EU set to strike back with new steel tariffs

Acting to shield Europe from a flood of cheap steel from countries recently hit by U.S. tariffs, the European Union decided Monday to impose its own import taxes.

Tariffs of up to 26 percent will apply to most of the same steel products hit last week by the protective U.S. measure, an EU official said on condition of anonymity.

The tariffs, to be formally approved Wednesday by the EU’s executive Commission, will apply starting April 3 to imports of 15 listed products above current levels of 11 million tons a year, he said.

The EU fears big steel-producing countries such as China and South Korea blocked from the U.S. market by tariffs of up to 30 percent will try to unload their excess production on Europe, depressing steel prices and putting jobs at risk.

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, above, has predicted up to 16 million tons of diverted steel could pour into Europe.

Economy: Home sales in February second-highest on record

Americans bought fewer previously owned homes in February, but sales still hit the second-highest level on record.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that sales of existing homes dipped 2.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.88 million, not far off the rate of 6.05 million in January.

The numbers gave analysts hope that consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States, would hold up fairly well in coming months and help along the economic recovery.

The median home sale price meaning half sold for more and half for less was $151,000 in February, an 8.2 percent increase from the same month a year ago.

Lawsuit: HCA executives cleared

A federal appeals court has overturned the convictions of two former executives of HCA, the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, who were accused of defrauding government health care programs.

Jay Jarrell and Robert Whiteside were convicted in Tampa, Fla., in July 1999 of making false statements in Medicaid reimbursement cost reports for Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, Fla., and of conspiracy to defraud the government.

Prosecutors said expenses were repeatedly billed as capital outlays when they should have been listed as administrative and general expenses, carrying lower reimbursement rates.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling published Friday that the government failed “to prove that the alleged statements were knowingly and willfully false.”

Agriculture: Wheat crop still struggling

The Kansas wheat crop is still in desperate need of moisture, according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s weekly crop report.

The report released Monday ranked 34 percent of the state’s crop as either poor or very poor, compared with 32 percent a week earlier. Only 54 percent was ranked as fair or good. This year’s crop is ranked much lower in quality than last year’s was at this time. Last year 70 percent of the crop was rated fair or good.

T-Bills: Rates mixed in bill auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities were mixed in Monday’s auction.

The Treasury Department sold $12 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.820 percent, down from 1.840 percent last week. An additional $12 billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 2.110 percent, up from 2.070 percent.

The three-month rate was the lowest since March 4, when the bills sold for 1.760 percent.