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Inventories, Sales Rose in Dec.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004; Page E02
Wholesale inventories in December rose 0.6 percent, the biggest jump in a year, as companies sought to build stockpiles to keep up with accelerating sales in an expanding economy, the Commerce Department said. The increase in inventories was led by autos and petroleum and followed a 0.5 percent gain in November. Sales climbed 1 percent after a 0.6 percent rise in November. Inventories relative to sales dropped to a record-low 1.17 months' supply, from 1.18 in November.
Sweeping Mutual Fund Laws Proposed
Proposed Senate mutual fund legislation would outlaw practices by fund companies and brokerages that legislators say create conflicts of interest and drive up investor costs. Backers called it the most sweeping legislation of its kind since 1940. The House last fall passed a bill requiring mutual fund companies to divulge more about fees and operations. The Senate proposal, not yet a formal bill, goes further. For example, it would ban fund companies from paying brokerages for steering investors to certain funds. Backers of the proposal indicated that formal drafting may not occur until early summer.
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Kuwait's energy minister said he has asked the country's top prosecutor to investigate allegations that Halliburton's KBR unit paid too much for fuel it imported into Iraq from a Kuwaiti contractor. The Army Corps of Engineers reported that Halliburton has been paid $2.44 billion under a contract to repair Iraqi oil fields, an increase of $180 million since December.
A new computer worm called Doomjuice is seeking computers infected with Mydoom, the fastest-spreading software virus ever, to leave instructions for re-creating the original virus and spread more havoc, computer security firm Lurhq said. The Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based company discovered the program early yesterday, a company researcher said, adding that the worm probably isn't spreading rapidly.
Walt Disney Co.'s board of directors in a letter to shareholders said the campaign by ex-directors Roy Disney and Stanley Gold to oust chief executive Michael Eisner is misleading and distracts the board from Burbank, Calif.-based Disney's business. Roy Disney and Gold, who resigned last year, have criticized Eisner for failing to revive the third-rated ABC television network, for alienating creative business partners and for declining theme-park attendance.
The Internal Revenue Service has more than $2.5 billion it could refund to nearly 2 million taxpayers who did not file a 2000 return, many because they earned too little to require a return. Those taxpayers, many of them students, retirees and part-time workers, have until April 15 to file a 2000 tax return or lose the refund forever.
Kroger said its chairman will retire in June and the chief executive will take over that job. Joseph A. Pichler, 64, served as chairman and chief executive from 1990 until last year, when David B. Dillon, 52, was appointed chief executive.
T-bill rates were steady. The discount rate on three-month Treasury bills auctioned yesterday was unchanged, at 0.92 percent, from the previous week. Rates on six-month bills fell from 1 percent to 0.99 percent. The actual return to investors is 0.939 percent for three-month bills, with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,976.70, and 1.011 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,950. Separately, the Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for changing adjustable-rate mortgages, rose to 1.28 percent last week from 1.25 percent the previous week.
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