ECONOMY

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE FALLS IN MARCH

Consumer confidence, hurt by consumers’ worries about jobs, fell in March for the second consecutive month, a private research group said Tuesday. The consumer confidence index dropped 2.0 points to 102.4, down from a revised 104.4 in February, according to The Conference Board. Analysts had expected a reading of 103.The index had fallen by a revised 0.7 point in February. The March figure was the lowest since November, when the reading was 92.6. Nevertheless, despite the two declines, Lynn Franco, director of the New York based Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center, said that consumers still remain resilient. “Consumers are still quite confident despite recent increases in unemployment claims and rising prices at the gas pump,” Franco said in a statement. “Their overall assessment of current economic conditions remains favorable and their short-term outlook suggests little change in the months ahead.”

– Associated Press

ENTERTAINMENT

MIRAMAX FOUNDERS HARVEY AND BOB WEINSTEIN AGREE TO LEAVE DISNEY

Miramax Film Corporation founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein will leave the company in September, when their contracts with owner Walt Disney expire, ending a relationship that created Oscar-winning films including “The Aviator.” The Weinsteins, co-chairmen of the New York-based studio, will complete projects currently in production until they leave, Disney said yesterday in a statement. Disney, based in Burbank, Calif., will announce new management for Miramax in July, the company said.

– Bloomberg News

REGULATORY

SEC GIVES COMPANIES FLEXIBILITY ON EXPENSING OPTIONS

The Securities and Exchange Commission, trying to ease concerns over shareholder lawsuits, gave companies flexibility in reporting stock options as expenses on their financial statements beginning as soon as June. The SEC, in answer to public companies’ inquiries about placing a fair value on stock options, said yesterday its staff “will not object to reasonable fair value estimates made in good faith, even if subsequent events indicate other estimates would have been more accurate.” The rule requires the cost of options, now contained in footnotes in regulatory filings, to be expensed on the income statement.

– Bloomberg News

NATIONAL

NEW YORK, OTHER STATES SUE EPA OVER MERCURY RULE

New York, California, and seven other states sued the Environmental Protection Agency yesterday to challenge new rules on mercury emissions from power plants that the states say fail to protect the public. “It is an established medical fact that mercury causes neurological damage in young children, impairing their ability to learn and even to play,” New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey said in a statement. The EPA two weeks ago set the first limits on airborne mercury pollution from coal-fired plants, the largest man-made source of the poison. Under the EPA’s new rules, utilities that don’t meet pollution standards can buy credits from those who do rather than upgrade equipment. “EPA’s emissions trading plan will allow some power plants to actually increase mercury emissions, creating hot spots of mercury deposition” across the country, Mr. Harvey said.

– Bloomberg News