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Warren Buffett said he sees buying opportunities in the United States for his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc(), as prices fall and bidders drop out, Bloomberg reported.

“The way things are going, there’s a lot of things that may be happening in the United States,” Buffett told Bloomberg Television in an interview.

“The odds favor” a domestic deal for Berkshire, he said, even though he added: “I could get a call tomorrow about some company in the UK or Germany.”

“I’m open for business, but it’s got to be the best business in town,” Buffett said.

“I wanted a possible kicker.” he said on Berkshire’s investments on Goldman Sachs and General Electric Co, while adding he did not know if Berkshire would make money by exercising the warrants in either company.

“I think the odds are reasonably good we do them. Maybe we’ll do it on one and not the other, but in the end I was satisfied with the preferred I was getting,” Buffett said paydayloans.

Berkshire was awarded warrants to by Goldman shares at $115 per share as part of a September 23 deal. On October 1 the company was awarded options to buy GE common stock at $22.25 per share.

Goldman shares closed at $92.39 on Wednesday while GE shares closed at $8.49.

Buffett expressed his confidence on GE and its Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt.

“They’ve got the earnings power to work things through,” Buffett said. Immelt is “a terrific manager that has a business that has lots of tough sledding ahead.”

GE shares slumped last week on worries that its finance arm GE Capital does not have adequate reserves to cope with an expected rise in delinquencies on its loans.

(Reporting by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri in Bangalore; editing by Simon Jessop)

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New York prosecutors are investigating whether the early payment of bonuses at Merrill Lynch last year gave the bank’s traders an incentive to mark down the value of their trading positions in the last days of December, the Financial Times said, citing people familiar with the probe.

New York’s Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been investigating whether billions paid in executive bonuses at Merrill Lynch ahead of its takeover by Bank of America (BofA) were sanctioned by the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank.

Cuomo’s office is now considering whether the early payments encouraged Merrill traders to mark down their portfolios — which would make it easier for them to post gains fresh out of the gate in January, the paper said.

Three former Merrill Lynch executives told the paper that traders made such changes to their books in late December.

The executives said the markdowns were not outsized, and did not represent a concerted effort to “kitchen sink” the quarter, the paper said, referring to a strategy in which positions are marked down to make later results look better cash till payday.

In a court filing expected Wednesday, Cuomo will respond to BofA’s argument that the disclosure of the individual bonus payments to Merrill employees in December would be an invasion of privacy, the paper said.

Cuomo’s office is expected to argue that prosecutors need the specifics of the bonus payments to determine whether important information was kept from BofA shareholders who approved the Merrill acquisition and from federal officials who gave $45 billion in taxpayer funds to the bank, the paper said.

Merrill and Cuomo’s office could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore)

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Turkish industrial production slumped 21.3 percent in January, the most since at least 1986, as exporters unable to find buyers suspended production and fired workers.

The drop in production compares with a revised 17.8 percent fall in December, the statistics office in Ankara said on its Web site today. Output was expected to decline 19 percent, according to the median estimate of nine economists polled by Bloomberg.

The slump comes as the global credit crisis cuts demand in Europe for Turkish-made products such as cars and washing machines. Unemployment hit a four-year high of 12.3 percent in November and the central bank has cut the benchmark interest rate by 5.25 percentage points in four months to stave off recession.

“This is unbelievably bad, it’s disastrous, especially on the manufacturing side,” said Ozan Gaziturk, economist for lender Sekerbank TAS in Istanbul. “I don’t want to think about what this means for unemployment: there are really heavy falls for companies that are selling internally and companies that sell abroad.”

Manufacturing output fell an annual 24.2 percent in the month and the automotive industry slumped 60.3 percent, the statistics agency said.

Declining Exports

Exports fell 26 percent in January from a year earlier to $7 payday loan.9 billion, the statistics agency said on Feb. 27

“In previous crises there’s always been an export market that would give some protection to companies; now there’s no one to sell to,” said Cem Eroglu, economist at Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi TAO, a state-run lender based in Ankara. “We still haven’t seen the impact of the rate cuts on real economic activity and it’s likely unemployment will hit 14 percent soon.”

Turkey is seeking International Monetary Fund support as economic growth slows and the global credit crisis cuts the flow of foreign investment in emerging markets. The two sides paused their negotiations on Jan. 26. While Turkey said then that talks would resume in 10 days, there’s been no announcement of a date.

Gross domestic product expanded 0.5 percent in the third quarter of the year, its slowest pace in six years, after growing 2.3 percent in the second three months. Fourth-quarter growth figures are due on March 31.

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Shri Thanedar hasn’t lived a storybook life, but his life story has made one heck of a book.

