Rough winter hurts General Mills 3Q sales

MINNEAPOLIS — Rough winter weather took a bite out of General Mills' fiscal third-quarter sales, and the cereal maker's results missed Wall Street expectations.

The maker of Cheerios, Yoplait and Betty Crocker products said Wednesday that its fiscal third-quarter net income rose 3 percent, free of a charge that hurt its results a year earlier.

For the three months that ended Feb. 23, the company earned $410.6 million, or 64 cents per share. That's up from $398.4 million, or 60 cents per share, a year earlier.

Last year's third quarter included a $6.1 million charge.

Removing certain items, earnings were 62 cents per share. Analysts expected 64 cents per share, according to a FactSet survey.

Revenue dipped 1 percent to $4.38 billion from $4.43 billion, hindered by bad winter weather, lower volumes and unfavorable foreign currency translation.

Wall Street was calling for $4.41 billion in revenue.

U.S. retail sales declined 2 percent as the company dealt with higher dairy costs and increased marketing and merchandising costs for its domestic yogurt business.

The yogurt business has been challenged by upstart competitors such as Chobani selling Greek yogurt.

Sales for the conveniences stores and food-service unit dropped 7 percent due to the winter weather and lower prices on some product lines.

Sales improved in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, which offset weakness in Latin America and Canada.

General Mills Inc. maintained its forecast for strong double-digit growth in adjusted earnings per share for the fourth quarter. The Minneapolis company also reaffirmed its fiscal 2014 guidance for adjusted earnings between $2.87 and $2.90 per share.

Analysts predict full-year earnings of $2.87 per share.

Shares of General Mills rose 30 cents to $51.01 in morning trading.

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List: Access to cancer centers under health law

Some of the nation's top cancer care centers are concerned about access for patients who purchase policies through the new health insurance markets, also called exchanges.

The Associated Press asked 23 institutions that are part of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network whether they were included in the networks of insurance companies operating on their state's exchange. Here are the responses they provided:

—Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, Omaha, Neb.

In-network with three of four exchange insurers, but one of them includes Buffett only on some plans. A fourth insurer does not include Buffett.

—City of Hope, Los Angeles.

In-network for one of three major insurers; a fourth is a health maintenance organization with its own hospital system.

—Dana-Farber, Boston.

No response.

—Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, N.C.

In-network with the two insurers on the exchange, although not included in a low-price option.

—Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia.

In-network for the two dominant carriers in the market.

—Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City.

In-network with five of six insurers.

—Hutchinson/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle.

In-network with three of eight insurers on the state's exchange.

—Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore.

In-network for all six exchange insurers, although some individual plans may not offer access.

—Memorial Sloan-Kettering, New York.

In-network with two of nine exchange insurers in New York City, two of 16 statewide. Has out-of-network agreements with two more carriers.

—Moffit Cancer Center, Tampa, Fla.

In-network for three of six insurers offering plans in multiple Florida counties.

—Ohio State University/James/Solove, Columbus, Ohio.

No response.

—Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, N.Y.

In-network with five of seven insurers in its local area, but only five of 16 statewide.

—Siteman Cancer Center/Barnes-Jewish, St. Louis.

In-network for some of the plans offered by one of two insurers on the state exchange.

—St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn.

Treatment is free as long as children have a referral.

—Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, Calif.

No response.

—University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Ala.

In-network with dominant carrier of two insurers on exchange.

—UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, Calif.

In-network with one insurer, by design.

—UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco.

In-network for two of nine insurers in the northern California market.

—University of Colorado Cancer Center, Aurora, Colo.

In-network for all plans with six of 10 carriers; included on some plans by three others.

—University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, Mich.

In-network for eight of 12 insurers, although not in every plan.

—MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston.

In-network for two of 11 insurers in the state's exchange, and 43 percent of individual plans in Houston area.

—Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, Tenn.

All four insurers have Vanderbilt, but one company does not include it in its least expensive plan.

