Avon shares plunged 14 percent in premarket trading Tuesday after Coty dropped its $10.7 billion takeover bid for the cosmetics company.
Coty Inc., a privately held rival, had raised its original offer last week by about 6.5 percent, but set a deadline of Monday for the company to accept the bid.
Avon asked for more time to consider the bid over the weekend, but it appears that Coty would have not of it. It slammed that door shut on the troubled company Monday and investors are following suite even before the markets open Tuesday in some heavy trading.
If the current prices hold, Avon shares will be worth less than when Coty made its original offer back in April. Shares fell $3.06 to $17.90.
The big question now is what comes next for Avon?
The company is embroiled in a bribery scandal that led to the ouster of its vice chairman in January personal business card. The investigation, which initially involved executives in Asia, has spread and late last year federal regulators began looking into the New York company’s dealings with financial analysts.
Earlier this month, under the leadership of recently arrived CEO, Sherilyn McCoy, Avon reported that its first-quarter profit tumbled 82 percent, even worse that Wall Street had feared.
That has become the norm. Profits have been shrinking for three years and Avon is suffering even in places it had seen as strongholds.
Avon Products Inc. holds its shareholders meeting in two weeks.
(Corrects euro bond holdings in ninth paragraph in story that was published on May 4.)
Norway
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is being sued by a trader who says he accepted a contract from the investment bank because a typographical error made him believe he would be paid 10 times what was actually offered.
Kai Herbert, a Switzerland-based currency trader, is suing JPMorgan for about 580,000 pounds ($920,000), his lawyers said at a trial in London this week. The original contract said Herbert
Gas prices are on the rise, and so like clockwork, politicians are now selling the promise of lower prices at the pump.
Newt Gingrich, struggling to regain momentum in the Republican presidential primary, is leading the way, promising to get prices down to $2.50 per gallon.
"I’ve developed a program for American energy so no future president will ever bow to a Saudi king again and so every American can look forward to $2.50 a gallon gasoline," Gingrich said during his self-introduction at Wednesday’s CNN debate.
The promise might garner attention on the campaign trail, but there’s little politicians can do to influence the price of gasoline in the short-term, and long-run efforts are likely to be complicated by the global nature of the crude oil market.
"Political rhetoric is all it is," said Guy Caruso, an economist who led the Energy Information Administration and worked as an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency.
"Short of price controls, which were a disaster during the Nixon administration, politicians can’t do much to change the price of gasoline," he said.
See what you’re paying for gas
Other industry experts CNNMoney surveyed echoed those sentiments.
"This is absurd," said Paul Bledsoe, a Bipartisan Policy Center scholar who spent more than 20 years working on energy policy in Washington. "Obviously the price of oil is set on a global market. In the immediate term there is almost nothing you can do."
Gingrich’s plan for lowering prices revolves around increasing domestic energy production to levels that would make geopolitical concerns an afterthought. The way to do that, according to Gingrich, is by eliminating the EPA, building the Keystone pipeline and allowing more drilling.
"And at that point, if, in fact, the Iranians want to do something with the Strait of Hormuz, maybe the Chinese have a problem or the Indians have a problem or the Europeans have a problem," Gingrich said in a 28-minute video his campaign has produced on the subject. "But I am not sure at that point that the Americans will have a problem."
But unless the way crude oil is bought and sold in the global market is drastically changed, the United States would still have a very real problem.
Oil is a global commodity — it can be shipped anywhere around the world. Its price is determined largely by global supply and demand.
The United States would have to remove itself from the global trade in oil and gasoline to set its own prices, a move that could set the country up for a supply shortage and that most economists would not support.
Caruso said it’s just not a practical idea. "This is a global market with fungible supplies," he said. "We can’t isolate ourselves."
There’s also the question of whether Gingrich’s targeted production level is possible.
According to a 2009 study from the government’s Energy Information Administration, opening up to drilling areas off the East Coast, West Coast and Florida’s Gulf Coast would yield just 500,000 extra barrels a day by 2030 — not enough to replace U.S. imports or bring global prices down.
