Finance and Economic

Facebook unveiled a host of changes at its f8 developers conference that are already ruffling some users’ feathers.

Many of the changes take advantage of big revisions that Facebook made to its privacy settings in late March. Those changes opened the door to allow select third-party Web sites the ability to access and store some users’ personal information. (See correction below)

Those sites can use that information to show what a user’s Facebook friends have been doing on their sites. CNN, IMDB.com and ESPN.com are among the first sites signing up to use the technology. So if you’re a Facebook user reading CNN.com, you’ll be able to see what all your Facebook friends are looking at, view recommended stories and see which friends liked which stories.

Users will be able to share more of the outside Web with their social network.

"This is the most transformative thing we’ve ever done for the Web," said Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in his keynote address Wednesday. "These new technologies will help create instantly social and personalized experiences on the Web."

But even before the announcement, critics expressed concern about the privacy implications of such a service. A similar program called Beacon, unveiled in 2007, caused such a stir among users that the company canned it last year.

Some experts say Facebook learned from its mistakes with Beacon, but it still needs to frame the argument better to get its customers on board. Instead of waiting until Wednesday, Facebook somewhat covertly made the proposed change to its privacy policy late last month and opened it up for public comment.

"It’s not a surprise that the feedback has been quite negative so far," said Augie Ray, social networking analyst for Forrester Research. "Facebook needs to start framing these issues in ways that make the benefits to consumers clear. They’re being much more transparent, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement."

Despite some pushback from users, the move is part of a big effort from Facebook to continue to grow beyond facebook.com.

"It’s evident that Facebook wishes to expand its reach," said Ray. "Facebook has created a very effective and valuable destination site that eats up enormous amounts of users’ time, but for the most part, users have to go to facebook.com to get that value."

Big changes

Universal "like" button: One of the major new items that users will see is a "like" button displayed on Web sites outside of Facebook. The social network will collect that data to better understand and map its users preferences.

The "like" button on Facebook broadcasts what photos, comments or posts a user likes. Facebook announced Wednesday that "like" buttons will start to show up across the Internet, enabling users to share items with friends even when they’re not physically on facebook.com.

For instance, liking "The Godfather" on IMDB.com will put that movie in a user’s movie interests section of their Facebook page. Liking a baseball player on ESPN.com will put up-to-date information about that player in a user’s news feed.

To compliment the universal "like" button, Facebook has changed its internal "Become a Fan" button to "like" as well.

Facebook also will provide a Facebook "social bar" tool that third-party Web sites can display at the bottom of a page, which will let users access some Facebook features without leaving the site, including chat, and activity streams. Similarly, Facebook said third-party Web sites will soon be able to host a number of Facebook features on their sites.

New profiles, new pages: Facebook is changing users’ profile pages so that the "pages" section will no longer appear in a separate section on the bottom of the "info" page. Those pages will be brought up to the "interests" section.

Users will be asked to convert their interests into fan pages: Is one of your interests "The Beatles?" Well, now you can become a fan of The Beatles in a single click. By default, users will receive notifications from their fan pages in their news feed.

Facebook also added new privacy settings that allow a user to control who sees all of those connections.

Community pages: So what about interests like "hiking," "napping" or "cooking," which don’t have Facebook pages? Now they do.

Facebook unveiled about 6.5 million "community pages" this week, which take the "fan page" concept and apply them to ideas, locations or interests.

Currently, community pages are pretty rudimentary. A user can see posts from friends related to that topic as well as what the overall public is saying about it. There is also a link to a Wikipedia article on the subject. Users can’t yet add any content to these pages, but that ability will come soon.

Real-time search: Also among the biggest announcements is real-time search on third-party search sites, similar to Twitter’s service. Facebook announced that users’ public posts will be available for search on sites like Google and Bing.

"It remains to be seen how consumers would adopt real-time search of Facebook feeds," said Ray. "It’s a different kind of search from Google and Twitter — would you want to search on Google to see what your friends say?"

Correction: An earlier version of this story failed to state when the privacy changes were made. They were made on March 26. 

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Running with the herd is the most popular way to invest, because everyone will commend you for heading in the right direction.

Taking a contrarian view, on the other hand, opens you to ridicule from your peers. You may seem out of step, as if you missed getting the proper message or aren’t smart enough to grasp the obvious.

"Contrarian investing is basically going against the grain and doing the opposite of what the majority is doing," explained Paul Merriman, editor of www.fundadvice.com in Seattle. "Most people are emotional market timers, and this is indicated by their huge commitment right now to bonds."

Stock investing in general has probably been the most significant contrarian investment of the past year because investors have been so wary, Merriman believes. Many stock gains were missed as a result.

