GetawaysBuilt for Two spring...
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YELLOW ***** FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015 ~ VOL. CCLXV NO. 36 WSJ.com HHHH $3.00 DJIA 17972.38 À 110.24 0.6% NASDAQ 4857.61 À 1.2% NIKKEI 17979.72 À 1.9% STOXX 600 374.83 À 0.75% 10-YR. TREAS.(new) À 1/32 , yield 1.983% OIL $51.21 À $2.37 GOLD $1,220.10 À $1.10 EURO $1.1404 YEN 119.10 IN TOMORROW ’ S PAPER wsj. magazine spring fashion issue Getaways Built for Two MANSION CONTENTS Corporate News.... B2,3 Global Finance........... C3 Heard on the Street C8 In the Markets .......... C4 Movies........................ D2,3 Opinion.................. A11-13 Sports.......................... D1,8 Technology................... B4 Television...................... D6 Theater....................... D5,7 U.S. News................. A2-5 Weather Watch........ B6 World News ........ A6-10 s Copyright 2015 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved > What’s News i i i World-Wide n Germany and France’s lead- ers brokered a Ukraine cease- fire accord in all-night talks with Putin, but many were skeptical the truce will hold. A1, A6 n Leaders from Greece and the rest of the eurozone struck a conciliatory tone after hopes for a quick deal on Athens’s credi- tor standoff were dashed. A9 n The U.N. tightened sanctions on Islamic State in a bid to block the cash the militants derive from smuggling oil, antiquities and kidnapping ransoms. A8 n Al Qaeda fighters seized an army base in southern Ye- men, as the country risked falling deeper into turmoil. A8 n EU leaders said they would coordinate databases in a bid to stop citizens from leaving to fight with terrorist groups. A8 n A federal judge ruled that an Alabama county official couldn’t refuse to give marriage licenses to gay couples. A3 n China and Indonesia are likely the top sources of plastic waste reaching the oceans, en- vironmental scientists said. A10 n The Senate confirmed Pentagon veteran Ashton Carter to be the new defense secretary by a vote of 93-5. A5 n An Egyptian court ordered the release of two Al Jazeera journalists who were accused of terror-related crimes. A10 n A University of Texas official helped students recommended by influential people gain ad- mission, a report found. A5 n The Democratic Party picked Philadelphia to host its 2016 presidential convention. i i i A mEx and Costco are end- ing their relationship, a surprise move that pummeled AmEx’s stock and will spur an upheaval in the card industry. A1 n Expedia and Orbitz agreed to merge in a $1.34 billion deal that would bring many of the top U.S. travel-book- ing sites under one roof. A1 n J.P. Morgan ousted two se- nior executives connected to an investigation into the bank’s hiring practices in Asia. C1 n Several U.S. food makers served up grim financial news and disclosed leadership changes, battering shares. B1 n GM is weighing the po- tential impact on its credit rating of a proposed $8 bil- lion share buyback. B3 n Retail sales fell in January, depressed by a drop in gaso- line prices, even as consumers saved money at the pump. A2 n U.S. stocks neared records on earnings reports and diminish- ing worries about Europe. The Dow rose 110.24 to 17972.38. C4 n Bombardier tapped new leadership and unveiled measures to bolster the com- pany’s balance sheet. B3 n Bargain hunters are raising funds to buy stocks, bonds and loans of energy firms amid the sharp drop in crude prices. C1 n Fidelity investors pulled money from its actively man- aged funds in 2014, but the firm still posted record results. C2 n AIG reported a sharp drop in quarterly profit, hurt by its workers’ compensation unit and a charge to retire debt. C3 Business & Finance Germany and France’s leaders emerged from 17 hours of all- night negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday with a truce for Ukraine intended to glue together the shards of the last one—but with little confidence in the West that it would. Russia and the separatists it backs in Ukraine’s east pro- claimed strong satisfaction with the outcome, which gives the reb- els significant gains including control over much of the ground they have taken in recent months and over the border with