Finance topics

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos won parliamentary approval for austerity measures to secure an international bailout after rioters protesting the measures battled police and set fire to buildings in downtown Athens.

A total of 199 lawmakers voted in favor and 74 against, Parliament Speaker Filippos Petsalnikos said in remarks carried live on state-run Vouli TV. When, on Nov. 16, Papademos won a mandate from the Parliament to implement budget measures and secure the bailout of 130 billion euros ($172 billion) he received the support of 255 lawmakers in the 300-strong chamber.

ST. LOUIS • The money to renovate the Edward Jones Dome could come partly from higher fees for tickets and parking.

Those are among the possible sources of public funding listed in a financial plan the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission has sent to the Rams. The plan is meant to explain how to pay for $124 million in renovations to the Dome.

It lists a ticket surcharge and the creation of a new parking district, with a vehicle surcharge, as options. The plan also lists bond refinancing, tax credits and tapping the reserves of the Dome’s owner as other options.

The one-page financial plan, however, is short on specifics and does not list how much money each source of public funding would generate. It lists only the total they would bring in: $59.5 million.

The lack of specificity is highlighted by one of the listed sources: “Other City, County and State money as may be provided.”

And at least one of the listed items — refinancing of bonds issued by the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority to build the Dome — is not currently allowed, according to the authority’s website.

The CVC, which manages the Dome for the authority, wants the Rams to pay for $64.5 million of the renovation costs.

The CVC released the document late Thursday after a public records request from the Post-Dispatch. The CVC released its renovation plan on Wednesday but declined to release the financial document, and St. Louis and St. Louis County officials also initially declined to discuss funding details.

Officials said they did not list specifics or dollar amounts because the document was not meant to be a detailed financial analysis. The idea was simply to show the Rams that there are a variety of public funding options available, they said.

“All of them might be used or some of them might be used,” said Mike Jones, a senior policy adviser to St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley. “It’s all going to depend on what improvements end up being made.”

No decisions have been made on what area would make up the parking district, what the charges would be, and whether they would be levied only on game days or year-round. Also, no decisions have been made on how much a ticket surcharge would be. The city already charges a 5 percent amusement tax on Rams tickets.

Jeff Rainford, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s chief of staff, pledged that proposals to levy new fees or taxes would go before city voters — if those proposals go beyond what is generated as part of the “game day experience.”

“People who don’t go to Rams games or take part in the NFL experience don’t have to worry about being nicked for this without a vote of the people,” he said short term personal loan. “They will not pay any more for this facility without a public discussion and a public vote.”

Rainford also said a referendum would be needed if the city were to eliminate the 5 percent amusement tax or redirect the revenue to help pay for construction costs.

Dooley’s office has similarly pledged to give voters final say on some issues.

“Anything related to increasing a current tax or creating a new revenue source (in the county) would need to be voted on by the people,” Jones said.

The Dome, which opened in 1995, was largely financed with $256 million in revenue bonds, and the repayment of that 30-year debt will be $720 million. Every year, Missouri spends $12 million to pay off the debt, and St. Louis and St. Louis County each pay $6 million annually.

Highlights of the Dome renovation plan include adding large window panels and a 96-foot-wide video screen and scoreboard; building a three-story pavilion connected to the Dome via a bridge over Broadway; and replacing four luxury suites and 1,800 regular seats with 1,500 club seats.

The CVC is required to come up with a plan that, by March 2014, would make the Dome a “first-tier” facility. The Rams have until March 1 to accept or reject the CVC plan, and until May 1 to make a counteroffer.

“Until we know exactly how much we need, there’s no point in going through a financial analysis,” Kathleen “Kitty” Ratcliffe, the CVC’s president, said in explaining the lack of funding specifics.

The one-page financial plan, however, lists estimated costs for the proposed renovations. The biggest cost, $24.5 million, would be for improvements to entrances, bathrooms and common areas, followed by $21.5 million for changes to box suites and concourses.

