3 reasons Apple's watch will _ or won't _ change the game

SAN FRANCISCO — No one can argue that Apple has changed the way people live their lives. The company's iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad have shaken up music, phone and computer markets worldwide. Is the Apple Watch going to be able to do the same?

The stakes are big for Apple CEO Tim Cook: the watch is the first brand-new Apple product to be launched without legendary co-founder Steve Jobs. But the market is awash in smartwatches that have gained little traction. Here are three reasons the Apple Watch will finally move the needle in the smartwatch industry — and three reasons it might not.

WHY IT WILL CHANGE THE GAME

MORE FEATURES THAN RIVALS: Along with email, texts and phone calls, Apple says its watch will present news, health readings and other notifications in creative ways that can be read at a glance. It will have a heart rate monitor and accelerometer, and an internal motor that can signal the wearer with a subtle "tap" on the wrist. And Siri and Apple Pay will be built in. Apple is working with outside companies to create more apps; Cook has talked about using the watch as an electronic "key" for hotel doors or even cars.

A POWERFUL BRAND: The world's biggest tech company has a reputation for quality and a direct conduit to customers — it operates more than 400 retail stores around the world. And it has deep pockets to spend on advertising — it is showcasing the watch this month with a sleek, 12-page insert in Vogue and other fashion magazines.

APPLE'S TRACK RECORD: This wouldn't be the first Apple product that revolutionized a market where rivals had struggled to break through. Other companies made digital music players before the iPod, smartphones before the iPhone and even tablets before the iPad. Most of those products failed to catch on until Apple made devices so appealing they set new standards and created new demand, said Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder.

OR NOT

WHAT'S THE NEED?: Most smartwatches — including Apple's — only work with a smartphone nearby, so you can't swap one expensive gadget for the other. "What we've seen is that it's not obvious why people would want a smartwatch," says Gownder. A recent Forrester survey found some respondents didn't see a reason to buy one because they already owned a less-expensive fitness band or a full-featured smartphone (although it also found Apple fans ready to buy the new watch).

CONSUMERS NOT EXCITED: You can already buy smartwatches made by giant tech companies like Samsung, Sony or LG, or from a tech startup like Pebble, that track your heart rate, show you email and deliver other online services to your wrist. None of them have really caught on. Only about 5 million smartwatches were sold worldwide last year, according to market researchers at Strategy Analytics. By comparison, Apple sold 74.6 million iPhones in just the last quarter.

PRICE AND OBSOLESCENCE: Many of today's smartwatches sell for $200 or less. Apple plans to sell three models, starting at $349, but Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster predicts the average buyer will pay $550 for a watch and extra, interchangeable bands. Apple's high-fashion "Edition" model, made with 18-karat gold, is expected to cost thousands. While affluent consumers might pay that for a watch they can wear for years, or even hand down to their children, it's a lot of money for something that could become outdated if Apple releases a new model every year or so — as it does with smartphones.

Cook will make his case for the Apple Watch at a press event Monday, where he's expected to show off more features and apps. Expectations are high.

But even the iPhone didn't become a mainstream blockbuster in its first year, notes Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin. Of the Apple Watch, he says, "people need to understand more about what this product is, and what it does, and I think that will evolve over time."

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Rock Band 4 a PAX no-show

One of the most anticipated video games on the first day of PAX East's sold-out, three-day gig at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center was one that wasn't there.

Cambridge-based Harmonix announced that it would be releasing Rock Band 4 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 some time this year on the eve of one of the largest gaming events in North America. One of the largest crowds yesterday was around the Harmonix booth, queueing up to buy Rock Band 4 T-shirts, pins, posters and guitars, and clamoring for details they never received.

"The game exists, and any older songs (from previous versions of the game) will work with it," was all Aaron Trites, the company's manager of community development, would say about it.

None of this mattered to Jonathan Willis, 24, of Raleigh, N.C.

"They could bring back Rock Band 3 with a new set list, and I would still buy it," he said.

Willis has been playing piano since he was 8 and drums since he was 13 or 14, but unlike many of his contemporaries, he didn't care for Guitar Hero, the Rock Band series' highly successful predecessor.

"It felt too much like a video game and was too repetitive," he said.

When Rock Band followed in 2007, though, Willis was hooked. Colored notes would scroll down the console's screen, and he'd play them by pressing the corresponding colored keys on a scaled-down version of an electric guitar, while his friend did the same on the game's set of drums. It was the closest they had ever come to being rock stars, Willis said, and it was addictive.

Since then, the Rock Band games have sold more than 15 million copies, Trites said, and Harmonix has branched out into other music-themed games.

Two the company did have on hand yesterday for people to try were Amplitude, a game it raised $900,000 to develop on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, and Harmonix Music VR, which is less a game than a kaleidoscopic, virtual reality acid trip set to the song of your choice.

"Harmonix for a while was one of the most important things about the game industry in Massachusetts," said Monty Sharma, managing director of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute, or MassDiGI. "Now, with Rock Band 4 and Amplitude, they have a good shot at being the largest studio in New England."

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Charger’s performance matches racy look

With menacing looks and an intimidating front grille, the 2015 Dodge Charger SXT Rallye AWD is an exhilarating vehicle to drive.

Scalloped body sides and a chiseled front end with LED fog lights and high-intensity discharge wrap-around headlamps, coupled with seamless racetrack taillights, make it exhilarating to look at, too.

Its style and features make competitors like the Chevy Impala and Ford Taurus seem, well, not as exciting.

All new for 2015, the Dodge Charger is quiet and relatively fuel efficient (18 mpg city/27 highway) as equipped with a robust 300-horsepower, 3.6-liter V6 24-valve engine. The Charger packs plenty of punch even if it doesn't have the optional 6.2-liter 707-horsepower Hellcat supercharged V8 engine — though it's easy to imagine what the Hellcat engine could do in this car.

The Charger's all-wheel-drive system handles both dry and wet roads like a champion and it even excels in snow. The 19-inch polished aluminum wheels and all-season tires keep this car in touch with the road. Other safety features like blind spot and cross path detection, lane departure warning, and advanced braking assistance help ensure safe arrival at your destination.

Dodge redesigned the interior of its Charger for 2015. The cockpit has a clean look with a 7-inch customizable gauge cluster. A new electronic shifter compliments the heated leather-wrapped steering wheel, which has stereo, phone and cruise controls.

The 8.4-inch touchscreen GPS and stereo controller connects with the 552-watt stereo to pump great sound through its 10 Beats speakers located throughout the cabin. The stereo receives satellite, Bluetooth audio, AM/FM and HD radio signals. The Garmin-based GPS maps are simple and easy to read. The voice guidance system is also top-notch. As any $40,580 car should, the Dodge Charger SXT has keyless entry.

Dodge's UConnect system makes it easy to establish a connection with your phone, and the speakerphone performed clearly. SiriusXM's travel link shows current gas prices, weather alerts, sports, and movie information.

Seating is incredibly comfortable in the Charger. The driver and passenger seats are eight-way adjustable with power controls. The Nappa leather sport seats are heated and ventilated, and have metallic leather accents with tungsten-accent stitching.

The cabin is roomy and has plenty of space in both the front and back seats. A power sunroof enhances the roominess. The trunk provides ample storage and has a pass through to the main cabin for oversized items.

The bottom line is that this Dodge will put a charge into any mundane driving task, yielding a thrilling driving experience.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

US job market faces hurdles even with 5.5 pct. unemployment

WASHINGTON — Unemployment in the U.S. has dropped to a seven-year low of 5.5 percent — a level normally considered the mark of a healthy job market. Yet that number isn't as encouraging as it might sound.

While U.S. employers added a solid 295,000 jobs in February, and the jobless rate fell from 5.7 percent, it went down mostly because many people gave up looking for work and were no longer officially counted as unemployed, the government reported Friday. What's more, wage gains remained sluggish.

Those trends suggest that the job market, while improving rapidly, isn't quite as healthy as it looks.

That complicates the Federal Reserve's task of figuring out when the economy has strengthened enough to withstand higher interest rates. The Fed is considering a rate increase as early as June.

With Friday's report, employers have now produced 12 straight monthly job gains above 200,000. It's the longest such stretch since 1994-95.

The U.S. is easily outshining most other major economies. For example, the unemployment rate in the 19 countries that share the euro is 11.2 percent, or twice the U.S. rate.

The robust U.S. job gains appear to have convinced many investors that the Fed will soon raise the short-term interest rate it controls. Investors on Friday sold ultra-safe U.S. Treasurys, a sign that many anticipate a rate increase. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.24 percent from 2.11 percent.

And they dumped stocks. The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 276 points in afternoon trading.

A 5.5 percent unemployment rate is typically consistent with what economists call "full employment" — when the proportion of unemployed people has fallen so low that employers must raise pay to find enough qualified workers.

