BUSINESS BRIEFS
Bank of America projects cutting up to 35,000 jobs
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Bank of America Corp. said yesterday it expects to cut 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over the next three years, as it faces a deteriorating economic environment and tries to absorb Merrill Lynch & Co.
The final number could be even higher, analysts say. Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America said it hasn't completed its analysis for eliminating positions, and won't until early next year. The company and Merrill have about 308,000 employees in total, and the cuts will affect workers from both companies and all types of businesses.
30-YEAR FIXED AVERAGING 5.47%
McLEAN, Va. — Rates on 30-year-fixed mortgages dropped this week to their lowest levels in more than four years, effects of a startling November unemployment report and a government plan to buoy the housing market.
Freddie Mac reported yesterday that average rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 5.47 percent, down from 5.53 last week. The rate is slightly below this year's previous low of 5.48 percent during the week of Jan. 24, and the lowest since March 25, 2004, when it averaged 5.40 percent.
Meanwhile, rates this week fell on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages to an average of 5.20 percent, down from 5.33 percent last week, Freddie Mac said.
Rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages rose to 5.82 percent, compared with 5.77 percent last week.
PRODUCT GIANT SHORT OF GOAL
NEW YORK — Procter & Gamble Co. said yesterday it will miss a second-quarter sales target as the consumer products company acknowledged it isn't immune to the recession.
The maker of such products as Tide detergent, Pampers diapers and Gillette shavers, P&G said organic sales — that is, sales not linked to acquisitions — won't meet the 4 percent to 6 percent growth goal in the quarter ending in December. But the Cincinnati-based company still expects organic sales to grow between 4 percent and 6 percent over its fiscal 2009, which ends in June.
NASDAQ VETERAN ACCUSED OF FRAUD
NEW YORK — A former Nasdaq stock market chairman was arrested on a securities fraud charge yesterday, accused of running a phony investment business that amounted to what prosecutors called a "giant Ponzi scheme."
Bernard L. Madoff was released on $10 million bail. He declined to comment as he walked out of court.
Madoff, 70, the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, maintained a separate and secretive investment-advising business that served between 11 and 25 clients and had a total of about $17.1 billion in assets under management, prosecutors said.
787 TEST FLIGHT DELAYED AGAIN
Boeing Co. has further delayed the initial test flight and delivery of its highly anticipated 787 jetliner, citing the impact of a recent strike and lingering production problems.
The Chicago-based aerospace company said yesterday it was pushing back the inaugural flight of the next-generation passenger jet to the second quarter of 2009 and the first delivery to between January and March of 2010.
FALLING DOLLAR LIFTS OIL PRICES
HOUSTON — Oil prices rose 10 percent yesterday as the value of the dollar sank further and investors dumped money into crude markets.
The falling dollar, which makes commodities like oil more attractive, outweighed a new report from the International Energy Agency, which said energy demand is sliding sharply.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery rose $4.46 to settle at $47.98 a barrel in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after rising to near $49 earlier in the session.