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IBM's Watson to help sequence cancer DNA

NEW YORK — IBM and its Watson cloud computing system are partnering with the New York Genome Center to help it sequence DNA for the treatment of brain cancer.

New York Genome will use IBM's "Jeopardy!" champion system to sequence the DNA of cancer tumors at much faster rate than would be possible if done by a human being.

Dr. Robert Darnell, the Genome Center's president, CEO and scientific director, says that once doctors know a tumor's genetic makeup, they can determine the best course of treatment for a particular patient.

Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp. already has a partnership with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where Watson is also used to help treat cancer.

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French court upholds prison for rogue trader

PARIS — France's highest court upheld Wednesday a prison sentence for one-time rogue trader Jerome Kerviel but threw out the 4.9 billion euros ($7 billion) in civil damages he'd been ordered to pay back.

Kerviel was convicted in 2010 of carrying out one of the biggest trading frauds in history that almost took down his bank, Societe Generale, with 4.9 billion euros in losses. He sees himself as a victim of a system that turned a blind eye to his illegal trades as long as they made money for the bank.

Kerviel had appealed the sentence of three years in prison, which had already been upheld once before by a lower appeals court.

In a statement, the high court said Wednesday that the lower court decision had not taken into account faults committed by Kerviel's former employer, French bank Societe Generale, when it ordered ordered Kerviel to repay the bank's entire losses in the fraud.

Kerviel is currently in Italy, walking back to Paris on a pilgrimage after meeting the pope. Television images showed him wearing a red jacket and red backpack, walking swiftly and trying to ignore the numerous journalists trailing him. He made no statement.

Outside the courtroom in Paris, Kerviel's lawyers claimed a partial victory.

"The errors of Societe Generale were at the heart of the concerns expressed by the judicial system, and it appears at the least surprising to lock up Jerome Kerviel when the existence of significant errors on behalf of his employer — and the consequences of these errors on events attributed to him — were affirmed," said Patrice Spinosi.

The high court ordered the civil damages to be retried by an appeals court in Versailles.

The bank's lawyer Jean Veil said that in the new trial the bank will explain that they knew "from the moment that these events were discovered, that there were errors in our system, which we've repaired and spent hundreds of millions to be able to change our control system."

The appeals court had upheld the October 2010 conviction of Kerviel for forgery, breach of trust and unauthorized computer use for covering up bets worth nearly 50 billion euros — more than the market value of the entire bank. It sentenced him to a five-year prison term — with two years suspended — and ordered he pay 4.9 billion euros in damages.

An internal report by the bank, however, found managers failed to follow up on 74 different alarms about Kerviel's activities.

Banned for life from working in the financial industry, Kerviel was making 2,300 euros a month ($3,150 at the time) as a computer consultant after leaving the bank. Societe Generale had paid him less than 100,000 euros a year ($155,700) with bonuses, a modest sum for the 1.4 billion euros in profits he earned for the bank in 2007.

A few of the bank's executives resigned in the scandal's aftermath, including longtime Chairman Daniel Bouton. Kerviel's superiors were questioned in the probe, but none of them faced charges.

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Follow Greg Keller on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greg_Keller

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FedEx profit up, but misses expectations

DALLAS — FedEx Corp. says its latest quarterly profit rose 5 percent from a year ago despite storms that raised the company's costs, but the results were below analysts' expectations.

The company's ground-shipping segment is doing better, but the express-delivery business is flat and customers continue to shift to slower, cheaper services for international shipments.

The package-delivery giant said Wednesday that net income in the quarter that ended Feb. 28 rose to $378 million, or $1.23 per share, from $361 million, or $1.13 per share, a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected $1.45 per share.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $11.30 billion from $11 billion, missing Wall Street's forecast of $11.43 billion.