Companies then raise prices to pay for the higher wages. And the Fed usually follows suit by raising its benchmark short-term rate to cool growth and ward off inflation.

But the scars of the Great Recession have made the process hazier and more complicated.

"5.5 percent doesn't mean what it once did," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. Full employment "is always a moving target, and it has moved down."

Since the recession ended in June 2009, the percentage of adults working or looking for work has fallen to a 37-year low of 62.8 percent. It has hovered around the mark for most of the past year.

Economists calculate that about half that decline reflects the aging of the population as the baby boom generation retires.

But another factor is that many Americans have become discouraged about their job prospects and have given up looking. Those out of work aren't counted as unemployed unless they are actively looking for jobs.

That has helped artificially lowered the rate since its peak of 10 percent in October 2009.

Many economists also argue the economy can't be near full employment if wages aren't growing. And average hourly earnings rose just 3 cents to $24.78 in February from the previous month.

Megan Greene, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services, noted that hourly pay fell in February from January in the construction and mining industries. Such figures will outweigh the falling unemployment rate in Fed chair Janet Yellen's mind, she said, and perhaps discourage a rate increase soon.

Yet many other economists expect the Fed will put a rate increase into effect in June or September.

The short-term interest rate is usually at 3 percent or 4 percent when the economy is at full employment. It is now at a record low of zero, and inflation is practically nonexistent.

Tim Hopper, chief economist at TIAA-CREF, said that if unemployment keeps falling and inflation starts to pick up later this year, "the Fed will be behind the curve if they haven't already started raising rates."

Nearly 3.3 million more Americans are earning paychecks than 12 months ago. That has boosted U.S. consumer spending and the broader global economy. Many leading exporters, particularly China, Germany and Japan, depend on Americans' spending for a chunk of their growth.

February's hiring gains were broad-based. Some of the industries with the biggest gains include mostly low-paid work: Hotels and restaurants added 60,000 jobs, retailers 32,000.

But higher-paying fields also added jobs: Professional and business services, which include accountants, engineers and lawyers, gained 51,000, construction 29,000 and financial services 10,000.

Growth slowed in the final three months of last year to an annual rate of 2.2 percent after roaring ahead at nearly 5 percent last spring and summer. But consumer spending rose, a sign demand remains strong.

Dave Long, chief executive of Orangetheory Fitness, said the improving economy has given a boost to his fast-growing exercise studio business. He opened the first location five years ago in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The company now has nearly 200 sites in the U.S.

"As people have a little extra money ... it opens up their minds to spending a little more on a product like ours," he said.

22.26 | 0 komentar | Read More

Epic snows have meant economic woes across all industries

BOSTON — Ignore anyone who tells you snow is free.

Every work day lost during New England's historic winter has meant millions of dollars taken out of the regional economy.

IHS Global Insight, an economic analysis firm, estimates Massachusetts alone suffered roughly $1 billion in lost wages and profits, as storm after storm pummeled the region, delivering over eight feet of snow in roughly a month.

Retailers and restaurants were among the hardest hit, as customers held off on big purchases or chose to stay at home rather than enjoy a night on the town.

A survey released this week by Massachusetts business groups representing those and other industries reported sales dropped an average of 24 percent and payroll dropped about 7 percent among their small businesses members.

Car dealers and real estate agents complained the poorly-timed storms -- many of which hit on or around weekends -- were disastrous to business. And with the exception of the region's famed ski resorts, many New England hotels, transportation companies and other businesses in the travel and tourism trade say they've struggled too.

"January and February are always tough months for us because people just don't want to travel," said Christopher Crean, a vice president at Peter Pan, a Springfield-based long distance bus company. "But when you add in all the snow and cold and highway closures, that just compounds the injury. It's hard to make a profit."

Manufacturers, meanwhile, report they're just starting to catch up on nearly a month of lost productivity.

During the worst of the storms, assembly lines shut down, work orders were delayed or cancelled outright and treacherous roads and iced-over rail lines hindered transport of finished products.

"Not only were we losing sales on the front end of the storms, now we're paying a lot more on the back end to get product out," says Michael Tamasi, CEO of AccuRounds, a Massachusetts maker of shafts, valves and other parts for medical, defense, aerospace and IT companies. "We've been adding hours, stretching out the work day, working on Saturdays, whatever we need to do."

Business leaders say the storms, if anything, laid bare the shortcomings of two critical pieces of the regional economy: greater Boston's road and transit systems.

"We still have congested streets and longer commutes and that's meaning lost productivity," says Timothy Murray, president of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. "The system has really been no match for Mother Nature."

Economists expect the ripple effects of New England's storms will be felt nationally, but it's too early to say to what extent.

Doug Handler, chief North American economist at the Massachusetts-based IHS Global Insight, says the storms likely won't have the economic punch of last year's winter, when a "polar vortex" exposed large swaths of the country to subzero temperatures and snow. That weather phenomenon caused widespread economic disruptions. Estimates for its overall economic impact have been pegged at anywhere from $15 billion to $50 billion.

"This is much more localized and in a region that can handle it, to a degree," Handler said, acknowledging that parts of the South and Mid-Atlantic are also seeing snows this week, albeit nothing on the scale of what New England has seen this winter. "We're prepared for it in New England, whereas last year, some regions just weren't."

Indeed, U.S. employers added 295,000 jobs in February, exceeding expectations, the Labor Department reported Friday. Within that data, Handler noted the number of workers in nonagricultural jobs that were unable to work because of inclement weather was roughly on par with February's historical average.

Elsewhere, Autodata Corp reported U.S. car sales in February were up about 5.3 percent from January but still fell short of expected gains. Analysts predict lost sales should be made up as the weather warms; U.S. new car sales are still on track to hit their highest level in more than a decade.

Economists also expect many New England industries will recover most lost productivity.

The region's population centers are now largely built around hospitals, universities, and the financial, health care and information technology sectors — industries that are somewhat resilient to weather-related shutdowns. Many workers can work from home or simply spend more time in the office catching up. But even among those high skill industries, there are limits to what can be done to soften the blow of bad weather.

Many drugmakers, research labs and other large health care and biotech institutions maintained 24/7 operations through the storms, taking on overtime costs or covering hotel stays and other travel expenses that likely won't be recouped, industry officials said.

"There's certain research that you just can't stop," said Peter Abair, of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, which represents more than 650 biotechnology companies and academic institutions. "To stop a project midstream is very difficult. All your expenses go out the door. You have to start from scratch."

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Hudson hardware store sold after 128 years in family

HUDSON  — A Hudson lumber and hardware store that's been owned by the same family for 128 years has been sold.

Lamson Lumber announced that it has been sold to Koopman Lumber, another family-owned business based in Northbridge with seven locations. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Co-owner Lona Lamson tells The MetroWest Daily News that the business was started by her great-grandfather in 1887. It originally sold ice.

Lamson says the business is thriving, with sales up 20 percent last year, but she and her sister are getting older and none of their children want to take over.

Koopman co-owner Tony Brookhouse says Lamson will stay in the same location with the same employees, but he plans on adding more services.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

US adds a robust 295K jobs; jobless rate falls to 5.5 pct.

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers extended a healthy streak of hiring in February by adding 295,000 jobs, the 12th straight monthly gain above 200,000. It was the latest sign that the U.S. economy is further strengthening and outpacing other major economies around the world.

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent from 5.7 percent, the government said Friday. But the rate declined mainly because some people out of work stopped looking for jobs and were no longer counted as unemployed.

February's robust job gain wasn't enough to boost wages by much. The average hourly wage rose just 3 cents to $24.78 an hour. Average hourly pay has now risen just 2 percent over the past 12 months, barely ahead of inflation.

Still, over that time, 3.3 million more Americans have gotten jobs. More jobs and lower gas prices have led many consumers to step up spending. That's boosting the economy, offsetting sluggish economies overseas and giving employers the confidence to hire.

The jobs figures provide "more evidence that the labor market is recovering rapidly, with employment growth more than strong enough to keep the unemployment rate trending down," said Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. Falling unemployment "makes more acceleration in wages increasingly likely."

At 5.5 percent, the unemployment rate has now reached the top of the range the Federal Reserve has said is consistent with a healthy economy. That could make it more likely that the Fed will act soon to raise interest rates from record lows as early as June.

"This is quite a symbolic change that increases the pressure on the Fed to hike rates in June," said Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics said.

Indeed, after the jobs report was released Friday morning, investors sold ultra-safe U.S. Treasurys, a sign that many anticipate a Fed rate hike. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.18 percent from 2.11 percent before the report was issued.

The U.S. job market and economy are easily outshining those of other major nations. Though Europe and Japan are showing signs of growing more than last year, their economies remain feeble. The euro currency union's unemployment rate has started to fall, but at 11.2 percent it remains nearly twice the U.S. level.

