Financial thoughts

DETROIT

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U.S. stock futures are falling ahead of a vote in the Senate to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.

The Treasury Department has said that Congress must raise the debt ceiling by the end of Tuesday in order to allow the government to pay all of its bills. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill before the market closes. The House passed the measure Monday night.

Investors are growing concerned about the U.S. economy and will be looking at consumer spending figures that are expected to be released before the market opens.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 41 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,999. S&P 500 futures are down 6, or 0.4 percent, to 1,274. Nasdaq 100 futures are down 9, or 0.4 percent, to 2,337.

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The 1,000-member Bricklayers Local 1 here has called a strike for midnight tonight after failing to reach an agreement on a new contract with the Masons Contractors Associations.

Local 1 business manager Don Brown said his members will not picket unless contractors bring nonunion bricklayers onto work sites.

“We have no desire to shut down the construction industry, so there will be no blanket picketing of construction jobs,” Brown said in a statement Tuesday night. “Bricklayers will only picket those projects where someone else tries to do our work.”

The start of the strike would coincide with the expiration of the Bricklayers’ five-year contract with the contractors.

Brown said three weeks of negotiations ended in a stalemate Friday. The union said it offered the contractors an “interim contract” that would allow work to continue on existing projects.

Local 1 would not elaborate on the terms of the contract it was seeking.

The Bricklayers staged a weeklong strike in 2006 when negotiations broke down on the current contract.

The Masons Contractors Associations represents 114 local union construction companies. A representative could not be reached for comment.

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Boeing Co. says federal labor regulators unfairly twisted or misquoted statements by company executives to make a case that the company illegally retaliated against union workers.

The company is urging the National Labor Relations Board to withdraw a complaint that accuses Boeing of locating a new plant in South Carolina in part to avoid future labor disruptions in Washington state.

Boeing says its decision to place a new 787 assembly line in South Carolina did not remove or transfer any existing work from Washington state, where the aircraft is assembled by members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

The Chicago-based company also disputes government assertions it wanted to punish union workers for past strikes. The NLRB wants Boeing to move all assembly work back to Washington state.

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France’s foreign minister says NATO should be doing more to take out heavy weaponry targeting civilians in Libya.

Alain Juppe says NATO’s actions are “not enough.” He says NATO should be firing on the weapons used by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces to target civilians in the rebel-held city of Misrata.

Juppe spoke on France-Info radio Tuesday, the day after Libyan rebels rejected a cease-fire proposal by African mediators because it did not insist that Moammar Gadhafi relinquish power low fee payday advance.

Juppe says, “NATO has to play its role in full. NATO wanted to take the military command of the operations.”

He also urged the European Union to do more to get humanitarian aid to Misrata.

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It could take several more months to bring Japan’s tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant under control, a safety agency spokesman said Sunday as engineers tried to find a way to stop highly radioactive water from pouring into the Pacific.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex has been spewing radioactivity since the March 11 tsunami carved a path of destruction along Japan’s northeastern coast, killing as many as 25,000 people. The final death toll is not known because many are still missing.

Nuclear safety agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama on Sunday offered the first sense of how long it might take to bring an end to the nuclear crisis, which has forced people within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant to abandon their homes due to radiation concerns.

“It would take a few months until we finally get things under control and have a better idea about the future,” Nishiyama said. “We’ll face a crucial turning point within the next few months, but that is not the end.”

Bringing the reactors at the plant under control will require permanently restoring cooling systems knocked out by the tsunami that prevent reactors from dangerously overheating. That task has been complicated by dangerous conditions at the plant that have often forced workers to stop what they are doing.

Some new problem crops up at the complex nearly every day. Workers discovered an 8-inch (20 centimeter) crack in a maintenance pit Saturday and said they believe water from it may be the source of some of the high levels of radioactive iodine that have been found in the ocean for more than a week.

They have had trouble telling where the water is coming from, and this is the first time they have found it leaking directly into the sea. A picture released by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. shows water shooting some distance away from a wall and splashing into the ocean, though the amount is not clear.

The contaminated water dissipates quickly in the ocean but could pose a danger to workers at the plant.

Engineers tried to seal the crack with concrete on Saturday, but that didn’t work. So on Sunday they injected a mix of sawdust, shredded newspaper and a polymer that can expand to 50 times its normal size when combined with water quick pay day loan. The polymer mix had not yet stopped the leak Sunday night but engineers have not given up hope and should know by Monday morning whether it will work.

TEPCO on Sunday confirmed the first tsunami deaths at the plant itself, saying a 21-year-old and a 24-year-old were conducting regular checks when the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that preceded the tsunami hit.

They apparently ran to a basement turbine room, which is where they were when the massive wave swept over the plant.

“It pains us to have lost these two young workers who were trying to protect the power plant amid the earthquake and tsunami,” TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said in a statement.

The high levels of radioactivity at the plant made searching for the men dangerous. Their bodies were not discovered until Wednesday and had to be decontaminated. The announcement was delayed while authorities notified their families, TEPCO spokesman Kazufumi Suzuki said.

The nuclear crisis has compounded the suffering of people in the northeast and, at times, overshadowed their plight. Tens of thousands have lost their homes and are living in shelters, 200,000 households do not have water, and 170,000 do not have electricity.

Running water was just restored in the port city of Kesennuma on Saturday, and residents lined up Sunday to see a dentist who had flown in from the country’s far north to offer his services. Many were elderly and complaining of problems with their dentures.

Overhead and throughout the coastal region, meanwhile, helicopters and planes roared by as U.S. and Japanese forces finished their all-out search for bodies.

