Transcripts For KQED Nightly Business Report 20140404 : vima

KQED Nightly Business Report April 4, 2014

Bailed out by uncle sam during the 2008 financial crisis. Its battled questions about dubious foreclosure practices, fended off allegations of lax Money Laundering protections and faced a number of probes into its banking practices. Just last week, the Federal Reserve rejected citis plan to raise its shareholder dividend and jack up its stock buy back complain on concerns about how much capital the bank has on hand. Now the banks troubles just got worse. The fbi has reportedly launched a criminal investigation into the banks role in a 400 million fraud involving its mexican banking unit. Investors have taken notice, sending shares down another 1 today. Michelle carusocabrera has more now on the latest news about citigroup and how much more the banking behemoth can take. Reporter the Company Revealed in late february a 400 million fraud involving an Oil Services Company in mexico. Even before todays news of a criminal investigation, analysts questioned whether mexico was one of the reasons citi failed to pass the Federal Reserves most recent stress test. We have a sell on citigroup because we do think that the company is facing a pretty tough time with all of this international upset, and particularly as a result of what went on in mexico where they let 400 million out the door without basically stopping it. So i think that it may sense for the feds to come down on citigroup. Because clearly their controls are not in place. Reporter the lack of control from the top has some analysts calling for a broader shakeup the citi. The chief accounting officer into the financial crisis. Two years ago citi was turned down for its capital plan by the fed. Thats strike two. Then yesterday being turned down again is strike three. Three strikes youre out. I think citi needs to replace the cfo. Reporter citis copresident Manuel Medina mora has been in charge of banamex since 1996. Some say its signs the company are just too big. John reed said a conference this week the company was so immense and complex its nearly impossible to manage. Still, citi has its defenders on wall street. I would be buying citigroup at these levels. Extremely attractive. A lot of concern in the marketplace already baked in a couple of catalysts coming up in terms of earnings that will be mixed but still a catalyst they can resubmit and get on track. Reporter for nightly Business Report, michelle carusocabrera. Lets turn now to todd haguerman, managing director at stern a. G. Todd, youve downgraded your buy order to neutral. Tell us why. Neutral still sounds like you have some hope there. Well, i dont know if id say theres hope there. But basically as was reported in the story, the regulatory risk, the legal risk, i think people are really underestimated those factors going into the story into 2014 quite frankly. As you mentioned, we now have criminal investigation. Certainly surrounding the Money Laundering. I would expect that regulatory action is going to soon follow surrounding the banamex situation. But more importantly, youve got a company where their expenses remain very elevated, notably tied to legal, and i should point out that theyre little bit behind the curve relative to their peers in terms of settling some of these big lawsuits, which leaves some investors questioning whether book value might be subject to em pairment in the near future. At the end of the day youll have a protracted legal and regulatory scenario which is going to keep people on the sidelines and keep pressure on the stock. I dont mean to be impolite, todd, but with all you said to me i am dumbfounded why you wouldnt put a sell on that stock and get the heck away from it. Why not . I dont get it. Look, you have to take a step back and look at the situation. The earnings have come down on this stock the last three to four consecutive quarters. Theres a lot thats already heavily discounted in the shares right now. Certainly there was a lot of optimistic going into the feds capital review program last week obviously a big blow to both shareholders and management. But if you look at the valuation today, theres a lot discounted. I dont think theres a lot of down side here in the stock. By the same token, i really cant see much up side from here. I just think its status quo for a period of time. Citi has been under the gun for so long now. And the story we were just reporting it was the point that its just not enough control at citibank. Is citi just too big, too complex, too hard to manage . You know, thats an argument that goes back to john reed as you reference in your story. This is a very large, complex organization. And i would have to agree. No single individual is capable of managing this company. Its been proven time and time again. Were start okay see a revolving door in the ceo office the last few years. Its a very challenging operation when you have a Global Network that stretches from asia to here in north america to latin america. Very difficult. And in particular, the fed is going to have a hard time understanding your control mechanism within an organization like that. All right. Lots to talk about here. Thank you so much, todd. Todd haguerman, Financial Services analyst at stern a. G. Another big bang behaving badly. Bank of america is close to an agreement to settle allegations it forced customers to sign up for extra credit Card Protection Services they didnt need. The bank will pay the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau more than 800 million. It was close, but there were no records broken on wall street today. At least not for the full day. Stocks began the day sprinting higher with both the dow and s p 500 in alltime record