WALL STREET
NYSE site hobbled by outage, monitor says
SAN FRANCISCO | The New York Stock Exchange’s website was apparently hobbled twice Monday, possibly the result of computer attacks as part of the protests against Wall Street, according to a company that monitors website response times.
San Mateo-based Keynote Systems Inc. said the NYSE website experienced a one-minute outage around 3:30 p.m. EDT, then a half-hour outage about two hours later.
But NYSE spokesman Ray Pellecchia said an investigation by the stock exchange showed no disruptions to its website.
The loosely organized Anonymous hacking group has threatened an attack on the NYSE. Some protesters have objected to those threats because of the impression a hack would leave about the movement as a whole.
Keynote spokesman Dan Berkowitz said his firm began monitoring the NYSE site Monday after receiving media inquiries about the threats. He said the slowdowns were substantial and his firm considered the situation an outage.
OIL
Crude prices above $85 for first time since September
NEW YORK — Oil prices jumped 3 percent Monday as fears of another recession retreated.
Prices rose Monday after France and Germany agreed to put more capital into European banks. The move by the eurozone’s two biggest nations helped ease concerns that major banks in Europe and elsewhere would be brought down by the region’s debt crisis.
Benchmark crude rose $2.43, or 3 percent, to end the day at $85.41 per barrel in New York.
TECHNOLOGY
Orders for iPhone 4S top 1 million for new record
NEW YORK — Apple says first-day orders of the iPhone 4S topped 1 million, breaking the record set by last year’s model.
Apple Inc. and various phone companies in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain started taking orders for new phone last Friday. It reaches stores this Friday.
The base model of the iPhone 4S costs $200 with a two-year contract. It has a faster processor and an improved camera compared with last year’s model. However, some customers and investors were disappointed that Apple didn’t launch a more radical new model. It’s been more than a year since Apple since the previous model was released.
MARKETING
Dr Pepper Ten aimed at the macho market
NEW YORK — Dudes don’t drink diet.
Or at least that’s the idea behind Dr Pepper Ten, a 10-calorie soft drink Dr Pepper Snapple Group rolled out on Monday with a macho ad campaign that proclaims “It’s not for women.” The soft drink was developed after the company’s research found that men shy away from diet drinks that aren’t perceived as “manly” enough.
To appeal to men, Dr Pepper made its Ten drink 180 degrees different from Diet Dr Pepper. It has calories and sugar, unlike its diet counterpart. Instead of the dainty tan bubbles on the diet can, Ten will be wrapped in gunmetal gray packaging with silver bullets. And while Diet Dr Pepper’s marketing is women-friendly, the ad campaign for Ten goes out of its way to eschew women.
For instance, there’s a Dr Pepper Ten Facebook page for men only. And TV commercials are heavy on the machismo, including one spot that shows muscular men in the jungle battling snakes and bad guys and appear to shoot lasers at each other.
EUROPE
Slovakia doesn’t agree to European bailout fund
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia’s governing coalition failed Monday to strike a deal to prevent the collapse of a continentwide plan to rescue heavily indebted European nations.
Prime Minister Iveta Radicova said her four-party coalition, which met for three hours, was unable to agree on a compromise deal.
The 17 nations that use the euro must all approve expanding the powers of the bailout fund, which is designed to shore up Europe’s defenses against the debt crisis, which already has seen three countries bailed out and Greece edging toward default.
Fifteen governments, including the power house economies of Germany and France, already have approved the package of measures agreed to by eurozone leaders during a special summit in July. Only Slovakia and even smaller Malta have not backed the plan.
From wire dispatches and staff reports.
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