Job news boosts markets

A largely positive U.S. jobs report sent the stock market soaring as the Dow Jones industrial average traded above 15,000 for the first time before closing just below the mark and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at a record 1,614.

"The Dow was at 14,000 in March. It's more than doubled since early 2009," said Paul Edelstein of IHS Global Insight.

"Investors seem to have more confidence," Alan Clayton-Matthews, an associate professor of economics and public policy at Northeastern University, told the Herald. "And the Federal Reserve made interest rates so low that if you put your savings in the bank, it won't earn much. The only place to put (your savings) is in commodities like gold or equities like stock. It seems like a pretty safe bet because businesses are doing well and profits are high."

The nation added 165,000 jobs in April, with increases reported in professional and business services, food services and drinking establishments, retail trade and health care, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"It's an improvement from what many people were expecting," said Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. "I'd still like to see better improvement than what we've seen to date."

The number of unemployed Americans last month — 11.7 million, or
 7.5 percent of the work force — ticked down a tenth of a percent from March and has declined by 673,000, or 
0.4 percent, since January.

Another bright spot: Due to revisions of earlier estimates, employment gains in February and March combined were 114,000 higher than previously reported, federal data shows. Also, the number of people not looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them decreased by 133,000 from a year earlier to 835,000 last month.

"Overall, April's job report was consistent with the stubbornly slow pace of economic growth the nation has been experiencing this year, but with a few silver linings," said Michael D. Goodman, associate professor and public policy department chairman at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. "These include strong upward revisions to the February and March data that suggest that the employment recovery is continuing, albeit not fast enough to be much consolation for the more than 4 million American workers who have been unemployed for over 26 weeks."

And the jobs people are getting may not be the ones they want. The number of involuntary part-time workers, for example, increased in April by 278,000 to 
7.9 million, largely offsetting a decrease in March.

Ira Kantor contributed to this report.

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Obama wraps up Latin trip with an eye back home

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — President Barack Obama, concluding a three-day visit to Mexico and Costa Rica, is cheering Mexican economic advances and pressing other Central American leaders to deal with poverty and security while reaching out to a politically powerful Latino audience back home.

Boosted by reassuring jobs numbers, Obama is calling for greater trade and economic cooperation with the U.S.'s southern neighbors, arguing that economic prosperity is the best antidote to drug and gang violence and, by extension, to the illegal immigration that the U.S. is seeking to control.

In his radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama also made the case that deepening economic ties with the Americas means more jobs in the United States.

"One of the best ways to grow our economy is to sell more goods and services made in America to the rest of the world," he said. "That includes our neighbors to the south."

During the trip Obama has tried to modulate the exercise of U.S. influence. He has refused to insert himself in Mexico's strategy for confronting narcotrafficking, even if it means more limited access by U.S. security officials to Mexican law enforcement. In Costa Rica, he urged Central American leaders to integrate their economies, reduce their high energy costs and confront the violence in the region.

"As governments, our job is to make sure that we're doing everything we can to provide security and opportunity and ladders for success and prosperity for our people," he told the regional leaders at the start of a dinner Friday. "Economic growth that creates jobs, security for people so that they can be safe in their own neighborhoods, and development that allows people to live in dignity."

On Saturday, Obama was scheduled to speak and takes questions at a meeting at a forum in San Jose on economic growth and development.

In addition to its economic aims, the trip served as a nod by Obama to the vast Hispanic population in the United States, which heavily supported him in the 2012 election and which retains strong family and cultural ties to Latin America.

"In fact," he said Friday in a speech aimed at young people in Mexico City, "without the strong support of Latinos, including so many Mexican Americans, I would not be standing today as president of the United States. That's the truth."

A theme during the trip was the U.S. effort to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, an issue of intense interest among Latinos in the United States and in Mexico and Central America.

The vast majority of the 11 million immigrants illegally in the U.S. are from Latin America, 6 million of them from Mexico alone. Obama supports legislation that would give those immigrants a path to U.S. citizenship and he told Univision in an interview aired Friday that he would not sign a bill that did not provide such a pathway. Republicans are demanding greater border security.

"The truth is, right now, our border with Mexico is more secure than it's been in years," he said in his radio address. "We've put more boots on that border than at any time in our history, and illegal crossings are down by nearly 80 percent from their peak in 2000."

The immigration legislation should be a compromise, he said, "which means that nobody got everything they wanted — including me."

As Congress debates immigration legislation, Obama's bullish — even overly rosy — depiction of Mexico's economic prospects were meant to convince the U.S. public and lawmakers that Mexico no longer poses the illegal immigration threat it once did.

"The long-term solution to the challenge of illegal immigration is a growing and prosperous Mexico that creates more jobs and opportunities for young people here," he said.

Mexico, Obama said, has lifted millions of people from poverty.

But while Mexico's economy has grown, it has yet to trickle down to average workers. Huge poverty rates held steady between late 2006 and 2010, the most recent year for which government statistics are available. Between 40 and 50 percent of the population of 112 million Mexicans live in poverty, earning less than $100 a month.

Even as he tried to keep the focus on the economy and immigration, Obama did not escape the issue of drugs and violence wracking the region. In the Costa Rican capital Friday, Obama said the U.S. and Latin America share "common effects and common responsibilities" for the troubles and argued to his dining companions Friday that his country has suffered from the drug epidemic as well.

"If you go to my hometown of Chicago, and you go to some neighborhoods, they're just as violent, if not more violent than some of the countries at this table — in part because of the pernicious influence of the drug trade," he said.

Drug-fueled violence remains an undeniable part of daily life in many parts of the region. Costa Rica has fared better than many of its neighbors, but it worries about spillover from nearby countries. Honduras, for example, now has the highest homicide rate in the world, with about 7,200 people murdered last year in the tiny nation of 8 million people, most in drug-related crime.

Obama acknowledged the role of U.S. demand for drugs and said his administration has spent $30 billion to reduce demand in recent years. But he acknowledged that the United States remains a "big market" and that "progress is sometimes slower than we'd like it to be."

