Financial life in a big town

Shares of Macy’s Inc. fell about 1 percent Monday afternoon after a Deutsche Bank analyst downgraded the stock to “hold” from “buy.”

According to a MarketWatch report, analyst Bill Dreher Jr. said the department store chain’s “My Macy’s” initiative, which consolidated merchandising and tailored it to local markets, hasn’t produced the expected results.

“Macy’s decentralization initiative is developing awkwardly and will likely need years of refinement before demonstrating significant traction," Dreher said in the MarketWatch story. He also lowered his first-quarter earnings forecast to $1.21 per share from $1.25. Analysts. on average, expect earnings per share of $1.18.

Shares of Macy’s (NYSE: M) lost about 1.5 percent, or 24 cents, to $15.69 in Monday afternoon trading.

Macy’s, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, operates about 850 department stores in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.

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Hoya Corp. kept its Pentax camera plant north of Tokyo open as rivals steadily moved factories overseas to cut costs, yet it couldn’t compete as the yen surged against the dollar and euro during the global recession.

The company paid suppliers and workers in yen, sold products in dollars and euros, and converted revenue into yen. Six straight quarterly losses prompted Hoya in June to close the last domestic Pentax plant, in Tochigi prefecture, as the yen rallied against the dollar.

“The rise in the yen is definitely one of the biggest triggers that convinced us to accelerate our move offshore,” said Hiroshi Hamada, Hoya’s chief operating officer. “There was no reason to keep high-cost manufacturing in Japan.”

Lens-maker Hoya is one of 13 companies — including Komatsu Inc. and Panasonic Corp. — shutting or downsizing Tochigi factories in the past year. The strengthening yen, weakening domestic demand and second-highest corporate taxes among major economies are spurring the exodus of manufacturers to Vietnam, the Philippines and China, companies and analysts say.

Hoya rose 2 percent to 2,570 yen at the close trading in Tokyo, outpacing the 1.1 percent gain on the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average. Shares of the Tokyo-based company have gained 55 percent in the last 12 months.

About 740,000 Japanese manufacturing jobs disappeared last year through November, the statistics bureau said. More than a third of factory capacity sits idle, trade ministry figures show.

‘Breaking Point’

Japan’s industrial output is 19.8 percent below its pre- recession peak, with the country shipping 35 percent fewer goods in November than the peak of 7.6 trillion yen ($82 billion) in March 2008.

“Corporate Japan is voting with its feet,” said Jesper Koll, now head of equity research at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo. “They’re going overseas. The hollowing out of Japan is being turbo-charged.”

Profits from overseas operations at Japanese companies exceeded domestic earnings for the first time in fiscal 2008, said the Japan External Trade Organization, a government-funded organization focused on luring investment. Foreign operations generated 52.5 percent of earnings, according to JETRO’s analysis of 890 listed companies.

The yen surged 14 percent since Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2008, the most among 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg. It reached a 14- year high of 84.8 against the dollar on Nov. 27. The yen gained 20 percent against the euro since January 2008.

No Incentives

A stronger currency erodes the value of repatriated earnings and makes Japanese exports more expensive for foreign buyers.

Overseas markets are more lucrative as domestic demand slips because of declining wages — down 14 percent since a 1997 peak — and an aging, shrinking population. More than 20 percent of Japanese are over 65, and the population will decrease by 3.2 percent this decade, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

Japan’s 39.5 percent corporate tax rate for large firms is second-highest behind the U.S.’s 40.8 percent, according to the Finance Ministry.

“There’s less incentive to keep, stay or do business in Japan, especially the factories,” said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief foreign-exchange strategist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo instant payday loans completely online. “That movement should continue.”

Last month’s 7.2 trillion yen government stimulus package didn’t promote long-term growth, said Yasukazu Shimizu, senior market economist at Mizuho Securities Co. in Tokyo.

Komatsu, Panasonic Leave

Manufacturing is 40 percent of Tochigi’s economy –twice the national average. Before the recession started in November 2007, there were three job openings for every two applicants, according to the Labor Ministry.

Now there are three applicants for every opening in the prefecture, about an hour from Tokyo on the bullet train.