The U.S. economy expanded at a breakneck annual pace of 4.8 percent in last year's spring and summer, only to slow to a tepid 2.2 percent rate in the final three months of 2014. Many economists estimate that growth is picking up slightly in the current quarter to an annual rate of 2.5 percent to nearly 3 percent.

Still, economists remain bullish about hiring despite the slowdown in growth. The fourth quarter's slowdown occurred largely because companies reduced their stockpiles of goods, which translated into lower factory output.

But companies focus more on consumer demand in making hiring decisions, and demand was strong in the October-December quarter. Americans stepped up their spending by the most in four years.

And though consumers are saving much of the cash they have from cheaper gas, spending in January still rose at a decent pace after adjusting for lower prices.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, expects the economy to grow 3 percent this year, which would be first time it's reached that level in a decade. That's fast enough to support hiring of about 250,000 a month, he said.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Staples tops 4Q profit projections; strong dollar hits sales

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Staples slid to a loss in the fourth quarter as the company booked restructuring charges ahead of a huge merger and the strong dollar pressured sales, but it topped Wall Street's expectations for net income and shares rose in premarket trading Friday.

Staples, the nation's largest big box office supply chain, announced last month that it would spend about $6 billion to buy rival Office Depot Inc. It closed 169 stores in North America last year and plans to close a total of 225 locations by the end of 2015 as it ties up with Office Depot.

For the period ended Jan. 31, Staples lost $260.4 million, or 41 cents per share. A year earlier it earned $212.4 million, or 33 cents per share.

Staples said Friday that the current quarter included $410 million in impairment charges related to its Australia, China and South America businesses. The period also included $74 million in restructuring and other charges.

Excluding the charges and other items, per-share earnings were 31 cents.

That's a penny better than industry analysts had projected for the quarter, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

The Framingham, Massachusetts, company posted revenue of $5.66 billion, which fell short of Wall Street forecasts. Analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.75 billion.

The strong dollar negatively impacted sales by about 2 percent during the quarter, the company said Friday.

Quarterly sales grew one percent excluding the impact of store closings over the past year and the strong dollar.

For the year, Staples Inc. had a profit of $134.5 million, or 21 cents per share. Its adjusted earnings from continuing operations were 96 cents per share. Revenue was reported as $22.49 billion.

The company expects adjusted earnings in a range of 16 to 18 cents per share during the first quarter of this year. Analysts polled by FactSet predict earnings of 17 cents per share. The company said it also anticipates sales to decline when compared with the prior-year period.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on SPLS at http://www.zacks.com/ap/SPLS

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Keywords: Staples, Earnings Report

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3 reasons Apple's watch will _ or won't _ change the game

SAN FRANCISCO — No one can argue that Apple has changed the way people live their lives. The company's iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad have shaken up music, phone and computer markets worldwide. Is the Apple Watch going to be able to do the same?

The stakes are big for Apple CEO Tim Cook: the watch is the first brand-new Apple product to be launched without legendary co-founder Steve Jobs. But the market is awash in smartwatches that have gained little traction. Here are three reasons the Apple Watch will finally move the needle in the smartwatch industry — and three reasons it might not.

WHY IT WILL CHANGE THE GAME

MORE FEATURES THAN RIVALS: Along with email, texts and phone calls, Apple says its watch will present news, health readings and other notifications in creative ways that can be read at a glance. It will have a heart rate monitor and accelerometer, and an internal motor that can signal the wearer with a subtle "tap" on the wrist. And Siri and Apple Pay will be built in. Apple is working with outside companies to create more apps; Cook has talked about using the watch as an electronic "key" for hotel doors or even cars.

A POWERFUL BRAND: The world's biggest tech company has a reputation for quality and a direct conduit to customers — it operates more than 400 retail stores around the world. And it has deep pockets to spend on advertising — it is showcasing the watch this month with a sleek, 12-page insert in Vogue and other fashion magazines.

APPLE'S TRACK RECORD: This wouldn't be the first Apple product that revolutionized a market where rivals had struggled to break through. Other companies made digital music players before the iPod, smartphones before the iPhone and even tablets before the iPad. Most of those products failed to catch on until Apple made devices so appealing they set new standards and created new demand, said Forrester Research analyst J.P. Gownder.

OR NOT

WHAT'S THE NEED?: Most smartwatches — including Apple's — only work with a smartphone nearby, so you can't swap one expensive gadget for the other. "What we've seen is that it's not obvious why people would want a smartwatch," says Gownder. A recent Forrester survey found some respondents didn't see a reason to buy one because they already owned a less-expensive fitness band or a full-featured smartphone (although it also found Apple fans ready to buy the new watch).

CONSUMERS NOT EXCITED: You can already buy smartwatches made by giant tech companies like Samsung, Sony or LG, or from a tech startup like Pebble, that track your heart rate, show you email and deliver other online services to your wrist. None of them have really caught on. Only about 5 million smartwatches were sold worldwide last year, according to market researchers at Strategy Analytics. By comparison, Apple sold 74.6 million iPhones in just the last quarter.

PRICE AND OBSOLESCENCE: Many of today's smartwatches sell for $200 or less. Apple plans to sell three models, starting at $349, but Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster predicts the average buyer will pay $550 for a watch and extra, interchangeable bands. Apple's high-fashion "Edition" model, made with 18-karat gold, is expected to cost thousands. While affluent consumers might pay that for a watch they can wear for years, or even hand down to their children, it's a lot of money for something that could become outdated if Apple releases a new model every year or so — as it does with smartphones.

Cook will make his case for the Apple Watch at a press event Monday, where he's expected to show off more features and apps. Expectations are high.

But even the iPhone didn't become a mainstream blockbuster in its first year, notes Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin. Of the Apple Watch, he says, "people need to understand more about what this product is, and what it does, and I think that will evolve over time."

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple will replace AT&T in the Dow Jones industrial average

NEW YORK — Apple will replace AT&T in the Dow Jones industrial average, the managers of the index announced early Friday.

S&P Dow Jones Indices said the switch will take place after the close of trading on Wednesday, March 18. Apple will start trading as part of the 30-stock Dow at the opening of trading the next day.

S&P Dow Jones Indices said it's making the move in response to a planned stock split for Visa, another member of the 119-year old barometer of the stock market.

After its four-to-one stock split, Visa will wind up with a lower price. S&P said that would reduce the weight of the information technology sector in the Dow. Adding Apple will help balance out this reduction. Unlike other stock-market measures, the Dow weighs members by their prices, so a large change in the price of one stock can have a big effect on the overall index.

S&P said swapping Apple for AT&T won't alter the Dow's level.

The last big shake-up came in September, 2013 when Goldman Sachs, Nike and Visa knocked out Alcoa, Bank of America and Hewlett-Packard.

Apple's stock rose $2.55, or 2 percent, to $128.99 in early trading on Friday. AT&T sank 46 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $33.54.

22.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Credit card agreements may stall Boston taxi app

Boston's options for a unified taxi dispatch and payment smartphone app could be limited because of exclusive contracts cab companies have signed with two credit card processing companies, according to industry insiders.

Boston cab companies have signed contracts with one of two com­panies — Verifone or CMT — which require drivers to only use that service to process credit card transactions.

"It complicates things if you have a contract in your vehicle to be used for credit card processing and the vehicle isn't using it," said Chris English, chairman of the city's Taxi Advisory Committee.

The Herald reported yesterday that dispatch companies are banding to come up with a single smartphone app all taxis could use to better compete with rivals such as Uber and Lyft and make it easier for people to hail cabs. Any app that the city or the taxi industry puts in place that allows people to pay for a ride would need to take into account those contracts with Verifone and CMT.

"If you stop using their credit card machine ... then they don't get a percentage and they start to lose," said Capt. Jim Gaughan of the Boston Police Hackney Unit. "If they start losing their percentage, there's going to be a problem."

CMT and Verifone also provide the equipment Boston police use to track and monitor taxi trips and fares.

Both companies have created apps and mobile payment systems — Verifone has an app that's being used in New York City and will launch soon in Philadelphia. Neither CMT nor Verifone responded to multiple requests for comment.

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Apps drive gaming growth

Tens of thousands of video game developers and fans decked out as their favorite characters will descend on the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center tomorrow for the start of a sold-out, three-day convention to celebrate an industry that has seen its audience expand and diversify with the growth of mobile games.

"Games are one of the fastest-moving industries around; wait five minutes and something new and interesting is gaining ground," said Timothy Loew, executive director of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute, or MassDiGI. "Today, we're seeing more and more spectacular looking mobile games, esports (competitive gaming) are rising and virtual reality is as hot it gets."

To Jon Radoff, founder and CEO of Framingham-based Disruptor Beam, which will be showcasing "Game of Thrones Ascent" and the company's newest game, "Star Trek Timelines," the real innovation in games is happening around ones designed for mobile phones and tablets.

"If you go back a decade, there were tens of millions of gamers; now there's a billion," he said, because rather than having to play at home on a console or a desktop, people today can play virtually anywhere.

