Finance and Economic

The majority of people in a new poll say the Hewlett-Packard Co. board was right to force CEO Mark Hurd to resign over an ethics scandal.

Of the respondents, 55 percent said HP (NYSE: HPQ) did the right thing in forcing Hurd to resign, while 33 percent said he should not have been forced out. The remainder were undecided.

Hurd spent 25 years in Dayton with NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR) before leaving to join HP in 2005. While at NCR, he also headed up the data warehouse division that was spun off into Miami Township-based Teradata Corp. (NYSE: TDC).

One person who voted in the survey said, "CEO's today, as never before, must demonstrate through their behavior exemplary values; integrity, responsibility and accountability to name a few."

Another person took the opposite view, saying "The HP board needs to be replaced. They failed on Fiorino, they failed on Dunn, the other board member who resigned, and now we are led to believe they failed on Hurd. No one knows exactly what Hurd did anyway. And the company lost $8 billion in value on the stock drop?"

In further breaking down the results, 47 percent said they agreed with what HP did because CEO's should be held to the same standard as other employees. However, 28 percent said he should only have been reprimanded.

"I don't think we have the whole story. It is possible the Board wanted him out and this was a objective means to achieve their goal," said another person who commented on the poll.

The BizPulse Survey ran Aug. 11 to Aug. 14 on the Dayton Business Journal Web site and had 186 responses. While not a scientific poll, it reveals the attitude of the business community in the days following the announcement of Hurd's departure.

For more on this story, including Hurd's full connections to Dayton through the years, click the following DBJ stories in our continuing coverage:

Mark Hurd - Rise and fall of a CEO

Report: Mark Hurd agrees to pay settlement

Hewlett-Packard stock plummets on CEO scandal

HP CEO Hurd to get $12M severance payout

Full text of Mark Hurd's separation agreement with HP

HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns amid sexual harassment scandal

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Servigistics bought Conduit Internet Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Atlanta-based Servigistics provides software to help companies manage their parts inventory.

Conduit, headquartered in State College, Pa., provides product content management technology for OEM and dealer-based service organizations.

"Conduit's content management solutions will give potential and existing Servigistics clients extended capabilities to drive revenue through the service chain by granting more visibility and access to critical content necessary to support their distribution channels," said Eric Hinkle, CEO of Servigistics, in a statement paydayloans.

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UNC-School of the Arts has named David Nelson of Raleigh as the school's next chief academic officer, according to an announcement.

Nelson most recently was senior vice president of academic administration at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. In that role he led more than 60 full-time faculty members and oversaw an $11 million annual budget. Southeastern Baptist has about 2,500 students.

UNCSA Chancellor John Mauceri said Nelson was the unanimous choice of the search committee.

“David is a theologian, philosopher, scholar and a musician," Mauceri said. "He had an immediate grasp of the complexities and opportunities the CAO position at UNCSA affords. He will make a great partner in mapping the future course of our school and its academic programs."

Nelson's appointment will take effect July 15.

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Shares of rig operator Transocean Ltd. rose more than 10 percent Friday after analysts downplayed the company’s liability in the Gulf oil spill.

As Congress continues its investigation of the disaster, analysts say that Transocean’s potential liability appears to be declining. The rise in shares helps recover at least some losses after Transocean’s stock began its slide from about $90 per share just before the explosion of the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig, which Transocean operated for BP.

Shares of Transocean (NYSE: RIG) closed Friday at $54.61, up $5.18 from its previous close.

The company, which has its corporate headquarters in Switzerland but maintains a significant presence in Houston, is faring better than other firms involved in the Gulf oil spill.

Both BP and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. suffered downgrades from rating agencies this week.

BP (NYSE: BP) took a downgrade by Moody’s Friday when the agency lowered the company’s rating from A2 to Aa2 on fears of the escalating cleanup and liability costs. That’s the third downgrade by a rating agency this week for BP.