Komatsu, the world’s second-biggest maker of construction equipment behind Caterpillar Inc., closed a dump-truck assembly plant there. China surpassed Japan as Komatsu’s biggest market for construction and mining machinery in the quarter ended June 30.

Komatsu forecasts full-year profits of 35 billion yen as sales decline by 6.5 percent.

Consolidating Operations

Panasonic Communications Co., subsidiary of Tokyo-based Panasonic Corp., the world’s biggest maker of plasma TVs, shut its fax-machine factory in June. The parent company says cost cuts, including 15,000 jobs, will help narrow a net loss for the current fiscal year to 140 billion yen from the earlier estimate of 195 billion yen.

“We wanted to increase efficiency,” Panasonic spokesman Akira Kadota said. “It made sense to consolidate our operations.”

Shuttered shops abound in Utsunomiya, a city of 500,000 where Tochigi’s government established an unemployment center. The converted storefront advised more than 12,000 people since April, manager Chiaki Yashiro said.

“There isn’t anything out there,” said Yuuji Takashi, 53, who lost his job at a car parts-maker early last year. “They’re sending it all to China.”

Toyota City, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp., which makes more than half of its cars abroad, plans to suspend one domestic assembly line and add capacity in China and India, its fastest- growing markets. Domestic passenger car sales are down 25 percent since the 1990 peak of 5.1 million, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

Yen Tips Scale

The surging yen helped tip the scales, Toyota Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada said in October.

“We’re affected by the exchange rate,” Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco said. “We deal with that by building as much of our product as close to our customers as possible.”

The Pentax factory peaked in the 1970s, with 1,500 workers making 35-millimeter, single-lens reflex cameras. Hoya’s Hamada moved all camera production offshore helping the company’s Pentax division to return to profit with operating income of 1.19 billion yen last quarter. Continuing to manufacture in Japan was “stupid,” according to Hamada.

“It was a waste,” he said.

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The largest stimulus program in the nation’s history is starting to move into a new phase: Out with the rescue, in with new spending to create jobs.

Top White House advisers said Wednesday that most of the economic stimulus spent so far has helped prop up the states, paying for food stamps, Medicaid and filling budget gaps that kept police officers, firefighters and teachers employed.

In 2010, most of the remaining recovery spending will be funneled into projects that build roads, lay high speed rail, install broadband in rural areas and fund research at health institutions.

White House economist Jared Bernstein acknowledged that most of the jobs created or saved so far have been public sector jobs. One of the largest areas of jobs saved so far included some 300,000 teachers that kept their jobs.

Private sector jobs are next

Bernstein said he is confident that new spending will create more jobs in the private sector.

"The private sector US economy will begin generating robust employment at some point in the near future," Bernstein said. "Precisely when that is no one can say. But what we can say is that point is a lot closer because of the Recovery Act."

In the past few weeks, the White House ramped up its message that it’s tackling the top economic worry on Americans’ minds: jobs.

U.S. unemployment dropped slightly to 10% in November from 10.2% the month before with 11,000 jobs lost.

The $787 billion stimulus package was passed in February, along party lines, in part to help stem job losses low interest personal loan. But it remains a political flash point on Capitol Hill, with Republicans criticizing its impact.

Slow road to growth

On Wednesday, top White House advisors briefed reporters on the progress and future of the stimulus package. They maintain that stimulus is working to curb job losses, although they acknowledge it still has a ways to go.

"Is it fully offsetting the job market impact of the deepest recession since the Great Depression? Bernstein asked. "Of course the answer is no. But the Recovery Act is helping to offset some of that pain."

As of Dec. 4, the federal government had either spent or was on the verge of spending $301.7 billion of the stimulus package, in addition to $93 billion paid in tax relief, said Edward DeSeve, a special White House adviser on the economic stimulus package. That leaves about $392 billion remaining.

When asked why President Obama was pushing for more infrastructure spending to create jobs, when the impact of the upcoming year of infrastructure spending has yet take place, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said more spending would compliment those existing stimulus programs that have proved popular and have drawn too many applications.

