Business in brief: United gets D.C.-Beijing route
United Airlines won tentative approval on Tuesday to operate the first nonstop daily flight between Washington and Beijing, a 14-hour trip that links the countries’ capitals as their economies become more intertwined.
The Department of Transportation’s final OK would give UAL Corp.’s United a route coveted by executives and government officials and potentially worth $200 million a year.
If it wins final approval from the government, the Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based airline can begin nonstop service between Washington Dulles International Airport and Beijing’s China Peking Capital Airport on March 25.
Philadelphia
Defaults end ‘06 at 10-year low
Corporate default rates ended 2006 at their lowest point in 10 years, but more junk-rated companies may find themselves in trouble in 2007, Moody’s Investors Service said Tuesday.
The speculative grade corporate default rate fell to 1.7 percent in 2006 from 1.9 percent a year earlier – the lowest end-of-year level since 1996, Moody’s said.
The long-term average default rate is around 5 percent.
Persistently low corporate default levels have encouraged investors to put money in the junk bond market, driving risk premiums lower. As of Tuesday morning, the average spread over Treasuries in the high-yield market was 2.92 percentage points – far lower than historical averages.
Redmond, Wash.
Office, Windows get patches
Microsoft Corp. released three security patches for its prevalent Office line of software and one for the Windows operating system on Tuesday, fixing holes that could let an outsider take control of an unwitting victim’s computer.
Two of the Office vulnerabilities and the Windows hole were deemed critical, the company’s highest threat level. The fourth, rated “important,” affects only versions of Office with a Brazilian Portuguese grammar analyzer.
One of the critical vulnerabilities can be found in Microsoft’s latest Web browser, Internet Explorer 7. But none affect Microsoft’s new Office 2007 or Windows Vista packages, which have been released to business customers.