Obama also could not avoid entanglements beyond the region. Questions about Syria dogged him and his aides during the trip. On Friday, he virtually ruled sending troops into the country torn by civil war, saying he did "not foresee a scenario" for sending U.S. soldiers into the country.

In the Republican address Saturday, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory argued that Washington should learn from Republican governors on how to make government work efficiently. He said governors need Washington to give states more flexibility, independence and accountability and called on Obama to show more leadership.

___

Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress

___

Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

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Jeweler, Costco face off in NY over Tiffany rings

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has asked big-box wholesaler Costco and little-blue-box jeweler Tiffany & Co. to try to settle a multimillion-dollar trademark dispute.

Lawyers for the companies faced off in a Manhattan courtroom Friday over Costco Wholesale Corp.'s sales of thousands of Tiffany diamond rings that weren't made by the jeweler.

Costco says Tiffany has become a generic term for a mount common on engagement rings in which the stone is set in a raised claw.

The New York Post reports that Costco lawyer James Dabney told the judge that saying "Tiffany ring" is like saying "Phillips screwdriver," ''Murphy bed" or "Ferris wheel."

Tiffany lawyer Jeffrey Mitchell says that if you ask 100 people on the street what Tiffany means, "they're not going to say the setting."

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States fear losing aid for 'uninsurables'

WASHINGTON — Thousands of people with serious medical problems are in danger of losing coverage under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul because of cost overruns, state officials say.

At risk is the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, a transition program that's become a lifeline for the so-called uninsurables — people with serious medical conditions who can't get coverage elsewhere. The program helps bridge the gap for those patients until next year, when under the new law insurance companies will be required to accept people regardless of their medical problems.

In a letter this week to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, state officials said they were "blindsided" and "very disappointed" by a federal proposal they contend would shift the risk for cost overruns to states in the waning days of the program. About 100,000 people are currently covered.

"We are concerned about what will become of our high risk members' access to this decent and affordable coverage," wrote Michael Keough, chairman of the National Association of State Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans. States and local nonprofits administer the program in 27 states, and the federal government runs the remaining plans.

"We fear...catastrophic disruption of coverage for these vulnerable individuals," added Keough, who runs North Carolina's program. He warned of "large-scale enrollee terminations at this critical transition time."

The crisis is surfacing at a politically awkward time for the Obama administration, which is trying to persuade states to embrace a major expansion of Medicaid under the health care law. One of the main arguments proponents of the expansion are making is that Washington is a reliable financial partner.

The root of the problem is that the federal health care law capped spending on the program at $5 billion, and the money is running out because the beneficiaries turned out to be costlier to care for than expected. Advanced heart disease and cancer are common diagnoses for the group.

Obama did not ask for any additional funding for the program in his latest budget, and a Republican bid to keep the program going by tapping other funds in the health care law failed to win support in the House last week.

Brian Cook, a spokesman for the HHS agency overseeing the health care law, took issue with idea that thousands of people could lose coverage, though he did not elaborate.

"These actions are part of our careful management of the program to ensure that there is a seamless transition ... for enrollees, and that funding is spent appropriately," he said in a written statement.

The administration has given the state-based plans until next Wednesday to respond to proposed contract terms for the program's remaining seven months.

Delivered last Friday, the new contract stipulated that states will be reimbursed "up to a ceiling."

"The 'ceiling' part is the issue for us," Keough said in an interview. "They are shifting the risk from the federal government, for a program that has experienced huge cost overruns on a per-member basis, to states. And that's a tall order."

State officials say one likely consequence of the money crunch will be a cost shift to people in the program, resulting in sudden increases in premiums and copayments. Many might just drop out, said Keough.

If a state and HHS can't come to an agreement, the federal government will take over that state's program for the rest of this year. Amie Goldman, director of the Wisconsin program, said that would be an unneeded and possibly risky disruption for patients who'll have to change insurance next year anyway, when the pre-existing conditions plan formally ends.

Goldman said in her state, for example, the University of Wisconsin hospital isn't part of the federal government's provider network. "My colleagues in other states have similar concerns about holes in the network," she said. "I think it puts people at medical risk."

At his news conference this week, Obama acknowledged the rollout of his health care law wouldn't be perfect. There will be "glitches and bumps" he said, and his team is committed to working through them. However, it's unclear how the pre-existing conditions plan could get more money without the cooperation of Republicans in Congress.

The program got off to a slow start, partly because insurance isn't cheap. It offers policies at market rates, and that can mean premiums of $500 a month for someone in their 50s. The first inkling of financial problems came in February, when HHS announced a freeze on new applications.

The plan was intended only as a stopgap until the law's main push to cover the uninsured starts next year. Subsidized private insurance will be available through new state-based markets, as well as an expanded version of Medicaid for low-income people. At the same time, virtually all Americans will be required to carry a policy, or pay a fine.

States are free to accept or reject the Medicaid expansion, and the new problems with the stopgap insurance plan could well have a bearing on their decisions.

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Warren Buffett leads annual meeting like no other

OMAHA, Neb. — Before facing questions from a crowd of more than 30,000, billionaire Warren Buffett started Saturday being mobbed by fans at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting.

Shareholders again treated the 82-year-old investor like a rock star at Saturday's annual meeting.

Admirers held their cell phones and iPads in the air as they surrounded Buffett in the meeting's 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall. A pack of security guards created a buffer around Buffett as he visited displays selling Berkshire's See's Candy, explaining BNSF railroad's virtues and highlighting some of the company's other 80-plus subsidiaries.

Andy Paullin, drove to Omaha from Milwaukee, Wis., on Friday for attend the meeting and learn from Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, just as he has done nearly every year since 2007.

"It's exciting to be here and listen to these guys," he said. "I can't believe more people aren't interested."

At the See's booth, Buffett got a lesson in making hand-dipped bonbons. Then See's manufacturing manager Steve Powell got Buffett to autograph his white uniform coat, demonstrating that employees are nearly as excited about meeting Buffett as shareholders.

