Sonic plans to use the proceeds to redeem a portion of other senior notes due in 2013.

The new notes will carry an interest rate of 9.125 percent and will be priced at 99.299 percent of par.

Shares of the automotive retailer rose 5 cents to $11.63 in afternoon trading.

Source: Sonic Auto to s...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. mortgage applications nudged higher last week, reflecting increased demand for home purchase loans even as interest rates trekked higher, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

If demand for purchase loans, a tentative early indicator of home sales, continues to climb it will bode well for the hard-hit U.S. housing market, which remains highly vulnerable to setbacks and heavily reliant on government intervention.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications, which includes both purchase and refinance loans, for the week ended March 5 increased 0.5 percent.

The four-week moving average of mortgage applications, which smooths the volatile weekly figures, was up 0.8 percent.

Bill Emerson, CEO of Quicken Loans in Livonia, Michigan, said the lofty level of homes either on the market for sale or about to hit the market through foreclosures and short sales are the biggest threat to the U.S. housing market.

"This inventory will pressure prices, so many people are sidelined right now, waiting for prices to fall further," he said.

The MBA's seasonally adjusted purchase index increased 5.7 percent, while its seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications decreased 1.5 percent.

"While many people have already refinanced over the past year, there is still a huge amount of borrowers who can benefit from it," he said.

Many mortgages, however, are "under water," he said. This negative equity has been one of the biggest banes of homeowners, making many unqualified for home loan refinancing and preventing some from selling. Borrowers in negative equity, meaning they owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth, are more prone to defaults and foreclosures.

Stricter lending standards, higher fees, and declining incomes have also made it tougher on borrowers. Unemployment and underemployment too -- the Labor Department last week said the U.S. unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent in February.

The MBA said borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding fees, averaged 5.01 percent, up 0.06 percentage point from the previous week and above the all-time low of 4.61 percent set in the week ended March 27, 2009. The survey has been conducted weekly since 1990.

Mortgage rates are expected to rise when the Federal Reserve -- the U.S. central bank -- stops buying mortgage-related securities at the end of March.

"The Fed will likely take a step back to see if the private sector steps up and starts purchasing the bonds," Emerson said. "If they do not, mortgage rates could move significantly higher."

The lowest mortgage rates in decades and high affordability helped the hard-hit U.S. housing market find some footing in 2009 after a three-year slump. Recent data on new and existing home sales, however, say the sector is still struggling.

"It is a slippery slope right now in the housing market," he said.

The MBA said the refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 67.2 percent from 69.1 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage, or ARM, share of activity increased to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent, the highest since November 2009.

The MBA said fixed 15-year mortgage rates averaged 4.32 percent, up from 4.27 percent the previous week. Rates on one-year ARMs increased to 6.80 percent from 6.77 percent.

(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: Home loan deman...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – WTO chief Pascal Lamy was in Washington Wednesday for talks with US officials and lawmakers amid an uphill effort to wrap up the long-running Doha Round of global trade talks by this year.

Lamy met with US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a Treasury spokesman told AFP, but declined to provide details about their talks.

And, according to the Geneva-based World Trade Organization, Lamy is scheduled to hold separate talks with President Barack Obama's top trade official Ron Kirk and US lawmakers.

The Doha Round of negotiations for a trade liberalization deal began in 2001 but has been dogged by disagreements, including on how much the United States and the European Union should reduce aid to their farmers and the extent to which developing countries such as India and China should lower tariffs.

Lamy had suggested that March was probably the last moment when any breakthrough in talks could allow a deal to be sealed by the end of 2010 as requested by leaders of the Group of 20 developed and emerging nations.

The Doha Round had focused on dismantling obstacles to trade for poor nations, by aiming for a deal that would cut agriculture subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods.

Deadlines to conclude the talks have been repeatedly missed.

Lamy had said last month that he was against inviting ministers to a planned stock-taking meeting in Geneva in March, saying it was "too early" and would be "best undertaken by senior officials at this stage."

Kirk, the US trade representative, said on Tuesday that Washington was working to achieve "a balanced and ambitious conclusion to the Doha Round that promotes meaningful market access for all nations and enhances economic development among the world?s poorest nations."

He had earlier said, in a report to Congress on Obama's 2010 trade policy agenda, that nations such as China, India and Brazil should clarify their market-access measures in a bid to break the Doha deadlock.

While the United States was forthcoming about its market-opening commitments, it was unsure how much Americans would benefit from reciprocal steps by the advanced developing nations, he said.

