BC-Business News Digest

Business News at 1:30 p.m.

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All times EST.

TOP STORIES:

FEDERAL RESERVE

WASHINGTON — Investors will be watching closely for any hints of how a Janet Yellen-led Federal Reserve might differ from the path set by her predecessor, Ben Bernanke. The Yellen era will begin in earnest when the Fed ends two days of policy discussions. It will be her first meeting as Fed chair, a position she assumed Feb. 3, after Bernanke stepped down after eight high-profile years. By Martin Crutsinger. SENT: 730 words. UPCOMING: Will be updated with 2 p.m. release of Fed policy statement.

With:

— FED FORECASTS — The Federal Reserve issues its updated quarterly economic forecasts. By Christopher S. Rugaber. UPCOMING: 130 words after forecasts are released at 2 p.m., 300 words by 2:45 p.m. With sidebars as merited.

WEALTH GAP-TALE OF TWO BRITAINS

LONDON — There's London. And then there's everything else. A tale of two Britains has increasingly emerged since the Great Recession. While politicians trumpet the country's recovery from the financial crisis and its status as the world's fastest-growing developed economy, the rhetoric hides an increasing divide: One that pits London's boom against the malaise in cities such as Manchester and Birmingham. Buoyed by foreign investment and a resurgent financial industry, the economy of London and the surrounding South East region has expanded almost twice as fast as the rest of the country since the financial crisis. London's ability to attract jobs and investment is leaving the rest of the country struggling. By Danica Kirka. SENT: 1,700 words, photos.

TOYOTA-GENERAL MOTORS

Toyota's saga of recalls, investigations and lawsuits related to unintended acceleration foreshadows some of what General Motors faces as it resolves issues related to a faulty ignition switch linked to at least 12 deaths. Some things are clear: The damage to the company's sales and reputation is a greater risk than the financial liabilities. And failing to be up front with regulators and Congress about safety issues can come back to haunt the company. Less certain is whether individuals will be charged and how the car-buying public will react. By Tom Krisher. UPCOMING: 850 words by 4 p.m., photos, video.

WITH:

UNITED STATES-TOYOTA

The government announces a $1.2 billion settlement with Toyota, including an admission by the automaker that it misled consumers and hid information from regulators and Congress related to defects that caused Toyota and Lexus vehicles to accelerate unexpectedly. The Justice Department says the penalty is the largest its kind imposed on an auto company. By Eric Tucker and Tom Krisher. SENT: 1,120 words, photo, video.

MARCH MADNESS STREAMING

LOS ANGELES —Every year, the NCAA college basketball tournament gives workers a reason to goof off at their desks and root for their alma maters. But this year, there's a new potential source of headaches for bosses. Media companies like hosts CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s Turner are doing all they can to promote what's become known as "TV Everywhere" — services that add value to the price of cable and satellite TV packages by allowing subscribers to watch live TV on smartphones and tablets while on the go —and on the job. Although people have been able to stream games live over the Internet for years, employers have always had the option to block content to keep productivity high. But that's hard to do when workers are bringing their own devices and using their cellphone data plans to engage in March Madness. By Ryan Nakashima. UPCOMING: 700 words by 3 p.m.

SMALLBIZ-SMALL TALK

NEW YORK — As more cities mandate paid sick days for workers, the reaction from many small businesses is a big, so what? New York City and two New Jersey cities are the latest to require employers to give workers paid time off when they're ill or to care for sick relatives. San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Portland, Ore. and Connecticut already had sick leave laws. But in much of the U.S. similar legislation has been a bust because of opposition from business groups and some public officials. But preliminary research shows the laws have little, if any, downside for profits. Most owners don't find the required record-keeping a burden and employees are happy. By Joyce M. Rosenberg. UPCOMING 750 words, photo by 1:30 p.m.

With:

— SMALLBIZ-SICK LEAVE GLANCE

MARKETS & ECONOMY:

WALL STREET

NEW YORK — The stock market is in a wait-and-see mode ahead of the results of the Federal Reserve's first policy meeting under its new chair, Janet Yellen. Technology stocks struggled after Oracle reported earnings and revenue that fell short of what investors were expecting. SENT: 400 words.