"He was right there. Why not? It's Mr. Buffett," said Powell, explaining why he asked for the autograph. "He's wonderful."

Powell said he'll probably frame the coat and display it at work when he returns to California.

The Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting began humbly in 1982 with a crowd of 15 in an insurance company cafeteria. It has been growing steadily just as the company's stock price rose to become the most-expensive in the U.S., reaching $162,904 for a Class A share on Friday.

Buffett will sit on stage with his 89-year-old business partner, Munger, to answer questions from shareholders, journalists and financial analysts for six hours.

Amaury Fernandez and his best friend Rick Cabrera traveled to the meeting from Miami because Fernandez is interested in investing and admires Buffett and Munger.

"They are two of the most remarkable men I've ever learned about," Fernandez said. "We don't know how much longer these gentlemen are going to be alive."

Jim Weber, CEO of Berkshire's Brooks Running company, said he has been reading Buffett's annual letters to shareholders since the 1980s — long before Brooks became part of Berkshire. Weber had even attended four Berkshire annual meetings before Brooks was acquired in 2006 along with Russell Athletic.

"If you're in the business world, it's a bucket list item. There's no other annual meeting like it," Weber said.

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Strong US jobs report sends stocks higher

LONDON — Stock markets rallied on Friday, with both the Dow and S&P hitting new highs, after an unexpectedly strong U.S. jobs report indicated the world's largest economy is not slowing down, as some had feared.

The Labor Department said a net 165,000 jobs were created in April, above the market expectations for 140,000. The previous two months' weak figures, meanwhile, were revised up. That helped bring the unemployment rate down to 7.5 percent, the lowest in four years.

Paul Ashworth, the chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics, said the report "will go a long way towards soothing fears of another spring slowdown."

By early afternoon in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 1 percent at 6,524.31 while Germany's DAX was 1.7 percent higher at 8,100.47. France's CAC-40 rose 1.2 percent to 3,905.93.

On Wall Street, the Dow was up 1.2 percent to 15,007.40, the first time it has traded above the 15,000 mark. The broader S&P 500 was 1.3 percent higher at 1,618.32, another first.

The jobs report helped offset news that the European Union had downgraded its economic forecasts. In its spring update, the EU said it expected the 17-country eurozone's economy to shrink 0.4 percent this year, 0.1 percentage points worse than its February prediction.

It expects markedly weaker growth in Germany, the region's biggest economy, and a contraction in France, the second-largest. The fact that the economic slowdown is affecting the larger economies could push the ECB to cut interest rates again, or provide some new measures of support to credit markets in coming months.

Earlier, in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.1 percent to close at 22,689.96. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.4 percent to 1,965.71 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was nearly unchanged at 5,129.50.

Mainland Chinese stocks posted sharp gains, but that was likely due to bargain-hunting after a sharp fall the day before. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.4 percent to 2,205.5 while the Shenzhen Composite Index gained 2 percent to 936.58.

Markets in Japan were closed for a public holiday.

In commodity markets, the benchmark oil contract for June delivery was up $1.96 to $95.95 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.96, or 3.3 percent, on Thursday, the biggest one-day gain for crude since November.

In currencies, the euro rose 0.4 percent to $1.3113, recovering somewhat from sharp losses the day before, when the European Central Bank on Thursday cut interest rates. The dollar rose 1.1 percent against the Japanese yen, to 98.98 yen.

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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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Nation adds 165,000 jobs in April; unemployment rate 7.5 percent

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 165,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 7.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.Over the prior year, employment growth has averaged 169,000 per month.

Employment increased in professional and business services, food services and drinking places, retail trade, and health care.

Previous estimates for the number of jobs created in February were revised upward from 268,000 to 332,000, and the change for March was revised from a very disappointing 88,000 to 138,000. With these revisions, employment gains in February and March combined were 114,000 higher than previously reported.

The unemployment rate, at 7.5 percent, changed little in April but has declined by 0.4 percentage point since January. The number of unemployed Americans, at 11.7 million, was also little changed over the month; however, unemployment has decreased by 673,000 since January.

The unemployment rate for adult women (6.7 percent) declined in April, while the rates for adult men (7.1

percent), teenagers (24.1 percent), whites (6.7 percent), blacks (13.2 percent), and Hispanics (9 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 5.1 percent, little changed from a year earlier.

In April, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 258,000 to 4.4 million; their share of the unemployed declined by 2.2 percentage points to 37.4 percent. Over the

past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has decreased by 687,000, and their share has declined by 3.1 percentage points.

The civilian labor force participation rate was 63.3 percent in April, unchanged over the month but down from 63.6 percent in January.

In April, the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased by 278,000 to 7.9 million, largely offsetting a decrease in

March. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

In April, 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey.

Among the marginally attached, there were 835,000 discouraged workers in April, down by 133,000 from a year earlier. Discouraged workers are not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.5 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in April had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Professional and business services added 73,000 jobs in April. Within leisure and hospitality, employment in food services and drinking places rose by 38,000. Retail trade employment increased by 29,000 in April.

Health care added 19,000 jobs.

Employment in other major industries, including mining and logging, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and government, showed little change over the month.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls decreased by 0.2 hour in April to 34.4 hours. Within manufacturing, the workweek decreased by 0.1 hour to 40.7 hours, and overtime declined by 0.1 hour to 3.3 hours.

In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to $23.87. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 45 cents, or 1.9 percent.

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Stocks surge in early trading after hiring climbs

NEW YORK — A big gain in the job market is lifting the stock market to a record high.

The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 15,000 for the first time, and the Standard and Poor's 500 index, a broader market measure, rose above 1,600.

In the first hour of trading Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 173 points to 15,004, a gain of 1.2 percent.

The S&P 500 index surged 20 points, or 1.3 percent, to 1,618. It has been thirteen years since the broad stock-market index broke through 1,500.

The government said U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in April, more than economists were expecting. It also said more jobs were created in February and March than it had estimated earlier.

The unemployment rate also fell to 7.5 percent, the lowest in four years, from 7.6 percent the month before.

