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LaBarge Inc. said Tuesday it received a $4.9 million contract from United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of the Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., to continue making complex wiring harnesses for the Atlas V rocket.

Production on the new contract is taking place in Berryville, Ark., and is expected to continue through late 2013.

For the past 17 years, LaBarge has made wiring harnesses and select hardware assemblies for the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which take satellites into orbit.

ULA's Atlas, along with the Delta IV and Delta II, provides launch services for Air Force, NASA and National Reconnaissance Office missions payday loans. NASA recently awarded ULA a $6.7 million contract to develop an early detection system as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program for human space flight.

St. Louis-based LaBarge Inc. (Amex: LB), led by CEO and President Craig LaBarge, manufactures electronics for various industries. The company has operations in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.

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The number of property foreclosures in Harris County was down in July as compared to a year ago, according to Foreclosure Information & Listing Service Inc.

The Woodlands-based service reports that 1,252 properties went into foreclosure in July. That’s a 2 percent decline from July 2009, when 1,278 properties experienced the same fate.

A total of 4,092 properties were posted for foreclosure this month — 8.4 percent less than the 4,466 properties posted for foreclosure in July 2009.

Foreclosure postings in Harris County have decreased each month in the second quarter when compared to the same time periods in 2009, reports Foreclosure Information & Listing Service.

Year-to-date, 26,974 properties have been posted for foreclosure — a 21 percent increase over the same time period in 2009 when 22,325 properties were posted.

So far this year, 7,839 properties have gone into foreclosure —24 percent more than in the first seven months of 2009, when 6,310 properties fell into foreclosure.

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Treasury prices rose Friday after the government said economic growth was weaker than previously estimated and a major overhaul of financial regulations cleared a legislative hurdle.

What prices are doing: The benchmark 10-year note was up 10/32 to 103-11/32 and its yield fell to 3.11% from 3.12% on Thursday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The 30-year bond rose 26/32 to 105-15/32 with a yield of 4.06%. The 2-year note gained 2/32 to 99-31/32 and its yield was 0.66%.

What’s moving the market: Economic growth for the first three months of the year was revised lower, to an annual rate of 2.7% from the previous reading of 3%. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected growth to remain unchanged at 3%.

Separately, an index of consumer sentiment rose in June to the highest level since January 2008 no teletrack payday loan. The Reuters/University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers rose to 76 from 73.6 in May. Economists expected the index to remain steady at 75.5.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in the House and Senate finalized negotiations on a bill that would overhaul the financial system. The agreement, which came after marathon talks that ended early Friday, paves the way for a final vote in July.

Treasurys were on track for a weekly gain as investors remain nervous about the economy. The Federal Reserve issued a more cautious outlook earlier this week, raising concerns about housing and the outlook for growth.

In addition, the U.S. sold $108 billion worth of Treasurys this week, including 2-, 5- and 7-year notes.  

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Pixelworks Inc. reported increased revenue, but lower earnings, for the first quarter of fiscal 2010, compared with the same quarter of 2009.

Portland-based Pixelworks (NASDAQ: PXLW), a provider of video and pixel processing technology, for the quarter ending March 31 had revenue of $18.7 million — which was down from $19.4 million in Q4 2009, when the company loss more than $700,000 — and earnings of $4.6 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with Q1 2009 revenue of $10.8 million, with earnings of $5.9 million, or 44 cents per share.

The company expects revenue in the second quarter to be $17.5 million to $19.5 million and a loss of 4 cents to 24 cents.

Pixelworks’ stock ended trading Thursday at $5.62 per share, up 29 cents. The stock has a 52-week range of 62 cents to $5.98.

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Signs were erected this week welcoming bicycles to K Street Mall following a 23-year ban on bikes.

Bicycles were banned from the K Street Mall in 1987 when light-rail tracks wer einstalled.

The signs encourage cyclists to yield to pedestrians and designate the speed limit for bicyclists, among other warnings.

The City Council in November unanimously amended a city ordinance to lift the bike ban. It took effect Dec. 24, 2009.