Russia, at least through the end of this year. “This is a great victory,” Alex- ander Zakharchenko, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russian media. Western officials, while greet- ing the agreement as a hope for peace, sounded more anxious. They quickly reminded one an- other publicly that they can’t trust Mr. Putin or the separatists to stick to their promises after a previous deal in September col- lapsed into all-out civil war—and that even the new cease-fire agreed to begin on Sunday is far from certain to take hold. Even as the truce was being sealed, fight- ing remained heavy as both sides jockeyed to expand their territory before the deadline. “A deal has been attained, but everything can be decided one way or the other,” French Presi- dent François Hollande said about the agreement he helped negoti- ate alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “The next hours will be decisive.” Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who presides over EU summits, said after a brief meeting with Ms. Merkel about the deal: “Hope is good, even es- sential, but hope is not enough.” For Washington, the cease-fire agreement holds the promise of temporarily arresting Ukraine’s deepening crisis, and takes the pressure off the White House to make an immediate decision on sending defensive weaponry to Kiev. However, U.S. officials are skeptical that the deal reached Thursday will lead to a lasting solution to the conflict in Ukraine. U.S. officials don’t believe Mr. Putin will be satisfied with the status quo in Ukraine as repre- sented by the cease-fire deal, and some expect the separatists Please turn to page A6 By Andrey Ostroukh in Minsk, Belarus, Gregory L. White in Moscow and Julian E. Barnes in Washington Doubt Clouds Ukraine Truce Peace Deal Set to Start Sunday; Russia-Backed Rebels Would Hold Onto Territory Petr David Josek/Associated Press Travel Sites Merge in Bid To Fend Off New Rivals Expedia Inc. and Orbitz Worldwide Inc., which squeezed agents out of the travel business, agreed to merge Thursday as they struggle to hang on to the middle of a market that is now squeezing them. On Thursday the online rivals agreed to a deal that would bring many of the top U.S. travel-booking sites under one roof. The $1.34 billion transac- tion is sure to spark grumbling from hotel and airline operators, who are wary of having even bigger companies standing be- tween them and their customers. Though it would leave Expe- dia and Priceline Group Inc. tow- ering above the rest of the in- dustry, the planned merger underscores the pressure brought to bear by new rivals in- Please turn to page A5 BY DREW FITZGERALD AND JACK NICAS CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand—Fiona Bain’s wedding won’t go quite as she had planned. Having booked a $2,500-a-night venue in New Zealand’s second big- gest city and picked Valen- tine’s Day for her marriage to longtime sweetheart Dermot McNamara, 41- year-old Ms. Bain’s prepa- rations were suddenly thrown a curveball. Or, in this case, a bouncer with a white leather cricket ball. “I had no idea it would be the first day, the opening match or any of that,” said Ms. Bain, bemoaning that her wed- ding day will clash with the start of the Cricket World Cup, which is being held in New Zealand and Australia. The 49-game tourna- ment runs until March 29, and more than 750,000 tickets have been sold so far. Cricket may be little known in the U.S., but the more than 200-year-old sport has roused passions of everybody from best- selling British authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle to India’s Bollywood movie stars. The game—played by two teams of 11 players each—is the national sport in countries including Aus- tralia and has an estimated global audience of more than a billion people. For many, the Cricket World Cup is the sport’s marquee event. Each game takes place over a single day, with the aim being to score more than your opponent. But the decision to start this year’s tournament on Valentine’s Day has left many couples Please turn to page A10 BY LUCY CRAYMER Cricket’s Big Day Falls on Valentine’s, Bowling Couples a Googly i i i Fans of the Sport Find Themselves On a Sticky