German unemployment dropped more than economists forecast to a two-decade low in January, bolstering economic growth as the euro region
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It’s a move that Ameren Missouri’s founders couldn’t have possibly imagined more than a century ago: Utility officials on Friday proposed spending $145 million over three years to reduce electricity use.
The filing comes three months after Ameren made deep and widely criticized cuts to its existing efficiency programs, saying they penalized shareholders by not compensating the company for lost energy sales.
The program proposed on Friday would more than double what Ameren Missouri was spending on energy efficiency before the cuts, and promises to save its customers 800 million kilowatt-hours a year, an amount of equal to the energy use of 60,000 homes.
Of course, energy efficiency programs aren’t free — and Ameren wants ratepayers to finance them. From 2013 through the end of 2015, Ameren would collect the cost of implementing the plan through a surcharge on customer bills that would equal a rate increase of a little more than 3 percent, said Warren Wood, the utility’s vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs.
But all of Ameren’s 1.2 million customers will benefit from a reduction in energy use, Wood said.
“This filing aligns the business interests of the utilities and their customers,” he said.
The Public Service Commission has 120 days to review Ameren’s proposal. If approved, it would take effect in January 2013.
The plan is the first filed by St. Louis-based Ameren under the Missouri Energy Efficiency Investment Act. The law, signed by Gov. Jay Nixon in 2009, was designed to encourage reductions in energy use by allowing utilities to earn the same profit on energy efficiency investments that they do on investments in power plants, poles and wires. The PSC, utilities and other groups have spent the past two years debating rules to implement the law.
Ameren spent $70 million on efficiency from 2009 to 2011, helping customers save more than 550 million kilowatt-hours. But the those efforts led to $26.4 million in losses, according to Wood. That amount will grow to $60 million by 2014 — the reason why Ameren killed many of the rebates and other incentives at the end of September to the chagrin of energy efficiency advocates.
Wood explained the problem like this: Every time a customer pays their electric bill, some of the money is used to pay for variable costs like coal and other fuel used to run power plants. Another piece goes to cover fixed costs like poles, wires and substations — infrastructure that’s needed regardless of how many electrons flow through the grid.
When electricity demand declines, so does revenue, including that portion that goes to cover fixed costs. Friday’s proposal would compensate Ameren for that lost revenue while still producing tangible benefits for consumers, he said.
Efficiency and consumer advocates hadn’t read through all of the hundreds of pages that Ameren filed as of Friday afternoon.
While they would welcome an increase in efficiency spending in Ameren’s plan, they said they need to analyze the details before endorsing or opposing the plan.
“Are they seeking to be overcompensated (for efficiency investments)? Are they overreaching?” asked Lewis Mills Jr., Missouri’s Public Counsel. “That’s my biggest concern.”
Rebecca Stanfield of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Chicago office said it’s time for Ameren, regulators, and consumer and environmental groups to make energy efficiency work in Missouri.
“We’ve had three years of positioning and brinksmanship on this issue,” she said. “All of the parties need to recognize that there’s tremendous value in what can be created with these programs. Lets look at the big picture of what we could achieve if they are successful.”
No one disputes that energy efficiency must be a significant part of the state’s energy policy. That includes Ameren, which has identified efficiency as the cheapest way to meet energy demand in the future.
Missouri has long been dependent on relatively cheap coal to meet its electricity needs. But prices for the fuel and cost of hauling it from mines in Wyoming have been increasing. And new environmental regulations aimed at cutting back on air and water pollution from coal-fired power plants are certain to lead to further increases.
The state also continues to lag behind most others when it comes to policies to reduce energy use. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy ranks Missouri 44th in the nation for energy efficiency.
In Illinois, meanwhile, utilities are increasing spending on energy efficiency programs. That includes Ameren’s sister utility, which sells electricity to customers across much of central and southern Illinois.
Ameren Illinois will spend $78 million this year on discounts and rebates for energy saving lighting and appliances to its 1.2 million electric customers and 800,000 gas customers.
One key difference is that Illinois has an energy efficiency standard. The law requires Ameren and the state’s other investor-owned utility, ComEd, to cut energy use by 25 percent from 2007 levels by 2025.
Without a mandate, Missouri utilities must be willing to aggressively push efficiency programs on their own. How to get them do that has been a contentious issue.
Mills, the main advocate for consumers on utility issues, realizes some Ameren customers may chafe at the idea of seeing bills go up, at least initially, to pay for energy efficiency programs.