Mobile devices also have made it easier to get access to new games such as "Star Trek Timelines," said Elicia Basoli, a spokeswoman for Disruptor Beam.

"Anyone can submit an app to Apple to get it into their App Store or to Google to get it into their Play Store," Basoli said. "So the barriers to making a mobile game available to the public are lower."

And because all of the new players who now have access to those games have different tastes and interests, another trend has developed: a growing diversity in both the people who play games and the people who develop them.

"If you have a staff that includes women, I think it leads to more creativity and comes through in your product," said Basoli, one of 10 women on Disruptor Beam's team of 40.

Other women, such as Kristen Mukai, a producer at Cambridge-based Proletariat, said that outside the companies they work for, sexism still exists in the industry.

"One of the things that happens all the time is if I'm representing Proletariat at an event and talking about more technical details, someone will say, 'Wait, do you actually work for this company?'" Mukai said. "There have been a couple of times when people have interrupted me and told me flat out that I don't know what I'm talking about."

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Jerry Remy’s locations thrive...outside Fenway ’hood

The namesake Boston restaurant of Red Sox Nation president and NESN color analyst Jerry Remy abruptly closed Tuesday — a month before baseball season opens — but other­ locations appear to be thriving.

Jerry Remy's Sports Bar & Grill debuted in the shadow of Fenway Park in March 2010 after a $5 million build-out and later added a large roof deck.

The Fenway location is co-owned by Remy and John O'Rourke. Remy declined comment yesterday, and O'Rourke did not return calls.

The other Remy's restaurants in Boston's Seaport District, at Logan International Airport and in Fall River, have different owners­ and operate under licensing agreements. They remained open yesterday, and all three owners said they're doing well.

"I was just told they closed the (Boston) restaurant and would revamp it for two weeks to modernize," said Anthony Cordeiro, co-owner of Remy's in Fall River.

NESV Real Estate LLC, a sister company of the Red Sox, owns the Boylston Street property where the Fenway Remy's is located and is its landlord.

"Our understanding is that the current operators have ceased operations," Red Sox spokesman Kevin Gregg said, "and we cannot speculate on their plans or future uses of the site."

But the restaurant's website, Facebook and Twitter accounts gave no indication that the restaurant had closed, and the website was still allowing customers to make reservations.

Neither Remy nor O'Rourke were restaurateurs. Their managing partner, John Mascia, had the restaurant experience but left in August.

The eatery, Mascia said, was challenged by a decline in business in the Red Sox off-season. Even veteran chef/restaurateur Michael Schlow failed to make a go of it in the Fenway, where his Barrio Cantina closed in 2014 after replacing his Happy's Bar + Kitchen, which opened in 2012.

August was also when Cordeiro and co-owner Larry Couto took over day-to-day operations of the Fall River Remy's, in which the former Sox second-baseman and O'Rourke still are partners, Cordeiro said.

"Let's just say it was time for us to control our own future," he said. "It's in our building, and we have our vision, and we plan on keeping Jerry Remy's in Fall River."

Jon Cronin, of the Cronin Group LLC, was an original investor in the Fenway Remy's and has 100 percent ownership of the Remy's in the Seaport District, which he says is thriving.

"Business is up 10 percent year-over-year," Cronin said. "Even with this bad winter, we've had great business."

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Charlie Baker prescribes cuts to MassHealth

Gov. Charlie Baker's $38 billion budget plan would slash the budget-busting Medicaid program and cut spending throughout state government, setting up months of wrangling with Democratic lawmakers over who will feel the most pain — and who won't.

"This is the first chess move with the Legislature," said Josh Archambault of the Pioneer Institute, who has studied the growing impact of MassHealth spending on state coffers. "We're going to be talking about this for at least the next two years. Given how MassHealth has been eating up education or cops or transportation spending, there needs to be discussion to get this program on a sustainable path."

The Swampscott Republican needs to plug a pro­jected $1.8 billion budget gap created by growing costs, lagging revenues and what Baker called the "spending problem" he inherited.

To help close it, the governor wants to ax $761 million from MassHealth, the mammoth state Medicaid program, including reviewing the eligibility of more than 1.2 million subscribers, which his budget team estimates will save $210 million. His plan doesn't call for changes to what makes people eligible, but Baker called the program "one of the most generous" in the country, making it ripe for a so-called "re-determination process."

"If we're trying to close the structural deficit over time, it's something we're going to have to focus on," said Eileen McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, "and I would say not just MassHealth but health care in general."

Baker aides said they also killed all earmarks dear to lawmakers. But most of the plan stuck to broad strokes, and several top lawmakers said they're still reviewing the details.

Both the governor and the House have made addressing MassHealth costs a priority, and like Baker, Speaker Robert A. DeLeo has pledged no new taxes.

The governor said he's already getting some guff from the Legislature, including over his proposal to ditch the state's film tax credit to help bankroll a boost to the state's earned-income tax credit. Law­makers have also slammed his plan to give the embattled MBTA an extra $64 million in state aid before identifying the problems behind the agency's widespread collapse this winter.

"We're going to have a big debate with the Legislature about our priorities," Baker said. "I believe the proposal we made is a reasonable one, given the financial circumstances that we inherited. ... Most people will see some belt-tightening but not wholesale changes in existing services."

But some advocates were already howling, in­cluding trial court officials, who said Baker's proposal could force them to cut 550 staffers and make it hard for courts to stay open. Court officials were seeking $642 million, but Baker gave them $603 million.

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The Ticker

Starboard pushes Staples board changes

Activist investor Starboard is recommending that Staples improve the makeup of its board to help ensure its approximately $6 billion acquisition of Office Depot pays off.

Starboard Value LP, which holds a 4.5 percent owner­ship stake in the Framingham-based office supplies re­tailer, sent a letter to the Staples Inc. board yesterday, saying it believed "it would be beneficial to improve the composition of the board to ensure successful deal completion and efficient integration of the two companies."

Staples announced last month it is spending about $6 billion to buy its rival, Office Depot Inc. In January, Starboard publicly urged Staples to make a move on Office Depot. Staples did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

House boosts Boston Amtrak route

The House of Representatives moved yesterday to boost Amtrak's popular service between Boston and Washington, while giving states a greater say in the local routes they help subsidize.

The bill, approved by a vote of 316 to 101, authorizes $7.2 billion in federal subsidies for passenger rail, including $1.7 billion a year over four years in subsidies for Amtrak.

The bill separates Amtrak's Northeast Corridor service between Boston and Washington from its long-distance routes. That would allow Amtrak to use profits from the money-making corridor for improvements that could speed up trains and enhance service on the route.

The bill would also give officials in 19 states "a seat at the table" with Amtrak when deciding changes and budgets for service in their states.

Online retailer Etsy files IPO

Online retailer Etsy is filing for an initial public offering of stock valued at up to $100 million.

The Brooklyn-based company was founded in June 2005 as a marketplace for handmade goods and craft supplies. It says it had $195.6 million in revenue in 2014, up 56 percent from 2013, and almost 20 million people made at least one purchase through Etsy last year. It reported losses of $15.2 million in 2014 and $800,000 in 2013.

The company says it will use proceeds from the IPO for working capital and general corporate purposes. Etsy Inc. will list its shares on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "ETSY."

TODAY

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Labor Department releases fourth-quarter productivity data.

TOMORROW

• Labor Department releases employment data for February.
• Warp Drive Bio, a Cambridge life sciences company using proprietary genomic technology to transform the discovery and development of therapeutics derived from natural products, announced the appointment of Laurence Reid, Ph.D., left, as chief executive officer. Reid succeeds CEO and co-founder Gregory Verdine, Ph.D., who will continue to serve the company as president and chief scientific officer. Reid most recently served as the chief business officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc.

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Survey: US businesses add 212K jobs in February

WASHINGTON — U.S. businesses added more than 200,000 jobs in February for the 13th straight month, a private survey found. It was the latest sign that strong hiring should boost the economy this year.

Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that companies added 212,000 jobs last month, a solid gain, though down from 250,000 in the previous month. January's figure was revised up from 213,000.

The figures come just before Friday's government report on the labor market, which economists forecast will show an increase of 240,000 jobs, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. The unemployment rate is expected to fall to 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent.

The ADP numbers cover only private businesses and sometimes diverge from the government's more comprehensive report, which includes government agencies.

A burst of hiring in the past year has lifted the number of Americans earning paychecks, and a sharp drop in gas prices means those paychecks can buy more goods and services. That has accelerated U.S. economic growth and encouraged companies to add jobs at a steady pace.

Still, February's hiring was the slowest in nine months, according to the ADP data. Most economists have expected a slight slowdown, however, after a run of huge job gains. Employers added 423,000 jobs in November, and more than 1 million from November through January, the fastest three-month pace since 1997. More than 3 million people have been hired in the past 12 months.