He denied the call for more spending is a second stimulus proposal and called the new push for spending on infrastructure and programs to help homeowners make homes conserve less energy "targeted." 

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After a 44-year run serving one of the poorer neighborhoods in St. Louis, Gateway Bank collapsed last month under a pile of bad loans.

Now, a small bank from Kansas City thinks it can build a profitable enterprise on the wreckage of Gateway. Central Bank of Kansas City bought Gateway from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which took over the bank a month ago.

So, why would Central Bank think it can make a go of it in a north St. Louis city neighborhood where another bank failed?

A cheap price is part of the equation. Central Bank paid 70 cents for each $1 in face value of Gateway’s assets. Of course, many of those assets aren’t worth face value. When it failed, 7 percent of Gateway’s loans were seriously behind in payments. Central Bank will also inherit 70 foreclosed properties, most of them houses and apartment buildings.

The FDIC will pay $9.2 million to cover Gateway’s losses.

Central’s executives didn’t have long to mull the decision. The FDIC opened Gateway’s books to prospective bidders on a Thursday in late October. Central Bank made its bid the next Monday, and took over the bank that Friday, Nov. 6.

William Dana, Central Bank CEO, says it will succeed because it knows how to serve poor neighborhoods. That’s its forte in Kansas City, he says.

Most banks want to go where the money is. They want "high net worth, low transaction, low-touch customers," says Dana. They’re people who have big bank accounts, borrow much and deal with the bank by computer.

"Our customers are the antithesis of that," says Dana. They have lower credit scores and small bank accounts. "Many people have trouble coming up with the minimum deposit, $50, to open an account," said Dana. "It’s just tougher."

Serving them requires a bigger staff. But Central’s customers are more willing than the well-off to keep their money in checking and savings accounts paying low interest. That low cost of deposits allows the bank to make a wider profit margin on its loans, Dana said.

Serving low-income neighborhoods qualifies the bank to dole out federal largess under the federal New Markets Tax Credit program. It can give those credits to business borrowers who qualify.

"They work in these challenged neighborhoods where access to capital is limited or difficult," said Ruben Alonso, who runs the New Markets program for the Kansas City municipal government. He cites a loan the bank made to an engineering firm that is going to anchor a redevelopment planned for an area near downtown.

"They bring a lot of expertise in how to bring capital to low-income areas," he added.

The lack of banking services in poor, minority neighborhoods has been a vexing issue for federal regulators. In a study released last week, the FDIC reported that 21.7 percent of U.S. black households have no checking or savings accounts, while 19.3 percent of Hispanic households are "unbanked." Roughly 3.5 percent of Asian and white households have no checking or savings accounts.

The same study found the disparity is even greater in St. Louis: 31 percent of the area’s black households are unbanked, while only 1.1 percent of white, non-Hispanic households have no accounts.

St. Louis’ unbanked percentage among black households was the highest among 20 most populated metro areas studied by the FDIC, though seven areas didn’t report a breakdown for black households. Detroit was the second-highest at 30 percent, followed by Chicago’s 25.5 percent.

BIG BUSINESSES HELP

In Kansas City, Central Bank gets a helping hand from big businesses. A local electric utility and Microsoft deposit money at low interest to encourage Central’s lending. "We guarantee them that we’ll make loans into the community," said Dana.

Central’s strategy seems to be working. The bank earned $1.6 million in the first nine months of the year. That gave it a return on assets — a standard measure of bank profitability — of 1.26 percent, far above the 0.17 percent of peer banks. It’s been profitable for at least the last four years.

Central has $169 million in assets, ranking it as tiny by banking standards. Gateway had a mere $30 million.

Gateway Bank’s single branch is on Union Boulevard near Natural Bridge Road. Median income in the bank’s ZIP code was 58 percent of the national average, according to 2000 census figures. That matches the income around Central Bank’s headquarters, east of downtown Kansas City.

Central Bank’s neighborhood is a Kansas City melting pot — 50 percent white, 16 percent black, 7 percent Asian and 18 percent "some other race." The Census lists 30 percent as Hispanic, who can be of any race. By contrast, Gateway’s ZIP code is 98 percent black, according to the 2000 census.

