The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 27

YOUR MONEY, C3 Ik LOW INTEREST KATES BAD NEWS FOR THOSE WHO SAVE C3I Wall Street Watch HI' A I ELI Today's number: $6.6 billion Amount Motorola Inc. plans to invest in China during the next five years, compared with $3.4 billion since 1992, to sharply increase production there (it's China's largest foreign investor). JLJ; 4.873 0.009 ,9608.00 1120.31 20.48 1.77 0.21 0.16 1828.48 198.61 0.71 0.04 the Cincinnati enquirer Editor: Richard A. Green SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2001 Federated offers financials mm ment will handle financial planning for iTrust. Pivot will present information and rates from a broad selection of home, auto and health insurance carriers.

The iTrust venture emanated from Federated's 12-year-old Financial, Administrative and Credit Services Division, a unit that handles customer accounts, product orders and employee benefits for all Federated stores. FACS, led by Jim Amann in Mason, already constituted a Web bank with $2.2 billion in assets and customers in all 50 states and 20 countries, will offer checking accounts, money market accounts and CDs to customers delivered by Federated. Federated's FDS Bank, chartered by the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision, will make home loans with the help of Mortgagebot, the leading provider of online mortgage origination services. Ameritrade, the online securities brokerage based in Omaha, will host all securities accounts for iTrust customers.

PFN Investment Manage ingdale's calls its latest venture iTrust. The Web site is www.i-Trust.com. "What it is, basically, is a department store of financial services," said Terrance Gor-bach, senior vice president of financial services and new business at Federated. A virtual department store, that is. Federated will not be opening banks or stock brokerages in the traditional sense.

Instead, the company has joined with recognized Internet players to offer such things as online checking and family health insurance. NetBank, an Atlanta-based Banking, other services can be accessed online By James McNair The Cincinnati Enquirer Capitalizing on its 20 million credit card customers and the strength of its reputation, Federated Department Stores said Friday it has entered the online financial services business with a full menu of banking, insurance and securities offerings. The Cincinnati-based parent of Lazarus, Macy's and Bloom- LJ jr The Cincinnati EnqulrerGARY LANDERS At Federated's customer service center in Mason, Terry Gorbach is overseeing "a department store of financial services." See FEDERATED, Page CS It's Coiryville and Clifton Heights' turn I Ripe for new housing Tristate Summary Chiquita surveys storm damage Chiquita Brands International the biggest banana producer, said less than 10 percent of its crop in Honduras was damaged when tropical storm Michelle hit the area last week. The Cincinnati-based company is still assessing the impact of rains on its Guatemalan crops, Chiquita Fresh Group president Bob Kistinger said. About 10 percent to 15 percent of Chiquita's banana sales come from Honduras and Guatemala, Mr.

Kistinger said. N.C. firm to buy 2 Kentucky banks Corp. plans to buy two Kentucky banks in separate deals for a total of more than $800 million, giving the North Carolina bank a larger market share. said it will acquire AREA Bancshares of Owensboro for $450.6 million in stock.

The largest independent bank in Kentucky, AREA Bancshares has $2.95 billion in assets and operates 72 banking offices. also announced it will pay $372.4 million in cash and stock to acquire Louisville-based MidAmerica Bancorp. With $1.8 billion in assets, MidAmerica operates 30 banking offices in the Louisville area. Sherwin-Williams acquires brand Slowdown keeps lid. on prices The Associated I'ress 2rrl UJ fet 22 jo 1 Producer prices Here is a look at the Producer Price Index of finished goods.

Seasonally adjusted 1982 -100 145 140 135 130 Change from previous month 125 120 hOct Cleveland-based the larg Sept. Aug. 115 110 est U.S. paint maker, said The Cincinnati EnquirerJEFF SWINGER Rob Clawson of JFP Properties has big plans for this site in the Corryville-Clifton Heights area. The apartment project will be called The Courtyard at East University.

0.4 0.4 I it acquired the stores, 105 100 brand name and other assets from Mautz Paint Co, for an undisclosed price. WASHINGTON Wholesale prices, helped by sharp declines for energy and new cars, plunged 1.6 percent last month in the biggest declihe in more than a half-century of record keeping. The bigger-than-expected drop Friday in the Labor Department's Producer Price Index (PPI) highlighted one of the few benefits a recession can provide. Analysts predicted that the weak economy would keep a lid on prices at both the wholesale and consumer level through next year and possibly well into 2003. The 1.6 percent plunge in the PPI for October, four times what analysts had been expecting, was the largest drop since the government began tracking wholesale inflation in 1947.

Prices had been up 0.4 percent in both August and September. So far this year, prices at the wholesale level have been declining at an annual rate of 0.8 percent, a turnaround from the 3.6 percent increase last year. Economists said the report showed an absence of Mautz Paint operates 33 stores in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesu, Illinois and Indiana which sell paint under the Mautz brand. The stores will continue to operate under the Mautz name. Mi area near IS MJ AS0ND FMAMJ A SO 2000 2001 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics price pressures not only at! factories, farms and other! producers of finished goods! but also at earlier stages in the production pipeline, with costs dropping a steep 9.1 percent for crude goods.

"There's absolutely no pressure in the pipeline," said Oscar Gonzalez, an economist, at John Hancock in "Producers have no pricing power at all. For consumers and the broader that is good news." From staff and wire report CLIFTON if Cincinnati Zoo MLK Dr. Vine SL UNIVERSITY HTS CORRYVILLE CLIFTON HTS. MT. AUBURN Economics overtakes I emotion on Wall Street; Local business hub is the key By Ken Alltucker The Cincinnati Enquirer New housing is a crucial part of a plan to remake the strip of small businesses and fast-food restaurants bordering the University of Cincinnati.