“Creating greater connectivity for all modes of tranportation continues to be a top priority in maintaining a safe and reliable multi-modal transportation system for the city and the region,” Department of Transportation director Jerry Way said in a news release on line pay day loans. “This is another important accomplishment toward that priority.”

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Monsanto shares rallied to a record in November 2007 when executives declared the company would double gross profit in five years.

As recently as January, CEO Hugh Grant and other senior managers insisted they were on track to meet the goal. After all, Monsanto’s queue was stocked with promising new seed technologies to help meet a growing demand for food.

But on Wednesday, Grant retreated, saying the company won’t meet its 2012 target of gross profit, which is a company’s sales less the cost of the goods and services sold.

“Moving away from our original set of goals is difficult for us to accept, but it’s the right thing to acknowledge now,” he said in a conference call with analysts and investors.

The announcement caps a turbulent past year for Monsanto. The Creve Coeur-based company is the subject of a federal antitrust investigation. It was forced to shed hundreds of jobs and slash prices for its best-selling weed killer because of a glut of generic product from China. And it isn’t selling as much of its new biotech corn and soybean seed as expected because some growers have balked at the higher price.

However painful to do, backing off its 2012 profit pledge was the right choice in the long run, analysts said.

“We don’t like it when we see companies do unwise things to meet a near-term goal at the expense of long-term growth,” said Dan Ortwerth, an analyst at Edward Jones.

Monsanto’s lower outlook came as the company reported on Wednesday a 19-percent drop in fiscal second-quarter earnings.
Monsanto’s net income — gross profit less all other costs — fell to $887 million, or $1.60, for the quarter ended Feb. 28, versus $1.09 billion, or $1.97, in the same three months a year ago. Sales fell 3.6 percent to $3.89 billion.

Excluding costs related to a corporate restructuring last year, Monsanto’s earnings matched the $1.70-a-share average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Monsanto said full-year profit would be at the low end of the previously announced range of $3.10 to $3.30 a share. The company forecast earnings growth of 13 percent to 17 percent a year beginning in 2011 — a much slower rate than investors had been accustomed to.

The company’s stock slid 2 percent on Wednesday to $68.09 on the New York Stock Exchange. That’s less than half its all-time high of $142.69 set in June 2008. So far this year, the stock has fallen 17 percent.

The biggest drag on Monsanto’s profitability since then has been the decline in its Roundup business.

On Wednesday, Monsanto further cut gross profit projections for its Roundup business to $600 million, from $650 million to $750 million. Only a year ago, the same segment generated $1.8 billion in gross profit.

The reason for the steep drop in Roundup profit: a flood of Chinese-made generic weed killer saturating the U.S. market that forced Monsanto to slash prices.

Just a week ago, the nation’s only other glyphosate manufacturer, Ankeny, Iowa-based Albaugh Inc., filed an anti-dumping petition with the U.S. government.

Monsanto faces competitive pressure in the seed business too.

As a result, the company indicated that it would retool its product strategy, a move that will include some price cuts, to drive higher adoption rates for new products.

Monsanto said earlier this year that its new SmartStax corn and Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans would be planted on fewer acres than previously forecast.

Ortwerth said the higher-priced offerings met with some resistance among growers at a time of declining crop prices.

“The recession made farmers a bit hesitant to adopt new products,” he said.

That became evident to Monsanto executives after “listening sessions” with some 1,200 farmers, Grant said.

“The feedback that I have personally from growers is that if our price points were different, their adoption curves would be different,” he said. “When you get told the same thing often enough, it’s pretty compelling.”

The CEO said he was still as confident as ever in Monsanto’s long-term growth prospects, its $1 billion-a-year R&D efforts and the fundamentals of the global agriculture business. But don’t expect any more bold, long-term profit forecasting.

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The U.S. House of Representatives passed a contentious health reform plan Sunday that includes mandates for expansions of Medicaid and coverage for young adults and other without medical insurance.

Arizona's congressional delegation split along party lines with the state's five Democrats voting in favor of the bill and three Republicans opposing it.

The bill does not include creating a public option, government system to operate along side private insurers, but it does restrict private companies from limiting coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

The health care vote and the economy are expected to be key issues in GOP efforts to unseat U.S. Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick of Flagstaff, Gabrielle Giffords of Tucson and Harry Mitchell of Tempe.