The weak results drove FedEx to lower its forecast of full-year earnings. However, FedEx expects fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of between $2.25 and $2.50 per share, which leaves room to beat analysts' prediction of $2.34 per share.

FedEx said that weather reduced operating income by $125 million in the December-to-February third quarter. Snow, ice and freezing temperatures slowed the company's trucks and planes and raised costs for everything from de-icing to overtime. Shipments dropped off during storms because some retail shippers in the East and Midwest closed.

Rival United Parcel Service Co. struggled to keep up with peak volumes just before Christmas — traffic was heavier and later in the season than UPS expected.

FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith said that his company handled December loads but will be careful in managing residential e-commerce shipments.

"The biggest challenge is the fact that so much of the business comes in such a short period of time, and obviously it is not possible to make these enormous capital investments for two or three weeks out of the year," Smith said on a conference call with analysts. "You can clearly go broke trying to deliver non-compensatory packages into people's homes."

Customers are limiting spending on higher-priced services. FedEx said that it was continuing to see a shift toward less profitable international services — the volume of international economy-class shipments rose 8 percent.

The Memphis, Tenn.-based company is still buying back its own stock, which reduced the number of shares by 3 percent from a year ago and boosted earnings per share.

Helane Becker, an analyst at Cowen and Co., said that investors would "give the company some slack" for the disappointing third quarter because of the slightly upbeat forecast for the May quarter and FedEx's moves to boost profit in its big express operations.

FedEx shares rose 56 cents to $139.13 in morning trading Wednesday. They began the day down 3.6 percent for this year after gaining 57 percent in 2013.

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US files charge against Toyota, $1.2B penalty

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government announced a $1.2 billion settlement with Toyota Motor Corp. on Wednesday and filed a criminal charge alleging the company defrauded consumers by issuing misleading statements about safety issues in Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The penalty is the largest of its kind ever imposed on an auto company, the Justice Department said.

The action concludes a yearslong criminal investigation into the Japanese automaker's disclosure of safety problems, which focused on whether Toyota was forthright in reporting problems to unintended acceleration troubles.

The company admitted to misleading consumers and regulators in providing assurances that it had addressed the problems — which became public in 2009 following a car crash in San Diego that killed a family of four — through a limited safety recall of certain models. Toyota knew at the time that other models susceptible to the same acceleration problem had not been recalled and also took steps to conceal a separate acceleration problem related to a faulty pedal, according to the Justice Department.

"In other words, Toyota confronted a public safety emergency as it if were a simple public relations problem," Attorney General Eric Holder said at a news conference.

The company faces a criminal wire fraud charge in New York that prosecutors say they will move to dismiss in three years if Toyota complies with the terms of the deal. Under a deferred prosecution agreement, an independent monitor will review policies, practices and procedures at the company.

No Toyota executives were charged under the deal. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York, whose office brought the case, said he expected the agreement to be a "final resolution."

"As you might imagine, when you have a company with individuals who are responsible for unlawful conduct in other jurisdictions, there are problems of evidence and problems of proof," he said.

In a statement, Toyota said that at the time of the recalls, "we took full responsibility for any concerns our actions may have caused customers, and we rededicated ourselves to earning their trust," said Christopher P. Reynolds, chief legal officer of Toyota Motor North America.

"In the more than four years since these recalls, we have gone back to basics at Toyota to put our customers first," he said.

Toyota said it had "made fundamental changes to become a more responsive and customer-focused organization, and we are committed to continued improvements."

Starting in 2009, Toyota issued massive recalls, mostly in the U.S., totaling more than 10 million vehicles for various problems including faulty brakes, gas pedals and floor mats. From 2010 through 2012, Toyota Motor Corp. paid fines totaling more than $66 million for delays in reporting unintended acceleration problems.

The settlement continues a string of bad publicity for Toyota, which before the unintended acceleration cases had a bulletproof image of reliability. Since the cases surfaced, the company's brand image has been damaged and it has lost U.S. market share as competition has intensified.