"Job growth is strong, but slowing from the torrid pace of recent months," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "Job gains remain broad-based, although the collapse in oil prices has begun to weigh on energy-related employment." Moody's Analytics helps compile the report.

Those job gains are lifting consumer spending, which rose in last year's fourth quarter at the fastest pace in four years. Spending grew at a solid 0.3 percent rate in January, after adjusting for prices, which fell.

Zandi also said heavy snow and unseasonably cold weather in the Northeast may have dragged down hiring last month.

Still, he expects the economy to grow 3 percent this year, a level consistent with hiring of about 250,000 a month.

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Global stocks mixed as investors eye European, US data

BEIJING — European stocks mostly gained while Asian markets faltered Wednesday as investors monitored upbeat eurozone economic data and looked ahead to U.S. indicators.

KEEPING SCORE: In early trading, France's CAC-40 added 0.4 percent to 4,886.38 points and Germany's DAX gained 0.1 percent to 11,291.77. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent to 6,878.49. Wall Street looked set for further declines. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 were down 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent.

EUROZONE MOMENTUM: Two reports showed the economy of the 19-country eurozone is picking up momentum. Retail sales grew by a larger-than-expected 1.1 percent in monthly terms in January. It is the first time since records began in 2000 that they've grown for four consecutive months. Meanwhile, a key gauge of business activity showed growth in February in all four of the region's big economies — Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

U.S. OUTLOOK: Looking ahead, investors were to the release of data on employment by ADP, a payroll processing company, and manufacturing data from the Institute for Supply Management. Those provide hints for the Labor Department's release of monthly jobs data Friday; the report is an important influence on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decisions and scrutinized by financial markets.

ANALYST'S TAKE: The U.S. economy appears strong despite data this week showing declines in construction spending and vehicle sales, according to Jim O'Sullivan of High-Frequency Economics. "We expect another fairly strong rise in payrolls and a drop in the unemployment rate in the February employment report on Friday," said O'Sullivan in a report.

CHINA TARGET: China's Premier Li Keqiang is expected to lower this year's official growth target to 7 percent from last year's 7.5 percent when he makes an annual appearance before the national legislature Thursday to announce government economic plans. The lower target after a decade of double-digit expansion is part of the ruling Communist Party's marathon effort to reduce China's reliance on trade and investment and nurture more self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumption and service industries.

ASIA'S DAY: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 0.6 percent to 18,703.60 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1 percent to 24,465.38. Seoul's Kospi fell 0.2 percent to 1,998.29. The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5 percent to 3,279.53. India's Sensex gained 0.8 percent to 29,823.02 after the central bank unexpectedly cut interest rates. Jakarta, Sydney and New Zealand also declined while Taipei and Singapore gained.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 39 cents to $50.93 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 93 cents on Tuesday to close at $40.42.

CURRENCIES: The dollar was little changed at 119.60 yen from the previous session's 119.66 yen. The euro fell to $1.1130 from $1.1180.

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Sony PlayStation 4 surpasses 20 million sales milestone

Sony has sold 20.2 million PlayStation 4 videogame consoles, the company said Tuesday, making the device the fastest-selling PlayStation system in the company's history.

The March 1 figure is the latest sales update of the PS4 after Sony announced 18.5 million units in early January.

The PS4 has been one of the rare bright spots for Sony, with the console far outpacing PlayStation 3 sales and even those of the Xbox 360, from Microsoft.

But Microsoft's Xbox One also has been selling briskly, with next-generation consoles selling 60% faster in the U.S. than the previous versions of the system, according to research firm the NPD Group.

"We are so grateful for the enormous support from PlayStation® fans worldwide, and we are truly humbled that gamers around the globe have continued to select PS4 as the best place to play," said Andrew House, president and global CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment. "We remain steadfast in our commitment to deliver unique and interactive entertainment experiences powered by the network and the PS4 system's deep social capabilities."

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Can Guy Fieri sell greek yogurt? Scripps Networks taps data to boost 'upfront' sales

Scripps Networks wants to push TV advertisers get beyond the traditional ad-sales process, helping instead to identify which audiences of which specific programs are more likely to buy particular products.

As part of its pitch for TV's coming "upfront" market, the operator of Food Network, HGTV and Travel Channel will offer sponsors more granular data from the Nielsen Catalina Solutions unit of Nielsen that can suggest what shows are most likely to draw potential buyers of, say, Greek yogurt (the answer: Food Network's weekend-morning lineup, which includes "Guy's Big Bite" on Sundays). The research draws upon viewing patterns found in set-top box data as well as purchase patterns spotlighted by loyalty cards from various retailers. The data will let Scripps make better recommendations to advertisers about which of its programs will serve them best, said Jon Steinlauf, president of national ad sales at Scripps, in an interview held at the company's New York offices.

Madison Avenue has for decades looked to TV to provide the greatest number of viewers in a single swoop. Now, with audiences splintered by the rise of new viewing behaviors tied to streaming video and mobile devices, they are not always pressing for the most viewers, but the most of a particularly kind of couch potato, whether that be a first-time car buyer or a person more likely to purchase a bag of nuts.

"TV has to answer the data question and it has pushed us to be more aggressive in our positioning," said Steinlauf.

Scripps is among the first this year to nod publicly to a new wrinkle in the annual "upfront," when U.S. TV networks try to sell the bulk of their ad inventory for the coming programming season. Ad buyers and TV executives interviewed in recent weeks both acknowledged the underlying argument in the 2015 haggle will focus on an exchange of data for advertising commitments. TV companies that can make consumer data available to marketers seeking a particular set of customers are likely to capture a greater share of advertising commitments, these executives said.

NBCUniversal in January unveiled a new service for advertisers it called an "Audience Targeting Platform" that uses set-top box data and other sources to identify the best ad space for certain categories of advertisers.

"There is a growing and deafening demand and push for more insight as it relates to television investment," said Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising sales and client partnerships at NBU, in January.

The sales executives likely won't suggest the idea in public, but many media outlets hope their efforts to carve out expectant mothers, teenage soda drinkers, seekers of retirement planning and the like will help them command higher prices from potential sponsors and even sell a greater share of ad inventory than if they simply sold in more traditional fashion.

For its part, Scripps thinks its offering will result in "more brands buying shows as opposed to parent companies buying networks and dayparts," said Steinlauf. In other words, where advertisers once used TV in a blunter manner, lobbing ads across TV-network schedules to blast messages to the masses, they are likely in some cases to attempt to be more precise.

Other offerings will be at play. Scripps will offer a "roadblock" to advertisers that would allow them to run a commercial across multiple Scripps networks, all at the same time. The initiative would let the sponsor get a message in front of a large number of upscale female viewers who watch Food Network, HGTV, DIY and other outlets owned by the company.

© 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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High court takes up major fight over health law subsidies

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court convened Wednesday to hear arguments in a major test of President Barack Obama's health overhaul that threatens insurance coverage for millions of people.

The justices will try to determine whether the law makes people in all 50 states eligible for federal tax subsidies to cut the cost of insurance premiums. Or does it limit tax credits only to people who live in states that created their own health insurance marketplaces?

A ruling that limits where subsidies are available would have dramatic consequences because roughly three dozen states opted against their own marketplace, or exchange, and instead rely on the U.S. Health and Human Services Department's healthcare.gov. Independent studies estimate that 8 million people could lose insurance coverage.

Activists on both sides were in place outside the marble courthouse by 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, said David Lemmon of Families USA. Supporters of the law outnumbered opponents. Some held placards showing how many people in each state would lose insurance if the court rules that the law does not allow subsidies everywhere.

Opponents of the Affordable Care Act failed to kill the law in an epic, election-year Supreme Court case in 2012. Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the court's liberal justices and provided the crucial vote to uphold the law in the midst of Obama's re-election campaign.

The new case, part of a long-running political and legal fight to get rid of the law also known as Obamacare, focuses on four words — "established by the state" — in a law that runs more than 900 pages. The challengers say those words are clear and conclusive evidence that Congress wanted to limit subsidies only to those consumers who get their insurance through a marketplace, or exchange, that was established by the state.

The administration counters that the law was written to dramatically reduce the ranks of uninsured, and that it would make no sense to condition subsidies on where people live. The phrase "established by the state," is what the administration calls a "term of art" that takes both state- and federally run exchanges. The administration also says the term cannot be read in isolation, and that other parts of the law show that subsidies should be widely available.

Both sides in the case argue that the law unambiguously supports only its position. One other option for the court is to declare the law is ambiguous when it comes to subsidies and defer to the Internal Revenue Service's regulations making tax credits available nationwide.

Partisan and ideological divisions remain stark for a law that passed Congress in 2010 with no Republican votes. Of the judges who have ruled on lawsuits over the subsidies, Democratic appointees have sided with the administration and Republican appointees have been with the challengers.

Roberts was the only justice to essentially cross party lines with his vote in 2012. His fellow conservatives on the court voted to strike down Obamacare in its entirety.

