June 23, 2009 in Business

Business in brief: Red Lion to join Russell 2000

• share
• email
• print

Red Lion Hotels Corp. announced it expects to be added to the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks by week’s end, when the Russell Investment Group reconstitutes the 2000 and other indexes.

Red Lion President Anupam Narayan said the listing will raise the company’s profile among investors. Red Lion’s stock price, which bottomed out at $2.01 on Jan. 29, closed Monday at $4.30.

Indexes track the value of a group of stocks and serve as a benchmark for the performance of other investments.

Spokane-area stocks already in the Russell 2000 index include Avista Corp. and Nighthawk Radiology Holdings Inc.

Obama expects more joblessness

WASHINGTON – The White House says double-digit unemployment is coming soon.

In an interview with Bloomberg last week, President Barack Obama said he expected the nation to reach 10 percent unemployment sometime this year.

The current unemployment rate reached a 25-year high of 9.4 percent in May.

Republic may take on Frontier

MINNEAPOLIS – Frontier Airlines appears to have found a way out of bankruptcy protection: Republic Airways Holdings says it will sponsor the bankruptcy exit plan of the Denver-based carrier.

Indianapolis-based Republic says that if creditors and the bankruptcy judge approve, then Frontier would become one of its subsidiaries. Republic operates a regional airline under its own name as well as Chautauqua Airlines and Shuttle America.

Frontier filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2008.

U.S. regulators charge brokers

WASHINGTON – Federal regulators on Monday charged a New York brokerage firm said to be secretly controlled by Bernard Madoff and a prominent California investment adviser with securities fraud, accusing them of funneling billions of dollars from investors into Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced civil fraud charges against Cohmad Securities Corp., its chairman, Maurice “Sonny” Cohn, his daughter, Chief Operating Officer Marcia Cohn, and vice president and broker Robert Jaffe.

Named in a second SEC lawsuit was investment adviser Stanley Chais, a longtime Beverly Hills philanthropist, who allegedly oversaw three funds that invested all of their assets – nearly $1 billion – with Madoff.

They were crucial to the success of Madoff’s $50 billion fraud scheme, the regulators said.

• Story
• Comments

No comments on this story so far. Add yours!