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Marriott loss shrinks, 2003 outlook reduced
BETHESDA, Md. >> Hotel operator Marriott International reported a smaller fourth-quarter loss than a year ago today, but lowered its outlook for 2003.Bethesda-based Marriott posted a loss of $37 million, or 15 cents per share, for the quarter ending Jan. 3 versus a loss of $116 million, or 48 cents per share, a year earlier.
The fourth-quarter results included charges from Marriott's exit from its senior citizen housing business and service distribution operation. Without the charges, Marriott earned 55 cents per share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call predicted Marriott would earn 54 cents per share, not including the charges.
Fourth-quarter revenue per available room rose 7.4 percent in North America and 13.9 percent overseas.
The company said it expected 2003 revenue per available room would be about the same as in 2002, but profit margins were expected to drop one to two points because of the rising costs of casualty insurance and medical benefits. The company predicted earnings for the year would be between $1.85 and $1.95 a share. Marriott had said earlier it expected 2003 earnings to range between $2.05 to $2.15 per share.
The company estimates don't include any impact from a possible conflict in Iraq, Marriott said.
Moody's cuts American debt rating
FORT WORTH, Texas >> AMR Corp., owner of American Airlines, had the ratings on about $13 billion in debt cut by Moody's Investors Service as losses mount without a significant reduction in operating costs.Moody's lowered its senior implied rating for AMR to B3 from B1, and its senior unsecured rating for both AMR and American to Caa2 from B2. Ratings on the company's secured debt also were cut. All of the ratings are below investment grade, and Moody's warned it may cut them further.
Reams of paper delay Fastow case
HOUSTON >> A judge granted a 90-day delay in the case of former Enron Corp. chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, giving lawyers on both sides more time to handle the huge amount of paperwork resulting from the case.Fastow, 41, was indicted Oct. 31 on 78 counts of fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and other charges related to Enron's fall in 2001. He pleaded innocent and is free on $5 million bond.
Nation's gas prices jump nearly 11 cents
CAMARILLO, Calif. >> Gasoline prices jumped nearly 11 cents per gallon over the past two weeks, an industry analyst said yesterday.The average weighted price for gasoline nationwide, including all grades and taxes, was about $1.63 per gallon Friday, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 stations nationwide.
Gasoline cost about $1.52 a gallon on Jan. 24, the date of the last survey.
"The higher prices at the pump follow price hikes for crude oil and home heating oil," analyst Trilby Lundberg said.
Over the past two months, crude oil prices have risen by $8.19 a barrel to $35.12, largely due to fears of war in the Persian Gulf and the oil production strike in Venezuela, Lundberg said.
JAPAN
Declining exports shrink Japan's surplus
TOKYO >> Japan's current account surplus shrank in December as exports fell for the first time in four months, adding to evidence the world's No. 2 economy may have contracted last quarter.The surplus narrowed 1.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted &YEN986.7 billion ($8.2 billion) from &YEN1 trillion in November, the Ministry of Finance said today.
Exports fell 4.7 percent from a month earlier on a current account basis, snapping a three-month gain. Declining exports make it more likely that a report this week will show the economy is headed for its fourth recession in a decade, economists said.
The economy probably shrank 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter, government figures Friday will show, according to the median forecast of 36 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
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