NEW YORK

TRUMP ESTABLISHING ‘UNIVERSITY’ FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

Donald Trump, whose Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts emerged from bankruptcy protection last week, said yesterday he is starting Trump University, an online school for working business professionals. Mr. Trump said trumpuniversity.com would provide courses on marketing, real estate, entrepreneurship, negotiation, communication, and leadership beginning Thursday. The school offers courses only and won’t grant degrees, he said. Mr. Trump said he will teach some of the courses, which cost $300 each and are tailored to the needs of small business owners and entrepreneurs. “When I make speeches, a lot of people show up, a lot of people,” Mr. Trump said at a press conference in Midtown. “There’s something out there, and I thought this would be a good time to take advantage of it.” The classes will be taught using simulated real-world examples, such as real estate purchases and model business plans, said the school’s president, Michael Sexton.

The nondegree granting online education market is estimated at $5 billion to $10 billion in 2005.

– Bloomberg News

WALL STREET

GOLDMAN, TOP AMERICAN IPO BANK, LEAVES BUYERS WITH LOSSES

Goldman Sachs Group, the world’s most profitable securities firm, is the no. 1 underwriter of domestic initial public offerings at the expense of investors who have lost money in eight of the firm’s 10 IPOs this year.

Shares of Goldman-led IPOs, including Lazard Limited’s $855 million sale, fell an average 10.8% in 2005. By contrast, initial offerings managed by Morgan Stanley, Goldman’s closest competitor, rose almost 4%. Lazard, the investment bank headed by Bruce Wasserstein, is down 15% since it started trading May 4.

New York-based Goldman, which gets almost 25% of its investment banking revenue from share offerings, earned about $120 million from arranging American IPOs so far this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The buyers of these stocks, meantime, are nursing losses of as much as 30%.

“Goldman has turned its back on the ‘buy side’ and chosen to do deals in a way that benefits their investment-banking clients,” said Ben Holmes, an IPO specialist at Boulder, Colo.-based Protege Funds.

– Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS MANDATORY CATTLE INDUSTRY PROMOTION FEES

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the cattle industry fees that fund the “Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner” advertising campaign, rejecting arguments the program violates constitutionally protected speech rights. The justices yesterday said the mandatory $1-per-head assessments on cattle pay for a valid program of “government speech,” directed by the Agriculture Department. The 6-3 ruling set aside an appeals court decision, returning the case to the lower court to consider other arguments against the fees.

The decision bolsters the legal case for a similar pork-industry program, which a lower court had declared unconstitutional, as well as promotion fees assessed on milk, eggs, cotton, and soybeans. Altogether, producers in 17 industries paid $693.2 million in mandatory fees in 2003. In the $170 billion beef business alone, producers and importers paid $83.6 million in “check-off” fees during fiscal 2003. The money also goes toward research and education.

– Bloomberg News

BOND MARKET

U.S. TREASURIES SURGE ON OPTIMISM GLOBAL INFLATION NEAR PEAK

U.S. Treasury notes surged, pushing 10-year note yields near 4% for the second time in a week, on speculation inflation will remain in check.

A decline in oil and commodity prices in recent weeks has increased the probability that global inflation is reaching a peak, fixed income strategists at Deutsche Bank wrote in a report yesterday. Investors should buy nominal government bonds rather than inflation-protected debt securities, the firm said. Inflation erodes the purchasing power of fixed-income payments.

“In a scenario of low inflation, lower Treasury yields brew even lower yields,” said Gary Pollack, head of fixed-income trading at Deutsche Bank’s investment management unit in New York, which oversees $12 billion in assets. “We might be only a couple of days away from having the 10-year note yield below 4 percent.”

– Bloomberg News