Auto sales hurdles seen as temporary

DETROIT – February threw snowstorms and other roadblocks at the auto industry, but U.S. sales of new cars and trucks are still poised to hit their highest level in more than a decade this year.

Freezing temperatures, disruptions at West Coast ports and rising gas prices took a bite out of U.S. auto sales last month. Still, most automakers reported gains, and analysts say lost sales should be made up as the weather warms in March.

Toyota and Subaru reported double-digit sales increases over last February, and Hyundai surprised with sales up 7 percent.

But others came in below analysts’ expectations. Chrysler, General Motors, Honda and Nissan all saw gains of 6 percent or less. Ford’s U.S. sales dropped 1.9 percent. Volkswagen’s sales fell 5.2 percent.

Industry sales were up 5.3 percent to 1.25 million, according to Autodata Corp. That fell short of expected gains of 8 or 9 percent, but the mood in the industry remained positive.

Yellen: Fed learning from 2008 crisis

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve has worked hard to correct the mistakes exposed by the 2008 financial crisis, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday.

The Fed cannot eliminate the possibility of a future banking crisis, Yellen said. But she said the central bank can make them less likely and less damaging by limiting excessive risk-taking and making sure that the nation’s biggest banks are better prepared to weather future problems.

Before the crisis, the Fed focused too much on regulating individual firms and did not pay enough attention to ensuring the stability of the entire financial system, she said.

The steps the Fed has implemented include requiring banks to hold more capital to cushion against losses and testing them annually to see whether they can survive a severe economic downturn.

Yellen’s remarks came during a speech in New York to the Citizens Budget Commission.

JPMorgan to pay $50M in homes settlement

NEW YORK – The U.S. Department of Justice says JPMorgan Chase will pay $50 million to 25,000 homeowners for failing to properly review payment-change notices sent to homeowners who were in bankruptcy.

The Justice Department says JPMorgan Chase acknowledged it filed about 25,000 payment change notices that were sent to homeowners without a proper review. They were signed in the names of employees who no longer worked for the company or who hadn’t reviewed the filings to check their accuracy.

About 25,000 additional forms were signed by employees of another company who weren’t responsible for checking the accuracy of the filings.

Survey: CEOs’ outlook best in three years

WASHINGTON – Chief executives at the largest U.S. companies are more optimistic about the state of the economy, and their outlook for sales over the next six months is the best in three years, according to survey results released Tuesday.

Expectations for capital spending and hiring also increased in the quarterly findings from the Business Roundtable, a trade association of CEOs at major corporations.

Expectations for economic growth this year improved to 2.8 percent, up 0.4 percentage points from the fourth-quarter survey.