The lawyers arguing the case Wednesday also squared off three years ago. Michael Carvin argued part of the broad challenge to the health care law in 2012. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr., the administration's chief Supreme Court lawyer, successfully defended it.

A decision in King v. Burwell, 14-114, is expected by late June.

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Follow Mark Sherman on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/shermancourt

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Lawyer: Phone hacking 'rife' at Britain's Mirror tabloids

LONDON — A lawyer for phone-hacking victims says the illegal practice was "rife" at tabloids owned by Britain's Trinity Mirror PLC.

David Sherborne said Tuesday that the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People tabloids likely conducted illegal eavesdropping for several years from mid-1999.

Sherborne is representing plaintiffs including actress Sadie Frost, actor Shane Ritchie and former soccer player Paul Gascoigne. A High Court judge is hearing a case by eight claimants that will set guidelines for damages to be paid to hacking victims.

Britain's phone-hacking scandal erupted in 2011 with the revelation of wrongdoing at the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World. The furor led to the closure of that paper and the arrests of dozens of journalists.

The police investigation initially focused on Murdoch's papers, but has spread to other companies.

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Hungary makes nuclear deal with Russia a 30-year secret

BUDAPEST, Hungary — The details of Hungary's deal with Russia to expand its only nuclear power plant will remain secret for 30 years, after new legislation was approved Tuesday.

The Hungarian legislation will keep under wraps both the business and technical details of the agreement under which Russia's Rosatom will build two new reactors at the Paks power plant

The government says the measure is needed for national security reasons and is in line with similar guidelines in other European countries. The Soviet-built plant currently provides about half of Hungary's electricity.

What is known of the deal is that it includes a loan from Russia of 10 billion euros ($11.1 billion) to cover an estimated 80 percent of the construction costs. Hungarian companies are to carry out 40 percent of the work.

The government has described the contract as a "marriage of interests," saying the financial terms offered by Russia could not be matched by any other supplier.

Critics said the arrangement, first announced in January 2014, was an example of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's efforts to strengthen energy cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin despite the conflict in Ukraine.

Timea Szabo, of the opposition Dialogue for Hungary party, said the decision to classify much of the contract information was a hotbed for corruption and amounted to "the legalization of a gigantic robbery."

Opposition parties and civic groups, including Transparency International and Energiaklub, said the arrangement was unconstitutional because of its vast efforts to conceal information in the public interest.

They appealed to President Janos Ader to refrain from signing the bill and have it reviewed by the Constitutional Court.

The amendment was passed by lawmakers from Orban's Fidesz party and its ally, the Christian Democrats. All opposition parties voted against.

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In shifting economy, shops aim to please Pyongyang consumers

PYONGYANG, North Korea — Workers in sharp new uniforms open the doors and turn on the lights about an hour before sunrise at their chain store on the corner of one of Pyongyang's main streets, right smack in the middle of a showpiece area of the capital.

But unlike much of the neighborhood around it, this shop isn't a showpiece. It hasn't been profiled by the state media or been paid any visits by the leader. It's a real business — and a quiet but telling example of an ongoing shift in the North Korean economy as officials play catch-up with grassroots entrepreneurism that has been building for nearly two decades.

Business with a hint of capitalism isn't new in North Korea — it's how the common people have survived amid the breakdown in the government's ability to provide for them following the devastating famine and economic collapse of the 1990s. What's new is that, in a very real nod to the marketplace, this chain of state-owned stores is now fine-tuning their business strategy to actually give consumers what they need.

And their managers have no qualms about saying so.

The new chain stores — called Hwanggumbol, or "golden fields" — are open from 6:00 a.m. to midnight, unusually long hours in North Korea. They aim to provide a wide range of goods, with a stable supply, reasonable prices and reliable quality — none of which is taken for granted, even in the relative prosperity of Pyongyang.

"We thought that if we're selling the things that people need in everyday life, and our opening hours are longer than other shops, our prices are reasonable and we provide guaranteed quality, then people would like it," director Ryang Sung Jin recently said in an interview with AP Television News. "That's why we started this business."

From the street there isn't much to see, just a little sign with the chain's name and an electronic tickertape display flickering above the doorway. Inside, women wearing light blue jackets and black trousers greet customers and take orders — as is typical in North Korea, you choose the item you want in one place, pay for it in another and then go retrieve it with the receipt.

The shops serve a comparatively privileged demographic in North Korea; outside the capital, life is much harder and goods more scarce. But they are also the result of broader policy changes cautiously rolled out since 2012, shortly after leader Kim Jong Un assumed power with promises to boost the nation's living standards.

Officially, there has been no economic reform. The avowedly socialist North Korean government calls the changes "our-style economic management methods."

North Korea's stance of developing the economy in tandem with pouring resources into the defense sector — including nuclear weapons — ensures the continuation of sanctions that curtail international investment.

But conversations with North Korean economists over the past five years show a gradual warming of attitudes and policies toward business.

Operating like a typical for-profit business still remains a challenge.

Commercial advertising is rare. Hwanggumbol shops have only a small display of their logo outside their doors, but it's repeated on staff uniforms, above shelves and on freezer units throughout the shops — going a little bit further than what is normal in North Korean retail.

The shops sell local and imported food and drinks, clothes, daily necessities like soap and shower gel, Tupperware-style plastic boxes, stationery and some consumer electronics. A bag of sweet buns goes for about 80 cents; a big bottle of cola costs about 40 cents.

Director Ryang said he wants to expand into a wide array of services, from laundry to train-ticket booking. There are five branches so far around Pyongyang. The company hopes to increase that to 30.

Whether the business climate will remain sunny long enough for that to happen is uncertain. But for the time being, Pyongyang shoppers are happy to have a place to go that accommodates their daily schedule.

"Because I go to work early in the morning and get back late, it's not easy for me to go shopping for food and daily necessities," said customer Ri Hye Hwa. "I'm really glad to have this shop that has opened near my house and that sells us the things we need."

___

AP's Pyongyang Bureau Chief Eric Talmadge contributed to this report from Tokyo. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/EricTalmadge and Instagram at erictalmadge.

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Venture capitalist testifies in Silicon Valley sex bias suit

SAN FRANCISCO — A prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist who helped direct early investments in Google and Amazon.com is set to take the stand Tuesday in a high-profile sex discrimination lawsuit that has sparked debate over the treatment of women in the high-tech and venture capitalist fields.

John Doerr is scheduled to testify in San Francisco Superior Court in a lawsuit against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The plaintiff, Ellen Pao, says she was denied a promotion in the male-dominated culture of Kleiner Perkins because she is a woman and was then fired in 2012 after she complained.

The firm has denied wrongdoing and says Pao, 45, was a poor performer who didn't get along with her colleagues.

Venture capital firms provide much of the startup funds for tech companies and have a reputation as being even more insular and male-dominated than the companies they help launch.

Women hold 15 to 20 percent of the technology jobs at tech giants Google, Apple, Facebook and Yahoo, according to disclosures by the companies.

The firms acknowledge needing to do more to hire female engineers but largely attribute the problem to cultural issues that discourage girls and young women from taking classes needed to pursue careers in computer coding and website design.

Venture capital firms are even more slanted toward men. A study released last year by Babson College in Massachusetts found that women filled just 6 percent of the partner-level positions at 139 venture capital firms in 2013, down from 10 percent in 1999.

Pao initially worked as Doerr's chief of staff at Kleiner Perkins before becoming a junior partner with full-time investment duties.

During opening statements, Pao's attorney, Alan Exelrod, said Pao wrote many of Doerr's letters and speeches and had received a glowing review from him when she was contacted about another job opportunity. The attorney also said Doerr wanted to fire one of Pao's married male colleagues after learning he and Pao had had an affair and that Doerr was aware Pao had received a book of erotic poetry from a senior partner that she found inappropriate.

Kleiner Perkins' attorney, Lynne Hermle, said Pao did not indicate when she received the poetry book that she thought it was inappropriate, and the book had been purchased by the partner's wife.

Pao is seeking $16 million in damages. The firm is seeking to limit any possible damages by arguing that Pao is well-compensated in her current position as interim CEO of the popular social media company Reddit and hasn't suffered financially since leaving Kleiner after filing her lawsuit.

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US considers banning type of popular rifle ammunition

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering banning a type of ammunition used in one of the most popular types of rifles because it says the bullets can pierce a police officer's protective vest when fired from a handgun.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is proposing the ban of some types of 5.56 mm rounds — or .223-caliber — used in widely available and popular AR-15-style rifles because the bullets can also be used in some new types of handguns. Other types of 5.56 mm rounds would still be legal to buy, own and fire from guns.

The rule change would affect only "M855 green tip" or "SS109" rounds with certain types of metal cores. People who already own the ammunition would be allowed to continue to legally own it, but manufacturers would not be allowed to produce, sell, import or distribute it.

