Chrysler now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fiat

The Italian carmaker Fiat says its acquisition of the final Chrysler stake is complete, making the U.S. car company a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fiat.

Fiat SpA said Tuesday that it closed the deal announced Jan. 1 with the cash payment of $1.75 billion to a union-controlled trust fund. That’s on top of an initial $1.9-billion payment, which was arranged through a special distribution from Chrysler. Fiat also made the first installment on an additional $700 million payment.

Fiat has been running Chrysler since 2009, but lacked full control until Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne won a hard-fought deal with the minority stakeholder. The deal gives Fiat a freer hand to push deeper integration and decide where the joint company will be based and listed, as well as its name.

Mixed day for market; slight gain for S&P 500

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index logged a small gain Tuesday on a mixed day for the stock market.

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Health-care giant Johnson & Johnson slipped after it warned that pressure to keep prices low would likely mean slightly lower profits than forecast. Delta Air Lines gained after reporting a better-than-expected profit in the fourth quarter as fares and traffic rose.

Company earnings were the main focus for investors Tuesday as there were no major economic releases. So far, the stock market has failed to get a big lift from earnings reports and investors appear to be assessing the results more critically than they did a year ago.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 5.10 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,843.80. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 44.12 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,414.44. The Nasdaq composite edged up 28.18 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,225.76.

Solution seen in delay of Panama Canal project

The head of the Panama Canal said Tuesday that there may be a solution in sight to the $1.6 billion dispute that has threatened to halt work on the canal’s expansion.

Administrator Jorge Luis Quijano said that the consortium expanding the canal has proposed a resolution “with some potential” to resolve the dispute. He offered no details and the consortium, United for the Canal, made no immediate comment.

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The two sides and the authority’s insurer met Tuesday to negotiate who will pay for cost overruns that led the Spanish-led consortium to threaten to halt work on a third set of locks that would allow far larger ships to pass through the canal.

Bombardier plans to cut about 1,700 employees

Airplane-maker Bombardier plans to cut about 1,700 employees and contractors at its facilities in the United States and Canada, including 550 people in the company’s Learjet facility in Wichita.

The Wichita cuts include 200 contractors who left in December after their contracts expired and were not renewed, said spokeswoman Annie Cossette.

Cossette would not say how many of the remaining affected workers involved full-time Bombardier employees or company contractors, or when the layoffs are expected to begin.

— From news service reports


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