Kirk said the United States remained convinced that a Doha success could be achieved if all major economies were willing to come to the negotiating table.

Kirk warned that "a weak agreement" would ultimately also weaken the WTO, the global trade watchdog.

Source: WTO chief holds...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Calling himself a realist, Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday scaled back his proposal to raise income taxes, shifting to a call for an increase of just one percentage point to be used solely for preventing deep cuts to education.

The rest of Illinois' record-breaking $13 billion budget deficit should be addressed mostly by borrowing money and letting more unpaid bills pile up, Quinn said in a brief speech to legislators.

Letting more bills pile up could be disastrous for those who need help with child care, job training, services to the elderly, drug counseling and more. The local organizations the state hires to provide those services, which already are struggling to survive, could go under if they don't get paid.

The Democratic governor did little to lay out the potential impact of his proposed budget or to explain why he was retreating from his past proposals for a larger income tax increase. Quinn did, however, refer to the difficulty of raising taxes in an election year.

'I'm still an optimist, but I'm also a realist,' Quinn said.

Quinn's budget proposal calls for cutting spending by more than $2 billion, with education taking a hit of $1.3 billion.

But he called it shortsighted to cut education spending and challenged legislators to approve an income tax 'surcharge' instead.

Quinn's budget director, David Vaught, said later that the governor is proposing a permanent increase and that it would generate about $2.8 billion a year. The state's personal income tax rate is now 3 percent, so Quinn's proposal would increase the rate by one-third.

Quinn rejected calls for across-the-board budget cuts. His opponent in the fall election, Republican Sen. Bill Brady, favors cutting all of state government by about 10 percent.

'That approach is both heartless and naive. Taking a chain saw to our state budget ... is just plain wrong,' Quinn said.

Lawmakers last year rejected Quinn's proposal to raise income taxes by 50 percent. Now, in an election year, lawmakers aren't any more eager to consider the idea.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, called it brave of Quinn to call for a tax increase. 'That doesn't mean it's going to happen,' Madigan added in an interview with public television.

Lawmakers could pass a temporary budget and postpone any politically touchy decisions until after the November election. At that point, legislators will be safe from voter backlash and Quinn will either have won a full term or have been beaten by Brady, who opposes any increase.

Although Quinn called for a tax increase, he did not include it in the formal budget he's submitting to the Legislature. Instead, his budget addresses the deficit by cutting expenses by $2 billion, borrowing $4.7 billion to pay old bills and letting about $6 billion in new bills pile up for another year.

State employees would have to take unpaid days off, saving $200 million. Prescription drug benefits for the elderly would be cut in half, saving $70 million. The state would share less tax money with local governments, saving about $300 million.

Quinn proposed a $2,500 tax credit for each new job created by small businesses. He said it would create 20,000 jobs.

Source: Quinn seeks inc...

LONDON (AFP) – The euro staged a modest turnaround against the dollar Wednesday in featureless trading as dealers looked for signals on prospects for the world economy and a proposed European monetary fund.

The single European currency moved up over 1.36 dollars late in the trading day after losing ground on disappointing economic data from Germany, the eurozone's leading economy.

German exports dropped by an unexpectedly sharp 6.3 percent in January from the previous month, official statistics showed. It was the first monthly fall since August and came as imports grew by 6.0 percent.

The euro later firmed in response to what analyst Michael Hewson of CMC Markets said were "technical" reasons, with investors adjusting their positions ahead of expected macroeconomic data.

Markets were waiting for US figures on trade and weekly jobless claims that are scheduled to be released on Thursday.

The euro in late-day operations was at 1.3652 dollars against 1.3598 late Tuesday in New York.

The dollar was meanwhile trading at 90.66 yen after 89.96 on Tuesday.

Analysts said the euro may also have drawn strength from a German government statement on its controversial proposal for an IMF-style European Monetary Fund to shore up financially distressed eurozone economies.

Berlin said the fund could serve to strengthen the Stability and Growth pact, which sets financial discipline standards in the eurozone, rather than weaken it.

Critics have dismissed such a fund as irrelevant and unnecessary, warning that it could in fact encourage reckless spending by governments confident of being bailed out.

"There is no unanimity on the topic, however, as reflected in other cautious, if not negative, official comments," said Frederik Ducrozet of Credit Agricole CIB.

"However, the Greek crisis highlights the need for new institutional tools in order to deal with sovereign default and to reinforce the credibility of European fiscal rules in the long run."

The proposal by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had raised hopes among currency traders for a concrete plan to stabilise public finances in eurozone member Greece.