A series of weak manufacturing reports, disappointing retail sales in March, signs of an economic slowdown in China and mixed earnings reports for the first quarter have rattled the market in recent weeks. Friday's jobs numbers are reassuring investors.

The S&P 500 is up 13 percent from the start of the year. The Dow is up 14 percent.

When the jobs numbers were announced at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, gold dropped, oil rose and the dollar strengthened against the yen.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose sharply as traders moved money out of bonds and into riskier assets like stocks. The yield rose to 1.72 percent from 1.63 percent the day before, its lowest level of the year.

The Nasdaq composite rose 47 points, or 1.4 percent, to 3,387.

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Warren Buffett says economy still improving slowly

OMAHA, Neb. — Investor Warren Buffett believes that the economy and the U.S. job market will continue to improve, but slowly.

In an interview that aired Friday, Buffett said business has been creeping upward at his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate.

"The economy is improving, not at a rapid clip, but this country has done well since 2008 — certainly compared to the rest of the world," Buffett said to CNBC.

Buffett thinks it would be extraordinary if the Federal Reserve were to expand its bond-buying program beyond the current $85 billion a month level. The Fed said Wednesday that it would consider buying more if the economy needs help.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke needs some help from elsewhere to get the economy moving faster, Buffett said. Bernanke has urged Congress to do more to stimulate hiring and growth.

On Saturday, Buffett will take questions in front of more than 30,000 people at Berkshire's annual meeting.

In a separate interview with the Fox Business Network on Friday, Buffett tried to reassure Berkshire shareholders that they shouldn't worry about his successor.

The 82-year-old billionaire said he isn't concerned about who will next lead four companies in which Berkshire invests nearly $50 billion, such as Coca-Cola, IBM, Wells Fargo and American Express.

"I don't know who's going to succeed the present CEOs there and in every case, each one of the four they have changed CEOs since we started buying the stock in certain cases more than once," Buffett said. "I never knew who they were going to be. I knew they'd pick good people."

Buffett said Berkshire's board spends more time discussion succession planning than any other topic. But Buffett has no plans to retire. He has said Berkshire's board has picked someone to succeed him as CEO if the need arises immediately, and it has two backup candidates. But Buffett won't publicly identify his successor, partly because he has said the candidates could change over time.

Currently, all of the CEO candidates on Berkshire's short list are men, but Buffett said that could change.

"Maybe 10 years or 15 years from now it will be a she. I hope it is," he said.

Berkshire plans to split Buffett's job into three parts when he no longer leads the company. The next CEO will run Berkshire, but two others hired by Buffett in recent years will oversee investment. Buffett wants his oldest son to succeed him as chairman.

Berkshire owns more than 80 subsidiaries, including railroad, clothing, furniture and jewelry firms. Its insurance and utility businesses typically account for more than half of the company's net income. The Omaha, Neb., company also has major investments.

___

Follow Josh Funk online at www.twitter.com/funkwrite

___

Online:

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: www.berkshirehathaway.com

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Pentagon clears use of Samsung's devices

SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung Electronics Co. says the U.S. Department of Defense has approved using Samsung smartphones for its networks.

The South Korean company said Friday the Galaxy S4 smartphone has become the first Android device to meet the security requirements set out by the U.S. government, allowing government and military officials to access the Defense Department's networks with the S4.

Samsung is making a big push to enter the smartphone market for governments and enterprises dominated by Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices.

Earlier this year, Samsung announced software for security-conscious users called Samsung Knox aimed at people who want to use their personal mobile devices to access secured networks at the workplace. Samsung said Knox is only available with the S4 and will be installed in other Samsung devices later.

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US jobless claims fall to 5-year low of 324K

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to seasonally adjusted 324,000, the lowest since January 2008. The drop points to fewer layoffs and possibly more hiring.

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications fell 18,000, the second straight sharp drop. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, plummeted 16,000 to 342,250, close to a five-year low.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. When they fall below 350,000, it is generally consistent with moderate hiring.

But layoffs are only half the equation: Companies also need to be confident enough to add workers for job growth to pick up and lower the unemployment rate. Many have held off adding new workers in recent months, possibly because of concerns about the impact of federal spending cuts and tax increases.

Economists forecast that the economy added 160,000 jobs last month. That's much better than the 88,000 added in March, but below last year's pace of nearly 185,000 per month. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 7.6 percent.

But many have lowered their estimates this week, some as low as 120,000, after several reports suggested that slower growth is dragging down hiring. The government will release the April employment report Friday.

The spending cuts, known as sequestration, and higher Social Security taxes may be making businesses more cautious about hiring. And the tax increase could slow consumer spending. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that those policies are "restraining economic growth."

"We think hiring will be more subdued in the second quarter as the economy weathers a consumer spending slowdown and sequestration job cuts," said Julia Coronado, an economist at BNP Paribas. Unemployment benefit applications "will not capture either of these developments." One reason layoffs may not rise is that federal agencies are cutting hours, rather than jobs.

The data ahead of Friday's jobs report have been discouraging. On Wednesday, payroll provider ADP said companies added just 119,000 jobs in April. And a survey of manufacturers by the Institute for Supply Management found that a measure of employment fell sharply last month.

Many companies have been advertising more jobs but have been slow to fill them. Job openings jumped 11 percent during the 12 months that ended in February, but the number of people hired declined, according to a Labor Department report last month.

Nearly 5 million people received unemployment aid during the week ended April 13, the latest data available. That's down from nearly 5.1 million in the previous week.

Still, consumers are more optimistic that the job market is healing and will deliver higher pay later this year, according to a survey of April consumer confidence released this week. And lower gas prices could offset some of the pinch from the tax increase.

The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent from January through March, the government said last week. That was an improvement from the anemic growth of 0.4 percent in the final three months of last year. Most economists expect growth will slow in the current quarter to 2 percent or lower.

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YouTube says the battle with TV is already over

NEW YORK — YouTube vs. TV? YouTube says the battle — if there ever was one — is over.

In a flashy presentation to advertisers Wednesday night, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt declined to forecast that Internet video will displace television watching. Instead he declared: "That's already happened."