Gateway was born in the civil rights movement. It was founded in 1965 by black businesspeople and professionals who wanted a bank to serve the minority population. For its last two decades, it was the only black-owned bank in St. Louis.

Central Bank’s ownership is white, the family of Lucille Tutera. Will that affect customer loyalty?

"We have to convince our depositors that our products and services will be better than before," said Dana.

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Chi-X Europe criticized the London Stock Exchange for adopting a procedure that prevented trades being routed to rival venues when glitches halted trading for more than three hours on Thursday.

The LSE’s main rival said the exchange put its market into auction status when the system broke down and that this triggered the block on routing to other venues.

“The auction status hampered investors’ ability to trade by not enabling participants to seek a reference price on another venue,” multilateral trading facility Chi-X said in a statement.

A spokesman for the LSE denied Chi-X’s claim.

“Our decision was a result of customer feedback,” he said. “Some were experiencing connection issues while others were not, and customers requested for the market to be put into auction status so that there would be a level playing field.”

Chi-X said many firms’ trading systems treated the auction status like a normal market event such as the daily closing auction.

By contrast, on November 9 the LSE halted trading during a partial systems failure, and many member firms were able to switch to other venues to trade UK stocks, Chi-X said.

“We call for the LSE and any other market of listing to close their market outright when outages occur in order to allow market participants to continue trading,” the statement said.

Chi-X also called on the Financial Services Authority to ensure the “continuation of trading and an orderly market.”

Another LSE rival, Nasdaq OMX called for standardization of market data in Europe.

“This would enable trading to continue even if one market fails to operate,” said Charlotte Crosswell president of Nasdaq OMX. “We are supportive of the European Commission further investigation this issue.”

(Editing by Will Waterman)

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I always advise using a credit card to pay for major bills. Visa, MasterCard and American Express have guarantees that you won’t be held responsible for any fraudulent charges.

But no one spells out what counts as unauthorized use of your credit card. So, you may have to fight for your refund.

Here are a few cases of customers running into resistance when trying to reverse a credit card transaction.

Sandy De Domenico-Carless called Sirius Satellite Radio to order a two-year subscription. Later the same day, she changed her mind.

"Since I was cancelling on the day of activation, I wanted to confirm the initial payment would be credited. I was told yes," she says.

But her Visa statement showed the first $114.35 payment was charged to her account. What happened?

Unfortunately, Sirius is in financial trouble and tries its best to hang onto customers.

When she called to cancel, she was offered a cheaper plan and said she’d talk to her husband. She never made that call to decline later on. Sirius told Visa she hadn’t cancelled – even though her satellite radio was never activated.

Her husband sells cars with satellite radio. He managed to get the refund.

"If you cancel, I’d advise getting a name and making sure the person reads out loud the message they’re keying into the system. Better still, get everything in writing," she says.

June Clark and Catherine Kirk stayed at a Best Western hotel for one night before going on a cruise.

The two seniors paid the room charge in full. Later, a $100 fee for smoking cleanup appeared on Clark’s credit card.

"Neither my mother nor her sister are smokers," says Cameron Clark, June’s son.

They complained to American Express, which said the hotel talked about a smell of smoke in the washroom and evidence of ash pay day loans.

"It accused June and Catherine of attempting to cover up the smell by placing towels under the washroom door. And it said June signed a waiver at the time of check-in, accepting charges if there’s a need to clean the room."

The sisters suspected that any smoking had occurred after they checked out, either by an employee or contractor with key access.

But the premium card issuer wouldn’t budge until I asked it to review the case. I got a reply within hours.

"We are going to reverse the charges for June and absorb the cost for this," said Amex Canada spokeswoman Jolene Price.

Shamus Pikk signed up with Premier Fitness and cancelled his membership after one year. Still, he found an $18.13 charge on his credit card the next month.

Fitness clubs have a well-known habit of continuing to bill monthly fees and saying members didn’t cancel properly.

Pikk was well prepared for such a battle and took steps to head off additional charges.

One, he paid up front and got a written agreement that he wouldn’t be charged anything beyond his one-year contract.

