New York Local and Regional News

Archive for February, 2010

Concern about mounting debt in Europe has pushed the Dow Jones industrials below 10,000.The Dow closed below the psychological barrier for the first time in three months Monday as financial stocks pulled the market lower.Mounting debt problems in several weaker European economies including Greece, Portugal and Spain have raised new questions about the health of the global financial system.According to preliminary calculations, the Dow has ended down 104 at 9,908. The Standard & Poor’s 500 is down 9 at 1,057. And the Nasdaq composite index is off 15 at 2,126.Two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume came to 1.1 billion shares compared with 1.6 billion shares Friday.Major indexes fell in afternoon trading after staying in a tight range for much of the day. Stocks have moved erratically in the past four weeks as investors try to determine whether a global economic recovery is still intact.The market began to stumble in the second half of January after China announced plans to contain economic growth and as the Obama administration proposed rules to restrict trading by large financial institutions.Brett Hryb, a portfolio manager with MFC Global Investment Management in Toronto, said the latest concern for investors is that the financial troubles in a country like Greece will spill into other countries.”Clearly Greece itself is nothing. It’s just a blip. It’s what the contagion could be,” he said.Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds Inc., said he doesn’t expect that problems with rising debt loads in Europe will cascade into other parts of the world’s economy, but he remains cautious.”Right now, when anybody says the word ‘contained’ I start to tremble,” he said, referring to his skepticism about those who downplay worries about Greece.Mr. Webman is also concerned by the shrugs that have greeted corporate earnings reports. Three out of four of the companies in the S&P 500 index that have reported results for the fourth quarter have posted stronger sales and profit numbers than analysts forecast, according to Thomson Reuters.”The market is obviously not that enthusiastic about these good bottom-line and good top-line numbers,” Mr. Webman said, adding that he sees that as a reason to be concerned about the direction of stocks.

Royal Shakespeare Co. plans 2011 NYC visit
Call it Stratford-upon-Hudson. Or maybe the East River.Great Britain’s Royal Shakespeare Company will take up residence at New York’s Park Avenue Armory in 2011, presenting five Shakespeare plays in repertory July 6-Aug. 14, Lincoln Center Festival and the armory announced Monday.The plays will be chosen from the company’s 2009 and 2010 seasons and could include Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet or The Winter’s Tale.The six-week engagement will be part of Lincoln Center Festival 2011, according to festival director Nigel Redden, who called the visit a “unique opportunity to experience Shakespeare’s plays performed by an ensemble of actors whom they (audiences) will get to know over the course of watching five different productions.”The 44-member acting troupe will perform in a 930-seat thrust-stage auditorium that will be installed in the armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall. It will be a replica of the RSC’s Courtyard Theatre where the company currently performs. The structure will take two weeks to build.”Our thrust stage, wrapping the audience around the action, allows people to reach out to our actors and to each other in a space which is both intimate and powerful,” said RSC artistic director Michael Boyd. “I am delighted that we can recreate that intimacy right here in New York City in the extraordinary space of Park Avenue Armory.”The RSC visit will be presented in association with Ohio State University, which has a three-year partnership with the company for a teacher-education program. RSC members most likely will visit the university during the company’s New York run, and there are tentative plans for it to present its Young People’s Shakespeare productions of Hamlet and Comedy of Errors in Columbus.The Royal Shakespeare Company’s home base is Stratford-upon-Avon, the Bard’s birthplace, but the troupe also performs regularly in London and tours extensively around the world.

Barnes & Noble: Nook in most stores by midweek
The Nook electronic book tablet sold by Barnes & Noble will be available again in most stores by midweek after quickly selling out over the holidays, the company said Monday.Production was ramped up to meet demand, the company said, and the reader, which retails for $259, is also available online at nook.com.Traditional bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders Group Inc. have struggled with increased online competition and discounters. Barnes & Noble is hoping its foray into the eBook market, where it competes with Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle and now Apple’s iPad, will help draw customers back through its doors.Borders is working with Canadian digital book company Kobo Inc. to develop a Borders-branded e-reader application powered by Kobo that will work on most mobile phones and PCs and be available in the second quarter of 2010.The company will also roll out its “More In Store” campaign this month, which gives Nook owners access to a few novelty items like recipes for red velvet cupcakes in time for Valentine’s Day.

Prosecutors add charges to insider trading case
A new indictment has boosted criminal insider trading charges against one of America’s richest men in what New York authorities have described as history’s largest hedge fund insider trading case.The indictment brought by federal prosecutors in Manhattan was made public Tuesday.The new charges bring allegations against hedge fund operator Raj Rajaratnam’s that are based on claims by some defendants who have pleaded guilty in the case.They also expand the time frame that some of the crimes were allegedly carried out from a matter of months to years.Mr. Rajaratnam, one of America’s richest men, has been accused by prosecutors of making as much as $50 million through insider trading. He denies the charges.