Many of the proposed improvements would increase revenue at the Dome, but the Rams — not the CVC — likely would reap the biggest rewards from those upgrades. That could be why the CVC wasn’t shy in asking the team to front 52 percent of the bill.

Under the terms of the lease, for example, the Rams keep all ticket receipts, so the team will benefit most from the addition of pricier club seats.

The improvement plan would upgrade concession areas and increase food and beverage sales outside of the Dome. The lease gives the team all net revenue from concessions sold on game days.

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The Federal Reserve has downgraded its outlook for U.S. economic growth this year but is slightly more optimistic about the unemployment rate.

The Fed expects the economy to grow between 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent in 2012, according to its updated economic forecasts released Wednesday. That’s down from November’s forecast of between 2.5 percent and 2.9 percent.

Many economists expect Europe will suffer a recession this year, which will slow U.S. growth.

Earlier Wednesday, the Fed noted the weak but growing economy when it said it doesn’t plan to raise its benchmark interest rate until late 2014. And some members wanted to push that back even further, according to new interest rate projections released with the quarterly forecasts.

Still, the Fed said it expects unemployment to fall low as 8.2 percent. That’s an improvement from November’s bottom rate of 8.5 percent.

In December, the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent _ the lowest level in nearly three years _ after the sixth straight month of solid hiring.

Inflation has been relatively tame and the Fed doesn’t see that changing over the next three years.

And for the first time, the Fed offered an official target for inflation _ 2 percent _ in a statement of its long-term policy goals. It had previously indicated that inflation between 1.7 percent and 2 percent was acceptable.

The Fed did not specify a target for unemployment. But it said that unemployment between 5.2 percent and 6 percent would be consistent with its goal for a healthy economy instant payday loan.

The updated quarterly forecasts also showed that some Fed members wanted to extend the period of record-low interest rates beyond 2014. Eleven of the 17 members said they don’t see interest rates rising until at least 2015. Only 10 members have a vote on the policy committee.

The Fed said record-low rates are still needed to help boost an improving but still sluggish economy. The extended timeframe is a shift from the Fed’s previous plan to keep the rate low at least until mid-2013.

The economy is looking a little better, according to recent private and government data. Companies are hiring more, the stock market is rising, factories are busy and more people are buying cars. Even the home market is showing slight gains after three dismal years.

Still, the threat of a recession in Europe is likely to drag on the global economy. And another year of weak wage gains in the United States could force consumers to pull back on spending, which would slow growth.

Private economists forecast that the nation’s economy to grow just 2 percent in the first three months of the year, in part because of the recession in Europe. For the year, they expect growth of 2.4 percent, according to a survey by the Associated Press. That’s sluggish for a recovery. But it is better than last year’s likely pace of below 2 percent.

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Prime Minister Mario Monti

Manufacturing in the New York region expanded in January at the fastest pace in nine months, reflecting improving orders, sales and employment.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York

President Barack Obama will speak today at the White House at 11:20 a.m. Washington time on steps he plans to make the U.S. government leaner, smarter and more consumer-friendly, a White House official said business card templates.

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Swiss (SNBN) National Bank President Philipp Hildebrand will today answer lawmaker questions in Bern as he seeks to end a discussion over controversial currency purchases by his wife.

Everybody knows that January predicts the stock market’s direction for the year and that the best time to sell stocks is at their spring peak. And among stock market experts, it’s a sure bet that the market will soar in the year before an election.

But what passes for stock market wisdom is suspect when given a closer look. The most common error comes when people spot two events and assume that one causes the other.

And it drives economists, math geeks and plenty of money managers nuts.

“If you look at enough data in enough different ways, you’re going to find something that isn’t really true,” says Edward Keon, who leads a mathematics team at Prudential Financial.

The same seasonal patterns seem to pop up year after year. Some are valuable and some meaningless, Keon says _ like saying stocks tend to rise or fall depending on the month, the temperature in New York City or who wins the Super Bowl.

People “are simply being fooled by randomness,” says Burton Malkiel, professor of economics at Princeton University and author of the finance classic “A Random Walk Down Wall Street.”