Two, he got another written agreement when he cancelled that no further charges be incurred.

Three, he asked the person handling his paperwork to send a scanned copy to head office that said, "No payments due. Member paid in full at the beginning of the contract."

Sending copies of his emails to the Star also helped. And after cashing his refund, he promised to donate $40 to the Santa Claus Fund.

Next week, we’ll look at how to use PayPal to safeguard online purchases.

eroseman@thestar.ca

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As companies hire extra workers for the holidays, some of these seasonal employees are already wondering: How do I turn this temporary position into something permanent? And, in this economy, can I?

Retailers who are typically big seasonal employers are suffering through a prolonged slump in consumer spending that’s forced many to cut back staffing. Other employers such as the Postal Service have implemented hiring freezes. So, while these companies are employing temporary help, they don’t expect to make many permanent offers.

Still, personnel consultants and company executives say there are plenty of opportunities for hard-working seasonal employees to stay on even after the new year. Shipping giant UPS Inc., for one, says it could eventually hire thousands of workers who make it through the frenetic holiday season.

The first step in nabbing a job: make it clear you’re interested, and looking for a permanent role. Most seasonal workers never get a chance at other jobs because they simply never ask, said Jeff Joerres, the CEO of Manpower.

But be tactful, and don’t pester management. "Make yourself available for additional opportunities," he said. "But don’t overextend yourself."

More tips:

REMEMBER THE BASICS

Even when a job is short term, employees need to behave as they would in a full-time, permanent position. So, arrive on time, follow your schedule and don’t request time off work unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Seasonal workers do to tend to get the less desirable shifts. But to make a good impression, just smile and keep working hard.

"In a temporary employee, that’s the No. 1 thing: reliability and dependability," said Craig Rowley, vice president of the global retail sector for the Hay Group, a consulting firm.

Along with that, show that you’re willing to be flexible. If managers ask you to work longer, do it. Likewise, if they need someone to pick up an extra shift, be the first to volunteer.

Small gestures can go a long way, Joerres said.

"There’s an amazing amount of people who show up for work and want to collect a paycheck and don’t show that they want anything more than that," he said. "And I think that disappoints employers."

AUDITIONING FOR A JOB

A seasonal job, like an internship or temporary gig, is truly a multiweek job interview.

Supervisors watch to see how well employees fit with the company, and they quickly judge how easily workers pick up on new tasks.

That’s because many companies treat seasonal positions as "auditions to find some of their best people," said John Challenger, chief executive of consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

To stand out, look for ways to "wow" customers and demonstrate a mastery of the business.

At the high-end kitchen retailer Sur La Table, CEO Jack Schwefel says the best seasonal workers are ones who interact with customers on a personal basis while also explaining the key differences between products, such as a copper-bottomed pot versus a steel one.

Sur La Table will hire about 2,000 seasonal workers this year to work in its stores and distribution warehouses, essentially doubling the size of the company’s work force. Schwefel said up to 20 percent of those could eventually be offered either permanent part-time or full-time jobs.

OPPORTUNITIES EXIST

Companies across a variety of industries say they’re still interested in hiring temporary workers, even amid the recession.

UPS plans to hire about 50,000 seasonal workers this year. Some of those employees will work in the company’s hubs, loading and unloading trucks, while others will be on the road with drivers going door-to-door to deliver packages.

The jobs can be exhausting, given that the holidays represent the company’s busiest time of the year.

But spokeswoman Karen Cole said employees who make it through peak season could be in a prime position to land a permanent job. The company hopes to hire about 20 percent to 30 percent of its temporary work force this year.

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Contracts in the $450 trillion derivatives markets would need to be cleared through central counterparties unless they are exempted by regulators, under a financial regulation reform bill introduced by U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on Tuesday.

The bill here calls for all swaps to be centrally cleared, but said regulators may exempt the contracts if no central clearinghouse accepts the swaps, or of if one of the counterparties to the trade is not a dealer.

Details on what constitutes a swap and a major swap participant, both of which would fall under the regulation of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission, are included in the bill.