Last year, Toyota agreed to pay more than $1 billion to resolve hundreds of lawsuits claiming that owners of its cars suffered economic losses because of the recalls. But that settlement did not include wrongful death and injury lawsuits that have been consolidated in California state and federal courts.

In December, Toyota filed court papers after a four-year legal battle saying that it's in settlement talks on nearly 400 U.S. lawsuits, but other cases aren't included in the talks.

The negotiations come less than two months after an Oklahoma jury awarded $3 million in damages to the injured driver of a 2005 Camry and to the family of a passenger who was killed.

The ruling was significant because Toyota had won all previous unintended acceleration cases that went to trial. It was also the first case where attorneys for plaintiffs argued that the car's electronics — in this case the software connected to a midsize Camry's electronic throttle-control system — were the cause of the unintended acceleration.

At the time, legal experts said the Oklahoma verdict might cause Toyota to consider a broad settlement of the remaining cases. Until then, Toyota had been riding momentum from several trials where juries found it was not liable.

Toyota has blamed drivers, stuck accelerators or floor mats that trapped the gas pedal for the acceleration claims that led to the big recalls of Camrys and other vehicles. The company has repeatedly denied its vehicles are flawed.

No recalls have been issued related to problems with onboard electronics. In the Oklahoma case, Toyota attorneys theorized that the driver mistakenly pumped the gas pedal instead of the brake when her Camry ran through an intersection and slammed into an embankment.

But after the verdict, jurors told AP they believed the testimony of an expert who said he found flaws in the car's electronics.

Toyota also had to pay millions for recalls, as well as a series of fines totaling $68 million to the NHTSA, the U.S. government's road safety watchdog, for being slow to report acceleration problems.

Still, the payments won't hurt Toyota's finances very much. In its last fiscal quarter alone, Toyota posted a $5.2 billion profit, crediting a weak yen and strong global sales.

Toyota's U.S. market share, however, has fallen more than 4 percentage points since unintended acceleration came to the forefront in August of 2009, when a California Highway Patrol officer and three others were killed in a fiery crash. The officer's runaway car was traveling more than 120 mph when it crashed and burst into flames. One of his family members called police about a minute before the crash to report the vehicle had no brakes and the accelerator was stuck.

At the time, Toyota controlled 17.8 percent of the U.S. market. Gas prices were high, playing to Toyota's fuel-efficient small cars and hybrids. Detroit automakers were in serious financial trouble and had few fuel-efficient cars for sale.

By last month, though, Toyota's share fell to 13.3 percent, according to Autodata Corp., as the company faced intense competition in small and midsize cars from resurgent Detroit automakers and Korean brands Hyundai and Kia.

The Toyota criminal charge and settlement could foreshadow what's in store for General Motors. The same U.S. attorney's office is investigating the Detroit auto giant for its slow response to a faulty ignition switch problem in older compact cars that has been linked to at least 31 crashes and 12 deaths. NHTSA also is investigating whether GM withheld information about the problem and could fine the automaker $35 million.

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Krisher contributed from Detroit

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What annexing Crimea will cost Russia's government

MOSCOW — Despite the pebble beaches and cliff-hanging castles that made Crimea famous as a Soviet resort hub, the Black Sea peninsula has long been a corruption-riddled backwater in economic terms. The Kremlin, which decided to take the region from Ukraine after its residents voted in a referendum to join Russia, has begun calculating exactly what it will cost to support Crimea's shambolic economy — which one Russian minister described as "no better than Palestine."

Here's a look at what Crimea needs most and the economic challenges Russia faces in absorbing it:

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

In the rapid run-up to the referendum in Crimea, voters were bombarded with the message that the grass was a lot greener on the Russian side.

