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Home values rise but sales fall in Feb.

March 16, 2007

Memphis area home sales plummeted in February when compared with last year, according to the Memphis Area Association of Realtors.

There were 1,202 home sales in the Memphis area in February, down 10 percent from 1,336 last year.

Sales volume for February totaled $203 million, down 7.5 percent from $219.5 million last year.

While the number of sales and sales volume slowed in February, the median sales price of homes increased.

The median price for a home sold in February was $133,600, up from $128,900 last year.

"Sales price appreciation in February continued at the steady pace we've historically seen, demonstrating again the relative strength of the Memphis market as compared to other markets that have been experiencing decreases in valuation," said MAAR president Neil Hubbard.

NATIONAL

FTC wants more info on Whole Foods

The Federal Trade Commission wants more information about Whole Foods Markets Inc.'s purchase of rival natural-foods retailer Wild Oats Markets Inc.

The companies said in regulatory filings Wednesday that they received the requests from the FTC the day before.

Last month, Austin-based Whole Foods announced that it would pay $565 million, or $18.50 per share, for Boulder, Colo.-based Wild Oats. Whole Foods has experienced slower growth recently, increasing pressure on company executives.

Wild Oats operates about 110 natural foods stores in 24 states and Canada under several names, including Wild Oats Marketplace and Sun Harvest.

Shares of Whole Foods rose 25 cents, to $44.45, and Wild Oats shares fell 8 cents, to $18.13 Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

GE to buy PHH for $1.8 billion ,/b>

General Electric Co.'s leasing, financing and asset management business plans to buy PHH Corp., a top provider of mortgages and services for managing vehicle fleets, for about $1.8 billion, the companies said Thursday.

Under the all-cash deal, GE will then sell Mount Laurel, N.J.-based PHH's mortgage operations to an affiliate of a private investment and advisory firm, New York-based The Blackstone Group. Terms of that deal were not disclosed.

GE Capital Solutions will pay $31.50 per share for PHH, giving its stockholders a 13 percent premium over the shares' closing price Wednesday.

The news pushed PHH shares up $3.44, or 12 percent, to close at $31.25, while GE shares rose 22 cents to $34.53, both on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bear Stearns 1Q profit up 8%

Bear Stearns Cos., Wall Street's largest underwriter of mortgage securities, on Thursday reported first-quarter profit rose 8 percent despite turmoil in the subprime lending sector.

Its profit after paying preferred dividends rose to $548.5 million, or $3.82 per share, for the three months ended Feb. 28 from $508.7 million, or $3.54 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $2.48 billion from $2.19 billion last year.

Wall Street expected earnings of $3.80 per share on revenue of $2.49 billion, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Its shares rose $2.81, or 1.9 percent, to close at $148.10 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Greenspan: Little mortgage spillover

The troubles plaguing lenders of risky mortgages are not likely to spill over into the broader economy unless housing prices see another substantial dip, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday.

Greenspan said that as home prices dipped, "subprime borrowers have not been able to build up enough equity."

If home prices drop in a year, he predicted that could cause the problems to "spill over into other areas."

Mounting concerns about risky mortgages by subprime lenders who provide loans to people with poor credit histories have been making investors jittery. Those fears prompted a sharp drop on Wall Street earlier this week and they contributed to a worldwide stock meltdown on Feb. 27, where the Dow Jones industrials suffered a 416-point plunge.

INTERNATIONAL

Bayer 4Q earnings surge

Bayer AG said Thursday its fourth-quarter earnings surged, buoyed by strong growth in its health care business, and the drug and chemical maker forecast that annual group sales would rise at least 5 percent as it benefits from the acquisition of rival Schering AG.

The company said it earned 311 million euros ($410 million) in the October-December period, compared with 46 million euros a year earlier, beating the 62 million euros ($81.73 million) that analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted.

Sales during the fourth quarter rose 25 percent to 7.97 billion euros ($10.51 billion) from 6.37 billion euros in 2005.

Bayer shares rose 3.25 percent to close at 44.13 euros ($58.18) in Frankfurt.

OPEC keeps output at agreed levels

OPEC decided Thursday to stick to already agreed-on output levels while paying more attention to curbing overproduction -- a decision that could push prices higher by taking up to 700,000 barrels of crude a day off world markets.

Oil prices slipped below $58 per barrel after the announcement.

OPEC members have generally expressed satisfaction with their oil fetching around $60 a barrel in recent weeks and their decision to stick with the status quo reflected their desire to keep prices around that level.

Output could fall even without newly mandated reductions if ministers implement compliance with cuts agreed on in the past four months.

In meetings in Qatar in October and Nigeria in December, OPEC agreed to take a combined 1.7 million barrels a day off global oil markets as they sought to shore up sagging oil prices and shrink burgeoning inventories.