Schmidt said "the future is now" for YouTube, which recently passed the milestone of 1 billion unique visitors every month. But, he added with the Third World in mind, if you think that's a large number, "wait until you get to 6 (billion) or 7 billion."

Schmidt and YouTube, which billed the event as a "brandcast," shifted away from the video platform's relationship to TV. A year ago, YouTube seemed to have its sights set on reinventing television by funding the launch of more than 100 channels from well-known media brands and Hollywood personalities.

But that initiative went unmentioned at Wednesday's presentation, held at a Lower East Side pier as part of a week of "NewFronts," (digital media's version of the TV tradition of promoting programming and selling ads). Though the model for the evening was TV, YouTube used it to distinguish itself as something entirely different.

"It's not a replacement for something that we know," said Schmidt. "It's a new thing that we have to think about, to program, to curate and build new platforms."

The presentation featured performances by Snoop Dogg and Macklemore, as well as YouTube personalities like Felicia Day. YouTube focused on its global reach, community engagement and enormous audience.

"I thought that YouTube was like TV, but it isn't. I was wrong," said Robert Kyncl, YouTube's global head of content. "TV is one-way. YouTube talks back."

Some comparisons were inevitable. One fact highly touted was that more 18- to 34-year-olds watch YouTube than any cable network.

"TV means reach," said Kyncl. "YouTube means engagement."

Though companies like Yahoo and AOL have used their NewFront presentations to announce new slates of original programming, YouTube made no programming announcements Wednesday night.

YouTube celebrated DreamWorks Animation's purchase Wednesday of the teen-focused YouTube network Awesomeness TV for $33 million. DreamWorks CEO Jeffery Katzenberg appeared with Awesomeness founder and CEO Brian Robbins, the former "Head of the Class" actor.

"This is a whole new form of content, content delivery and content consumption," said Katzenberg. "It's the medium of the future and the future has already arrived."

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

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Obama nominates Pritzker, Froman for economic jobs

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday chose two old friends with business executive experience for top posts on his economic team, naming longtime fundraiser Penny Pritzker to the Commerce Department and adviser Michael Froman as U.S. Trade Representative.

Pritzker, a Hyatt hotel heiress, businesswoman and philanthropist, is Obama's pick to fill a Cabinet post that has been vacant since former Secretary John Bryson resigned after he said he suffered a seizure that led to a series of traffic collisions.

Froman is one of Obama's law school classmates and senior economic advisers who previously worked as an executive at Citigroup. The Cabinet-level trade post performs as the administration's top adviser and negotiator on international trade. If confirmed by the Senate, Froman would replace Ron Kirk, a former Dallas mayor who stepped down as trade representative in February after serving in the post throughout Obama's first term.

Obama made the announcements in the White House Rose Garden just before departing for Mexico. The nominations, which require Senate confirmation, complete Obama's picks to fill his second-term Cabinet.

Obama said the two will help fulfill his top priority to grow the economy and create middle class jobs.

"I intend to work both of them to the bone as soon as they are official," Obama said to laughter from a crowd that included the nominees' families and administration staff.

If confirmed, Pritzker would become the fourth woman serving as secretary in Obama's current Cabinet. She also would be the wealthiest in the Cabinet by far, with Forbes estimating her net worth at $1.85 billion and ranking her as the 277th richest American.

Pritzker is a lifelong Chicagoan who has known Obama since the 1990s and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for both his presidential campaigns. She was his finance chairwoman in 2008, served as co-chair of Obama for America 2012 and gave $250,000 to help put on his inaugural festivities in January.

Obama has called her a fearless leader for his candidacy "who never wavered, never waffled and cracked the whip with grace and good cheer."

Obama selected her for his 16-member Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board in 2009. When that board expired, Obama included her in his 26-member Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Pritzker has led several companies and currently serves as chair of investment firms Pritzker Realty Group and Artemis Real Estate Partners. She's also on the board of the Hyatt Hotels Corp., the chain co-founded by her father.

She's donated generously to education and the arts and resigned from the Chicago Board of Education in March as she was being vetted for the Commerce nomination.

Froman, Obama's deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, is steeped in the issues confronting the trade representative.

He has been Obama's main representative at international economic summits such as the meetings of the Group of Eight and Group of 20. He is responsible for coordinating White House policy on international trade, investments, energy, climate and development.

Froman served during President Bill Clinton's administration as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin. He also worked as deputy assistant secretary for Eurasia and the Middle East and did a White House stint similar to his current job under Obama.

Before joining the Obama economic and national security teams he worked in various capacities at Citigroup, including managing partner of the Wall Street bank. He also has been a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and a resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

Among the top ongoing trade issues are negotiations over the Trans-Pacific partnership, an Asia-Pacific trading bloc that is key to Obama's efforts to boost exports to Asia. Members include the U.S., Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, Vietnam, Chile, New Zealand, Brunei, Singapore and Peru. Last month, the U.S. approved Japan's entry into negotiations on the trading bloc.

___

Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.

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Warren Buffett says women key to nation's prosperity

OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaire Warren Buffett says a key part of why he is optimistic about the nation's economic future is that America has begun to unleash the potential of women.

Buffett wrote an editorial for Fortune magazine (http://cnnmon.ie/ZBFiri) about the role of women that appeared online on Thursday.

Buffett says most of America's prosperity was created using only about 50 percent of its talent — the men. So he's confident the country will prosper as more and more women excel in the workforce.

Buffett plans to discuss the topic at an event at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's business college at 11 a.m. Central Thursday that will be broadcast online at Fortune.com.

He is getting ready to face more than 30,000 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders this weekend.

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Euro falters on ECB hint of negative deposit rate

LONDON — An interest rate cut from the European Central Bank and hints it may take further measures failed to give European markets a lift Thursday amid ongoing worries about the state of the eurozone economy. U.S. stocks recovered their poise in the run-up to monthly payrolls data Friday.