“I am putting my district first again by voting for this reform package. Health insurance reform is critical to ending denials of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, making sure our children can get the care they need and protecting our seniors from unaffordable prescription drug costs, Kirkpatrick said in a statement instant payday loan.

"I was able to make important improvements to this bill, including addressing the potential costs for AHCCCS," she said. AHCCCS is Arizona's Medicaid program and previous plans created concerns that some states, such as Arizona, would lose out on federal matching funds.

Mitchell said in a statement released Sunday that rising health care costs are burdening the economy and stifling recovery.

"We cannot sustain the path we are on because health care costs are burdening Arizona families, hurting the economy and slowing the recovery,” Mitchell said.

Joanna Burgos, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the passage of the legislation will hurt the economy because of mandates and spending, and that Giffords and Mitchell bowed to pressure from the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

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The U.S. Department of Transportation said Thursday that traffic fatalities in 2009 reached their lowest level since 1954.

Highway fatalities totaled 33,963 nationwide last year, according to the DOT, a drop of 8.9% from 2008, when deaths on the road totaled 37,261.

The government also said that the fatality rate in 2009 declined to 1.16 fatalities per 100 million miles traveled — the lowest rate ever. This is down from a rate of 1.25 fatalities the prior year.

The DOT also said that fatalities have been in decline for 15 consecutive quarters, through the end of 2009.

Traffic deaths reached a "near-term" peak in 2005, then plunged 22% through 2009, the government said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration attributed the decline in deaths to its campaigns for increased use of seatbelts and against drunk driving, as well as safer roads and safer vehicles. 

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European Union finance ministers are uniting to oppose President Barack Obama’s proposal to limit banks’ size and risk-taking, saying his plan may run counter to EU policy, according to a draft document.

Their position, which they will ratify at a two-day meeting starting today, comes after Obama last month urged the adoption of the so-called “Volcker rule,” named for former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. The plan would bar commercial banks from owning hedge funds and limit how much they can trade for their own account.

The finance officials gathering in Brussels will express “their concern that the application of the ‘Volcker’ rule in the EU may not be consistent with the current principles of the internal market and universal banking,” the document obtained by Bloomberg News said. “Any policy choice should avoid pushing risks to other parts of the financial system.”

The resistance underscores political divisions over how to overhaul banking regulations to prevent a repeat of the crisis that forced taxpayers to prop up the financial system. While leaders have called for a Group of 20 initiative, the U.S., Britain, and France are forging their own policies to limit compensation and risks.

At a meeting this month in Canada, Group of Seven finance ministers signaled they are rallying around a plan to introduce a levy on banks if it can be applied worldwide business cards design.

The Feb. 10 draft, entitled “Issues note on the most recent proposals of the U.S. administration in respect of Systemically Important Financial Institutions and the introduction of a financial crisis responsibility fee,” was prepared by a committee of officials from finance ministries, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

EU Proposals

The three-page memo also considered proposals including levying a stability fee on banks and creating national or pan- European funds for future bailouts.

Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg last month presented a plan to create a fund for future banking crises. In contrast, the Netherlands’ Wouter Bos last month wrote a letter to his counterparts welcoming Obama’s proposals and calling for a “serious debate” on the U.S. plan at the meeting in Brussels.

Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the group of euro-area finance ministers, last month voiced concern about a common approach on bank levies given that taxes are a matter dealt with at the national level of the 27-member bloc.

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Knight Security Systems has won a contract with the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services to install security cameras at the San Antonio State Supported Living Center.

This is a home that cares for 300 mentally disabled people in San Antonio. The video cameras should help ensure residents are being kept safe.

The work is being done in San Antonio as part of a statewide contract between Aging and Disability Services and Houston-based Knight. In all, a total of 12 state-supported living centers will receive the company’s cameras.

The contract is worth $12 million.

Knight will install a total of 3,200 video cameras in 335 buildings.

Founded in 1983, Knight Security Systems has worked with more than 3,000 Texas customers since its inception.

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