He moved from an impoverished life in Mumbai, India, to the United States in 1979 and, eventually bought a small chemical analysis company with three employees. Today, that company encompasses 10 others that employ about 400 people across the U.S. and which made $60 million in revenue last year.

A book that fills in the details of Thanedar’s journey, published in 2004, is in its 21st edition in India and will soon be printed in English. Its title loosely translates to "Shri’s desire and aspirations." He’s gotten so many letters from people suggesting he make the book into a screenplay, that Thanedar is now looking to make an independent film based on it.

I understand you came to America with not so much money. How did you decide, as a new entrepreneur, that you were going to go down this route?

The rumor is that I had $20 when I came to the U.S. That’s just a rumor. I had $14, because I had two beers on the plane.

In the 1990s, working for a bigger company, with the bureaucracy there, I was feeling that work I did isn’t making an impact on the company, and so I wanted to be on my own. I said, "If I have something small even, if that’s my own, I can make a difference."

Where is the future growth for Chemir?

One of the specialties we are developing is formulation. This is a business that grows on outsourcing. Big and small pharmaceutical companies outsource certain operations to laboratories and business.

The more brilliant part of those processes are formulation, which is an art and a science. Once you have this molecule, when you take a pill only a few milligrams of that is that active ingredient. You couldn’t take the active ingredient by itself because it is too concentrated and it’s only two milligrams — you could barely see it. To take that, you want it to be released slowly in certain cases, like the 12-hour cold medicine you take. The packaging of that molecule is formulation.

How is the business surviving in this economy?

Business grew well in 2008 free copy of my credit report. We’re seeing some softness in the first quarter because a lot of our clients are biotech companies that depend on funding from venture capital and some of that funding is slow to come.

We’re now shifting our focus a little more toward the big pharmaceutical companies, because those are still spending. Right now there are fewer blockbuster drugs and this has to be a big concern.

Why do you think your book has been so popular?

People are struggling in India. Seventy percent of the people earn $2 or less per day. The lifestyle is tough, but the young people have a lot of drive and ambition. They want to make something happen. So they have the skill set, often; they have the ambition and desire and dream, but they don’t know how to take the next step.

And seeing a role model like that — I came from a modest background and I don’t talk about the success as much as the struggle — seeing the struggle, living and learning about it, motivates them.

You’ve got a lot of things going on right now — do you see yourself pulling back from your work with Chemir as a result?

I’ve begun doing that. I’ve already moved away a lot from the business. The president (in St. Louis) pretty much runs (local operations). I’m not involved in the day-to-day business.

I’ve tried to find a balance of work-related and charitable things. I like to promote the arts of India so a lot of times I organize performances. It’s not just making more money or growing bigger business, it is also about giving back. I look at all of these things like when you’re studying for your degree: You’re taking many different courses and you don’t want to excel in just one and fail in others. The business should not overtake my life.

cboyce@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8345

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The U.S. economy "deteriorated further" in almost all corners of the country over the last two months as consumer spending slumped and manufacturing declined, the Federal Reserve said in its regional business survey.

Ten of 12 Fed district banks reported "weaker conditions or declines" in their regional economies, and respondents didn’t expect a "significant pickup" until late this year or early next year, the Fed said Wednesday in its Beige Book release, published two weeks before officials meet in Washington to set monetary policy. Housing "remained in the doldrums in most areas," the Fed said.

Lending fell across the United States, and credit availability "remained tight," the Fed said.

"We’re in the throes of the deepest part of the recession now," Kevin Flanagan, a Purchase, N.Y.-based fixed-income strategist for Morgan Stanley’s individual-investor clients, said on Bloomberg TV.

The report reflects information reported through Feb. 23 and summarized by staffers at the San Francisco Fed, which oversees the largest portion of the U.S. economy.

"Consumer spending remained very weak on balance, albeit with slight firming noted by many districts," the Fed report said. About half of the districts said consumer demand was slower or "fell significantly" from a year earlier.

The economy shrank at a 6.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the most since 1982, revised government figures showed last week. Home construction contracted at a 22 percent pace after a 16 percent decline in the prior quarter.

The recession in U.S. manufacturing persisted for a 13th month in February, a private report showed this week. Other reports showed consumer spending rose in January with a spurt of post-holiday discounts, and construction dropped more than twice as much as anticipated cheap credit report.

"Reports on manufacturing activity suggested steep declines in activity in some sectors and pronounced declines overall," the Fed said.

Exceptions to the economy’s weakening included food production and pharmaceuticals, the Fed said.

In January, Fed officials downgraded their forecasts for growth this year, seeing a deeper contraction as the credit crunch tightens. Most forecast a contraction of 0.5 percent to 1.3 percent.