Spend enough time digging through numbers and you’re bound to find some that always take the same path, he says. “But none can reliably predict the future.”

Here’s an examination of some of the oldest Wall Street aphorisms.

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The claim: As goes January, so goes the year.

The idea is that January works as a barometer for the stock market’s full-year performance: A strong first month often leads to a year of gains, and a weak one to a year of losses.

It comes from Yale Hirsch, father of the Stock Trader’s Almanac, and looks reliable. Since 1929, the calendar year has followed January’s lead 60 out of 83 times, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor’s. That’s a .723 batting average.

The suggestion that January somehow directs the course of the next 11 months is what irks economists and investors, including Dan Greenhaus, chief market strategist at the brokerage BTIG.

Expecting to hear praise for January’s forecasting powers, Greenhaus attacked the idea on his blog Jan. 2, the day before U.S. markets opened for 2012. He took the S&P 500 index’s returns since 1950, including dividends, and found that the four months following January also appeared to work magic. When April is down, the next 12 months return a negative 0.2 percent. When April is up, the S&P 500 returns 12.8 percent. It’s a similar story with February, March and April. But why?

“It’s true that if January is up, the year is up most of the time,” he says. “But if you look at any month, you’ll find the market tends to be up over the next 12 months. And the reason is very simple: the market tends to be up.”

The S&P 500 has climbed in three out of every four years since 1950. Pick nearly any month in which stocks rose and most of the time you’ll find that the year was headed in the same direction.

But what if stocks fall in January? It doesn’t mean the next 11 months will follow. Sometimes, the stock market starts the year in a hole and digs its way out. In 1992, the S&P 500 dropped 2 percent in January, then ended the year with a modest gain of 4.5 percent.

“If you’re starting in the hole, then the 12-month period is starting in the hole,” Greenhaus says. “That should be intuitive. Instead it gets treated as some sort of prognostication tool. It’s just what happens.”

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The claim: Sell in May and go away.

Like a flock of migrating birds, the stock market tends to travel south or north depending on the season. It rises through the winter months and falls late in the spring. Investors struggle through the summer until November rolls around and the market picks up again.

“Sell in May and go away” is a well-worn saying, but the numbers seem to back it up. Since 1990, the three months starting in July have been the worst quarter for the S&P 500. Last year, the S&P hit its peak on April 29, then hit bottom Oct. 3, right on cue.

Even many skeptics think “sell in May” probably has something going for it _ but they can only guess why.

“It’s harder to debunk this one,” says Nick Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group.

The flow of money into retirement plans and mutual funds may have something to do with it. Colas says databases that track cash moving into stock funds show patterns similar to the stock market trend: A strong start that evaporates as the year progresses.

In the first four months of 2011, Americans added $13 billion to U.S. stock funds, according to the Investment Company Institute. But they pulled $6.5 billion in May and then began withdrawing much more. By the end of the year, retail investors had pulled $131.8 billion out of U.S. stock funds.

Some tie the summer sluggishness to vacation season. Trading desks are thinly staffed in the weeks before Labor Day. Fewer traders means a drop in trading volume, which makes it easier for markets to take bigger swings, often down.

Here’s where that explanation falls short. Traders return to their desks after Labor Day in September and trading picks up. But for all major stock indexes, September is historically the worst month of the year. Since 1950, it’s the only month in which the stock market has fallen more than it has risen.

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In a story Jan. 4 about The Boeing Co.’s announcement that it is closing its plant in Wichita, Kan., The Associated Press reported erroneously that the closure will cost 2,160 workers their jobs. An unspecified number of those workers will be allowed to transfer to the company’s plants in other states cheap pay day loans.

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Consumer confidence in the U.S. rose last week to the highest level in more than five months and the pace of firings declined, showing an improving job market is bolstering the biggest part of the economy.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index (COMFCOMF) climbed to minus 44.8 in the period ended Dec. 31, the best reading since mid-July, from minus 47.5 the prior week. Applications for jobless benefits (INJCJC) decreased by 15,000 during the same time to 372,000, according to Labor Department figures.

A pickup in hiring will further lift Americans