Anadarko (NYSE: APC), which holds a 25 percent stake in the Macondo well where the Deepwater Horizon exploded, was downgraded by Fitch to “negative” from “stable” earlier this week after the agency estimated the spill could cost Anadarko up to $6 billion.

The Houston Business Journal is providing continuous coverage of the Gulf oil spill.

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The Denver area has made “discernible progress” in recovering from the recession, with two straight quarters of economic growth, “but that growth has yet to be translated into jobs,” says Mark Muro, co-author of the latest quarterly “Mountain Monitor” report on the Intermountain West’s economy from the Brookings Institution and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

Denver was the only metro area in the region where the unemployment rate at the end of the year’s first quarter wasn’t higher than a year earlier, the report notes.

But overall, the study says the cities of Colorado and neighboring mountain states are “at once recovering and still struggling.”

“For the first time in three decades, the region finds itself unable to lead the nation out of a recession and [is] forced into a period of serious questioning about the sources of future growth with further federal stimulus unlikely,” the study says. “In these new, uncharted territories, certain corners of the Mountain West face the prospect of being left behind the rest of the country and virtually all of the region’s metropolitan areas have to re-evaluate the basics of the Western growth model.”

The quarterly Mountain Monitor analyzes data on jobs, output, home prices and foreclosure rates for the Intermountain West’s metro areas. The most recent report covers the first quarter.

Among the report’s key negative findings for the region:

• “The 10 largest Intermountain West metropolitan areas made little progress towards recovery between the last quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 as steeper-than-before employment declines weighed on the region low fee payday loans.”

• “Despite growing [output] by 1.1 percent this quarter, the Intermountain West’s large metros suffered a further employment setback of 0.6 percent” from the previous quarter.

• “Employment recovery eludes the entire region, and not a single metro [in the mountain states] made progress between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 in recouping jobs lost to the recession.”

• “Home prices … remain depressed [in the region]. This quarter’s annualized price depreciations were steeper than last’s in every metro.”

“Reversing earlier gains, … the region’s overhang of real estate-owned properties — foreclosed properties that failed to sell at auction and are now owned by lenders — increased during the first quarter of 2010 and remains extremely high.”

On the other hand, the report says that “all but two of the region’s metros — Albuquerque and Las Vegas — grew [in terms of “gross metropolitan product”] at a faster clip than did the nation or large metros on average. Relatively high growth rates in Denver, Ogden [Utah], Phoenix, and Tucson [Ariz.] place these metros into the top performance [20 percent] nationally.”

The report covers Colorado as well as Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Click here for the full report.

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Wise readers don’t want to overpay when investing in mutual funds. Here’s a typical question on the subject: "You wrote about paying attention to mutual fund expenses but never said what are acceptable expenses or how much is too high. Can you elaborate?"

Fund expenses include many things, such as commissions or "loads" when you buy a fund and/or redemption fees or "back-end loads" when you sell it, as well as ongoing operating expenses, including a management fee to the people who manage the fund’s portfolio.

Funds sold by brokers typically charge commissions when you buy and/or redemption fees if you sell before a certain time. Commissions for large purchases tend to be lower in percentage terms. Or, in lieu of a commission to buy, you may pay higher ongoing "service" or "distribution" fees on top of the management fees and other operating costs.

Different "share classes" of broker-sold funds reflect these different cost structures. The one that’s best for you will probably depend on how much money you invest and for how long.

I make my own investment decisions and buy only direct-marketed "no-load" funds that do not charge any commissions or loads. If you need professional advice, consider a fee-only adviser who is free to recommend any fund, including no-load funds. If you use an adviser who can recommend only from a list of load funds approved by his firm, I suggest you favor those with low ongoing operating expenses.

That way, at least your costs are low once you pay the initial load. For example, the class A shares from the American Funds Growth Fund of America, a fund with a strong long-term record, impose an upfront sales charge or load as high as 5.75 percent. But annual expenses are just 0.76 percent, about one-half the industry average for stock funds.