The Fed report said home prices kept falling this year "with little or no signs of a deceleration evident." Home builders "remain pessimistic regarding recovery prospects this year," the Fed said. Demand for commercial real estate "weakened significantly," and the retreat in construction is expected to continue through at least year-end, the Fed survey said.

U.S. employers probably eliminated 650,000 jobs from payrolls in February, the most since 1949, while the jobless rate may have increased to 7.9 percent from 7.6 percent, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The Labor Department will report the figures Friday.

The Beige Book says unemployment is up in "all areas, reducing or eliminating upward wage pressures." Weaker demand is spurring discounting of goods other than fuel and food, the Fed said. As such, "upward price pressures continued to ease across a broad spectrum of final goods and services," the Fed said.

The consumer price index was unchanged in January compared with a year before. That was the first month without a year-on-year increase since 1955.

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Canada's biggest publicly traded construction and infrastructure developer, Aecon Group Inc, reported a 9.3 per cent drop in quarterly profit after the market close Tuesday, as a favorable tax decision helped earnings the year before.

Aecon said it earned $20.4 million ($15.8 million) in the fourth quarter, or 40 Canadian cents a share, compared to $22.5 million, or 50 Canadian cents a share in the same period the year before.

The Toronto-based company said that in 2007, taxes that would normally have been recorded on income from its Canadian controlled entities were offset by the reversal of tax valuation allowances recorded in prior periods.

Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 36 Canadian cents a share, before exceptions, according to Reuters Estimates.

Aecon said revenue in the quarter rose to $258 million from $207 million a year earlier new car loans.

Aecon's backlog was $1.25 billion, at Dec. 31, a $20 million increase over the same time in 2007.

The "record year-end backlog and the relative durability of our infrastructure and buildings markets bode well for continued strong financial performance throughout 2009 and into 2010," said Scott Balfour, Aecon president.

The company said its infrastructure backlog grew by 26.3 per cent to $470 million, mainly on roadbuilding operations, while its buildings backlog grew by 11.3 per cent, to $534 million. Aecon's industrial backlog fell by 35 per cent to $250 million, with the largest decreases coming from its Ontario construction and Western Canada operations.

Aecon's shares closed at $8.63 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

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The Bank of Canada cut its benchmark lending rate to a record, and said it may use policies beyond interest rate moves, if needed, to revive an economy hit by a recession and tight credit markets.

Governor Mark Carney cut the target rate on overnight loans between commercial banks to 0.5 percent from 1 percent today, and signaled he may reduce it again. Fifteen of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predicted today’s rate cut.

“The Bank is refining the approach it would take to provide additional monetary stimulus, if required, through credit and quantitative easing,” the Ottawa-based central bank said in a statement. Details of how such a plan would be used will be released in April with a new economic forecast, the bank said.

Carney’s view of so-called quantitative easing has changed from January when he said it was a “highly unlikely, remote situation,” because the country’s banks were among the world’s strongest through the biggest global financial crisis in decades. Canada is being pulled into a recession as global demand for its automobiles and lumber plunges and prices fall for the commodities it produces.

Canada’s economy will shrink faster than predicted in January, the Bank of Canada said today. The world’s eighth- largest economy shrank at a 3.4 percent annualized pace in the fourth quarter, Statistics Canada reported yesterday, the most since 1991.

Canada’s dollar was unchanged at C$1.2934 against the U.S. dollar at 9:10 a.m. in Toronto.

‘Or Lower’

“The target for the overnight rate can be expected to remain at this level or lower at least until there are clear signs that excess supply in the economy is being taken up,” the bank said.

Canada’s decision comes two days before the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are also expected to cut their key interest rates to new lows. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet signaled policy makers may pare their benchmark rate to a record low of 1 low interest auto loans.5 percent March 5 as a recession in the euro region deepens. The Bank of England cut its policy rate to 1 percent this year, the lowest since it was founded in 1694, and economists expect the rate to fall to 0.5 percent this week.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has reduced its benchmark to a range of between zero and 0.25 percent on Dec. 16.

Job Losses

Carney has cut the central bank’s policy rate from 4 percent since taking over in February 2008.

“Those who have an expectation that things are going to recover dramatically and quickly as we come out of this, that’s less and less likely all the time,” Royal Bank of Canada Chief Executive Officer Gordon Nixon told reporters Feb. 26.

Statistics Canada has reported a record job loss of 129,000 in January, and the agency’s leading economic indicator fell the most since 1982 in January. Bankruptcies in December also jumped 47 percent from a year earlier.

Business executives say they’re struggling with the tightest credit climate since at least 2001, according to a Bank of Canada survey released Jan. 12.

Carney has said the Bank of Canada has already injected as much as C$41 billion into financial markets to spur lending, sought wider legal power to fix markets and accepted new types of collateral. The federal government is also buying up to C$125 billion of mortgages to give banks more cash to use for new loans.

