Briefcase

Small corn surplus forecast for 2012

ST. LOUIS – The U.S. government barely changed its estimate for next year’s corn surplus, which is expected to stay small and keep food prices high.

The Department of Agriculture estimated Friday that farmers will have 848 million bushels of corn on hand at the end of next summer. That’s up less than 1 percent from last month’s forecast.

Next year’s surplus would satisfy demand for fewer than 25 days. A 30-day supply is considered healthy.

Higher corn prices have pushed overall food inflation up this year. Corn is an ingredient in everything from animal feed to cereal to soft drinks. The USDA expects food prices to have increased 4.5 percent in 2011. They estimate prices will rise as much as 3.5 percent next year.

Fears of a corn shortage pushed the price to a record high of $7.99 a bushel in June. Corn prices have eased slightly since then to around $6 per bushel.

Corn traded for about $2 a bushel for several years until 2005. Government mandates and subsidies that year helped ethanol businesses expand.

Associated Press

HP will open up code for webOS software

SAN FRANCISCO – It may be one of the technology world’s most expensive efforts to give something away: Hewlett-Packard Co. said Friday that it’s making its webOS mobile system available as open-source software that anyone can use and modify freely.

HP snagged the intuitive webOS software when it paid $1.8 billion in 2010 for Palm Inc. in what became a failed effort to revive the flailing smartphone pioneer. HP said it still plans to develop and support webOS.

First released on the Palm Pre smartphone in 2009, webOS ultimately ran on several smartphones. In July, HP also used it on its tablet computer, the TouchPad.

The webOS software was marked by its multitasking capabilities and the ability to view open apps as “cards” that you can slide across the screen, tap to enlarge or flick to dismiss.

HP hopes that by offering it to the open-source community, more mobile apps will be developed. The move could also mean that other consumer-electronics manufacturers would decide to make devices that use the software.

Associated Press

MF Global customers to get $2 billion more

The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of MF Global has approved releasing $2.2 billion more in frozen funds to customers of the firm.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn issued an order Friday that clears the way for customers to regain some of their money.

It’s the third transfer of funds to MF Global customers since the firm filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31. The transfer will bring the total distributed to customers so far to about $4.1 billion.

Once completed, MF Global commodities customers will have recovered about 72 percent of their money, according to the trustee for the liquidation of the brokerage firm.

The frozen funds are separate from the $1.2 billion or more that is estimated to be missing from MF Global customer accounts.

Associated Press

Dividend increased for GE investors

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – General Electric Co. raised its quarterly dividend by 2 cents to 17 cents per share, the industrial and electrical giant’s fourth increase in two years.

That’s still down from a quarterly dividend of 31 cents paid in April 2009 as the financial crisis flared up.

The company said Friday the new dividend is payable Jan. 25 to shareholders of record at the close of business Dec. 27.

GE shares climbed 3.2 percent, or 53 cents, to $16.84 on Friday.

Associated Press