The world currently consumes 89 million barrels a day, and by then would likely be using over 100 million barrels. By the time OPEC finished cutting production to adjust for the increased supply, Americans might save 3 cents per gallon.
"The notion that somehow we can produce so much domestically that we will move the global price is incorrect," Bledsoe said.
Meanwhile, the oil industry says that by expanding beyond offshore areas and drilling everywhere that isn’t national park, an additional 10 million barrels of oil a day could come online by 2030 — more than enough for the U.S. alone.
Fear of Iran is inflating gas prices
All of this is not to say that oil production or prices are impenetrable to policy changes. Increasing domestic production is feasible, and even desirable — but the impact on price will hit around the margins.
"We need to be doing more energy, across the board," said Peter Beutel, an oil analyst at Cameron Hanover.
"There are ways forward here that would be very positive," he said, while acknowledging that even with a massive production increase, it is difficult to predict a certain price point, as Gingrich has. "Who’s to say whether it will be $1.75 or $2.75?"
The Gingrich campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the predicted $2.50 price point was reached.
Of course, it’s not only Republicans who have proposed tinkering with government policy in an effort to combat high gas prices.
During the Bush administration, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the president to release crude oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to combat high prices.
The White House rejected her call, saying that using the reserve to manipulate prices was "ineffective."
But catch a politician in a rare moment of candor and you might hear an acknowledgement that gas prices are largely out of their control. Here’s what President Obama had to say last year about high gas prices during the 2008 campaign:
"We were at the height of political season. You had all kinds of slogans and gimmicks and outraged politicians — they were waving their three-point plans for $2 a gallon gas," Obama said.
"And none of it was really going to do anything to solve the problem," he continued. "The truth is, none of these gimmicks, none of these slogans made a bit of difference."
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean- Claude Juncker said he
Singapore
Italian borrowing costs have dropped significantly in the latest market test of confidence in the country’s ability to manage its high debt.
Italy easily sold euro7 billion ($9.4 billion) in 12-month bonds on Monday at an interest rate of 5.92 percent, down from last month’s record of 6.087 percent.
The sale was held on the second “bond day” sponsored by the Italian Banker’s Association, which allowed private buyers to snap up public debt without the usual commission. Analysts said the move _ aimed at engendering confidence in the nation’s debt _ would help retail sales.
Also Monday, union leaders are calling for a three-hour strike to protest austerity measures that Premier Mario Monti hopes will save the country from financial ruin.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
ROME (AP) _ Union leaders in Italy are calling on workers to stage a three-hour strike to protest austerity measures that Premier Mario Monti hopes will save the country from financial ruin.
The union leaders say the measures hit too hard at pensioners and workers and not hard enough at the wealthy. Besides Monday’s strike, an afternoon rally is to be held outside Parliament, which is expected to pass the measures by Christmas.
Labor Minister Elsa Fornero said Sunday that some pension reforms might be softened, but that overall spending cuts must remain for the country to regain credibility on financial markets. An auction of 12-month bonds will test that credibility.
The strike forced Milan’s La Scala opera house to cancel a performance. Metalworkers were among those expected to strike.
Bank of America agreed to pay $315 million to settle claims by investors that they were misled about mortgage-backed investments sold by its Merrill Lynch unit.
The settlement was disclosed in court papers filed late Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and requires the approval of a judge.
The class action lawsuit was led by the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi pension fund. The fund claimed that the investments were backed by poor quality mortgages written by subprime lenders Countrywide Financial Corp., First Franklin Financial, and IndyMac Bancorp, a bank that failed in 2008.
The settlement represents another attempt by Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. to put its legal issues behind it. In the first half of the year alone the bank put up $12.7 billion to settle similar claims from different groups of investors.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff has to approve the settlement, something that could prove difficult since the settlement includes no admission of guilt from Bank of America no fax cash advance.
Just last week, Rakoff struck down a $285 million settlement that Citigroup Inc. reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The settlement would have imposed penalties on Citigroup even as it allowed the company to deny allegations that it misled investors.