CURRENT ACCOUNT

WASHINGTON —Large increases in exports and overseas investment income narrow the U.S. current account deficit to the lowest level in 14 years in the October-December quarter. By Christopher S. Rugaber. SENT: 130 words. UPCOMING: 300 words by 9:15 a.m.

— OIL PRICES — The price of oil is down slightly as energy markets waited for the latest figures on U.S. crude and fuel stockpiles. SENT: 400 words.

INDUSTRY:

CHEERIOS-GMOS

NEW YORK — Plain old Cheerios are no longer made with genetically modified ingredients, but the switch hasn't yet translated to a boost in sales. General Mills, the company that makes the cereal, in January announced it would start making its plain Cheerios without GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. By Candice Choi. SENT: 360 words.

— JPMORGAN-SALE — JPMorgan is selling its physical commodities business for $3.5 billion to the energy and commodities trading company Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. SENT: 210 words.

— MISSING PLANE-INSURANCE — German insurance company Allianz says it has made initial payments in connection with the missing Malaysian Airlines plane. SENT: 140 words.

— AIR POLLUTION-CRIMINAL CHARGE — A western New York industrial plant and its environmental controls manager face sentencing for illegally releasing the carcinogen benzene into the air and improperly handling hazardous sludge. SENT: 150 words. UPCOMING: Will be updated from 10 a.m. sentencing.

— GERMANY-BMW — Germany's luxury carmaker BMW predicts that underlying earnings this year will easily outstrip last year's. In a speech at the carmaker's home base in Munich, CEO Norbert Reithofer said that the company would sell more than 2 million vehicles, up from last year's 1.96 million. SENT: 150 words.

— EU-AUTO PARTS CARTEL — The European Union fines two EU and four Japanese companies a total of nearly 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) for rigging the market of key components in the car and truck industry at the expense of consumers. SENT: 130 words.

— BOEING 787-MANUFACTURING — Federal aviation officials say Boeing's design and manufacture of its cutting-edge 787 jetliner is safe despite the many plane's many problems since its rollout. SENT: 280 words.

EARNINGS:

— EARNS-FEDEX — FedEx says its profit rose 5 percent from a year ago despite storms that raised the company's costs. But its results were below analysts' expectations. SENT: 470 words, photo.

— GERMANY-EARNS-BMW — Luxury automaker BMW AG reports fourth-quarter and full-year earnings figures. UPCOMING: 130 words by 7 a.m.

— SPAIN-EARNINGS-INDITEX — Spanish fashion retailer Inditex, which owns Zara stores, says its profits barely grew in the year to end-January as it continued to invest heavily in new stores globally. SENT: 130 words.

— EARNS-GENERAL MILLS — Rough winter weather took a bite out of General Mills' fiscal third-quarter sales, and the cereal maker's results missed Wall Street expectations. SENT: 310 words.

TECHNOLOGY & MEDIA:

DIGITAL LIFE-REVIEW-SAMSUNG TABLET

NEW YORK — Samsung's new tablets are aimed at professionals, offering a larger screen than most other tablets and the ability to run up to four apps at once on the same screen. By Anick Jesdanun. UPCOMING: 800 words by 4:30 p.m., photo.

GAMES-GAME DEVELOPERS-SONY

SAN FRANCISCO — Sony is getting into the virtual reality business. The Japanese electronics and gaming giant unveiled a prototype virtual reality headset to be used in conjunction with its PlayStation 4 video game console at the Game Developers Conference. By Derrik J. Lang. SENT: 430 words, photos.

EUROPE-MOBILE-TELECOMS

PARIS — After focusing on wireless services, Europe's telecom companies are having a renewed love affair with wires. In what some industry observers are calling a "Back-to-the-Future" moment, the need for faster and wider pipes to deliver video and other data-intense applications is driving a raft of tie-ups between telecoms and cable operators that is only expected to accelerate. By Greg Keller. SENT: 840 words, photos.

— WHITE HOUSE-CLIMATE — The Obama administration hopes to fight global warming with the geeky power of numbers, maps and even gaming-type simulations. SENT: 370 words.

— MOBILE-ADVERTISING — Research firm eMarketer says it expects worldwide spending on mobile advertising to reach $31.5 billion this year, a 75 percent increase from 2013. By the end of this year, eMarketer says mobile will account for nearly a quarter of total digital ad spending. SENT: 210 words.

