USDA warns stripe rust showing up in Northwest

Stripe rust, a stubborn fungal disease that has afflicted wheat fields during the past several years, is again developing quickly across the Pacific Northwest.

Xianming Chen, a researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the disease is appearing sooner than usual because of warm weather and recent moisture.

The fungus grows on the leaves of wheat plants. It is rust-colored, proliferates in cool, wet weather and can be spread by the wind.

If left untreated, the disease can sap the plant’s strength and cut harvest yields.

In his research report, Chen said the winter wheat crop looks good throughout south central and southeastern Washington. But the rains that have helped the wheat also encouraged the stripe rust.

He found the fungus in wheat nurseries near Pullman and farmers in Oregon are reporting high-infection rates in their fields.

It’s been an especially troublesome disease as new strains continue to develop and attack wheat varieties that may not have good resistance.

Leading indicator index drops

New York A closely watched index designed to forecast future business activity fell in March, a sign that the nation’s economic growth may be slowing.

The Conference Board reported Thursday that its Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators fell 0.4 percent last month to 115.1. The decline was slightly larger than that expected by analysts, who had forecast a 0.3 percent drop in the index.

The March drop followed a rise of 0.1 percent in February and a revised 0.3 percent decline in January.

The March reading points to an economy that, while descending through some turbulence, is making a fairly normal and expected transition to slower growth, economists said.

Also Thursday, the Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits plunged by 36,000 last week, the biggest drop in three years.

The drop, which government analysts cautioned was vastly overstated by special factors, pushed the number of applications down to a seasonally adjusted level of 296,000. It the third straight week of declining claims.

Analysts said the weekly figures were skewed by the early timing of Easter, and pointed to the four-week moving average of claims as a better indicator. That figure declined by 8,500 to 330,250.

Qwest ups MCI takeover offer

Denver Qwest Communications submitted another higher offer for MCI Inc. Thursday, increasing its cash-and-stock bid to $9.74 billion, about 30 percent higher than the buyout deal that MCI has accepted from Verizon Communications Inc.

Qwest’s latest bid of $30 a share injects fresh uncertainty into a deal in which MCI directors — who have twice embraced Verizon over Qwest — could now be forced to accept a far higher offer.

The Qwest bid consists of $16 a share in cash — about $2.50 higher than the previous offer — using $800 million in equity commitments from MCI shareholders, Qwest CEO and Chairman Dick Notebaert said.

The remaining $14 would be paid in Qwest stock, based on an exchange ratio of 3.373 Qwest shares per MCI share. A guarantee to protect Qwest’s stock price remained in place.

It also includes an additional $1 billion in committed financing to ease concerns about whether the combined company would have the financial resources to compete, Notebaert said in a letter to MCI’s board.

The latest bid will be withdrawn if it is not declared superior and Verizon is not notified by 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday, he said.

Earnings up for S&P companies

Earnings of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index that have issued first-quarter reports are running 38 percent higher than a year ago, Thomson Financial said Thursday.

Of the 500 companies, 188, or 38 percent, have reported earnings for the quarter as of Thursday. So far, first-quarter earnings have come in 6.7 percent higher than analysts’ expectations.

Compared with a year earlier, earnings of S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 11.9 percent in the first quarter. That figure reflects actual earnings for the companies that have reported and estimates for the rest.

First Call said 121, or 58 percent, of the 210 companies in the S&P 500 that provided previews of the first quarter as of Thursday said they will miss analysts’ expectations. First Call said 25, or about 12 percent, expect to meet analysts’ expectations, while 64, or about 30 percent, anticipate they will beat the projections.