The euro was a big loser Thursday after Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank's president, said the institution was ready to charge banks that decide to keep deposits at the bank. A negative deposit rate would ostensibly push banks to lend more rather than hoard cash. Draghi conceded he was "frustrated" that the banks weren't lending more.

The deposit rate is currently zero percent but wasn't cut alongside the main benchmark rate.

The central bank, which sets interest rates for the 17 European Union countries that use the euro, cut its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a new record low of 0.5 percent. The decision was widely anticipated following a grim run of economic data for the eurozone.

Following his confirmation that negative deposit rates were technically possible, the euro fell sharply. It was trading 0.8 percent lower at $1.3074, having traded 0.2 percent earlier in the wake of the interest rate reduction.

Given that the rate cut was largely priced in by the markets — and there are ongoing concerns over the state of the eurozone — stocks in Europe were fairly subdued as many investors also reacted to Wednesday's disappointing U.S. economic data following their return from a public holiday.

The CAC-40 in France was 0.2 percent lower at 3,850 while Germany's DAX rose 0.3 percent to 7,941. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares, which was not on holiday on Wednesday, was steady at 6,453.

Few expect Thursday's rate cut by the ECB to make much of a difference to the languishing eurozone economy, which is expected to stay in recession when first-quarter figures are published later this month.

"The cut is a symbolic gesture to reassure struggling eurozone countries that it is actively seeking to revive growth," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

"There is little evidence to suggest the rate cut it will feed through to lower interest rates in the troubled peripheral countries, which have remained stubbornly high compared to rates in core countries such as Germany, where lending is seen as a safer bet by banks," he added.

U.S. stocks recovered some ground lost on Wednesday, when a soft private payrolls report from ADP and another lackluster manufacturing survey from the Institute for Supply Management hit sentiment. A drop in weekly jobless claims also helped calm the nerves ahead of Friday's monthly nonfarm payrolls report, which can set the market tone for a week or two after its release.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.5 percent at 14,772 while the broader S&P 500 index rose the same rate to 1,592.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.8 percent to close at 13,694.04 while South Korea's Kospi lost 0.4 percent at 1,956.39. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.3 percent to 22,668.30.

Oil prices recovered alongside Wall Street with the benchmark New York rate up 76 cents at $91.79 a barrel.

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A123 is forming technology incubator -- seriously

Beleaguered lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems said today it is forming a new division called A123 Venture Technologies which will be modeled as a technology incubator.

Officials said A123 Venture Technologies will assist partners needing infrastructure to grow and commercialize their technologies by providing access to the company's test and development laboratories in Waltham and Hopkinton, and Romulus, Mich.

The division will also bring funding capital needed to invest in new initiatives with its access to private equity and venture capital, officials added.

"We are excited about the launch of A123 Venture Technologies as a new business model designed to accelerate the market introduction of game-changing technologies," said A123 Systems' Chief Technology Officer Mujeeb Ijaz. "By leveraging our experience and capabilities, our strategic partners can shorten their time to market, while also mitigating risk and minimizing capital expenditures."

A123 Systems, which filed for bankruptcy last year, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wanxiang Group.

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Cloud firm VMTurbo closes funding round

Burlington-based VMTurbo, which makes technology for cloud and virtualized environments, said today it has closed a third round of funding led by Globespan Capital.

VMTurbo's funding now totals $25 million, with investments also coming from previous investors Bain Capital Ventures and Highland Capital Partners.

Officials said the funding will help the company ramp up its sales and marketing efforts, "and ongoing product innovation."

The company also said today it has appointed Chris Reisig as the vice president of worldwide sales. Reisig was previously the senior vice president of sales and business development at Veracode.

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Chrysler, Ford, GM, Nissan April US sales up

DETROIT — Ford, GM, Chrysler and Nissan all reported double-digit U.S. sales increases last month, signaling the best April for car and truck sales in six years.

A rebound in pickup truck sales led the way, especially for the Detroit automakers. Small businesses are replacing aging trucks that they've kept since the Great Recession.

Ford's sales increased 18 percent, with the F-Series pickup gaining 24 percent. At Chrysler, sales rose 11 percent, led by the Ram pickup, with a 49 percent sales increase. GM also saw an 11 percent sales jump, with Chevrolet Silverado pickup sales rising 28 percent for the month.

Nissan reported a 23 percent sales gain over April of 2012. The only laggards were Toyota, with a sales decline of 1 percent, and Volkswagen, with a drop of 10 percent.

Americans continue to buy new cars and trucks even though unemployment remains high and economic signals of late have been mixed. All automakers report monthly sales Wednesday, and industry analysts expect an overall increase of around 10 percent over April of last year. That would make it the best April since 2007.

Chrysler Group LLC said it sold 156,698 cars and trucks last month. Sales of the Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV increased 27 percent. Dodge brand sales rose 18 percent, with the Dart compact car posting its best month ever with sales of nearly 8,100. But the Chrysler brand struggled, with sales falling 13 percent.

Ford Motor Co. sold 212,584 cars and trucks. The F-series pickup remains the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. Sales totaled 59,000 in April. And sales of the redesigned Escape SUV rose 52 percent.

General Motors Co. reported sales of 237,646 cars and trucks. Even with gas prices on the decline, compact cars remain popular. Sales of the Chevy Cruze rose 21 percent.

Nissan sales were boosted by demand for the recently redesigned Altima midsize car and Sentra compact. The company also took a step toward boosting future numbers. It announced price cuts on seven models that make up 65 percent of its U.S. sales. The cuts, effective on Friday, run from $580 on the top-selling Altima to $4,400, on the Armada big SUV.

VW's sales drop was led by its top-seller, the Passat midsize car, which fell 10 percent.

Despite a slight drop, Toyota was optimistic about the rest of the year. Sales chief Bill Fay said the overall market increase is a good sign for all automakers, "especially with new products, low interest rates and plenty of pent-up demand."

Chrysler predicted that total U.S. sales will hit an annual rate of 15.4 million in April. That's a little higher than most analysts' predictions. April is likely to be the sixth straight month of sales above a 15 million yearly pace.

