BUSINESS BRIEFS
Consumer health indicators weak
Advertiser Staff and News Services
WASHINGTON — Consumers turned in the weakest spending performance in 17 months in February, while their confidence dropped to the lowest level in 16 years, raising further fears of a recession.
The Commerce Department said yesterday that consumer spending edged up by just 0.1 percent last month, the poorest showing since September 2006. And if the effects of inflation are removed, spending was flat in February, the third consecutive month of sluggish activity.
FED TO AUCTION $100B TO BANKS
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve announced yesterday it will auction another $100 billion in April to cash-strapped banks as it continues to combat the effects of a credit crisis.
The central bank said it would offer $50 billion at each of two auctions, on April 7 and April 21.
Through the end of March, the Fed has provided $260 billion in short-term loans to commercial banks through the innovative auction process. It also has employed Depression-era provisions to provide money to investment banks.
LENDERS STAND UP CLEAR CHANNEL
SAN ANTONIO — The lenders committed to financing the $19.5 billion private buyout of Clear Channel Communications Inc. didn't show up to a meeting of the company and buyers even after a judge issued an order barring the banks from hindering or undermining the deal, the company said in a filing yesterday.
Representatives from Clear Channel and the private equity buyers, led by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee LLC, met Thursday — the day after a temporary restraining order was issued to bar the banks from purposely sinking the deal. It also was the day previously set for the closing of the buyout.
But the lenders didn't show, and Clear Channel said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that "the company continues to be ready, willing and able to consummate the merger ..."