Investors have continued to keep a wary eye on Greece and the risk that other eurozone countries might be vulnerable to the sort of public debt crisis that is plaguing Athens at the moment.

The Portuguese government said this week it would cut spending, delay investment and sell state assets in an attempt to fix the country's finances.

"The Greek credit crisis remains a cause of concern, keeping investors away from riskier currencies" such as the euro, said Masatsugu Miyata, a forex dealer at Hachijuni Bank.

The British pound, meanwhile, languished underneath 1.50 dollars following Tuesday's dire trade data and an ominous warning about the nation's stretched public finances.

"The pound was hit by yesterday's increase in Britain's trade deficit in January which surprised the market and sent the pound tumbling," said Hewson.

"The pound was dealt a further blow when Fitch ratings criticised the credibility of the government's budget plans, warning that Britain risks a loss of investor confidence and erosion of its 'AAA' rating unless it maps out clear austerity measures."

In London on Wednesday, the euro was changing hands at 1.3652 dollars against 1.3598 dollars on Tuesday, 123.77 yen (122.35), 0.9123 pounds (0.9066) and 1.4616 Swiss francs (1.4616).

The dollar stood at 90.66 yen (89.96) and 1.0708 Swiss francs (1.0747).

The pound was at 1.4966 dollars (1.4994).

On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to 1,120.50 dollars an ounce at the fixing from 1,115.75 dollars an ounce on Tuesday.

Source: Euro rebounds, ...

The company reported a net loss of $15.5 million, or 68 cents per share, better than the $53.6 million, or $2.37 per share, loss in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue for the period slid 44 percent to $181.3 million on lower sales in its metals and plastics segments. But factors like the cost of materials and a sharply lower impairment of goodwill expense helped make up for the lower revenue.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of 26 cents per share on revenue of $190.1 million.

For all of 2009, A.M. Castle lost $26.9 million, or $1.18 per share, compared to $17.1 million, or 76 cents per share, in 2008.

Company shares rose 6 cents to $13.44 in afternoon trading.

Source: A.M. Castle 4th...

The rise in sales pushed the inventory-to-sales ratio, a measure of how long it would take to sell stocks at the current sales pace, to a record low of 1.10 months' worth from December's 1.12 months, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

The drop in the ratio, which has trended lower for three straight months, indicates that wholesalers might be closer to replenishing their warehouses, which should boost economic growth.

Total wholesale inventories slipped 0.2 percent, smaller than the revised 1 percent drop in December, the department said. December inventories were previously reported as having dropped 0.8 percent.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected stocks of unsold goods at U.S. wholesalers to rise 0.2 percent in January.

A sharp slowdown in the pace at which businesses are liquidating inventories contributed to the U.S. economy recording its fastest growth rate in more than six years in the fourth-quarter.

The rebuilding of inventories is expected to lend support to growth in the first quarter of 2010. The economy resumed growth, with an additional boost from government stimulus, in the second half of last year following the worst downturn since the 1930s.

When businesses increase inventories or slow the rate at which they are liquidating them, they need to meet more demand out of current production, which lifts gross domestic product.

There are worries that the recovery could stall when the boost from inventories and government stimulus fades as consumer spending remains lackluster amid high unemployment.

Officials from the Federal Reserve meet next week and are expected to maintain their pledge to keep interest rates at ultra low levels for an "extended period" to nurse the recovery.

Sales at wholesalers rose 1.3 percent, the 10th straight increase, to $346.7 billion in January, after rising by a revised 1.2 percent the previous month. December sales were previously reported as 0.8 percent higher. Analysts had expected sales at wholesalers to rise 0.7 percent in January.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

Source: Wholesale inven...

WASHINGTON – Businesses trimmed inventories at the wholesale level again in January even though sales rose for a 10th consecutive month. The dip in inventories underscored that businesses remain cautious about restocking their depleted shelves.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that inventories at the wholesale level were reduced 0.2 percent in January following a 1 percent drop in December. Sales were up a solid 1.3 percent, the best showing since a 3.6 percent rise in November.

Economists are hoping that the steady gains in sales will soon prompt a sustained rebound in inventory restocking. That would trigger increased factory production and provide support for the fledgling recovery.

Analysts believe the stage has been set for such a rebound given how lean inventories are at present following a massive inventory liquidation that occurred during the recession. Inventories at the wholesale level for 13 straight months and have been down 15 of the past 17 months. The only gains in wholesale inventories occurred in October and November.

With the January drop in inventories, the ratio of inventories to sales dipped to a record low of 1.10, meaning it would take 1.10 months to deplete inventories at the wholesale level given the January sales pace. That was the lowest point since the data series began in 1992.

