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Inflation is back on the European Central Bank

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reiterated yesterday the need to trim the scale of government to win public support for doubling the nation

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Lincredible! Linsanity! Divine Lintervention!

Whatever pun you choose to describe it, the Jeremy Lin phenomenon is shaping up to be a big win for many retailers.

Lin, an unheralded Asian-American player from Harvard, has turned in a string of sensational performances since coming off the bench in a game earlier this month, leading the New York Knickerbockers to a surprising winning streak.

"The demand has just been unlike anything we’ve seen," said Rich Lampmann, a spokesman for Modell’s Sporting Goods, a chain based in New York City. Modell’s has sold roughly 10,000 Lin jerseys and t-shirts in the past week, and has over 160,000 more hitting shelves within the next few days.

"It’s really been sort of a catch-up game," Lampmann said. "We were literally pulling product off the presses to get it into the city."

Lin’s jersey has been the top seller for the NBA’s online store since his breakout game on Feb. 4, NBA spokeswoman Amanda Thorn said. She declined to provide exact sales figures, but said nine of the top ten sellers in the store this week are Knicks jerseys, and that Lin merchandise has been shipped to 23 different countries.

A Lin replica jersey retails sells on NBAStore.com for $59.99. Some possible counterfeits, meanwhile, seem to have already made it online — Lin jerseys were available on eBay (, Fortune 500) Friday for $29.99.

Given the Harvard grad’s recent emergence, many retailers are still scrambling to catch up with the demand for Lin apparel. Monty Marks, a senior buyer at the New England-based Olympia Sports, said Thursday that the chain was just receiving its first shipments of Lin gear after a number of inquiries from customers.

"We do expect it to be pretty good," Marks said. "The build-up has been crazy."

Matt Powell, an analyst with sporting goods industry tracker SportsOneSource, said there was still "very little product" associated with Lin in most stores nationwide.

"It’s just barely getting started," he said.

Given Lin’s Taiwanese heritage, his marketing potential in the Far East is tantalizing as well. The NBA said this week that Lin had become the number-one search on Baidu, China’s Google equivalent.

For now, Lin has a Nike (, Fortune 500) endorsement deal that he signed when he turned pro back in 2010. Brian Strong, a spokesman for Nike, noted that Lin had done a two-city promotional tour for the brand in Taiwan last summer, but was tight-lipped about future marketing plans.

"He seems to be inspiring people through his play, and we’ll continue to look at ways to celebrate that," Strong said. 

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Reliance Bancshares cut its losses in the fourth quarter by 51 percent as nonperforming loans and provisions for loan losses both declined.

Reliance Bancshares’ reported a loss of $16.4 million in the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $33.7 million a year ago.

The bank was able to reduce its troubled assets and cut overhead expenses as it seeks to return to profitability, said president and CEO Allan Ivie in a statement. For all of 2011, Reliance Bancshares lost $34 million, compared with $48.5 million in 2010.

Frontenac-based Reliance Bancshares is the holding company for Reliance Bank, which has 20 local branches.

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United Parcel Service, the world’s largest package delivery company, said Friday it is still in talks to acquire TNT Express even after the Dutch package delivery company rejected a $6.43 billion bid.

UPS said there is no guarantee that they will reach middle ground and make a deal. If UPS were to successfully buy TNT, it would significantly expand its business in Europe. The deal would be UPS’ biggest ever.

The bid works out to euro9, or about $11.84, per share. That’s based on TNT’s 534.2 million outstanding shares. TNT’s American depositary shares soared 56 percent to $12.57. UPS shares closed unchanged at $76.76.

TNT, Europe’s second-largest express delivery company, said Friday that its supervisory and executive boards carefully considered the proposal from UPS Inc., which is based in Atlanta. Both companies confirmed they are still talking about other possible outcomes.

UPS has made a couple of smaller acquisitions to bolster its operations in Europe over the last several months. In December, it said it will buy Pieffe Group, an Italian company that specializes in shipping and storing pharmaceutical products. Last week it announced the purchase of a small Belgian e-commerce company, Kiala.