high territory for awhile there. Todays driver growth in the Services Sector of the economy last month. But a spike in firsttime jobless claims last week and a jump nations trade deficit in february prompted a fullback ahead of tomorrows big march market employment report. The dow ended just a fraction of a point lower, the nasdaq was down 38 on a sell off in biotech and technology shares. And the s p was off 2 points from wednesdays record close. Now if youre you were following shares of google today, no, you werent seeing double. This was the first day of trading for two separate classes of google stock. There was class a and clarksss. Shares of both classes rose but only by a fraction. Whats behind the two different classes of google stock and who are the big winners in the split in josh lipton explains. Reporter googles motto is, dont be evil. Another motto could be, dont shear the power in silicon valley, power can mean having a say over the direction of the company by being a shareholder with voting rights. Before today there were only two classes of google stock, class a shares carry voting rights. If you own one share of class a stock you have one vote. But cofounders sergei bring and larry page maintain control of google using Class B Shares that carry 10 votes for each share. The two, along with eric schmidt, googles executive chairman, control more than 60 of the vote which gives them control over the companys future. Starting today, investors can buy class c shares, but that stock carries no voting rights. Why do this . Because it means brinn and page cannot use this new class of stock to compensate employees or to make acquisitions without giving up any control of the company. It does protect their longterm control in google. But i think if you look at google, theyve really had control from day one. They did have the initial one vote per and ten votes per distinction. Investors did incredibly well if you adjust for this move youre basically looking at a 42. 50 ipo price. Now the stock trading in the neighborhood of 600. J reporter the value of the investors stock havent changed. They just own two classes of shares instead of one. Other companies the s p 500 that also have different classes of stock include comcast, cbs and facebook, the social Networks Class b stock which is mostly owned by Ceo Mark Zuckerberg remain the majority of voting rights. In just the past few months, google has been on a shopping spree. The Company Acquired nest labs for 3. 2 billion and boston dynamics which makes robots. Google has bought more than 20 companies over the past year. Googles founders have shown they have the desire for acquisitions both large and small. Now they have a new way to satisfy that appetite while maintaining their control of the search giant. Josh lipton, nightly Business Report, silicon valley. The auto parts maker delphi is getting drag need that massive legal trouble at General Motors over those faulty ill anything switches it made. They have been linked to at least 13 crashrelated deaths. Plaintiffs suing g. M. Have now added delphis name in their lawsuits against the automaker, included a former delphi employee whose daughter was killed in a 2013 chevy cobalt accident. Shares of the auto parts giant down about. 5 today at 69. 73. That drop was nothing compared to the decline in shares of barnes noble today. They tumbled nearly 14 after one of the bookstores chains biggest investors ing talking about Liberty Media said it sold almost all its stock in the company. Reporter a blow for struggling bookstore chain barnes noble. Liberty medias decision to sell its stake is a big turn around from three years ago when the media giant had tried to buy the entire company. Settling instead for a 17 ownership cut. Todays stock plunge has investors concerned about the companys future. But analysts say theres still plenty to be hopeful about. This is definitely a short turn negative for barnes noble. Its taken away a stable iegz force in a somewhat controversial position. But that said, they still have everything to play for in that you still have microsoft as a large investor in the nook, you still have the channen 26 considering going private. Most importantly you still have a stock thats very inexpensive. Reporter analysts believe that Barnes Nobles revenue strength and ultimately its survival of the company depends on the very thing thats driven so many competitors like borderers out of business. Its retail stores. I think the surprise in the space has been just how strong print sales have been. And ironically, there have been complaints in new york recently about the number of Stores Closing as people realizing they like to go to bookstores. Its very different from a lot of the other businesses that went digital and just completely left behind the medium. There are even stories now of children who watch movies on their iphones still actually wanting to read print books. So that really is that asset continues for a long long time joo still barnes noble fasts many hurdles as liberty sells out of its stake, the move erodes some of the Financial Stability barnes noble has gained from that investment. Then theres the nook. Leader partners with microsoft on. The device has been losing money with sale down 50 last quarter. For nightly Business Report, im Morgan Brennan in los angeles. Still ahead, coke fires back at an activist investor as the battle over executive compensation at the firm doubles up. A Big Development over allegations of rigged markets because of High Frequency trading which weve been telling you about all this week. Interactive brokers, this is the online stock trading service, is now giving customers the option of specifying whether they want to make trades using High Frequency