But energy efficiency can benefit all consumers — even those who don’t take advantage of rebates and other incentives — by lowering statewide energy use, Mills said. That can help utilities defer or avoid building new power plants or running more expensive plants when electricity demand spikes.
“While it looks like rates are going to be going up,” he said, “they’re going to be going up more if we don’t do this.”
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Sales of previously owned homes rose to an 11-month high in December and the supply of properties on the market tumbled to a near 7-year low, pointing to a nascent recovery in the housing market.
The National Association of Realtors said on Friday existing home sales increased 5 percent month over month to an annual rate of 4.61 million units.
November’s sales pace was revised down to a 4.39 million-unit pace, previously reported as a 4.42 million-unit rate.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected sales to rise to a 4.65 million-unit sales pace. Sales in December were up 3.6 percent from a year ago. A total of 4.26 million homes were sold in 2011, up 1.7 percent from the prior year.
“A sector of the economy that has been a large weight on growth has started to stabilize over the last few months and we will continue to look for momentum in 2012,” said John Doyle, currency strategist at Tempus Consulting in Washington.
The third straight month of gains in sales added to hopes that a tentative recovery in the housing market was starting to take shape, but progress will be painfully slow given a glut of unsold properties that is weighing down on prices.
Data this week showed single-family home starts rose for a third straight month in December and optimism among builders this month was the highest in four-and-a-half years.
But the sector, responsible for the 2007-09 recession, remains challenged by an oversupply of homes amid an 8.5 percent unemployment rate. In addition, declining prices have left many Americans with homes that are worth less than their mortgages.
But there are tentative signs of improvement. There were 2.38 million unsold homes on the market last month, the fewest since March 2005. That represented a 6.2 months’ supply at December’s sales pace, the lowest since April 2006, and compared to 7.2 months’ supply in November.
However, the inventory of unsold homes tends to decline in winter. A supply of 6 months is generally considered as ideal and anything above indicates further declines in house prices. The median sales price fell 2.5 percent to $164,500 from a year ago.
Sales last month rose across all four regions, with gains in both the multifamily home and single-family home segments.
Single family home sales rose 4.6 percent, while multi-family dwellings advanced 8.7 percent.
But the road to recovery will be bumpy. Distressed properties, foreclosures and short sales which typically occur at deep discounts, accounted for 32 percent of overall sales last month, little changed from November.
A third of pending existing home sales contracts were canceled, the NAR said.
European officials said the euro region
Coast guard divers searching the submerged part of the Costa Concordia on Sunday found the bodies of two elderly men still in their life jackets, authorities said, raising to five the death toll after the luxury cruise liner ran aground and tipped over off the Tuscan coast.
Divers scouring the bowels of the ship in the murky, cold sea discovered the bodies at the emergency gathering point near the restaurant where passengers were dining when the ship carrying more than 4,200 people hit a reef or rock near the island of Giglio, Coast Guard Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro said.
The discovery reduced to 15 the number of people still unaccounted for after an Italian who worked in cabin service was pulled from the wreckage Sunday and a South Korean couple on their honeymoon were rescued late Saturday in the unsubmerged part of the liner when a team of rescuers heard their screams.
“We are still searching” for any bodies, “but (also) in the hope that there might have been an air pocket” to allow the survival of others, Nicastro told Sky TG24 TV dockside.
Authorities are holding the Italian captain for investigation of suspected manslaughter and abandoning his ship among other possible charges. According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison. A coast guard official said Sunday officers exhorted Francesco Schettino to return to his ship as panicked passengers desperately fled the cruise liner.
The chaotic evacuation has added to the difficulty in tracking down survivors _ with six of those unaccounted for crew members and the others passengers. Two of the unaccounted for passengers are American, the U.S. Embassy in Rome said.
In the first hours after the accident late Friday night, three bodies were found in the waters near the ship. The victims discovered Sunday were two elderly men who were wearing life vests, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo.
“The divers had to remove the life vests to get the bodies out,” he said, because they could have floated away. Their nationalities were not immediately released.
The divers’ search through the ship, which is lying on its side with a huge gash, was already dangerous because of the risk the vessel could suddenly move and sink into waters over a nearby lower sea bed.
Their safety was increasingly threatened by floating objects in the belly of the 290-meter (nearly 1,000) foot long liner, as well as muck drastically reducing visibility, Nicastro said.