President Vladimir Putin may have fanned such sentiment during Ukraine's anti-government demonstrations that preceded the Russian invasion of Crimea. He sympathized with protesters, casting them as fed up with an economy mismanaged by "one group of crooks" after another. And he extolled the comparative success of the Russian economy — firing off figures about pensions and wages in both countries to argue that people were better off in Russia.

On Monday, one day after the referendum, Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov wrote on his official Twitter account that Moscow had provided 15 billion rubles ($400 million) in aid to the region, which he said had doubled the Crimean budget overnight.

"This is a platform ideal for taking risks ... and for realizing economic miracles," said Russia's business ombudsman Boris Titov.

"NO BETTER THAN PALESTINE"

But as the Russian dream of acquiring Crimea becomes a reality, Moscow is trying to calculate the price tag of bringing in a region that — in the words of Russian Regional Development Minister Igor Slyunyayev — has an economy that "looks no better than Palestine."

As part of Ukraine, about 40 percent of Crimea's annual budget of roughly $500 million was propped up by subsidies from Kiev. Russia would be expected to at least match — and probably far exceed — the Ukrainian annual contribution to raise living standards in its new territory.

Living standards in Crimea are drastically different from Russia. The GDP per capita in Russia, home to more than a hundred of billionaires, is about $14,000. In Crimea, it's about $5,000.

Demographics are one major hurdle. More than 500,000 people — about a quarter of the population — are pensioners. Pensions in Russia are about double what they are in Ukraine, and former Russian tax minister Alexander Pochinok estimated that paying pensions in Crimea alone would cost 70 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) per year.

Many Crimean residents make their living through tourism, although much of that money is kept off official ledgers and therefore difficult to tax. About 70 percent of tourists in recent years have been Ukrainians, in large part because the peninsula's only road and railroad links are to mainland Ukraine. The industry is likely to be hard hit as many Ukrainian travelers stay away this summer, although Russian authorities have pledged to reduce the cost of air travel to the peninsula to bolster travel to the region.

DEPENDENCE ON UKRAINE

Crimea is highly dependent on Ukraine for energy and water, most of which is supplied across the thin strip of land that connects the peninsula to the mainland. About 80 percent of the region's electricity is supplied across the isthmus. The governor of Russia's southern Krasnodar region, which is separated from Crimea by a stretch of water called the Kerch Strait, pledged to provide electricity to the peninsula by building an underwater supply system. Other officials have said Crimea may need to build its own electricity plant — a project that could come with a price tag of nearly $1.7 billion, analysts say.

Russia has promised to bolster infrastructure in the region. Moscow and Kiev have been talking about building a bridge over the Kerch Strait for more than a decade, but the project has repeatedly stalled. In recent weeks, Russian officials have eagerly revived the project, which is estimated to take years and cost at least 50 billion rubles ($1.4 billion). They also are now discussing building a railroad and underwater tunnel across the strait.

Even as the Crimean government has threatened to nationalize Ukrainian government property, Kiev has promised not to turn off the taps to energy and water.

"(The Kiev government) is eager to be seen as reasonable and moderate through all this; they don't want to give the Russians an excuse for further intervention," said Timothy Ash, an analyst at Standard Bank. "The danger of being obstinate might be that Russians would decide to intervene around Crimea to secure water and utility supplies."

SMALL CHANGE FOR RUSSIA

Even if all of these projects add up to billions of dollars, it may still be small change to the Russian government.

"For Russia's budget this is not a big deal," said Nataliya Orlova, chief economist at Alfa Bank. "Even if you spend $5 billion or $10 billion, this is not money that dramatically changes things."

Russia had a total of over $170 billion stashed in two rainy day funds as of late February. It tapped into this money to try to shore up the regime of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia last month.

CORRUPTION

Orlova argued that Crimea's annexation could in fact turn out to be positive for Russia's economy in the short term, because investment could spur a consumption boom in Crimea.

But Crimea has long been known as an organized crime hub, and the Kiev government's longstanding reluctance to meddle in the autonomous region has meant that a culture of corruption has been tacitly allowed to flourish in the region since the Soviet collapse.

