, France, has won orders this year to deliver a record 1,340 aircraft, topping its previous high of 1,111 in 2005, The New York Times reported.

Areva, the world's largest nuclear company by revenue, said its deal with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co. involved building two of its third-generation 1,600-megawatt EPR reactors in coastal Taishan, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, about 90 miles west of Hong Kong.

The Paris company said the Chinese company also agreed to buy 35 percent of the production of Areva's uranium mining subsidiary, UraMin, which will source the nuclear fuel from its three mines in Africa.