“There are tents, mattresses, other objects moving which can get tangled in the divers’ equipment,” Nicastro said. Officials were going to huddle soon to see how long the underwater search could safely continue, he said.
Divers say they are using a kind of long cord they hook near the point of entrance and unroll as they work, so they can find their way out when finished.
Prosecutor Francesco Verusio confirmed reports that prosecutors are investigating allegations the cruise liner’s captain, Francesco Schettino, abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had escaped.
Asked Sunday by Sky TG24 about the accusations, Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio replied, “unfortunately, I must confirm that circumstance.”
Paolillo said the captain was spotted on land during the evacuation. Officers had urged him to return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone else was safely off the vessel, but Schettino ignored them, he said.
“We did our duty,” Paolillo told The Associated Press.
A French couple who boarded the Concordia in Marseille, Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays of Marseille, told the AP they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship. They insisted on telling a reporter what they saw, so incensed that _ according to them _ the captain had abandoned the ship before everyone had been evacuated.
“The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off,” said Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.
“Normally the commander should leave at the end,” said Du Pays, a police officer who said he helped an injured passenger to a rescue boat. “I did what I could.”
Schettino has said the ship hit rocks that weren’t marked on his nautical charts, and that he did all he could to save lives.
“We were navigating approximately 300 meters (yards) from the rocks,” he told Mediaset television. “There shouldn’t have been such a rock.”
He insisted he didn’t leave the liner before all passengers were off, saying “we were the last ones to leave the ship.” That clearly wasn’t the case as the finding of the three survivors aboard Saturday night and Sunday showed payday loan no faxing.
Coast guard spokesman Capt. Filippo Marini told Sky Italia TV that Coast Guard divers have recovered the so-called “black box” with the recording of the navigational details from a compartment now under water.
A Dutch firm has been called in to help extract the fuel from the Concordia’s tanks before any leaks into the area’s pristine waters. No leaks have so far been reported.
While ship owner Costa has insisted it was following the same route it takes every week between the Italian ports of Civitavecchia and Savona, residents on the island of Giglio said they had never seen the Costa come so close to the Le Scole reefs and rocks that jut from Giglio’s eastern side.
“This was too close, too close,” said Italo Arienti, a 54-year-old sailor who has worked on the Maregigilo ferry service that runs between the island and the mainland for more than a decade. A now-retired Costa commander used to occasionally do “fly-bys” on the route, nearing a bit and sounding the siren in a special salute for his hometown, he said. Such a fly-by was staged last August, but there was no incident, he said.
He said the cruise ship always stayed more than five to six nautical miles offshore, well beyond the reach of the “Le Scole” reefs, popular with scuba divers.
The terrifying escape from the luxury liner, which was on a weeklong Mediterranean cruise, was straight out of a scene from “Titanic.” Many passengers complained the crew didn’t give them good directions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many to be released.
Several other passengers said crew members told passengers for 45 minutes that there was a simple “technical problem” that had caused the lights to go off.
Amateur footage taken aboard the ship showed the situation immediately after it ran aground, as an announcement in various languages tells passengers the liner is having electrical problems and “the situation is under control.” When a man asks a crew member in Spanish why he is wearing a life vest, the crew member doesn’t answer and continues on his way.
Other video shows people crowded together in life jackets, apparently calm and waiting to disembark the ship. A third video taken from a lifeboat, shows mostly darkness as people shout and scream in panic.
Passengers said they had never participated in an evacuation drill, although one had been scheduled for Saturday. The cruise began on Jan. 7.
Costa Crociera SpA, which is owned by the U.S.-based cruise giant Carnival Corp., defended the actions of its crew and said it was cooperating with the investigation. Carnival Corp. issued a statement expressing sympathy that didn’t address the allegations of delayed evacuation.
Some 300 of the crew members were Filipinos and three of them were injured, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said.
The captain has insisted that the reef was not marked, but locals said the stretch of sea is not difficult to maneuver. Anello Fiorentino, captain of a ferry that runs between Giglio and the mainland, said he makes the crossing every day without encountering problems.
“Yes, if you get near the coast there are reefs, but this is a stretch of sea where all the ships can safely pass,” he said.
Islanders on Giglio opened up their homes and businesses to accommodate the sudden rush of survivors. Rossana Bafigi, who runs a newsstand, said she was really moved by the reaction of the passengers.
She showed a note left by one Italian family that said, “We want to repay you for the disturbance. Please call us, we took milk and biscuits for the children. Claudia.”
