Business Markets

Scott O’Malia, a Republican CFTC commissioner, has proposed the formation of a subcommittee that would be tasked with defining and identifying high-frequency trading in futures, swaps and options.

So far there is little consensus as to what is algorithmic or high-frequency trading and how various trading patterns affect the markets.

The subcommittee would be part of the CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee, chaired by O’Malia. CFTC Chief Economist Andrei Kirilenko would lead the panel.

“I believe that this lack of consensus is impeding the ability to have a public debate on different trading patterns and their effects on our markets,” O’Malia said on Monday.

In high-frequency trading, banks, hedge funds and proprietary firms use extremely fast automated programs to make trades in electronic markets. Such participants use programs to submit and cancel large numbers of trades, and are able to move in and out of positions quickly.

The popularity of high-frequency trading has surged, and growth is expected to continue as more swaps activity shifts to electronic platforms.

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Take a handful of tenacious farmers, add some innovation and a smidge of cooperation, and you have the secret to Michigan’s small yet growing cranberry industry.

While the state remains a niche player, family farms are capitalizing on opportunities to boost business. Consumer interest in healthy foods as well as in buying from Michigan companies has spurred new sales avenues for the little bulbous berry.

One example is the partnership between the Michigan Cranberry Co. and supermarkets such as Hiller’s Market, Meijer Inc., Kroger Co. and Whole Foods Market Inc. This fall marked the first year Wally and Sharon Huggett sold fresh cranberries directly to a retailer, thanks in part to a request from Hiller’s to supply Michigan cranberries to its stores for the holiday season.

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” said Wally Huggett, a semiretired sod farmer who has the largest cranberry operation in the state with about 220 acres producing 3 million pounds of cranberries annually in Cheboygan County.

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Workers on Sunday rejected a new contract that would have guaranteed a $225 million expansion at Timken Co.’s Faircrest steel plant in Canton.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The United Steelworkers union in Canton has rejected a new contract with industrial supplier Timken Co. that would have guaranteed a $225 million expansion of that company’s Faircrest steel plant.

Calls to the union were not immediately returned this morning, but the USW Local 1123′s voicemail confirmed that workers rejected the deal by a vote of 608-917.

Reached last month, the new contract would have offered signing bonuses and accelerated scheduled pay increases and would have run through 2017. The union’s contract with the company expires next year.

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McDonald’s, whose contract runs out after this year’s London Olympics, and IOC officials will meet in Austria during the Innsbruck Youth Olympics starting Friday to finalize details.

“The situation is positive and I don’t see any obstacle. We are very close,” IOC marketing commission chairman Gerhard Heiberg told Reuters. “We will meet in Innsbruck and finalize everything. Hopefully we will sign the contract there.”

Heiberg said the new, four-Games deal would include the 2020 summer Olympics, which have yet to be awarded to a host, as well as the 2014 winter Games in Sochi, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics.

McDonald’s is one of 11 top sponsors who contribute an estimated 100 million each for every two-Games package of one winter and one summer Games though the IOC does not release details on individual deals.

The company has been an official sponsor since 1976.

Dow Chemical Co.

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Holiday shopping traffic may be light so far this year, but purchases are up, says one retail developer. And the shift is now turning from self purchases to holiday gift shopping.

“People are getting more serious about their shopping,” said Karen MacDonald, spokeswoman for the Taubman Group, which owns 25 shopping centers around the country including Metro Detroit malls Fairlane Town Center, Twelve Oaks Mall, Great Lakes Crossing Outlets and The Mall at Partridge Creek.

Jennifer Skalecki and her friend Nicole Hadrian, both of Roseville, did some shopping Saturday afternoon at Eastland Mall in Harper Woods. Hadrian shopped for herself at Macy’s while Skalecki bought Christmas presents for her boyfriend.

Skalecki said she’s already finished shopping for her children. Her purchases included lots of toys and bicycles for the kids, as well as shoes, cologne and clothes for her boyfriend.

“The prices are up a lot more than last year,” she said. “I noticed that.

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The British government announced sharply lower economic growth forecasts on Tuesday and warned that a recession in the euro zone could send the British economy into reverse.

The economy was forecast to grow by only 0.7 percent next year, against a March budget forecast of 2.5 percent, finance minister George Osborne said, presenting figures from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

Growth was expected to recover to 2.1 percent in 2013 but Osborne told parliament the reality could be much worse if the euro zone debt crisis was not solved.

Turley told the firm’s worldwide partners in a November 10 communication that he would retire at age 58, on June 30, 2013, Ernst & Young said in a statement. A replacement will be named by April 2012, it added.

“He’s gotten them through some ugly litigation,” Jonathan Hamilton, editor of the Accounting News Report, said. Many feared that the lawsuits stemming from the firm’s audits of hospital operator HealthSouth Corp would cripple Ernst & Young, he added.

Turley headed the firm during some of its stormiest times, beginning as chairman just before the Enron and Worldcom accounting scandals sparked congressional hearings on the profession and led to tough oversight under a new watchdog.

More recently, it has faced a lawsuit by the New York attorney general alleging it helped Lehman Brothers engage in a massive fraud before its 2008 bankruptcy.

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