Business Digest: Landowners group sets deadline for deal

Landowners group sets deadline for deal

SALEM

The Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley has announced a Dec. 15 deadline for landowners who would like to include their mineral rights in the group’s acreage package. The package — which now includes more than 25,000 acres — will be used to negotiate a mineral-rights lease with companies looking to explore and drill in the Marcellus and Utica shales. The association’s lease is designed to protect the interests of landowners. Landowners who commit their acres to the lease agree to abide by the terms of any lease, if it is approved by a majority vote of the membership.

There are no fees or percentages charged to become a member of the ALOV. Membership in the association is free. Expenses are covered by voluntary donations. For information, contact Bob Rea at 330-337-3100, Mark Shaffer at 330-482-0961, or e-mail lmusser1@neo.rr.com.

Stocks end mixed

NEW YORK

Stocks ended flat Monday after expectations that a tax-cut package will pass the Senate kept them higher for much of the day. If enacted, the package will extend tax cuts passed during the Bush administration for all income levels for another two years. It will also extend unemployment benefits through next year and put in place a one-year reduction in Social Security taxes.

Traders were also encouraged by a handful of deals announced Monday. General Electric Co. is paying $1.3 billion to buy British oilfield company Wellstream Holdings PLC, and Dell Inc. is spending $960 million for network storage company Compellent Technologies Inc.

The S&P 500 index eked out a new 2010 high for the fourth time in four days. The index rose 0.06 point to 1,240.46.

Fewer homeowners are underwater

NEW YORK

The number of homeowners who owe more than their houses are worth fell for the third-straight quarter this summer. About 10.8 million households, or 22.5 percent of all mortgaged homes, were underwater in the July-September quarter, housing data firm CoreLogic said Monday. That’s down from 23 percent, or 11 million households, in the second quarter. The decline came mainly because more homes had fallen into foreclosure and not because home prices had increased.

In a healthy housing market, about 5 percent of homeowners with a mortgage owe more than their homes are worth, CoreLogic’s economist Sam Khater estimates. The ranks of underwater borrowers likely will rise because home values are expected to fall through the middle of next year.

Fed buys bonds

NEW YORK

Treasurys swung from losses to gains after the Federal Reserve stepped into the market to buy government bonds Monday. The 10-year Treasury note rose 31.2 cents in afternoon trading. That nudged the yield to 3.28 percent, down from 3.33 percent late Friday.

The Fed bought $7.8 billion in Treasurys, part of its $600 billion effort to spur the economy. Before the Fed’s late-morning purchase, the 10-year yield reached 3.36 percent, its highest level in six months.

Vindicator staff and wire reports