The effort, which ends Sunday, is probably the final hope for retrieving the dead, though limited operations may continue. It has turned up nearly 50 bodies in the past two days.

In all, more than 12,000 deaths have been confirmed, and another 15,500 people are missing.

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Mortars killed up to 30 people in an Abidjan market Thursday, the United Nations said _ the latest in a string of street battles to grip the city as Ivory Coast’s political crisis deepens.

Witnesses said the shells were fired from a military police base controlled by the country’s sitting president into a neighborhood loyal to the man who beat him in last year’s election, according to international observers.

The United Nations deployed a convoy of peacekeepers to the area soon after the shelling. It said in a statement that the peacekeepers had observed that Laurent Gbagbo’s armed forces had fired at least six projectiles on and around the market “killing 25 to 30 persons and wounding 40 to 60 others.”

Shells fell without warning on a market in front of the mayor’s office in Abobo, a district held by fighters loyal to Alassane Ouattara. At one market stall, an elderly woman lost both her legs, a witness said.

Earlier in the day, pro-Ouattara fighters ambushed a police station in the Adjame district of Abidjan, though it was unclear whether anyone was killed.

Adjame resident Idrissa Ouedraogo said commandos loyal to Ouattara went around the Ouattara-friendly neighborhood and warned people to stay inside just minutes before the morning attack. Police loyal to Gbagbo were later seen fleeing the scene, he said.

Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s biggest city, has seen daily battles between the supporters of each man claiming to be president for weeks, leaving hundreds dead. Fighting was initially confined to pro-Ouattara neighborhoods but has now spread across the city, breaking out in different locations each day.

“The situation is very serious there for the plight of civilians,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, speaking in Dakar, Senegal, on Wednesday. “My staff are unable to visit certain sites … they went to meet with victims where four children were killed and they had to literally run out from there because they then were threatened in return. The situation is grave.”

The U.N. sent in armored patrols and helicopters after a grenade attack in the Attecoube district, across the street from their headquarters, on Wednesday. U.N. doctors treated 55 people, four of whom died, bringing the total number of deaths since November’s election to 410.

In Yopougon, a slum reputed for its fervent support of Gbagbo, residents reported heavy fighting all day Wednesday and through the night.

“We can’t sleep, the gunfire didn’t stop until 5 a.m.,” said Karim Coulibaly, a taxi driver who lives in central Yopougon. “(Pro-Gbagbo youth) go from house to house calling for people to join them in the streets _ no one went out.”

Hundreds of roadblocks have sprung up around the city, making it nearly impossible to move around. Roadblocks run by the police or military tend to be professional, but others run by local youth often turn violent, with frequent reports of assaults on drivers, smashed windshields and extortion.

The violence reached a new level after Gbagbo rejected last week’s African Union decision to endorse Ouattara’s victory. The decision, which is supposed to be binding, is the latest in a half-dozen failed negotiation attempts and contributes to the widespread fear that now only violence will resolve the deadlock.

Fighters loyal to Ouattara have been stepping up their tactics. In the first months following the election, unarmed protesters confronted Gbagbo’s police and were killed by the dozen. In February, a group calling themselves the “Invisible Commandos” emerged to protect Ouattara supporters. Now, after having taken control of the Ouattara strongholds of Abobo and PK-18, those fighters are moving south, closer to the commercial center of the city and the presidential palace.

Ouattara’s camp denies that the Invisible Commandos act under their orders and draws a line between them and the New Forces rebels, who act as Ouattara’s de facto army.

Those professional forces have been focusing their efforts far from Abidjan in the west. New Forces have taken four towns along the Liberian border in the last weeks, claiming to have cut off weapons smuggling and the recruitment of Liberian mercenaries.

The U.N. reports that more than 90,000 people have fled across the border to Liberia to escape the fighting. This is in addition to the 300,000 who have fled fighting in Abidjan.

In Brussels, the European Commission announced Thursday it would increase humanitarian aid for victims of the violence from euro5 million ($7 million) to euro30 million ($42 million).

The commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, said the money would help people in need inside Ivory Coast, as well as refugees who have fled to neighboring countries.

A report released earlier this week by Human Rights Watch accused pro-Gbagbo security forces of war crimes, including killings, torture, rape and arbitrary arrest.

Officials from the Hague-based International Criminal Court are monitoring the events closely, said Deputy Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. The ICC, however, cannot open an official investigation until it can protect the witnesses they expose, she said.

“If we are not in a position to protect them, it would not be a good time for us to intervene,” she said. “We are monitoring (Ivory Coast) very, very, closely.”

After more than three months of being blocked by pro-Gbagbo security forces, the U.N. was finally able to reach the site of an alleged mass grave this week, said local U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure. The found no evidence of a mass grave, he said, though he wasn’t able to rule out that the bodies were moved before they got there.

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U.S. retail sales probably climbed in February by the most in four months, spurred by job growth and more seasonable temperatures, economists said before a report today.

The projected 1 percent gain would follow a 0.3 percent January increase, according to the median forecast of 82 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Other data may show business inventories rose and consumer sentiment declined.

J.C. Penney Co. and Macy’s Inc. (M) were among retailers that topped analysts’ sales estimates, a sign household spending regained momentum after a weather-restrained January. While higher fuel costs may be concerning Americans, bigger paychecks thanks to the tax compromise reached by President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are probably preventing demand from slipping for now.

“Growing consumer confidence combined with pent-up demand will continue to have a positive influence on industry sales going forward,” Donald R. Johnson, vice president for North American sales at Detroit-based General Motors Co. (GM), said in a March 1 teleconference. “We continue to believe that we’re going to see this slow-but-steady growth throughout the year.”

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