Barring an unexpected event that causes a real estate price collapse or rapidly rising job losses, there's little to stop sales from growing further in the next few years, industry analysts say.

"I don't see any significant hurdles on the horizon," said Alec Gutierrez, a senior market analyst at Kelley Blue Book. "I don't see us taking a step back, provided the unemployment rate at least holds steady."

He expects U.S. auto sales to end the year around 15.3 million cars and trucks, up 5.5 percent from last year's 14.5 million.

U.S. unemployment stands at a stubbornly high 7.6 percent, but that hasn't slowed auto sales much.

Aside from unemployment, almost every factor that affects car and truck sales is positive. Interest rates are low — the average four-year loan on a new car is 2.4 percent, according to Bankrate.com. Also, credit is widely available, even to those with low scores. Used-car values are high, so car buyers can get good trade-in value for their old cars. Lease deals are good. Gas prices have fallen since February.

In addition, home-building is on the rise, up 7 percent from February to March. That means better sales of big pickup trucks as companies and laborers return to the market. Kelley Blue Book expects big pickup sales to rise more than 26 percent in April over a year ago.

Many businesses and consumers need to replace older trucks and cars. The average age of a U.S. vehicle is 11.2 years. Plus, automakers have rolled out dozens of exciting new models in the past year, drawing buyers into showrooms.

"Relatively lower gas prices coupled with small business demand improving for trucks resulted in a strong showing for small and large pickups in April," said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst for the TrueCar.com auto pricing site.

One category that's soaring is small crossover SUVs. Sales rose an estimated 22.5 percent in April, according to Kelley Blue Book. Fuel-efficient models such as the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V and Mazda CX-5 are driving sales, Gutierrez said.

Kelley Blue Book estimates that auto prices fell slightly in April compared with a year ago, to an average of $31,326.

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Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis to receive honorary UMass degree

The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees said this week it has voted to award Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis an honorary doctor of humane letters degree at UMass Lowell's undergraduate commencement on May 18.

Davis will also deliver the keynote address at the commencement, which will be held at the Tsongas Center.

"The measure of a man's leadership in a time of crisis is his judgment and his performance, and Commissioner Davis displayed the greatest of both during the Boston Marathon bombings and during his leadership of police departments in Boston and Lowell," said UMass President Robert L. Caret in a statement. "I am delighted that we can properly honor him with an honorary degree for his decades of exemplary leadership that has benefited the entire Commonwealth and, now, the nation. Commissioner Davis has always put public safety and the public interest first."

Davis has led the Boston Police Department since 2006. He previously served as superintendent of police in Lowell for 12 years.

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Cheeseboy looks to hire 30 for Downtown Crossing shop

Local grilled cheese franchise Cheeseboy said today it is seeking to hire 30 team members for its new brick-and-mortar store in Downtown Crossing.

The 1,200-square-foot restaurant, located at 280 Washington St., is expected to open this spring. Applicants must be at least 16 years old, officials said, adding applications can be submitted at www.cheeseboy.com.

Currently, Cheeseboy operates eight other locations, including four in Massachusetts -- at South Station, the Prudential Center Mall, South Shore Plaza and the Natick Mall.

Last month, the franchise gave away over 31,000 free sandwiches through its Acts of Kindness Initiative for National Grilled Cheese Month, officials said.

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AVEO dips on weaker revenue report

AVEO Pharmaceuticals shares were down slightly this morning after the company reported its first quarter revenue fell nearly 67 percent to $300,000 compared to the same period a year ago.

Officials said last year's revenue number included money from the Cambridge-based company's collaboration agreement with Centocor, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, which did not recur in the first quarter of 2013.

The company's net loss for the first quarter was $34.1 million, or $0.69 per share, compared with a net loss of $33.2 million, or $0.77 per share, for the first quarter of 2012.

The company said that based on current operating plans, it expects to end the year with nearly $60 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, and anticipates the capital is sufficient to fund its operations into the second quarter of 2014.

AVEO said it expects to host a conference call Thursday following a review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the company's new drug application for tivozanib, which is designed to treat patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

The company added it netted proceeds of nearly $53.6 million from a completed public offering of stock.

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Google's virtual assistant invades Siri's turf

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is trying to upstage Siri, the sometimes droll assistant that answers questions and helps people manage their lives on Apple's iPhone and iPad.

The duel begins Monday with the release of a free iPhone and iPad app that features Google Now, a technology that performs many of the same functions as Siri.

It's the first time that Google Now has been available on smartphones and tablet computers that aren't running on the latest version of Google's Android software. The technology, which debuted nine months ago, is being included in an upgrade to Google's search application for iOS, the Apple Inc. software that powers the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It's up to each user to decide whether to activate Google Now within the redesigned search app.

Google Now's invasion of Siri's turf marks Google Inc.'s latest attempt to lure iPhone and iPad users away from a service that Apple built into its own devices.

Google quickly won over millions of iPhone users in December when it released a mapping application to replace the navigation system that Apple dumped when it redesigned iOS last fall. Apple's maps application proved to be inferior to Google's ousted service. The app's bugs and glitches made Apple the butt of jokes and fueled demand for Google to develop a new option.

Apple has been losing to Google on other fronts in a rapidly growing mobile computing market, an arena that was revolutionized with the iPhone's release in 2007. Smartphones and tablet computers running Google's free Android software have been steadily expanding their market share in recent years, partly because they tend to be less expensive than the iPhone and iPad. At the end of 2012, Android devices held about 69 percent of the smartphone market while iOS held about 19 percent, according to the research firm IDC.

Android's success has been particularly galling for Apple because its late CEO Steve Jobs believed Google stole many of its ideas for the software from the iPhone. That led to a series of court battles over alleged patent infringement, including a high-profile trial last year that culminated in Apple winning hundreds of millions in damages from Samsung Electronics, the top seller of Android phones. That dispute is still embroiled in appeals.

The rise of Android also is squeezing Apple's profit margins, and has contributed to a 40 percent drop in the company's stock price since it peaked at $705.07 last September around the time that the iPhone 5 came out.