In a letter to ATF Director B. Todd Jones last month, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., objected to the rule change, saying it would "interfere with Second Amendment rights by disrupting the market for ammunition that law-abiding Americans use for sporting and other legitimate purposes."

Armor-piercing handgun ammunition has been banned since 1986 as a way to protect police officers under the federal Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act. The rifle bullets now facing a ban were long considered exempt because they were used for sporting purposes, such as target shooting.

An ATF spokeswoman, Ginger Colbrun, said Monday the agency is considering eliminating the exemption now because of the production of so-called AR pistols that can fire the same cartridge. The agency is accepting public comment about the proposed change until March 16 at the email address APAComments@atf.gov, by fax or postal mail. Colbrun said it's unclear when a final decision will be made.

At issue is the material in the core of the bullets. As long as the bullet's core does not contain particular types of metal, including steel, iron or brass, the bullet would still be legally available.

Colbrun said 32 manufacturers make roughly 168 types of ammunition that can be used in the rifles and would remain legal.

The semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, a commercially available gun that resembles the military's M-16 rifle, has become wildly popular among gun enthusiasts in recent years. It's also been the target of Democratic lawmakers who sought to ban the weapons after the 2012 shooting deaths of a dozen people at a movie theater in Colorado and 20 children and six adults at a school in Connecticut. Those efforts failed, but gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, warned that the administration would continue a push to ban the popular guns.

NRA Institute for Legislative Action Executive Director Chris W. Cox said Tuesday "the NRA and our tens of millions of supporters across the country will fight to stop President Obama's latest attack on our Second Amendment freedoms."

ATF's proposed ammunition ban has been under consideration since 2011.

___

Online:

ATF's proposal: http://www.atf.gov/sites/default/files/assets/Library/Notices/atf_framework_for_determining_whether_certain_projectiles_are_primarily_intended_for_sporting_purposes.pdf

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Bill Gates repeats at top of Forbes' list of billionaires

NEW YORK — The world's richest person got even richer this year.

Forbes said Monday that Bill Gates's net worth rose to $79.2 billion in 2015 from $76 billion last year. That put him at the top of the magazine's list of the world's billionaires for the second consecutive year. The co-founder of Microsoft Corp. has topped the list for 16 of the last 21 years.

In second place is Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim Helu, with a net worth of $77.1 billion. He had topped the list in 2013.

Next is investor Warren Buffett, who moved up one slot this year with a net worth of $72.7 billion. In fourth place was Amancio Ortega, the Spanish co-founder of clothing retail chain Zara, with a net worth of $64.5 billion. Rounding out the top five was Larry Ellison, founder of technology company Oracle Corp., with $54.3 billion.

Forbes said there were 1,826 billionaires on its list this year, up from 1,645 in 2014. Added together, they were worth a combined $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion last year.

Most of the those on the list were men. But there were 197 women, up from 172 a year ago. The highest-ranking woman was Christy Walton, the widow of John Walton, a son of the founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. She has a net worth of $41.7 billion, according to Forbes.

The world's youngest billionaire was 24-year-old Evan Spiegel, the CEO and co-founder of mobile messaging company Snapchat, with a net worth of $1.5 billion. Snapchat's other co-founder, 25-year-old Bobby Murphy, had the same net worth as Spiegel. Other tech billionaire newcomers were two co-founders of taxi-ordering app Uber and one of its executives. Three co-founders of Airbnb, the vacation-home rental website, also made the list.

Basketball legend Michael Jordan joined the list for the first time this year, thanks to his ownership in basketball team Charlotte Hornets and payouts form his Nike brand. Jordan had a net worth of $1 billion, the magazine said.

This is the the 29th year that Forbes has released its billionaires list. The magazine said it calculated each person's wealth based on stock prices and exchange rates on Feb. 13, 2015.

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EU gives member states right block GM crops

BRUSSELS — The European Union is giving member states the power to ban the cultivation of genetically modified crops even if they have been approved by the bloc's food safety authority.

The 28 EU member states on Monday approved the rule that national governments can have the final say in the matter — a move that goes counter to many EU initiatives, which traditionally seek a common stance on EU policies.

Mute Schimpf of Friends of the Earth Europe said the new law "is a massive opportunity for national governments to shut the door on biotech crops in Europe."

Only one GM crop is planted in the EU so far, predominantly in Spain. Under the rules, governments would still have to consult biotech companies when banning a crop.

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HP's big deal: Tech giant buys Aruba Networks for $2.7B

SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett-Packard is buying wireless networking company Aruba Networks for about $2.7 billion, the biggest acquisition by HP in recent years.

Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP said the deal will boost its commercial technology business as it prepares to split into two companies, one focused on selling commercial computer systems and the other selling personal computers and printers.

Aruba, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., makes wi-fi networking systems for shopping malls, corporate campuses, hotels and universities.

HP is paying $24.67 in cash for each Aruba share. That is slightly below its close of $24.81 on Friday.

The deal announced Monday is HP's biggest since CEO Meg Whitman launched a turnaround effort aimed at reorganizing in the face of declining revenue.

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Yahoo TV converts to Tumblr-based digital magazine format

Yahoo's TV news and reviews section has adopted the company's "digital magazine" format, a visually oriented design based on the Tumblr mico-blogging website.

The new Yahoo TV digital magazine is the 11th title in the format to launch since January 2014, which include destinations for technology, food, fashion and beauty coverage. Yahoo TV continues to provide daily video recaps of primetime and daytime TV on "TV in No Time" in the new design, which is supposed to marry the imagery of traditional print magazines with bite-sized stories, video and photos.

Leading up to the launch of Yahoo TV in the digital mag format, Yahoo has raided Time Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly -- which underwent a series of layoffs last year -- for editorial talent.

Josh Wolk, Yahoo's executive editor of entertainment formerly with New York magazine's Vulture website, last fall hired Kristen Baldwin as editor-in-chief of Yahoo TV; she was previously with EW for 19 years, most recently as executive editor.

Baldwin, based in New York, has since hired Ken Tucker, one of EW's founding editors and longtime critic, as TV critic; deputy editor Mandy Bierly (former EW staff writer); and Chris Harrison, former EW writer who blogs on "The Bachelor" for Yahoo TV.

"We have a great team for Yahoo TV, and now our news and reviews will be on this more visually pleasing platform that the other magazines are on," said Baldwin, who joined Yahoo TV in September 2014.

(C) 2015 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Volkswagen Passat wins car of the year award

GENEVA — The large family car Volkswagen Passat has been voted car of the year by European automotive editors at the Geneva International Motor Show.

German Volkswagen's four-door sedan beat six other finalists including Citroen's C4 Cactus, Renault's Twingo and the BMW 2-Series Active Tourer.

The Passat has an updated collision avoidance system compared to its predecessor and other new technology, including emergency driver assistance and cross-wind stabilization.

Volkwagen last won the car of the year award in 2013 with its Golf compact car.

The Passat succeeds Peugeot's compact 308, which won last year.

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BookBub reads E-buyers well

Every day, more than 5 million people in three countries get an email about discounted e-books from Boston-based startup BookBub — emails that drove more than 10 million ebook sales last year.

"They're the biggest success story that no one knows about," said David Beisel, a partner at NextView Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in Boston and an investor in the company.

Founded three years ago, BookBub hit the 5 million member mark last week, up from 4 million in late December.

"Readers need great ways to discover books and have curation among those books," said Josh Schanker, BookBub president and co-founder. "There are so many options out there, and I think that's why this is really resonating. It's been a great way for both readers to discover books and for publishers to get their books discovered."

Bookbub's editorial team sifts through hundreds of books a day to find the best ones for the best price, Schanker said.

Roughly 20 percent of members click on a deal every day, he said.

To keep pace with that growth, BookBub has doubled its staff since April, and plans to add another 10 to 20 employees this year.

"Ten years ago, you walked into Borders or Barnes and Noble and they had the table out front, and that helped you discover books. You could do this browsing in a physical setting, and of course those books seemed curated to you," Beisel said. "Even though it's a simple email newsletter ... it's replacing that function of that table in the bookstore that is no longer there."

A seemingly simple business, a lot goes on behind the scenes, Schanker said. Nearly every member gets a personalized list of deals every day, based on location, book tastes and
e-bookstore preferences.

The company is also using the data it has collected from book sales to better curate books in the future.

"We know books about World War II do incredibly well, and that our audience really likes that even across our categories," Schanker said. "And having a dog on the cover of a book actually seems to send sales even higher."

The company raised
$3.8 million in venture financing in April, money that is being used to expand its content and make the website a destination for booklovers, not just for those looking for a deal.

Schanker said the core business — e-book deals — is profitable.

"We've heard from members that they're looking for ways to discover great books," Schanker said, "whether they're through deals or otherwise, so we're building a lot of things."