Ex-Intel exec pleads guilty in hedge fund case
A former Intel executive pleaded guilty Monday to charges he fed confidential information about the computer-chip maker to wealthy hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, his old friend and central figure in a massive insider trading case.”I gave Raj Rajaratnam the information because of my friendship with him,” Rajiv Goel told a judge in federal court in Manhattan. “I cannot express how sorry I am.”Mr. Goel, 51, of Los Altos, Calf., became the ninth defendant to plead guilty out of 21 charged so far in the case. He faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing on May 28 but could receive far less time because he agreed to cooperate with the investigation as part of a plea deal.Prosecutors allege Mr. Rajaratnam, the Sri Lanka-born portfolio manager for the Galleon Group hedge fund, pocketed up to $50 million through a network of cheating executives at financial firms and companies privy to inside information. He denies wrongdoing.Mr. Goel, a resident of Los Altos, Calif., was a director of strategic investments at Intel Capital, the investment arm of Intel Corp., until he left the company last year.He was arrested in October on conspiracy and securities fraud charges alleging that he supplied secret details about Intel’s investments to Mr. Rajaratnam — conversations prosecutors say were caught on wiretaps. Mr. Rajaratnam allegedly made a profit of $579,000 off the information and paid Goel through a personal brokerage account.In his plea, Mr. Goel said he met Mr. Rajaratnam after coming from India to attend the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in the early 1980s. After the two graduated and Mr. Rajaratnam built a hedge fund empire that made him one of the richest men in America, they remained close friends who sometimes took family vacations together, he said.”Though we lived very different lives, we maintained a strong connection,” he said.Mr. Goel admitted giving Mr. Rajaratnam inside tips about Intel’s investments and returns in 2007 and 2008.”I knew it was wrong to give Raj Rajaratnam confidential information,” he said.Mr. Goel remains free on $750,000 bail.

Media-buying firm inks downtown lease
In a positive sign for the still beleaguered leasing market, Horizon Media Inc. has inked a deal for 115,000 square feet at One Hudson Square, between Watts and Canal Streets.New York City-based Horizon Media has its 400 local employees spread out in three different midtown Manhattan locations and will be consolidating all of them in the new space starting in September. Asking rent for the 15-year deal, which covers floors 14 through 16, was $42 a square foot.“To be able to have all of our [New York City] employees under one roof is certainly something we’ve always wanted,” said Bill Koenigsberg, chief executive of the media strategy, planning and ad-buying firm.Mr. Koenigsberg said he is excited about moving the firm into a building with large floor plates and huge windows in a vibrant neighborhood that’s a hub of other media and creative firms.“I think the location brings an energy to our people that you don’t’ find in a stale corporate office in midtown,” said Mr. Koenigsberg.The building is owned by Trinity Real Estate and its flexibility really helped get the deal done, said Newmark Knight Frank broker Moshe Sukenik, who represented Horizon Media with his colleague Chris Mongeluzo. He said Horizon’s current leases expire at different times so Trinity offered up temporary space to accommodate his client’s timetable.Trinity was represented in-house by its director of commercial leasing Jason Pizer and Cushman & Wakefield Inc. brokers Robert Constable and Andrew Peretz.

Warner Music Group posts fiscal 1Q loss
Warner Music Group Corp. posted a $17 million loss for its fiscal first quarter on Tuesday, still struggling with muted consumer spending in the U.S. and declining compact disc sales.Overall revenue was up, but only because of the effect of foreign currency swings. Digital revenue grew, helped largely by overseas growth.Warner said its biggest sellers during the quarter were Michael Buble, Enya and Muse, along with the soundtrack albums from movies including The Twilight Saga: New Moon.The record company’s net loss amounted to 11 cents per share for the three months ended in December. That compares with a profit of $23 million, or 15 cents per share, a year ago, when Warner had a gain of 24 cents per share on the sale of Front Line Management, a talent agency, to Ticketmaster.Revenue rose 3% to $918 million from $887 million a year ago. Excluding changes in currency values, revenue fell 2%, which the company said reflected weakness in the U.S., Japan and parts of Europe. Sales were stronger in the U.K., France and Italy.On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a larger loss of 14 cents per share on lower sales of $872 million. The earnings estimates typically exclude one-time items.Warner’s digital sales, which now make up about 20% of the company’s revenue, climbed 8% year-over-year to $184 million.

Bloomberg wants Obama vow to pay for 9/11 trial
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he’s skeptical that the federal government would cover the cost of trying Sept. 11 suspects in Manhattan.The mayor said Monday that he wants assurance from the Obama administration that it will help pay for the added security and other infrastructure the city would have to provide.City officials have estimated the cost at $200 million a year, but have not detailed the specific costs that make up that figure.Mr. Bloomberg recently declared he did not want the trial in New York City, after supporting the idea initially last year.President Barack Obama said Sunday he has not ruled out holding the trial in New York City, despite the opposition from Mr. Bloomberg and others.

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Not About C through F, Though.
Concerned man to friend: So, wait, does girl A know about girl B?Friend, nonchalantly: Yeah.–Fordham & Crotona Alsome | Thumbs up | Thumbs down | Link Email Quote this! Del.icio.us Posted 2010-02-05

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The Muddled Selling of the President
It s not easy pitching a nation of angry voters, fixed opposition, scattered media. Not when you ve left yourself hard to define.

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Theater Review | ‘Ages of the Moon’: It s Old Timers Day at Shepard s Arena
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Feeling Unsettled at a Feel-Good Show
The emphasis in the musical Fela! on the spectacle of African culture tilts the show a little too closely toward minstrelsy.

A growing population of Guatemalan immigrants in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, maintain the ties of their country.

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In Search Of Spirit Book – ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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