At Mass on Sunday morning in Giglio’s main church, which opened its doors to the evacuees Friday night, altar boys and girls brought up to the altar a life vest, a rope, a rescue helmet, a plastic tarp and some bread.
Don Lorenzo, the parish priest, told the faithful that he wanted to make this admittedly “different” offering to God as a memory of what had transpired.
He said each one carried powerful symbolic meaning for what happened on Friday night: the bread that multiplied to feed the survivors, the rope that pulled people to safety, the life vest and helmet that protected them, and the plastic tarp that kept cold bodies warm. “Our community, our island will never be the same,” he told the few dozen islanders gathered for Mass.
_____
Frances D’Emilio contributed to this story from Rome.
Nintendo Co.’s upcoming Wii U game console will come with a controller that has a big, touch-enabled screen. At first glance, that seems like an obstacle to the kind of casual multiplayer gaming that made the first Wii console such a breakout hit.
But in demonstrations Tuesday, the company emphasized that the Wii U will work with the cheaper, stick-like Wii controllers as well, making family multiplayer games feasible.
The Japanese company is giving some journalists hands-on time with the console on the sidelines of the International Consumer Electronics Show, which started Tuesday in Las Vegas.
It’s the second time the U.S. media is getting a glimpse of the device, which was first shown in June. Nintendo said the device will go on sale after the next Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming trade show in Los Angeles in June.
Nintendo went against conventional wisdom with the original Wii in 2006. The quirky, cheap game console relied not on high-end graphics and complex buttons to lure in hardcore players, but on simple motion controls to lure in everyone.
Although the company successfully courted casual gamers with the Wii, it is now facing increased competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and other devices that offer simple games. It had hoped to win new gamers through a 3-D handheld device. But sales were slow, and Nintendo slashed prices on the 3DS within six months.
The Wii U will be sold as a bundle with one touch-screen controller, which is almost as big as the game console itself. Nintendo hasn’t said what the package or an extra controller will cost. Touch screens are expensive, often accounting for nearly half of the cost of a phone or a tablet computer.
Nintendo’s demonstrations reveal that the touch-screen controller is designed to work with older controllers free credit report and score. For example, in one of Nintendo’s demonstration games, four players with Wii remotes chase a fifth, who uses the touch controller. The fifth player uses the screen on the controller to guide his movements, which are thus kept secret from the other players. The other players keep track of their own movements on the TV screen.
In another demonstration game, two players with Wii remotes collaborate to fight a third, who zooms around in a spaceship, controlled through the touch controller.
The integration of the older remotes and the touch controller goes even further. The existing Wii console is able to keep track of where the old-style Wii remotes are with the help of a “sensor bar” that attaches to the TV set. That’s how the Wii remote can be used to “point” to things on the screen. The new Wii U controller has its own sensor bar, so the Wii U can figure out where a Wii remote is in relation to the controller, not just the TV set.
This sounds complicated, but it enables simple, unexpected forms of game play. For instance, Nintendo showed in a video how the Wii U controller could be placed on the floor for a golf game. The screen of the controller shows a teed-up golf ball. Swinging a Wii remote like a golf club above the controller gets the ball flying.
While the ability to use older remotes will appeal to consumers, supporting multiple remotes could pose a challenge for game developers, who might decide to drop support for older hardware. To make things more complicated, there are two versions of the Wii remote, with differing motion-sensing abilities, and an accessory “Nunchuck” controller.
WASHINGTON • If timing is everything, as the saying goes, then Matt Blunt might consider a job giving advice on when to make career changes.
Blunt picked 2004 as the year to run for governor of Missouri. It turned into a strong year for Republicans and, at age 33, he became America’s youngest governor.
In his new incarnation, Blunt last year became chief spokesman and a lobbyist in Washington for Detroit’s Big Three automakers just as the American automotive industry was enjoying a resurgence.
It is one of several positions Blunt holds these days that enable him to prove life after Missouri’s Governor’s Mansion can be rewarding and, he says, enjoyable.
As president of the American Automotive Policy Council, one of Blunt’s main tasks is reminding Congress of his industry’s recent success, a rare good news story about American manufacturing.
Two years after General Motors and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, both companies, along with Ford, reported profits and increasing sales in 2011. Their turnaround is hailed in reports such as a recent Time magazine cover story titled, “How America Started Selling Cars Again.”
Yet many Americans — some of them in Congress — see the automotive industry as bloated and inefficient, surviving on government bailouts.