The January drop in inventories was a disappointment. Economists had expected inventories would post a small increase of 0.2 percent. The government also revised the December report to show a bigger inventory drop of 1 percent rather than the 0.8 percent fall that was originally reported.

Mike England, an economist at Action Economics, said that he looked for the bigger drop in inventories in December to contribute to a downward revision in the gross domestic product for the fourth quarter. He predicted GDP would be trimmed from a 5.9 percent growth rate to 5.5 percent. He said he expected the GDP to grow at a 2.3 percent rate in the current January-March quarter.

Robert Brusca of FAO Economics said he believed part of the decline in inventories in December and January reflected a bigger-than-expected sales gain which prompted businesses to draw down their stockpiles more than they planned.

'The acceleration to a strong growth rate for sales is clear evidence that the drop in inventories probably was not intended,' Brusca said in a research note. 'All this suggests that inventory building should resume and do so with considerable gusto.'

Economists believe that the current recovery can't be sustained until businesses begin consistently restocking their depleted shelves. That restocking would mean higher orders to factories and growing demand for manufacturing workers.

Wholesalers hold 25 percent of all inventories with factories holding about one-third and retailers holdings the rest.

Businesses slashed inventories by massive amounts during the recession as they struggled to control costs in the face of a deep recession and falling demand for their products.

But the economy got a boost in the final three months of last year from a slowdown in the inventory liquidation process.

The swing from massive inventory reductions contributed two-thirds of the economy's overall growth of 5.9 percent in the October-December period. Economists are now hoping to see the beginning of sustained inventory rebuilding.

Source: Wholesale inven...

WASHINGTON – Unemployment rose in 30 states in January, the Labor Department said Wednesday, evidence that jobs remain scarce in most regions of the country.

The data is somewhat better than December, when 43 states reported higher unemployment rates, but worse than November, when rates fell in most states.

Still, five states reported record-high joblessness in January: California, at 12.5 percent; South Carolina, 12.6 percent; Florida, 11.9 percent; North Carolina, 11.1 percent; and Georgia, 10.4 percent.

Michigan's unemployment rate is still the nation's highest, at 14.3 percent, followed by Nevada, with 13 percent and Rhode Island at 12.7 percent. South Carolina and California round out the top five.

There were some signs of job creation. Thirty-one states added jobs in January, up from only 11 in the previous month. But the job gains weren't enough, in many cases, to lower the unemployment rate.

For example, California reported the largest job gains, of 32,500, though its unemployment rate also rose. Illinois, New York, Washington state and Minnesota reported the next highest totals of new jobs.

The lowest unemployment rates are still found in upper Plains states, with North Dakota's jobless rate of 4.2 percent the lowest in the nation. Nebraska and South Dakota had the next lowest rates, at 4.6 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively.

In January, the national unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 10 percent the previous month. Last week, the Labor Department said the national rate was unchanged in February at 9.7 percent, a better reading than most analysts expected.

State unemployment data for February won't be released until later this month.

Source: Unemployment ri...

The lawsuit claims the woman manipulated the widow, who was suffering from dementia, and cheated a number of Israeli charitable, education and research organizations that were the rightful beneficiaries.

A defense attorney maintains the lawsuit centered on the estate of Walter and Anna Bronner is fiction, and courts all over the world have agreed.

The case has touched down in Monaco, Liechtenstein, New York, London, Panama and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., -- where the Bronners had a condominium and lived part-time.

"It is all a spun yarn," said Charles C. Kline, the White & Case attorney in Miami representing Gislhaine Whyte. "What you're seeing in Florida is just the tip of the iceberg."

Whyte wasn't a housekeeper, Walter Bronner wasn't a Holocaust survivor, and his wife didn't suffer dementia, Kline said.

Whyte was a former staffer at a Big Eight accounting firm who helped Anna Bronner set up the Walanpatrias Foundation in Liechtenstein to benefit a number of organizations in Monaco and Israel after her husband, Walter, died in 1996, Kline said. Anna died in 1999.

Whyte lived in Monaco, where people who don't want for money reside, he said.

Anna Bronner set up the foundation in Liechtenstein because her native tongue is German, and she felt more comfortable there, Kline said.

The directors of the foundation are Whyte, attorney Mario Simmen of Liechtenstein and banker Paul-Marie Jacques of Monaco. All three are being sued by St. Lucia-based AMP Services, which claims it is the true trustee of the Walter and Anna Bronner Trust.

Kline claims AMP is a front for the Weizmann Institute of Science, an Israeli research group behind the litigation.