technology or have their orders go only through an iex Trading Platform that avoids socalled hft technology. Strong words about High Frequency trading creating an unlevel Playing Field for individual investors coming from charl charles he said it is a growing cancer he says traders using that technology are again quoting here, gaming the system and reaping billions in profits in the process. And heres another hot button issue back in the news. Executive compensation. This time cocacolas in the spotlight on how much it pays its top competitives at a time when the stock price has fizzled, soda sales are down and consumer tastes are changing. Saraize enhas the story. Reporter cocacola finding itself in a very unusual fight with one of its investors over executive pay. David winters, a longtime value investor, is criticizing cokes 2014 equity plan which outlines stocks and options awarded to employees over the next few years. He says its overly generous at the expense of shareholders because it dilutes the value of their shares by 14 to 16 . When you look at it realistically, theres an awful lot of money being transferred from the shareholders pockets to management of the company thats not growing very fast. Its just not right. We think its wrong. Reporter winters who owns 2. 5 million shares of cokes stock has sent letters to cokes board and to fellow investors including warren buffett, cokes top shareholder, urging them to vote against the plan. But coke is fighting back, saying winters is misinformed and his math simply does not add up. A lot of these awards are very dependent on stock price. And investors really like that. Because management doesnt get paid unless the company performs. And unless our invests get an Additional Return on theirs. Reporter the ceo saw his total compensation drop more than 30 last year because the stock underperformed. Winters is also questioning kents role as chairman of the board, saying its a conflict of interest when it comes to making decisions about executive compensation. Coke rejects that idea as well. Our board strongly believes that a combined chair and ceo is the right structure for our company. And its important to note that Compensation Committee sets the compensation for our company. So the Compensation Committee is comprised entirely of independent directors. So theres not a conflict of interest for having a combined chairceo role. Reporter executive compensation has always been a hot topic for shareholders. No word yet on coke from warren buffett. Shares will get their say on april 23 rd at the annual meeting when the plan is up for a voechte. Until then mr. Winters and cocacola are digging in their heels. For nightly Business Report, im saraizen. Micron technology reported better than expected results and sharply higher revenue helped by a stronger recovery from chip prices, also its recent acquisition of a Memory Company helped results. Better memory always helps. Shares were up initially after hours. The stock ended the regular session down nearly 1. 5 , 24 even the close there. Battle is brewing over yelp reviews. The federal trade commission revealed that it has received more than 2,000 complaints about the review site over the past five years. And according to an article in the wall street journal, most of those complaints are from Small Businesses that claim to have received unfair reviews, often after turning down a pitch to advertise on the site. Shares plunged 6 to 70. 61. And a darco petroleum shares jumped after announcing the biggest environmental settlement on record. It will pay more than 5 billion to settle claims stemming from the 2009 bankruptcy of tranex a supplier of paint materials. The government suit was asking for 25 billion to clean up 85 years of pollution left behind by the companys kerr mcgee unit. Investors were relieved the case is finally closed and shares surged 14 to 99. Perry ellis shares popped even though the clothing maker reported a Fourth Quarter loss. The company says its disappointed with the results and blamed it on bad weather and slow traffic in the malls. But earnings did end up topping estimates, and thats what investors focused on. The stock rose more than 2. 5 to 14. 62. And vivishares tumbled on a downgrade. Piper jaffray lowered its rating on the stock stop underweight and slashed its price target to 3 from 8. The firms site is concerned over the outlook for the companys antiobesity drug. Vivisell dropped to 5. 83. Some good news about jobs one day ahead of the labor departments all important march employment report. The Outplacement Firm says u. S. Companies planned only 34,000 layoffs in march. Thats a good number unless youre one of the 34,000. That added to the number of announced job cuts in the First Quarter and made it come in at a 19year low. Despite a string of strong Economic Data and the major stock indexes near record highs, a recent Study Suggests more and more people still consider themselves middle class and feel their version of the American Dream is moving increasingly out of reach. Hampton pearson has more. Reporter washington never stops talking about restoring the middle class. This week, House Republicans pitching their latest budget plan. Americans continue to ask the question, where are the jobs . And too many middle class families and Small Businesses continue to struggle in this economy. Reporter ditto president obama on the road in michigan pushing for a hire minimum wage. The economy increasingly has folks at the top doing really well, but then middle class families, people who are struggling to get in the middle class, theyre working harder but their wages, their incomes arent going up. Reporter but five years after the end of the Great Recession and the loss of

© 2025 Vimarsana