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The Ticker

Rosie's Bakery closes all shops

Rosie's Bakery, an Inman Square, Cambridge, institution for 38 years, with other locations including Chestnut Hill and South Station, closed its doors yesterday, saying in a notice posted on its doors that the supplier that baked its specialty desserts had gone out of business and would be too expensive to replace.

TOMORROW

• Commerce Department releases personal income and spending for January.
• Institute for Supply Management releases its manufacturing index for February.
• Commerce Department releases construction spending for January.

WEDNESDAY

• Institute for Supply Management releases its service sector index for February.
• Federal Reserve releases Beige Book.

THURSDAY

• Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.
• Labor Department releases fourth-quarter productivity data.
• Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, releases weekly mortgage rates.
• Commerce Department releases factory orders for January.

FRIDAY

• Labor Department releases employment data for February.
• Commerce Department releases international trade data for January.
• Federal Reserve releases consumer credit data for January.
• Cambridge-based Genocea Biosciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, has announced that Michael Higgins has joined the company's board of directors.

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Loan fund OK’d for small biz hurt by storms

The Massachusetts Growth Capital Corp. has approved a $1 million loan fund for small businesses coping with lost revenue from this year's barrage of snowstorms.

The quasi-state agency will lend qualifying Massachusetts businesses $5,000 to $10,000 each, with the goal of distributing the funds within 48 hours after an application is received and approved.

"It's basically a micro-loan fund … to alleviate some of their need for working capital that's been affected by the storms," said MGCC president Lawrence Andrews. "We know this money has to go out fairly quickly because the need is so dire."

The three-year loans will have a 5 percent interest rate, and recipients must start paying back principal and interest after six months. There are no prepayment penalties or fees.

Businesses applying for the loans must submit a one-year financial statement, personal financial statement and the reasons for the need as part of the application process. The program is expected to run through May.

MGCC was established by the Legislature in 2010 and funded with $35 million in capital under the consolidation of the Massachusetts Community Development Finance Corp. and the Economic Stabilization Trust to help small business create jobs. It lends to small Massachusetts businesses that need capital but haven't been able to access traditional sources such as banks, and it provides technical assistance.

MGCC will use community development corporations, chambers of commerce and economic development offices of state Legislature-designated Gateway Cities to help facilitate the process.

The storm-related loan fund is a first for MGCC.

"The good thing is we've never had storms like this before," Lawrence said. "(The idea) really came from the businesses themselves, and we asked Gov. (Charlie) Baker basically if this was something that would be beneficial."

"As small businesses throughout Massachusetts continue to recover from extreme winter weather conditions that have restricted business, we are pleased to announce this low-interest loan program is available to help them regain their financial stability," Gov. Baker said in a statement. "While our local economies continue to bounce back, we encourage everyone to continue shopping at their local retailers, restaurants and small businesses."

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Annual report offers new clues about Buffett's successor

OMAHA, Neb. — Billionaire Warren Buffett is proud of what he's built as Berkshire Hathaway's CEO over the past 50 years, but he's also willing to admit making a few costly mistakes along the way.

Buffett used his annual shareholder letter released Saturday to make the case for his conglomerate's future while also offering investing advice. Buffett dropped a few hints about his eventual successor, and though he didn't name names, another key executive did single out two people as strong executives who could lead the company well.

But no, the 84-year-old Buffett isn't retiring.

Here are some key themes from his annual report:

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REPLACING BUFFETT

Buffett said his eventual successor will need to be calm, rational and decisive, and he hopes that person will be young enough to lead the company for at least a decade.

"My successor will need one other particular strength: the ability to fight off the ABCs of business decay, which are arrogance, bureaucracy and complacency," Buffett said. "When these corporate cancers metastasize, even the strongest of companies can falter."

Vice Chairman Charlie Munger added his own letter this year, and predicted that Berkshire will be fine once he and Buffett are gone because of the management talent it already has.

Munger singled out reinsurance executive Ajit Jain and Berkshire Hathaway Energy CEO Greg Abel as two Berkshire executives who could succeed Buffett one day. Both have been noted on short lists made by investors and the media.

"In some important ways, each is a better business executive than Buffett," Munger said.

The company having mentioned specific names will only add to speculation about which Berkshire executives are on the short list to be the next CEO.

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INVESTING INSIGHT

One of the best ways to build wealth over time is to own stocks, but Buffett said investors must avoid the common mistakes of trading too often and paying high investment fees.

"Most advisers, however, are far better at generating high fees than they are at generating high returns," he said.

The billionaire investor said there's every reason to expect stocks to perform well in the long term, even if prices are volatile.

But no one can predict the stock market.

"Market forecasters will fill your ear but will never fill your wallet," he said

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CONGLOMERATION CELEBRATION

Buffett says Berkshire is built to stand the test of time because of the more than 80 companies it owns and its diverse investments.

Plus, its structure allows Buffett to shift money within Berkshire to generate the best return, and the company has $63.3 billion cash.

"I believe the chance of any event causing Berkshire to experience financial problems is essentially zero," Buffett said. "We will always be prepared for the thousand-year flood: in fact, if it occurs we will be selling life jackets to the unprepared."

But Buffett reiterated that Berkshire's huge size will keep it from achieving gains nearly as strong as it has in the past.

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UNFORCED ERROR

Buffett has long said that buying the Berkshire Hathaway textile mill in New England in 1965 was the worst investment he'd ever made. The textile business continued to struggle for 20 more years before Buffett shut it down.

But the worst part — that Buffett estimates cost him $100 billion or so — came after he took control of Berkshire.

Buffett said he still doesn't know why he used Berkshire to acquire National Indemnity for $8.6 million in 1967 instead of buying it with his private investment partnership. That insurance company served as the foundation for everything Buffett bought later.

"I've had 48 years to think about that question, and I've yet to come up with a good answer. I simply made a colossal mistake."

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DOUBLE FAULT

Buying Berkshire wasn't Buffett's only textile mistake.

Buffett said he bought Waumbec Mills in 1975 because it was selling for a bargain price, only to have to close it down in a few years.

"And now some good news: The northern textile industry is finally extinct. You need no longer panic if you hear that I've been spotted wandering around New England."

Buffett's helped Berkshire beat the S&P 500 in 39 of the past 50 years, but his errors didn't stop in the 1970s.

He told shareholders the company lost $444 million on its investment in British retailer Tesco, largely because he was slow to sell the $2.3 billion stake after spotting problems in 2013.

"I made a big mistake with this investment by dawdling," Buffett said.

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Follow Josh Funk on Twitter at https://twitter.com/funkwrite

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Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: www.berkshirehathaway.com

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Astronauts take 3rd spacewalk to complete tricky cable job

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Spacewalking astronauts ventured out for the third time in just over a week Sunday to complete an extensive, tricky cable job at the International Space Station.

The advance work — involving nearly 800 feet of cable over three spacewalks — is needed for new crew capsules commissioned by NASA. A pair of docking ports will fly up later this year, followed by the capsules themselves, with astronauts aboard, in 2017.

American astronauts Terry Virts and Butch Wilmore had 400 more feet of power and data cable to install Sunday, as well as two sets of antennas. They successfully routed 364 feet on their first two excursions, on Feb. 21 and last Wednesday.

NASA hasn't conducted such a quick succession of spacewalks since its former shuttle days, and the amount of cable work is unprecedented. Even more spacewalks will be needed once new docking ports start arriving in June.

"Good luck, guys," Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti said from inside as the spacewalk got underway early.

Within the first hour, the spacewalkers had hooked up both antenna booms and got started on the cable work. There were wires everywhere, and the men had to move their bodies in different positions to access one especially cramped work site.

This month, meanwhile, marks the 50th anniversary of the world's first spacewalk. Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov floated out into the vacuum of space on March 18, 1965, beating America's first spacewalker, Gemini 4's Edward White II, by just 2 1/2 months.

Before approving Sunday's spacewalk, NASA spent two days analyzing a water leak in Virts' helmet that occurred at the end of Wednesday's outing.

A small amount of water got into Virts' helmet once he was back in the air lock and the chamber was being repressurized. Engineers concluded it was the result of condensation, and a safe and well understood circumstance that had occurred several times before with the same spacesuit. Virts was never in danger, according to NASA.

Wilmore's suit functioned perfectly during the first two spacewalks, but on Sunday morning, a pressure sensor briefly malfunctioned before he floated out. A mechanical gauge, however, was operating fine. Mission Control told Wilmore that he would need to pay extra attention to how his suit was feeling throughout the seven-hour excursion.

Wilmore is due to return to Earth next week following a 5 1/2-month mission. Virts is midway through his expedition. Russian Soyuz spacecraft carried them both up, with NASA paying for the multimillion-dollar tickets.

To save money and stop being so reliant on the Russian Space Agency, NASA has hired Boeing and SpaceX to develop spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the space station. The two contracts are worth nearly $7 billion. SpaceX already is delivering cargo under a separate agreement with NASA.

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Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

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