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US stocks waver ahead of Fed decision

NEW YORK — The stock market was in a wait-and-see mode Wednesday ahead of the results of the Federal Reserve's first policy meeting under its new chair, Janet Yellen. Technology stocks struggled after Oracle reported earnings and revenue that fell short of what investors were expecting.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell five points, or 0.03 percent, to 16,331 as of 12:25 p.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was essentially unchanged at 1,872 and the Nasdaq composite was down three points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,330.

ORACLE LAGS: Technology giant Oracle fell 52 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $38.31. The database software maker reported a slight rise in revenue and profits from a year ago, but the results came in short of analysts' predictions. Oracle's results also dragged down IBM, SAP and Microsoft.

YELLEN'S DEBUT: Investors will be watching closely for any hints of how Yellen will differ from her predecessor, Ben Bernanke. The central bank is expected to announce a further reduction of its economic stimulus program, reducing its monthly bond purchases from $65 billion a month to $55 billion. Yellen also will preside over her first news conference as Fed chair this afternoon.

HOMEBUILDERS: KB Homes, one of the nation's largest homebuilders, jumped $1.64, or 9 percent, to $19.26 after the company reported much higher profits than investors were expecting. KB earned 12 cents a share, four cents more than analysts had forecast. The company also said the average selling price of a new home rose 12 percent from last year. Other homebuilders also rose. D.R. Horton, PulteGroup and Toll Brothers gained 2 percent or more.

BONDS AND COMMODITIES: Bond prices fell slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.70 percent from 2.67 percent late Tuesday. The price of oil edged down 17 cents to $98.72 a barrel. Gold fell $18.40 to $1,340.60 an ounce.

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Toyota to pay $1.2 billion federal fine to settle acceleration probe

Toyota Motor Corp. has agreed to pay a $1.2 billion fine to settle a four-year federal criminal investigation into whether it properly reported safety complaints about the sudden acceleration of its vehicles to regulators.

It is the largest penalty of its kind ever imposed on an automotive company, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday.

In the agreement with the Department of Justice, the Japanese automaker admitted that it misled U.S. consumers by concealing and making deceptive statements about two safety issues affecting its vehicles, each of which caused a type of unintended acceleration. The case focused on reports of floor mats jamming gas pedals and sticking gas pedals.

"Toyota put sales over safety and profit over principle," said George Venizelos, assistant director of the FBI. "The disregard Toyota had for the safety of the public was outrageous. Not only did Toyota fail to recall cars with problem parts, they continued to manufacture new cars with the same parts they knew were deadly."

The automaker was formally charged with one count of wire fraud, but if it abides by the settlement terms, the Justice Department will defer prosecution for three years and then seek to dismiss the charge.

"Rather than promptly disclosing and correcting safety issues about which they were aware, Toyota made misleading public statements to consumers and gave inaccurate facts to members of Congress," Holder said.

Car owners "have a right to expect that their vehicle is safe" and manufacturers must be forthright about safety issues and fix them quickly, he said.

"Entering this agreement, while difficult, is a major step toward putting this unfortunate chapter behind us," said Christopher P. Reynolds, chief legal officer, Toyota Motor North America. "In the more than four years since these recalls, we have gone back to basics at Toyota to put our customers first."

Reynolds said the automaker has made significant operational changes to become a more responsive company.

Toyota has improved quality control, responded more quickly to customer concerns, and strengthened regional autonomy and decision-making, he said.

Safety advocates said the settlement will grab the attention of the entire auto industry.

"It is a game changer," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety.

Safety advocates have long held two goals — unlimited civil penalties and unlimited criminal penalties "and the Justice Department settlement with Toyota make both a reality," Ditlow said.

The fine is close to 350 times the maximum penalty that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration can levy on an automaker.