Wicket; Romance or Bro-mance? Defense Chief Approved Associated Press Graves near the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk Thursday. The cease-fire offers Kiev a chance to end a costly and bloody conflict. CONFIRMED: The Senate voted 93-5 to clear Ashton Carter as the next defense secretary. A5 American Express Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. are end- ing their 16-year relationship, a surprise move that pummeled AmEx’s stock price and will trig- ger a major upheaval in the card industry. The unusual partnership, in which Costco exclusively ac- cepted AmEx cards, had driven a significant chunk of business to the New York card company. In addition, AmEx and Costco is- sued a credit card together that could also be used at other mer- chants. When the arrangement ends next year, millions of cus- tomers will be forced to use a different credit card when shop- ping at the wholesale store. The failure to agree on new terms was a fresh blow to AmEx, which was already falling short of some sales targets. American Express Chief Executive Ken Chenault said the move, affect- ing roughly one in 10 AmEx cards in circulation, would eat into the company’s results in the next two years. On Thursday, AmEx’s shares dropped $5.53, or 6.4%, to $80.48, its largest one-day per- centage decline since August 2011. The move sets up a race among credit-card firms to team up with the fast-expanding wholesale club, which sells ev- erything from car tires to smoked salmon. AmEx, which issues credit and charge cards and owns a pro- cessing network, said it had been unable to reach a new agreement with Costco on terms that “would have made economic sense” for the company. “It’s not easy to see a long- Please turn to the next page BY ROBIN SIDEL Costco Divorce Shakes Up AmEx One measure of the Ukrai- nian cease-fire agreement signed in the early hours of Thursday in Minsk is the muted enthusiasm that has sur- rounded it. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who helped broker the deal with French President François Hol- lande, said it offered “a glim- mer of hope, no more and no less.” There were no declarations of peace in our time, no back- slapping or self-congratulation when the exhausted French and German leaders arrived in Brussels later that day for a Eu- ropean Union summit. Instead, there was recognition that the agreement could, within days, be rendered as meaningless as the previous cease-fire signed in the Belarusian capital in Sep- tember. Since then, Russia- backed separatists have claimed huge swaths of Ukrai- nian territory. In part, that is because in many European capitals there is little remaining trust in Pres- ident Vladimir Putin. The Rus- sian leader has convinced them that he is a man of action—and an unpredictable one at that— but not a man of his word. Yet, Berlin and Paris felt they had to act to quell the cri- sis, fearing that if Washington decided to supply arms to Ukraine it would merely esca- late the conflict. Moreover, it was also clear that an ex- hausted Ukrainian government was ready for a deal. Mr. Putin said the accord covered a lot of ground. But European leaders at the sum- mit in Brussels expressed an al- most universal refrain that was repeated by British Prime Min- ister David Cameron: “What matters most is actions on the ground and not words on a piece of paper.” Lawrence Freedman, emeri- tus professor of war studies at King’s College London, said any realistic cease-fire agreement would look a lot like the deal signed Thursday. “The princi- ples, by and large, are fine, but it’s hard to be optimistic about implementation,” he said. The agreement is in parts vague and conditional. It lacks strong monitoring and is likely Please turn to page A6 BY STEPHEN FIDLER AND LAURENCE NORMAN Cease-Fire Hopes Exceed Expectations ANALYSIS War-torn region skeptical........ A6 Asset sales muddy sanctions... B1 C M Y K Composite Composite MAGENTA CYAN BLACK P2JW044000-5-A00100-1--------XA CL,CN,CX,DL,DM,DX,EE,EU,FL,HO,KC,MW,NC,NE,NY,PH,PN,RM,SA,SC,SL,SW,TU,WB,WE BG,BM,BP,CC,CH,CK,CP,CT,DN,DR,FW,HL,HW,KS,LA,LG,LK,MI,ML,NM,PA,PI,PV,TD,TS,UT,WO P2JW044000-5-A00100-1--------XA
Transcript of GetawaysBuilt for Two spring...