TNT, which is based in Amsterdam, has been seen as a takeover target of either UPS or smaller rival FedEx Corp. for some time. Deutsche Bank analyst Justin Yagerman said in a note to clients Friday that he doesn’t expect FedEx will go after TNT, preferring instead to continue its plan of acquiring smaller companies in Europe. A FedEx spokesman said the company doesn’t comment on corporate development matters.

Last month, TNT detailed plans to split its express and mail businesses and said its CEO will step down after that separation is complete. That’s expected sometime next year.

The company’s express operations are growing, but its mail business is struggling with lower volume and disputes over layoffs. In November, it reported third-quarter net profit fell by more than half to 5 million euros, reflecting weak margins in its European businesses and losses at its operations in high-growth emerging markets.

Shareholders are set to vote on the separation in May.

TNT was split from Dutch mail company PostNL NV in May of last year.

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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.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Story as updated to correct partner’s name in headline.

Phone company Verizon Communications Inc. will challenge Netflix and start a video streaming service this year with Redbox and its DVD kiosks.

Verizon and Coinstar Inc., Redbox’s parent company, said Monday that the service will be national and available to non-Verizon customers as well. It adds another dimension to Verizon’s quest to become a force in home entertainment.

Unlike competing services from Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the new service will combine Internet delivery of movies with DVDs, the way Netflix does. Dish Network Corp. also offers a similar bundle through its Blockbuster subsidiary.

Details and pricing of the new plan weren’t announced.

Late last year, the companies were shopping around a $6-per-month offering that would give subscribers one DVD rental from Redbox per month as well as unlimited streaming of a certain selection of movies, according to a person briefed on the plan then. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity business card.

It’s not known whether the plan has changed since then, though the price is likely to be less than the $16-a-month minimum that Netflix subscribers have to pay for a combined DVD-by-mail and streaming plan.

Although consumers would pay less, Redbox’s inventory is limited to what’s in its kiosks, compared with Netflix’s library of more than 100,000 titles, including more obscure fare. Redbox customers will also have to go in person to pick up a disc, which saves the company mailing costs.

Getting an extensive library of streaming content to rival Netflix’s 20,000-plus titles will be expensive. The rising cost for streaming rights is the main reason that Netflix raised its U.S. prices by as much as 60 percent last year in a move that triggered a customer backlash.

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Singapore

Just 302,000 new homes were sold in 2011, 6.2% below 2010 and the lowest number of annual sales since the government started tracking home sales in 1963.

In December, sales of single-family homes fell 2.2% month-over-month to an annual rate of 307,000, according to estimates released by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

A consensus of experts from Briefing.com had forecast an annual rate of sales of 321,000 for December. The actual result was a 6.9% decline from 12 months earlier, when homes sold at a 329,000 annual rate.

The dismal report was a reversal of other recent housing market trends. Last week, the National Association of Realtors reported that existing-home sales rose for the third straight month in December and the Census Bureau said that construction of new homes had been gaining ground.

Pat Newport, an industry analyst with IHS Global Insight, did not put much stock in the December new-home sales report, however. "They’re not statistically significant," he said. "I think the other recent numbers, like on housing starts and permits, give a more accurate picture of the current trends in the market."

Construction gains late in the year indicate that the new home market is picking up, he said.

Still, he added, these are the lowest new home sales numbers for the nation as a whole and for three of the four regions ever recorded. Only the Midwest escaped notching a new a record low.

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The median home price for homes sold during December was $210,300 and there was a 6.1-month supply of homes at the current rate of sales.

Getting new home construction healthy again would help revitalize the economy. For every 100 homes built, 300 jobs are created, said David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. "Half of those are on construction sites and the other half are people building appliances, cabinets, carpets and other goods for the home," he said.

He’s forecasting an 18% rise in new homes sales this year. Newport, of IHS Global, is predicting a slightly lower gain of about 15%. 

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