— IBM-NEW YORK GENOME CENTER — IBM and its Watson cloud computing system are partnering with the New York Genome Center to help it sequence DNA for the treatment of brain cancer. SENT: 490 words.

INTERNATIONAL:

RUSSIA-COST OF CRIMEA

MOSCOW — Despite the pebble beaches and cliff-hung castles that made Crimea famous as a Soviet resort hub, the Black Sea peninsula has long been a corruption-riddled backwater in economic terms. The Kremlin, which decided to take the region from Ukraine after its residents voted in a referendum to join Russia, has begun calculating exactly what it will cost to support Crimea's shambolic economy — which one Russian minister described as "no better than Palestine." Here's a look at what Crimea needs most and the challenges Russia faces. By Laura Mills and Nataliya Vasilyeva. SENT: 970 words.

BRITAIN-ECONOMY

LONDON — British Treasury chief George Osborne delivers the bad news that austerity is due to continue — even as he announces more money for childcare and housing. By Danica Kirka. SENT: 570 words, photos.

FRANCE-KERVIEL

PARIS — France's highest court upholds a prison sentence for one-time rogue trader Jerome Kerviel Wednesday but threw out the 4.9 billion euro ($7 billion) in civil damages he'd been ordered to pay back. SENT: 530 words.

TAIWAN-CHINA-PROTEST

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Hundreds of opponents of a trade pact with China occupy Taiwan's legislature, in the most serious challenge to date to President Ma Ying-jeou's policy of moving the democratic island economically closer to Communist China. By Peter Enav. SENT: 580 words, photos.

— FRANCE-ARGENTINA — Argentine President Cristina Fernandez is meeting with her French counterpart in Paris and is expected to discuss ways to tackle her country's growing international debt. SENT: 250 words.

— BRITAIN-NEW POUND COIN — After 30 years of work, the pound coin is ready for a makeover. The Royal Mint will replace the weighty flat piece with a 12-sided coin made with two separate metals. SENT: 120 words.

— GREECE-FINANCIAL CRISIS — Greek civil servants, including hospital and teaching staff, have started a two-day strike against austerity measures imposed under the debt-mired country's international bailout commitments. SENT: 160 words, photos.

— FRANCE-CORRUPTION — International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde is being questioned by Paris magistrates investigating a corruption case that also involves the chief executive of French telecoms group Orange. SENT: 150 words.

— NEW ZEALAND-CHINA-CURRENCY — China allowed its currency to be directly traded with the New Zealand dollar in another step toward allowing greater international use of the yuan. SENT: 210 words.

— NEPAL-STRIKE — Police say they detained dozens of people for torching vehicles and forcing shops to close in Nepal's capital during a general strike to protest a hike in fuel prices. SENT: 140 words.

— JAPAN-TRADE — Japan reported its 20th straight monthly trade deficit in February as soaring energy imports continued to offset the value of exported goods. SENT: 230 words, photos.

— CANADA-FINANCE MINISTER — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has named Joe Oliver as finance minister after Jim Flaherty resigned after eight years on the job. SENT: 280 words.

A sampling of Money & Markets modules is below. The full digest for AP's Money & Markets service can be found at markets.ap.org. For questions about Money & Markets content, please contact Trevor Delaney (800-845-8450, ext. 1807). For technical support: Todd Balog (816-654-1096). After 6 p.m., contact the AP Business News desk (800-845-8450, ext. 1680) for content questions; 1-800-3AP-STOX for technical support and 212-621-1905 for graphics help.

CENTERPIECE

Catalog clout

Williams-Sonoma's catalogs regularly fill mailboxes around the country and the approach works. Nearly half of the company's sales are direct-to-consumer -- either through catalogs or online. On the heels of reporting strong holiday sales, shares of the home goods company are trading near an all-time high. UPCOMING: Graphic expected by 6 p.m.

COMPANY SPOTLIGHT

Winter hurts General Mills

General Mills says that severe winter weather impacted its fiscal third-quarter sales, as the cereal maker reported results that missed Wall Street expectations. UPCOMING: Graphic expected by 6 p.m.

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