Anna Bronner included the Weizmann Institute as one of the beneficiaries when she set up Walanpatrias but didn't hand over the entire estate.

"This is all about a charity being disappointed that they didn't get all the assets," Kline said. "Instead, he leaves it to his wife, and she sets up a foundation."

The plaintiffs tell a far different story. The litigation alleges most of the estate went to the three directors, not organizations in Israel or anyplace else.

"Shockingly, the millions of dollars that they paid themselves for 'director fees' and 'expenses' exceed the monies distributed by the foundation to the various good causes of Israel that meant so much to Anna and Walter Bronner," attorney Robert Brochin, a Miami partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius wrote in a memorandum of law filed in state court in January 2009.

Brochin, who represents AMP, said it would not be appropriate to comment on the pending case.

9 CHARITABLE GROUPS

AMP represents nine charitable groups designated by Walter Bronner in his 1995 will, but control of the estate went to his wife when he died.

Walter Bronner made his money after escaping Nazi-occupied Germany. He founded Wal-Bron, a Colombian company that he eventually sold to Quaker Oats.

"Because his father and many relatives were murdered in the Holocaust, Walter Bronner was fervently pro-Israel," reads the fourth amended complaint filed in 2008.

The Bronners put their assets in a shell company called Monavest, and Whyte was elected to the Monavest board of directors within a month of Walter Bronner's death.

She was hired as a "housekeeper and secretary" at the Bronner's Monaco home in 1994, and her duties provided with her access to the childless couple's confidential paper, the lawsuit alleges.

Two years later, the Bronners told Whyte they planned to move to South Florida permanently.

The amended complaint implicates Whyte in Walter Bronner's death. The Bonners had just told Whyte they planned to move to Florida and said her services were no longer wanted.

BRONNER CREMATED

The litigation accuses Whyte of intentionally concealing the circumstances and cause of Walter Bronner's death.

Without consulting the designated executor of the estate, Whyte had Walter Bronner cremated "despite the fact that cremation is contrary to Jewish tradition and typically repugnant to Holocaust survivors."

No Bronner relative to this day knows where his remains are located even though he purchased burial plots for himself and his wife in New York, the lawsuit alleges.

"Walter Bronner died under suspicious and unknown circumstances," the lawsuits states.

Bronner died at 86 from congestive heart failure, far from a suspicious cause of death, Kline contends.

The lawsuit goes on to allege Whyte isolated Anna Bronner, "keeping her prisoner in her own home," before taking her to Liechtenstein to set up the foundation that she helps control.

It was the Weizmann Institute that formed the trust in St. Lucia to bring the litigation, claiming it was the trustee, Kline said. The institute also pressed its claim in Panama, arguing Whyte illegally forced her way onto the board of Monavest.

The Bronners during their lifetime donated $1.5 million to the Weizmann Institute, which established a garden and named a brain research wing in their honor.

The Internal Revenue Service hasn't been quiet in the mess, pressing a tax liability claim against both the St. Lucia trust and the Walanpatrias Foundation for $86 million.

Kline said the lawsuit from the start has been full of hyperbole.

He said it is disingenuous to call Walter Bronner a Holocaust survivor. The Czechoslovakia native moved to Paris, made his way to Colombia and never spent time in a Nazi internment camp.

And he said Anna Bronner, who was not Jewish but German, was not "physically and mentally enfeebled," as the complaint alleges.

"She swam in the pool every single day until she was 92," Kline said. "She was a very alert lady."

$100 MILLION CHALLENGE

Weizmann has not been successful so far in its pursuit of assets in the estate in Monaco.

A $100 million challenge to the estate was transferred to New York from London by Walanpatrias, but Kline said it will be closed with a consent summary judgment.

In a major development, Broward Circuit Judge Mark Speiser last month dismissed four substantive charges in the civil lawsuits-- accounting, contribution, unjust enrichment and conversion. AMP is appealing to the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach.

Kline said despite the sensational claims in the 2002 lawsuit, none relates to the counts. He said the Walanpatrias Foundation was set up to benefit many of the original beneficiaries, but not the Weizmann Institute.

With lawsuits pending in Fort Lauderdale and elsewhere, no money has been issued to any charities for nearly a decade, while the value of the Bronner fortune has waxed and waned at the mercy of world markets.

A lot of the money was invested with Lehman Brothers, which went bankrupt in 2008.

"The real losers here have been the charities," Kline said. "We could have been giving the money away if it wasn't for this one greedy charity that screwed it up for everybody else."

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Source: Charities Sue O...