YELLOW
* * * * * FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015 ~ VOL. CCLXV NO. 36 WSJ.com HHHH $3 .00
DJIA 17972.38 À 110.24 0.6% NASDAQ 4857.61 À 1.2% NIKKEI 17979.72 À 1.9% STOXX600 374.83 À 0.75% 10-YR. TREAS.(new) À 1/32 , yield 1.983% OIL $51.21 À $2.37 GOLD $1,220.10 À $1.10 EURO $1.1404 YEN 119.10
IN TOMORROW’S PAPERwsj. magazine
spring fashion issueGetaways Built for Two
MANSION
CONTENTSCorporate News.... B2,3Global Finance........... C3Heard on the Street C8In the Markets.......... C4Movies........................ D2,3Opinion.................. A11-13
Sports.......................... D1,8Technology................... B4Television...................... D6Theater....................... D5,7U.S. News................. A2-5Weather Watch........ B6World News........ A6-10
s Copyright 2015 Dow Jones & Company.All Rights Reserved
>
What’sNews
i i i
World-WidenGermany and France’s lead-ers brokered a Ukraine cease-fire accord in all-night talkswithPutin, but many were skepticalthe truce will hold. A1, A6nLeaders fromGreece and therest of the eurozone struck aconciliatory tone after hopes fora quick deal on Athens’s credi-tor standoff were dashed. A9nTheU.N. tightened sanctionson Islamic State in a bid to blockthe cash the militants derivefrom smuggling oil, antiquitiesand kidnapping ransoms. A8n Al Qaeda fighters seizedan army base in southern Ye-men, as the country riskedfalling deeper into turmoil. A8nEU leaders said they wouldcoordinate databases in a bidto stop citizens from leaving tofight with terrorist groups. A8nA federal judge ruled thatan Alabama county officialcouldn’t refuse to givemarriagelicenses to gay couples.A3nChina and Indonesia arelikely the top sources of plasticwaste reaching the oceans, en-vironmental scientists said.A10n The Senate confirmedPentagon veteran AshtonCarter to be the new defensesecretary by a vote of 93-5. A5n An Egyptian court orderedthe release of two Al Jazeerajournalists who were accusedof terror-related crimes. A10nAUniversity of Texas officialhelped students recommendedby influential people gain ad-mission, a report found. A5n The Democratic Partypicked Philadelphia to host its2016 presidential convention.
i i i
AmEx and Costco are end-ing their relationship, a
surprise move that pummeledAmEx’s stock and will spur anupheaval in the card industry.A1n Expedia and Orbitz agreedto merge in a $1.34 billiondeal that would bring manyof the top U.S. travel-book-ing sites under one roof. A1n J.P. Morgan ousted two se-nior executives connected toan investigation into the bank’shiring practices in Asia. C1n Several U.S. food makersserved up grim financial newsand disclosed leadershipchanges, battering shares. B1n GM is weighing the po-tential impact on its creditrating of a proposed $8 bil-lion share buyback. B3nRetail sales fell in January,depressed by a drop in gaso-line prices, even as consumerssavedmoney at the pump. A2nU.S. stocks neared records onearnings reports and diminish-ing worries about Europe. TheDow rose 110.24 to 17972.38. C4n Bombardier tapped newleadership and unveiledmeasures to bolster the com-pany’s balance sheet. B3n Bargain hunters are raisingfunds to buy stocks, bonds andloans of energy firms amid thesharp drop in crude prices. C1nFidelity investors pulledmoney from its activelyman-aged funds in 2014, but the firmstill posted record results. C2nAIG reported a sharp dropin quarterly profit, hurt by itsworkers’ compensation unitand a charge to retire debt. C3
Business&Finance
Germany and France’s leadersemerged from 17 hours of all-night negotiating with RussianPresident Vladimir Putin onThursday with a truce for Ukraineintended to glue together theshards of the last one—but withlittle confidence in the West thatit would.
Russia and the separatists itbacks in Ukraine’s east pro-claimed strong satisfaction withthe outcome, which gives the reb-els significant gains includingcontrol over much of the groundthey have taken in recent monthsand over the border with Russia,at least through the end of thisyear.
“This is a great victory,” Alex-ander Zakharchenko, head of the
self-proclaimed Donetsk People’sRepublic, told Russian media.
Western officials, while greet-ing the agreement as a hope forpeace, sounded more anxious.