Private developers and the university plan to build more than 1,600 homes for students and others in Corryville and Clifton Heights, making the area one of the most active housing markets in Cincinnati. "Conditions in Clifton (Heights) and Corryville have been not-so-great for a long time," said Rob Clawson, whose company, JFP Properties, plans three apartment projects. "If there were nice, decent places to live in Corryville, people would stick around." The new housing projects are part of an ambitious plan to revitalize both neighborhoods. Si The Clifton Heights Community Urban Redevelopment Corp. hired Chicago-based Higgins Development Partners for a $100 million redevelopment of the commercial district along Calhoun Street UC is pushing the effort to make a more presentable neighborhood for students and faculty.

Businesses are counting on the revitalization for a better chance of succeeding. Developers are willing to take a chance on new housing because they believe the remake of the business district will help retain people. Clifton Heights lost 4.7 percent of its population over the last decade and Corryville lost 13.7 percent, according to Census figures. "Crime has come down and investors are recognizing the opportunity," said Dan Schimberg, owner of Uptown Rental Properties and president of Corryville Community Council. "Rents in Corryville, on a per-square-foot basis, are as high as any- 9608.00, just above its close Sept.

10. "It's back to economics," said Chuck Stutenroth, vice, president and senior portfolio manager at Fort Washington Investments, downtown. "With every day that goes by without more bad news, a little more confidence develops in the market." Pete Sorrentino, director of equity research at Bartlett By Amy Higgins The Cincinnati Enquirer Fundamentals finally returned to Wall Street, driving blue-chip stock prices back to their pre-Sept. 11 levels. Weeks of emotional uncertainty had sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its lowest point in three years.

But a modest gain of 20.48 points Friday drove the 30-stock indicator to The Cincinnati Enquirer AMANDA MELL0 where else in the city, including Hyde Park." JFP's three apartment projects focus on UC's 27,000 students and nearly 14,000 full-time workers at six nearby hospitals University, Christ, Good Samaritan, Deaconess, Children's and VA Medical Center. JFP is interviewing contractors and See STOCKS, Page C4 See HOUSING, Page C7 What's the Buzz? HGTV, newspaper link Web efforts A California newspaper owned by E.W. Scripps Co. and the Web arm of Home Garden TV, also owned by the Cincinnati-based media company, have linked on the Internet. An initiative this week will bring home-and-gar-den-related content from the HGTV.com Web site to the Web site of Scripps' Ventura County Star.

"The best hope at the newspaper is to increase readership in our home and garden and lifestyle sections and increase interest in the site in general," said Stephen Dana, the Star's director of digital media. "HGTV is a well-known brand, and in Ventura County, there is gardening year-round." The newspaper circulates 97,000 weekday editions and 108,000 Sunday copies. HGTV.com received 1.7 million unique visitors in September. If successful, HGTV will be included on other Scripps newspaper Web sites. "We hope to do that during the first quarter of next year," said Jim Sexton, HGTV.com content editor.

Teasers promoting the new initiative between Scripps divisions will run on the newspaper's lifestyle section front and Web site. John Eckberg 'Have a tip about a Tristate company that should be included in our Buzz? Call 768-8147 or e-mail businessenquirer. com. Lower rates send market higher Bloomberg News they have, makes the rr ill equity market attrac Online Keyword: Markets For the latest onthefinan- golf cial markets visit Cincinnati.Com. Because of market volatility in the wake of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, the Enquirer Tuesdays through Saturdays is publishing a more detailed look at what happened on Wall Street Have a comment? E-mail assistant business editor Bill Ferguson at bfergusonenquirer.com or fax (513) 564-6991.

Yesterday's reaction "I almost wonder if we are going to be surprised, as the next couple of weeks develop, how quickly things turn around," said Hugh Whelan, who helps oversee $7 billion at Aeltus Investment Management Inc. in Hartford, Conn. "There still is a certain amount of skittishness out there, but we have seen some meager buying come in," said Bryan Piskorowski, market commentator at Prudential Highlights After Russia said it would support OPEC's decision to lower output, Exxon Mobil the largest publicly traded oil company, rose 75 cents to $40.25. Royal Dutch Petroleum Europe's biggest oil company, gained $1.15 to $52.35 and ChevronTexaco the No. 2 U.S.

oil company, advanced $1.90 to $89.49. Genentech Inc. gained $3.33 to $53.33. The biotechnology company said it plans to buy back $625 million worth of its common stock in the next 12 months. NEW YORK As investors gained optimism that lower interest rates will fuel the economy and the stock market, they drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its highest level since before the Sept.

11 attacks. Microsoft Exxon Mobil Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. led the gain. "We are getting close to the bottom of earnings getting worse," said John For-elli of Independence Investment LLC in Boston.

"A stable earnings outlook, with interest rates falling as low as tive. The Dow climbed 20.48, or 0.2 percent, to 9608.00. The Standard Poor's 500 Index rose 1.77, or 0.2 percent, to 1120.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.71 to 1828.48. All three benchmarks advanced for the fifth week in seven since hitting post-attack lows Sept.

21. The Nasdaq jumped 4.7 percent, while the 500 and the Dow climbed 3.1 percent. The Nasdaq has had the biggest gain. The day for the Dow Industrials Markets close at 4 p.m. 9630-9610-9590 1 9550 9530 mm LMj: 9510- 10 a.m.

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