Briefcase

Greenspan concerned about U.S. trade policy

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan renewed a warning Tuesday that “creeping protectionism” could hurt the flexibility of the global economy, something that has played an important role in helping the United States and other countries weather economic hard times.

“Some clouds of emerging protectionism have become increasingly visible on today’s horizon,” Greenspan said in a speech delivered in Berlin at an event sponsored by Germany’s central bank.

Stock market

SEC widens investigation

Federal regulators are looking into numerous cases in which brokerage firms may have failed to fully disclose that they steered clients toward certain mutual funds in exchange for payments from those fund companies, a government official said Tuesday.

The probes by the Securities and Exchange Commission consist of eight inquiries involving brokerages and 12 involving mutual fund companies, some of which are linked together as single cases, SEC Enforcement Director Stephen Cutler said.

Manufacturing

Kodak set to dump advanced photo program

As digital cameras rise swiftly in popularity, Eastman Kodak Co. is halting production of Advanced Photo System cameras, a much-ballyhooed format launched in 1996 to rekindle interest in consumer photography.

Citing declining demand and poor financial returns, Kodak said Tuesday it would stop manufacturing reloadable APS cameras by 2005 but would continue to make, and upgrade, APS film and one-time-use cameras.