"The approach to contrarian investing is to look for companies in situations that are misunderstood and out of favor," said David Decker, manager of Janus Contrarian Fund, which used the market downturn of 2008 and early 2009 to snap up stocks such as Apple Inc.

"Just keep in mind that the market is right quite often, so being a ‘knee-jerk’ contrarian is dangerous because a good return shouldn’t be dependent on the future unfolding in the perfect fashion you envision."

Decker’s Janus Contrarian Fund is up 64 percent over the past 12 months with a three-year annualized decline of 4 percent. This "no-load" (no sales charge) fund requires a $2,500 initial investment and has an annual expense ratio of 1 percent.

His largest stock holding, the Florida-based St. Joe Corp. real estate development firm, is an out-of-favor investment he researched well. The stock had fallen 33 percent in 2007 and 32 percent in 2008, but gained 19 percent last year and is up 15 percent in 2010.

Although the company still isn’t making money, usually a bad sign, it owns land worth considerably more than its current stock price, he believes. With the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport opening near Panama City, the economic development in the region is going to expand. The fact that St. Joe owns the land around the airport has yet to be reflected in its stock price, he noted.

Investors interested in a contrarian approach either invest in a fund that is truly contrarian; find an advisor with that mindset; or research, on their own, good companies with temporary woes.

"A lot of statistical work has shown that if you bought out-of-favor stocks you would have done significantly better than the market in almost every decade since they started measuring it," said David Dreman, chairman and chief investment officer for Dreman Value Management LLC in Jersey City, N.J. "Contrarian investing is a form of value investing with a powerful research background that has worked well for 40 years."

His Dreman Contrarian Small Cap Value Fund "R" is up 65 percent over the past 12 months and has a five-year annualized return of 5 percent. This no-load fund requires a $2,500 initial investment and annual expense ratio of 1.38 percent.

An indication that Dreman is a true believer in contrarian philosophy: He invests a considerable portion of his own net worth in the fund.

He prefers companies with strong cash flow, accelerating returns on invested capital and smart management — putting money in them when their stock price is temporarily cheap. He invests across all types of industries as well as overseas markets.

"There are two possible problems with contrarian investing," cautioned Merriman. "First, value can underperform growth for a decade and you give up on it; or, second, in a depression the contrarian choices are likely the first ones to go under because they already have their own problems."

Contrarian is nonetheless a philosophy espoused by some of the best investors.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett bought into Republic Services Inc., the second-largest waste collection firm, last November. They didn’t expect high growth, but rather consistent growth and an eventual return to favor, Merriman said. The firm’s ownership of landfills is impressive, and new competitors in the field are limited.

"If the fundamentals of a company are pretty good but for some reason or another it is out of favor, it should do well over the long run," said Dreman.

At the beginning of 2009 Dreman was buying unwanted financial stocks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., PNC Financial Services and Wells Fargo, as well as out-of-favor oil service companies such as Devon Energy Corp., Apache Corp. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. The future of both groups was too bright to overlook, he believed.

"We look for an asymmetrically positive risk/reward in which the downside is relatively limited and the upside disproportionately large, then build a portfolio around those companies," said Decker. "As long as the company isn’t about to go bankrupt, the question is how much the market has priced in bad news and whether the price is attractive enough."

Major holdings in Janus Contrarian besides St. Joe include Kinder Morgan Management LLC, British American Tobacco Plc., DIRECTV Group Inc., CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. and Japan Tobacco Inc.

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Home sales in Sacramento rose significantly in March compared to the previous month, according to data released Thursday from analyst MDA DataQuick. The firm tracks sales of all types of homes, single-family homes, attached condos and new homes.

Sales increased 41 percent in the four-county Sacramento area from February, but remained at virtually the same level as March last year.

The median sales price in Sacramento county stood at $173,000, a 4.8 percent increase from a year ago. Prices in Yolo County were also higher, by 4,6 percent to $250,000 no faxing pay day loans. But the median price in El Dorado County was down 10 percent to $306,000 and was down 11.8 percent in Placer County to $317,000, DataQuick said.

On Wednesday, Sacramento-based analyst Trendgraphix reported a similar spike in existing home sales from February, which the company attributed to expiring tax credits.

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Bruton Smith, chief executive of Speedway Motorsports Inc., saw a drop in his compensation last year to $1.7 million.

Smith received $1.9 million in 2008.

According to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Smith was paid a salary of $600,000 and received nonequity incentives of $1.1 million last year.

He received a salary of $600,000 and nonequity incentives of $1.3 million in 2008.

Speedway Motorsports (NYSE:TRK) is a Concord-based promoter of motorsports entertainment. The company owns and operates Charlotte Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, Infineon Raceway in California, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway near Fort Worth.

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St. Louis — Eminent domain might yet be used to give land to developer Paul McKee.

But it could also be used to take his land away.