But the "possibility of criminal penalties is now front and center with automakers and that will change their behavior far more than a civil penalty ever will," Ditlow said.

"Other car companies should not repeat Toyota's mistake: A recall may damage a company's reputation, but deceiving your customers makes that damage far more lasting," Holder warned.

Toyota still faces a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, according to a regulatory filing the automaker made last year.

Meanwhile, Toyota's lawyers are in settlement talks over hundreds of civil lawsuits alleging wrongful deaths or injuries, potentially adding hundreds of millions to the tab.

Previously, Toyota agreed to pay $1.6 billion to settle a class-action case brought by thousands of Toyota owners who contended that sudden-acceleration problems damaged the value of their vehicles.

Toyota has faced sudden-acceleration complaints since 2009, after a California Highway Patrol officer and his family were killed when a Lexus ES crashed outside San Diego. That crash is thought to have been caused by a floor mat jamming the gas pedal in the open position. But investigators said the car was too badly damaged to be sure.

In the months after that wreck, Toyota recalled millions of vehicles, and its top executives came from Japan to testify before several congressional committees investigating the problem.

Toyota has repeatedly denied that its vehicles have an electronic flaw that might cause them to accelerate unexpectedly. Toyota has blamed such incidents on three possible causes: drivers mistaking the gas pedal for the brake; gas pedals getting stuck under floor mats; or sticky gas pedals that don't throttle back quickly as foot pressure eases.

A 10-month investigation, conducted primarily by NASA engineers, found no evidence that electronic defects or software code errors could have caused the thousands of sudden-acceleration incidents reported over the last decade. That review blamed the incidents on the same mechanical issues identified by Toyota.

Last year, however, an Oklahoma City jury found that faulty electronic systems caused a Camry sedan to suddenly accelerate and crash, killing one woman and injuring another.

"The settlement with the Justice Department focuses on a narrow area, what they disclosed on floor issues and sticky pedals. But it still doesn't get to what Toyota knew about the vehicle electronics," said Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies.

"The NASA probe was a great start but the conclusion doesn't match the study," he said. "The study found a handful of electronic problems that need to be explored further."

———

©2014 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

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Markets await Fed decision and Yellen remarks

LONDON — Markets were largely in wait-and-see mode Wednesday ahead of the latest policy decision from the U.S. Federal Reserve and subsequent remarks from its new chief.

In spite of some recent soft economic data in the wake of bad weather across large parts of the U.S., most analysts expect the Fed to continue to reduce its monetary stimulus at the speed it has already set, trimming its monthly bond purchases by another $10 billion to $55 billion. The meeting is the first under the leadership of new Chair Janet Yellen.

"There is little reason to expect otherwise," said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital. "The Fed is naturally going to move gradually in normalizing its monetary policy, if for no other reason that it has to be careful that it does not upset the U.S. economic recovery."

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell 0.5 percent to close at 6,573.13 while Germany's DAX rose 0.4 percent to 9,277.05. The CAC-40 in France ended 0.2 percent lower at 4,308.06.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was flat at 16,341.23 while the broader S&P 500 index rose almost 0.1 percent to 1,872.87.

Earlier this week, markets were buoyed by relief that the sanctions on Russia announced by the U.S. and the European Union were limited and did not directly affect trade ties. However, concerns over the situation in Crimea, which is now effectively part of Russia, remain after masked Russian-speaking troops seized control of Ukrainian naval headquarters.

Earlier in Asia, stocks traded in narrow ranges with Tokyo's Nikkei 225 closing up 0.4 percent at 14,462.52. China's Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.2 percent to 2,021.73 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.1 percent to 21,568.69.

Elsewhere, the focus was on the Fed, too, with trading fairly muted. Among currencies, the euro was down 0.1 percent at $1.3916 while the dollar rose 0.1 percent to 101.56 yen. Meanwhile, a barrel of benchmark New York crude was up 12 cents at $99.82.

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