The CFTC and SEC would adopt rules further defining terms within 180 days of the act being implemented and the regulators would have the right to prescribe definitions for swaps to include transactions that have been structured to avoid the classification, under the bill online payday advance.

Regulators are pushing for the majority of derivatives to be cleared through central counterparties, which stand between trade counterparties and assume the risks of the trade, to reduce systemic risks posed by the interconnectiveness of the contracts.

Derivatives can be used to hedge against or bet on the changes in value of the underlying assets such as stocks, bonds, commodities.

(Reporting by Karen Brettell and Kevin Drawbaugh; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers will lead a high-level meeting on Monday to discuss the state of the economy, job creation and ways to achieve sustainable growth.

A White House announcement said the meeting would take place at 2 p.m. EST and would include Cabinet officials from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

National Security Adviser James Jones, White House climate czar Carol Browner, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett are also among those scheduled to attend.

A spokesman for Summers, who is director of the White House National Economic Council, described the meeting as one of the regular gatherings of the council

“This is akin to a Cabinet meeting but without the president, for the agency heads who participate in the NEC process to gather and discuss the state of the economy,” said NEC spokesman Matthew Vogel.

The Summers meeting will be separate from a gathering that President Barack Obama will hold with his panel of outside economic experts headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker fast payday loan no faxing.

The Obama administration has been weighing options to address ways to try to restart job growth with the unemployment rate now at 9.8 percent.

Signaling the end to the deepest recession since the 1930s Great Depression, the government last week said U.S. gross domestic product grew at a robust 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter.

Obama trumpeted the GDP numbers in his weekly radio address on Saturday but said, “we have a long way to go before we return to prosperity.”

The White House has credited the $787 billion economic stimulus package passed earlier this year with helping to bring about the rebound.

Republicans have characterized the stimulus package as wasteful and say the continued job losses are an indication it has not worked.

New unemployment numbers due out on Friday are expected to show U.S. employers cut another 175,000 jobs in October, according to economists polled by Reuters. The unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 9.9 percent for October.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan; editing by Chris Wilson)

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ConocoPhillips reported a 71 percent decline in third-quarter profit on Wednesday as weak demand for fuel hurt its refining business and oil prices fell from a year earlier, but the results exceeded Wall Street estimates.

The global recession has taken a serious toll on demand for both natural gas and crude oil. And fuel inventories like diesel remain high, hurting refining margins.

“Although we operated well, we were adversely impacted by low North American natural gas prices and worldwide refining margins,” Conoco Chief Executive Officer Jim Mulva said in a statement.

Natural gas prices were depressed in the quarter as the slowdown in demand also caused those supplies to swell to all-time highs.

“We know the earnings came down because of the gas prices,” said Fred Burke, president of Johnston Lemon Asset Management. “That’s been known. You’ve got to starting looking at when the natural gas element and refining margins will turn around.”

Conoco, the third-largest U.S. oil company, reported a profit of $1.5 billion, or $1.00 per share, down from $5.2 billion, or $3.39 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 94 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Production from the company’s exploration and production arm, excluding its 20 percent stake in Lukoil, averaged 1.79 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the quarter, up from 1 payday advance lender.75 million BOE a year earlier, but below 1.87 million BOE in the prior quarter.

Revenue fell sharply to $40 billion from $70 billion a year earlier, but was higher than the $35 billion that analysts had expected.

Investors and analysts are eagerly awaiting details of Conoco’s planned $10 billion asset sale. The company announced the plan, aimed at reducing debt, on October 7, but provided no specifics.

Analysts have since speculated assets that may go on the block include the company’s North American natural gas operations and part of its 20 percent stake in Russian oil major Lukoil.

Looking ahead, Conoco said it expected fourth-quarter cash from operations to continue to improve, based on current commodity prices and margins.

In addition, the Houston-based company expects the liquidation of inventory built during the year in response to market conditions to benefit fourth-quarter cash flow by about $1.5 billion and earnings by $150 million.

Conoco shares were down 1 percent at $50.39 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading. That decline was in line with a drop in the Chicago Board Options Exchange index of oil companies .OIX.

(Reporting by Anna Driver, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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