That prospect was raised recently when the Missouri Department of Transportation launched eminent domain proceedings against a McKee-owned holding company over five properties it owns around the foot of the yet-to-be-built Mississippi River bridge.

And while both MoDOT and McKee say the actual use of the controversial land-taking process is unlikely, the filing serves as a reminder that the developer doesn’t hold all the cards in his $8.1 billion plan to rebuild a distressed swath of north St. Louis.

The case, filed in St. Louis Circuit Court on Friday, concerns roughly three acres McKee’s Northside Regeneration LLC owns along Cass Avenue and Mullanphy Street, north of downtown, in the planned footprint of the new bridge. For months, McKee has been negotiating with MoDOT over price and rights-of-way, but the two sides haven’t reached a deal yet.

To meet requirements for federal funding on the $640 million bridge, MoDOT must make clear that it will acquire all the land it needs, said regional counsel Philip Morgan. So, the department filed paperwork to start eminent domain.

"It’s just part of our normal process. We acquire real estate all the time," he said. "Most of it we acquire by negotiation. Some of it invariably ends up in my office."

A hearing has been set for May 24, and the process will go forward from there. In the meantime, Morris said, talks continue and MoDOT is open to a deal. McKee said one is near.

"We’re very, very close," he said. "I think we’re days away from having it settled."

The threat of eminent domain — used by McKee, not upon him — has hung over NorthSide since it was unveiled last year. Despite repeated promises by both the developer and city officials that it won’t be used on owner-occupied homes, fear remains that people will be forced to move to make way for the project.

That fear is behind a lawsuit against NorthSide, which is now being considered in St. Louis Circuit Court. A ruling is expected in May by Judge Robert Dierker, the same judge who now may be asked to consider MoDOT’s request for McKee’s land, if an agreement is not reached.

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Gas prices in Denver rose again over the last week, the latest in several weeks of increases, with the average price of premium gas nearing $3 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

Monday’s average price for regular-grade gasoline in Denver is $2.66-5/10ths, up 2 cents in a week and up about 21 cents from its $2.46 price in mid-February, when prices began a slow rise, AAA says.

Mid-grade gas in Denver averages about $2.85, up 2.2 cents from a week ago. Premium gas is $2.98, up 2.3 cents in a week, and diesel is $2.84, up 2 cents in a week.

Oil prices have been gaining recently and surpassed $85 cents a barrel early Monday.

The highest price ever recorded for regular gas in Denver was $4.00-6/10ths a gallon on July 17, 2008. A year ago Monday, regular cost $1.95 a gallon.

Statewide Monday in Colorado, the average price of regular gas is about $2.71, AAA says, while mid-grade is $2.90, premium $3.03 and diesel $2.89.

Nationwide, regular gas costs an average of $2.83 Monday, up 2.8 cents from a week ago and up 9.2 cents from a month ago.

Colorado is again among the 10 states with the cheapest gas, AAA says. Pump prices are lowest this week in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, New Jersey and New Hampshire.

The Fuel Gauge Report is compiled for the AAA by the Oil Price Information Service with the help of Wright Express.

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Portland’s City Council wants more time to study last-minute amendments to a long-developing plan to reform development rules along the Willamette River’s north reaches.

The council voted to further consider whether businesses could pay a set fee for developing river-area properties, instead of “mitigating” or making environmentally friendly improvements to as much as 15 percent of their land. The council also wants businesses’ consent on a plan that would allow for further review and amendments down the road.

The north reach Willamette plan is the first of three Willamette redevelopment initiatives. Businesses say the area generates an $871 million economic impact. The Portland Development Commission estimates the area employs some 38,000 workers.

Environmentalists want to protect the stretch of the river from further industrial damage while Portland officials hope to strike a balance between environmental and business concerns.

Eventually, business interests believe the final plan should give businesses full guidance as they work within federal, state and local environmental guidelines, groups such as the Working Waterfront Coalition have argued.

Environmental groups that support the so-called “River Plan” maintain that businesses are stalling in order to delay implementation of the stricter new rules. The groups, along with Portland Mayor Sam Adams, believe the city can back a plan that allows for future changes if the rules don’t work.

The council will take at least the next two weeks before reexamining the business amendments. Commissioner Nick Fish and Randy Leonard said the council needed to get a firmer grasp on the amendments. The changes were introduced, at the behest of business, between a Feb. 17 public hearing and Thursday’s council meeting.

The council had expected to give the final River Plan a first reading Thursday and vote on it next week.

In contrast to the February public hearing, all members of the public speaking on the River Plan at Thursday’s meeting encouraged the council to adopt it. Business interests from the Port of Portland and several riverfront operations had dominated testimony during the February meeting mainly because of several sidebars that caused the evening meeting to run very late.

The city and businesses have explored north reach river development reforms for longer than a decade.

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