“What some people believe about automobile manufacturers, the American-based companies, isn’t accurate,” Blunt said. “The companies today are fundamentally different than they were just a few years ago, in terms of what they make and how they make it.”
Blunt’s portfolio these days includes the vital matters affecting American carmakers, including global trade agreements, new fuel economy standards and a recent recommendation to ban texting and cellphone use in automobiles.
Blunt, who turned 41 in November, is leading a life different from his sometimes rocky four years as a young governor, in which he endured criticism for his cuts to Medicaid and low approval ratings at times.
After leaving office in January 2009, he moved swiftly into the world of business. Besides his Big Three job, he is a director for Copart Inc., an online auto auction company in California that claims to sell 1 million vehicles yearly. He is a senior adviser for Rubicon Global, an Atlanta-based waste management firm, and an advisory board member for private equity funds.
Rather than living in Jefferson City or Springfield, Blunt, his wife, Melanie, and sons Branch, 6, and Brooks, who turned 2 on New Year’s Day, reside now in Middleburg, Va., situated in rolling horse country that has been home to such notables as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor.
Blunt says he is comfortable in a part of the country where he has spent considerable time. He graduated from the Naval Academy in nearby Annapolis, Md., and he was stationed on a Virginia-based ship. His wife is a Virginia native.
In recent interviews, Blunt, whose father, Roy, just completed his first year in the U.S. Senate, said he has no regrets in deciding not to seek a second term.
“I loved being governor. It was a great experience. I was proud of what we accomplished,” he said. “But I don’t know that over another four-year term, I would have been particularly effective. I don’t know there’s much that I would have gotten done.”
He added, “I don’t necessarily miss politics.”
understanding autos
Blunt is dealing now with politics of a different order, in some cases global. He was outspoken last fall in pressing to keep Japan out of the budding Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade alliance, noting Japan’s protectionist policies that keep out all but a few thousand American cars yearly.
Trade is a key focus for Blunt but just one of many focuses for an industry that experts say needs help.
Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor of Chicago-based Cars.com, said he sees “a gross misunderstanding in Washington about developing and building cars and how long it takes, about the inconsistency of the market and about inconsistency of regulation and the effects on companies.”
Until two years ago, Ford, Chrysler and GM were aligned in Washington with the Auto Alliance, which also includes foreign automakers. But the interests of domestic and foreign companies diverged just as legislation and government rules were becoming more consequential.
Blunt’s background as a governor likely played a role in his selection as the industry sought to navigate tricky political waters in Congress after the controversial bailouts No teletrak payday loan.
Blunt technically is not a registered federal lobbyist because he spends less than 20 percent of his time lobbying. Nevertheless, he works the halls of Congress, trumpeting the key role of the Big Three in the nation’s economy. GM, Ford and Chrysler will add 34,000 jobs in coming years, he said, which translates to 400,000 jobs in the economy supported by automotive plants.
“The American companies are competitive, they are productive and they are making great products,” Blunt said, sounding like the car salesman he has become. “Because of that, what recovery we do have in the American economy, the automobile makers are playing a big part.”
As a self-described conservative Republican, Blunt might find old allies who decry the $80 billion bailout of Chrysler and GM. Most of the money has been paid back, and the White House projected the cost to taxpayers at $14 billion.
“Decisions that President Bush made at the end of his administration and President Obama made early in his administration have had a successful outcome,” he said. “It’s always an academic debate whether a different road map would have led to the success.”
As governor, Blunt was an advocate of smaller government. Those sensibilities could come into play as government moves more aggressively to dictate vehicle design.
After an agreement with both domestic and foreign manufacturers, the administration of President Barack Obama in November proposed nearly doubling fuel economy requirements to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. In 2010, the administration completed rules to raise the fuel standard to 35.5 mpg by 2016. The current requirement for new autos is 27.3 mpg.
Foreign-based manufacturers believe the White House has tilted the rules in favor of the domestic industry. True or not, the Big Three will need to be vigilant as regulations are implemented; their focus will be on easing the burden those regulations could cause.
“It’s the classic ‘devil’s in the details,’ and it will be very important to see the rules filed by all the agencies,” Blunt said.
Texting debated
Automakers took notice recently when the National Transportation Safety Board said states should ban texting and cellphone use in vehicles. The board made the recommendation after concluding that a driver’s texting was a factor in a deadly pileup near St. Louis.
Blunt said companies he represents are paying close attention because “they really do believe that you can integrate technology into a vehicle that’s not only safe but safer than the way most drivers use technology today.”