Rakoff said the public has a right to know what happens in cases that touch on “the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives.” In such cases, the SEC has a responsibility to ensure that the truth emerges, he wrote.
In 2009, Rakoff had rejected a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America on similar grounds, calling it a breach of “justice and morality.”
Stocks closed modestly higher Monday after a reported threat to Germany’s credit rating deflated a morning market rally. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 78 points, giving back much of a 167-point gain from earlier.
News reports Monday afternoon said Standard & Poor’s will put all nations that use the euro on “creditwatch negative,” meaning there is a 50-50 chance of a downgrade in the coming months. S&P had warned of possible rating demotions for many of the countries. But the inclusion on the list of Germany, Europe’s strongest economy, came as a surprise.
Stocks had risen strongly in the morning after the leaders of France and Germany called for a new treaty to impose greater fiscal discipline on European countries. Yields on Italian government bonds receded sharply after the new government of Mario Monti introduced sweeping austerity measures over the weekend. That suggests that traders believe Italy is less likely to default.
“There’s pent-up demand, and people will use any excuse to get back in, thinking there’s been too much pessimism,” said Brian Gendreau investment strategist with Cetera Financial Group. Despite strong signals about the U.S. economy, the market has been weighed down by negative headlines about the U.S. budget impasse, credit-rating downgrades of the U.S. and other nations, and Europe’s spreading crisis, Gendreau said.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 78.41 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,097.83.
The gains were broad. All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 rose. Financials stocks were among the biggest winners. Investors have feared that U.S. banks might be dragged down by their close connections to the unstable European financial system.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 3.7 percent, the most in the Dow. Bank of America was the second-biggest gainer, rising 2.7 percent. Citigroup Inc. rose 5.9 percent, Morgan Stanley 6.8 percent.
The S&P 500 rose 13, or 1 percent, to 1,257. The Nasdaq rose 29, or 1.1 percent, to 2,656.
Investors are hoping that a summit of European leaders on Thursday and Friday will produce concrete measures to prevent a messy breakup of the euro currency, which is shared by 17 nations. Markets have been jittery because of fears that the euro might disintegrate, causing a sharp recession in Europe that would spread through the world economy.
While the statements from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were far from a long-term solution, investors are eager to buy on any hint of good news because they have been earning meager returns from relatively low-risk investments such as Treasurys and CDs, Gendreau said no faxing payday loans.
Italian bond yields dropped to their lowest level in a month, a day after the nation’s new government introduced austerity measures. That suggests traders believe that Italy is far less likely to default. The main Italian stock index jumped 2.9 percent.
Italy’s borrowing costs pulled back from a level that might have forced the nation to default. Analysts say bailing out Italy would be too costly and would hurt the credit standing of German and France, which have the strongest economies in the euro group.
The yield on the 10-year Italian bond plunged half a percentage point to 5.93 percent. It rose above 7 percent last month, a level at which other nations were forced to take bailouts. By comparison, bond yields in Germany, Europe’s largest and most stable economy, are roughly 2 percent.
Monday’s strong gains follow the best week in more than two years for U.S. stock indexes. The S&P 500 rose 7.4 percent last week, the most since March 2009. The Dow jumped 7 percent, the most since July 2009.
Markets are hopeful that, given the gravity of the situation afflicting the euro zone, the German and French leaders will come up with a common proposal for tighter integration on budget matters. Analysts say that such a plan could lead to further emergency aid from the European Central Bank, possibly through the International Monetary Fund.
In corporate news:
_ Gannett Co. leapt 10.2 percent after the media company was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” by analysts at Lazard Capital Markets.
_ Incyte Corp. fell 2 percent after a Citigroup analyst downgraded the drug maker to “neutral” from “buy,” saying its new blood-disease drug Jakafi might not work as a long-term treatment.
_ SuccessFactors Inc. soared more than 50 percent after the company agreed to be sold to German software company SAP for $3.4 billion. SuccessFactors makes software specializing in human resources tasks. The deal is part of SAP’s plan to compete with software rival Oracle Corp.
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