Android's popularity is good news for Google because the company's services are built into most versions of the operating system. That brings more traffic to Google services, creating more opportunities for the company to sell ads — the main source of Google's revenue.

Siri is billed by Apple as an "intelligent feature." Since the technology's release in October 2011, Apple has made it a centerpiece of some marketing campaigns that depict Siri and its automated female voice as an endearing and occasionally even pithy companion.

When asked for an opinion about Google Now, Siri responded: "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather Google later."

Google believes its Siri counterpart is smarter because Google Now is designed to learn about a user's preferences and then provide helpful information before it's even asked to do so. The technology draws upon information that Google gleans from search requests other interactions with the company's other services. Knowing a person's location also helps Google Now serve up helpful information without being asked.

"This concept of predicting your needs and showing you them at the right time is unique to Google Now," said Baris Gultekin, Google Now's director of product management. "We want computers to do the hard work so our users can focus on what matters to them so they can get on with their lives."

If the technology is working right, Google Now is supposed to do things like automatically tell people what the local weather is like when they awaken to help decide what to wear and provide a report on traffic conditions for the commute to work. During the day, Google Now might provide an update on the score of a user's favorite sports team or a stock quote of a company in a user's investment portfolio. On a Friday evening, Google Now might offer suggestions for movies to see or other weekend events tailored to a user's interests. For international travelers, Google Now might provide currency conversion rates, language translations of common phrases and the time back home.

Most of this automatic information is provided in summaries that Google calls "cards." Like Siri, Google Now also is equipped with voice technology that allows it to respond to questions and interact with users, though it hasn't shown the wit that amuses some of Siri's users.

The Google Now app for iOS isn't as comprehensive as the Android app, which only works on devices running on the latest version of Android — known as "Jelly Bean." Some of the Android features missing from Google Now's iOS app include cards for showing airline boarding passes and movie tickets bought though online vendor Fandango. Both of those options are available on the iOS through Apple's built-in Passbook feature that's designed to be a digital wallet.

Google Now's expansion on to the iOS underscores Google's ambitions for the service. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., views it as a pivotal tool in its effort to peer deeper into its users' brains. In doing so, Google believes it will be able to provide more useful services and also show more relevant ads. For Google Now to become more intuitive, it needs to widen its availability.

"The more you use Google Now, we will have a better chance of understanding what your needs are and providing you with the right information," Gultekin said. "It's a virtuous cycle."

Gultekin declined to discuss whether there are plans to make Google Now apps for mobile devices running on Microsoft's Windows system. He also refused to comment on speculation circulating in technology blogs that a Web version of Google Now will be offered as a replacement for iGoogle, a tool that allows people to encircle the Google search engine with a variety of services suited to their tastes. IGoogle is scheduled to close in November.

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Obama to tap Charlotte mayor to run Transportation

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is nominating Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx, a rising star in Democratic politics, to run the Transportation Department, a White House official said.

Obama will announce the nomination from the East Room of the White House Monday afternoon, according to the official, who requested anonymity because this person was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter ahead of the president's announcement.

Foxx will be the first black nominee among Obama's picks for open spots in his second-term Cabinet. The president has faced questions, including from the Congressional Black Caucus, about a lack of diversity in his first round of nominations after winning re-election.

If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx would take over a department that has been at the center of Washington's debate over the impact of the so-called sequester cuts. The automatic cuts resulted in furloughs for air traffic controllers that spurred delays at many airports.

Congress reached a deal last week to provide the Transportation Department flexibility that allowed it to end the air traffic controller furloughs.

The White House official said that as mayor, Foxx has experience in boosting transit infrastructure and using those projects to create jobs. He oversaw a program to create an electric tram service to Charlotte, an expansion of a light rail system and the opening of a third runway at the city's airport.

Foxx was first elected Charlotte mayor in 2009. He raised his national profile last year when Charlotte played host to the Democratic Party's convention.

Foxx would replace outgoing Secretary Ray LaHood, one of the few Republicans serving in the Democratic administration.

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CEO of Sovereign parent Santander steps down

Alfredo Saenz, the embattled chief executive of the Eurozone's largest bank, Santander, stepped down today after a prolonged legal battle over whether he should be barred from banking because of a criminal conviction.

The company said in a statement that Saenz, 70, stepped down voluntarily and thanked him for his work at the bank. The bank's board named Javier Marin, 46, as Santander's new CEO.

Saenz was convicted in 2009 for making false accusations against debtors in 1994 when he was head of Banesto bank, which is now part of Santander. Saenz was sentenced to a brief period in jail, but the sentence was suspended, according to Reuters, which added the bank did not say how much Saenz would be compensated upon leaving the bank.

Marin, who joined the bank in 1991, previously served as executive vice president of global private banking and asset management and insurance at Banco Santander SA.

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Genetic research toolmaker RainDance Technologies raises $20M

RainDance Technologies Inc., a Lexington-based life sciences company focused on genetic research tools, said today it has closed $20 million in a fifth round of funding.

RainDance said it will use the funding to drive global expansion of its products, including the ThunderStorm system for targeted next-generation sequencing, and the recently launched RainDrop digital PCR system for ultra-sensitive multiplexed quantitative detection of circulating nucleic acids.

The funding will also allow the company to expand its commercial operations and manufacturing capacity, including relocating its headquarters to a new facility by the middle of this year, officials said.

The company also announced that Myriad Genetics Inc. has joined as a strategic equity partner. The two companies recently announced a multi-year commercial supply agreement whereby Myriad will adopt RainDance's ThunderStorm system for targeted sequencing enrichment of Myriad's Hereditary Cancer Panel.

As part of the agreement, RainDance will supply Myriad with ThunderStorm systems, gene panels, consumables and reagents, officials said.

All existing venture investors participated in the funding round, including Mohr Davidow Ventures, Quaker BioVentures, Alloy Ventures, Acadia Woods Partners and Sectoral Asset Management.

RainDance focuses on genetic research in cancer and inherited diseases, and its customers include more than 70 translational, genetic and commercial laboratories worldwide, officials said.

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