Roundup: Summers interested in Fed chairmanship

By Staff and Wires

Published: Saturday, July 13, 2013, 12:01 a.m.
Updated 16 hours ago

Summers expresses interest in Fed chairman nomination

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers is indicating to President Obama's Wall Street supporters that he wants to become Federal Reserve chairman, Bloomberg News reported, citing two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity. Summers, 58, who was Treasury secretary under President Clinton and Obama's first National Economic Council director, is one of the potential candidates to succeed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the news agency said. Bernanke's term expires at the end of January 2014, and the administration has started a search under the assumption that he doesn't want a third four-year term, Bloomberg News said, citing two administration officials who requested anonymity. After leaving government, Summers has advised the hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co., resumed teaching at Harvard University and writes a monthly newspaper column. Kelly Friendly, his spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Dreamliner fire spooks Boeing investors

A fire aboard an empty 787 at Heathrow Airport spooked Boeing investors Friday, as they feared the re-emergence of battery problems that grounded the plane for months earlier this year. At one point, a rapid sell-off had knocked $6 billion off Boeing's market value. The stock recovered slightly as speculation about the cause of the fire shifted away from the batteries. Shares closed down $5.01, or 4.7 percent, to $101.87. The cause of the fire on the Ethiopian Airlines plane — which broke out more than eight hours after it had landed — remained under investigation. Meanwhile, an unspecified mechanical issue caused another 787 flown by Thomson Airways to return to Manchester Airport, adding to concerns about the plane.

AT&T to buy Leap Wireless

AT&T said it will acquire Leap Wireless, the prepaid cellphone carrier behind the Cricket brand, for $15 a share in cash, or about $1.19 billion. Under the deal, AT&T will buy all of Leap's stock and wireless properties, including licenses, network, retail stores and 5 million subscribers. Leap, of San Diego, had $2.8 billion of net debt. AT&T said it will keep the Cricket brand name and provide Cricket customers with access to AT&T's “4G LTE” high-speed wireless network.

Wholesale prices up 0.8% in June

A big jump in gasoline prices pushed wholesale inflation up in June by the largest amount in nine months. But underlying inflation showed only a modest gain. Wholesale prices rose 0.8 percent in June compared with May, when prices had risen 0.5 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday. It was the biggest gain since a 1 percent jump in September. Outside of the volatile energy and food sectors, core inflation was up just 0.2 percent in June.

Other business news

• U.S. Steel Corp. announced a new general manager on Friday, promoting David E. Hathaway Jr. from his job as a project manager in Ohio. Hathaway, 46, will oversee engineering projects at all the company's North American sites. He is now based out of company headquarters Downtown and started in the post July 1, according to the company's announcement.

— Staff and wire reports

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