“As you think about what you might or might not ban in a vehicle, it’s important to do it in a way that wouldn’t inhibit safety ideas some of the companies have today, and at the same time be realistic,” he said. “Quite frankly, I don’t think (a cellphone ban is) very realistic.”
As a lobbyist, Blunt seemingly could have a ready ear from father Roy, who won election this month to a Senate GOP leadership slot. Matt Blunt said he doesn’t intend to talk business at family gatherings, perhaps because Roy Blunt has in the past been criticized for ties to lobbyists in his family and otherwise.
Matt’s brother, Andy Blunt, works at a law firm in Jefferson City with a long list of lobbying clients. His sister, Amy, maintains some lobbying clients in her business in the state capital, which largely deals with helping candidates comply with Federal Election Commission rules. Roy Blunt’s wife, Abigail, was a lobbyist for tobacco giant Philip Morris before joining Kraft’s legislative affairs team.
Andy Blunt said his brother arrived in a position that suits his talents.
“He’s a great manager and executive and has the ability to focus on details while thinking about long-term strategy,” he said.
Blunt, who acknowledged driving a German-made automobile in the past, also is walking the talk now — driving it, actually.
He gets around Washington in a Chrysler-made Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Home prices in Australia
World stocks markets fell Wednesday, with trading thinned by year-end holidays and mixed economic news out of the U.S. and Japan.
Benchmark oil hovered above $101 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.
European stocks dropped in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent to 5,501.25. Germany’s DAX was 0.9 percent lower at 5,839.98 and France’s CAC-40 lost 0.4 percent to 3,092.01. Wall Street also appeared headed for a lower opening. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.2 percent to 12,199 while S&P 500 futures dipped 0.3 percent to 1,256.60.
Earlier in Asia, trading was subdued, as it typically is between the Christmas holiday and New Year’s.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 0.2 percent to close at 8,423.62. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.6 percent to 18,518.67, while South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.9 percent to 1,825.12. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 lost 1.3 percent to 4,088.80. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia were also lower.
Japan’s industrial output dropped a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent last month _ the first decline in two months. But the negative news was mitigated by expectations of rebounding manufacturing and production this month and next, which helped to mute stock market losses.
The Shanghai Composite Index reversed course after early losses, rising 0.2 percent to 2,170.01. But the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index sank 0.5 percent at 849.76.
Some investors were “dumping shares” because Beijing has failed to take steps they expected to stimulate slowing economic growth, said Peter Lai, investment manager for DBS Vickers in Hong Kong.
“Some investors believed there would be a reduction in interest rates or the bank reserve ratio. But this hasn’t happened,” Lai said.
Tokyo Electric Power plunged 11.8 percent, a day after Japanese Industry Minister Yukio Edano suggested that the embattled utility be put under temporary state control and warned the company against resorting to electricity bill hikes.
TEPCO operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which was heavily damaged in the March earthquake and tsunami, and owes massive compensation payments to people and companies harmed by a nuclear disaster at the plant faxless pay day loans.
Hong Kong-listed property shares also slumped. China Overseas Land & Investment slid 3 percent. China Resources Land lost 2.7 percent.
China Mengniu Dairy, the country’s biggest dairy company, plummeted 24 percent in Hong Kong after acknowledging that a cancer-causing toxin had been found in milk produced by the company. Mengniu apologized and said no tainted milk had made it to the market. The government blamed the problem on bad feed given to cows.
Retail shares also slid on growing anxiety over the global economy in 2012. Hong Kong-listed jewelry retailer Chow Sang Sang shed 4 percent. Australian department store chain David Jones fell 2.1 percent and Woolworth’s lost 0.9 percent.
On Wall Street on Tuesday, the Dow Jones lost less than 0.1 percent to close at 12,291.35. The S&P 500 was up marginally to 1,265.43. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3 percent to 2,625.20.
U.S. consumer confidence surged to an eight-month high, but home prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index. That report dampened investors’ enthusiasm about a jump in consumer confidence to the highest level since April.
Benchmark crude oil rose 2 cents to $101.36 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.66 to finish at $101.34 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
In currency trading, the euro fell to $1.3075 from $1.3069 late Tuesday in New York. The euro has been weak because of worries about Europe’s government debt crisis. It is still trading just above an 11-month low of $1.2943 reached on Dec. 14.
The dollar fell to 77.73 yen from 77.85 yen.
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