Ultimately, a fund’s annual operating expenses — the so-called fund’s expense ratio — may have a much greater impact on your wallet than the initial load.

Not all funds charge loads, but all funds ding you for operating expenses that subtract, dollar for dollar, from your returns.

Therefore, I will not buy a fund with an expense ratio so high that it makes it very difficult to achieve the returns I could more easily obtain with another fund.

For index funds that simply track a broad market benchmark, I want annual expenses no higher than 0.20 percent. With actively managed stock funds, I generally avoid those with an expense ratio of more than 1 percent, and for actively managed bond funds, of more than 0.50 percent.

That doesn’t mean I will never buy a fund with higher expenses, but there has to be an overriding factor, such as a consistent investment approach with a record of solid returns in good times and bad despite the higher costs.

Even then, I’ll try to find a cheaper alternative.

I have used — and can recommend — a fund analyzer tool at the website of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (www.finra.org/fundanalyzer) that lets you screen for mutual funds and exchange-traded funds based on factors such as investment objective, expense ratio and ratings by the fund analysis firm Morningstar.

You can compare as many as three funds side by side and see how their expense ratios stack up against the industry average of similar funds.

Other newly added features include one-click access to a fund’s prospectus and other disclosure documents, and a report in portable document format that you can print or save.

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Two Phoenix companies have been selected for the 2010 Inner City 100, a list of the fastest-growing inner-city businesses in the U.S. compiled by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

The program recognizes successful inner city companies and their CEOs as role models for entrepreneurship, innovative business practices and job creation in America’s urban communities.

The two Phoenix companies selected are Auction Systems Auctioneers and Appraisers (No. 27) and Meyer and Lundahl Manufacturing Co. (No. 67).

The rankings were announced at an awards dinner on Wednesday in Boston bad credit pay day loans.

“The Inner City 100 winning companies exemplify America’s remarkable potential and the road to future economic recovery,” Mary Kay Leonard, president and CEO of ICIC. “These extraordinary companies demonstrate the market possibilities that exist within our inner cities. If we can leverage these possibilities, we can create jobs, income and wealth for local residents and produce the next chapter of American innovation and opportunity.”

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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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Small business owners who provide green products or services or who want to make their operations greener can attend a free workshop in Albuquerque on March 30 to learn about financing, government incentives and best practices.

Green For All, a national organization dedicated to building a green economy, is organizing the workshop to provide small businesspeople with tools, resources and networking information to grow green enterprises. The University of Phoenix is sponsoring the all-day event.

Panels and seminars will cover lessons learned by people who run green businesses, government support and tax incentives, commercial and Small Business Administration loans, alternative sources of capital, and opportunities to partner with the national laboratories no fax cash advance. Speakers include government officials, green business owners, lenders and others.

The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the University of Phoenix campus at 5700 Pasadena Ave. NE on Tuesday.

Only individuals who own or operate an existing small business are invited to attend. All participants must complete and return a short application and receive confirmation that they have been selected to attend or they will not be admitted to the event.

To apply for participation, or for more information, send e-mail to cap@greenforall.org.

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All 50 states were hit with increases of more than one percentage point in their unemployment rates last year, according to a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The sharpest rise occurred in Michigan, where the average jobless rate for 2009 was 13.6 percent, up 5.3 points from 2008’s average of 8.3 percent.

The only other state with an increase of more than five points was Nevada, which soared from an average unemployment rate of 6.7 percent two years ago to 11.8 percent last year.

New York’s increase was 3.1 points — from an annual jobless rate of 5 freecreditscore.3 percent in 2008 to 8.4 percent in 2009.

The figures were contained in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ yearend report for 2009, which included a full set of annual averages. The results for all 50 states and the District of Columbia can be accessed by clicking here.

North Dakota was the most stable state in 2009. Its annual unemployment rate of 4.3 percent was just 1.1 points higher than its 2008 average of 3.2 percent.

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