Quantitative easing is designed to leave banks with so much free cash that they stop hoarding and expand lending. It can involve a central bank buying securities and creating money to pay for them. A central bank can also try buying up securities to drive down longer-term market interest rates, extending efforts to keep short-term rates low with their benchmark rates.

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One of the European Union’s biggest priorities in the economic crisis is to fight what appears to be a growing trend toward protectionism, the bloc’s head of economic and monetary affairs said on Monday.

“We are living through an unprecedented crisis that is hitting every country and region around the world. Growth is contracting and unemployment is rising everywhere,” Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a speech in Prague cash advance payday loans.

“One of our highest priorities is to resist the rise in protectionism, which is showing warning signs of gaining ground.”

(Reporting by Martin Dokoupil; Editing by Michael Winfrey)

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BOSTON — Jeff Auxier plowed all his retirement savings into Auxier Focus Fund when he launched it nearly a decade ago. He also vowed to never sell any of his initial $1 million investment.

That pledge has paid off. Through last year, his nest egg — along with his initial clients’ stake — has grown 47 percent. And Auxier has made additional investments along the way.

But the 49-year-old’s commitment has become tougher to uphold lately. His $80 million large-blend mutual fund lost nearly 25 percent last year but still ranked in the top quartile of its category, thanks to some investments in recession-resistant stocks like Wal-Mart Stores. The downturn reduced what had been a $2.2 million investment at its peak to $1.6 million. This year, the fund is down another 9 percent.

With retirement decades away, Auxier still has no plans to reduce his stake. He says he couldn’t face up to his investors if he didn’t stick with it.
"There has to be a hook, where they can feel like, ‘OK, this manager has got skin in the game, they’re going to pay attention to my money because they’ve got money in there, too,’" Auxier said.

But managers like Auxier who "eat their own cooking" — the industry expression for managers who invest in their own funds — aren’t necessarily the rule.

Fifty-four percent of U.S. stock funds reported their managers held ownership stakes, according to research by Morningstar Inc. that examined disclosures through Oct. 1. That means nearly half the funds’ managers hadn’t invested as much as a single dollar.

Manager ownership is less common in other fund categories: 41 percent of foreign stock funds reported manager ownership, with 35 percent for taxable-bond funds; 30 percent for funds with a mix of stocks and bonds; and 22 percent for municipal bond funds.

To learn whether fund managers are joining them for the bumpy ride, investors may want to pay more attention to fund annual reports due out around this time of year, and documents called Statements of Additional Information that may accompany fund prospectuses. Some reports will trumpet the fact that a fund manager is personally invested, and the additional statements disclose how much a manager invests.

Russel Kinnel, director of Morningstar’s mutual fund research, will be watching to see how many managers lately have maintained or increased their stakes, and how many jumped a sinking ship.

"It’s more important in a difficult time that you step up and have a major commitment to your fund," Kinnel said easy to get unsecured personal loans.

But Kinnel, an "eat your own cooking" advocate, advises investors shouldn’t put a manager’s level of personal investment ahead of other more important factors in making buy-or-sell decisions in funds. Considerations such as expense levels, long-term performance and manager experience rank higher.

Manager investment "doesn’t guarantee a manager won’t make a mistake; it’s more about a manager aligning their interests with yours," Kinnel said.

A manager of a fund that could be a core holding — one that’s broadly diversified in stocks designed to perform well over the long haul — should be expected to invest at least $500,000, Kinnel says, and ideally $1 million or more.

For more volatile niche funds designed to supplement core holdings, Kinnel suggests a manager hold at least $100,000.

There are exceptions: A manager of a fund investing in a single state’s municipal bonds shouldn’t be expected to invest if he doesn’t live in that state. That’s because such funds’ tax benefits only apply to residents.

Even considering such exceptions, Lipper Inc. fund analyst Jeff Tjornehoj argues it’s tough for most investors to decide how much investment is appropriate for a manager.

For example, factors such as age are worth considering, Tjornehoj said. An investor close to retirement may have less of a stomach for volatility than a young manager who can withstand ups and downs.

While Tjornehoj considers it a plus if managers invest in their funds, that factor "comes way down on the list of importance in a buying or selling decision," he said.

Still, it doesn’t hurt to know whether a fund manager feels your pain amid declining markets. Investors can find ownership information from a fund company’s website. Look for a fund’s Statement of Additional Information and search for a manager’s name to learn about their stake. The SEC and Morningstar also post such information at the following addresses: www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/mutualsearch.htm and www.morningstar.com/goto/fundspy

Even then, you won’t find specific dollar figures. The SEC only requires funds to report whether managers’ stakes fall within one of seven ranges.

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