They quickly reminded one an-other publicly that they can’ttrust Mr. Putin or the separatiststo stick to their promises after aprevious deal in September col-lapsed into all-out civil war—andthat even the new cease-fireagreed to begin on Sunday is farfrom certain to take hold. Even asthe truce was being sealed, fight-ing remained heavy as both sides
jockeyed to expand their territorybefore the deadline.
“A deal has been attained, buteverything can be decided oneway or the other,” French Presi-dent François Hollande said aboutthe agreement he helped negoti-ate alongside German ChancellorAngela Merkel. “The next hourswill be decisive.”
Donald Tusk, the former Polishprime minister who presides overEU summits, said after a briefmeeting with Ms. Merkel aboutthe deal: “Hope is good, even es-sential, but hope is not enough.”
For Washington, the cease-fireagreement holds the promise oftemporarily arresting Ukraine’sdeepening crisis, and takes thepressure off the White House tomake an immediate decision onsending defensive weaponry toKiev. However, U.S. officials areskeptical that the deal reachedThursday will lead to a lastingsolution to the conflict inUkraine.
U.S. officials don’t believe Mr.Putin will be satisfied with thestatus quo in Ukraine as repre-sented by the cease-fire deal,and some expect the separatists
PleaseturntopageA6
By Andrey Ostroukh in Minsk, Belarus,Gregory L. White in Moscow
and Julian E. Barnes in Washington
Doubt Clouds Ukraine TrucePeace Deal Set to Start Sunday; Russia-Backed Rebels Would Hold Onto Territory
Petr
David
Josek/AssociatedPress
Travel SitesMerge in BidTo Fend OffNew Rivals
Expedia Inc. and OrbitzWorldwide Inc., which squeezedagents out of the travel business,agreed to merge Thursday asthey struggle to hang on to themiddle of a market that is nowsqueezing them.
On Thursday the online rivalsagreed to a deal that wouldbring many of the top U.S.travel-booking sites under oneroof. The $1.34 billion transac-tion is sure to spark grumblingfrom hotel and airline operators,who are wary of having evenbigger companies standing be-tween them and their customers.
Though it would leave Expe-dia and Priceline Group Inc. tow-ering above the rest of the in-dustry, the planned mergerunderscores the pressurebrought to bear by new rivals in-
PleaseturntopageA5
BY DREW FITZGERALDAND JACK NICAS
CHRISTCHURCH, NewZealand—Fiona Bain’swedding won’t go quite asshe had planned.
Having booked a$2,500-a-night venue inNew Zealand’s second big-gest city and picked Valen-tine’s Day for her marriageto longtime sweetheartDermot McNamara, 41-year-old Ms. Bain’s prepa-rations were suddenlythrown a curveball. Or, inthis case, a bouncer with awhite leather cricket ball.
“I had no idea it wouldbe the first day, the openingmatch or any of that,” said Ms.Bain, bemoaning that her wed-ding day will clash with the startof the Cricket World Cup, whichis being held in New Zealand andAustralia. The 49-game tourna-ment runs until March 29, and
more than 750,000 ticketshave been sold so far.
Cricket may be littleknown in the U.S., but themore than 200-year-oldsport has roused passionsof everybody from best-selling British authors suchas Arthur Conan Doyle toIndia’s Bollywood moviestars. The game—played bytwo teams of 11 playerseach—is the national sportin countries including Aus-tralia and has an estimatedglobal audience of morethan a billion people.
For many, the CricketWorld Cup is the sport’s
marquee event. Each game takesplace over a single day, with theaim being to score more thanyour opponent.
But the decision to start thisyear’s tournament on Valentine’sDay has left many couples
PleaseturntopageA10
BY LUCY CRAYMER
Cricket’s Big Day Falls on Valentine’s,Bowling Couples a Googly
i i i
Fans of the Sport Find ThemselvesOn a StickyWicket; Romance or Bro-mance?
Defense Chief Approved
AssociatedPress
Graves near the east Ukrainian city of Donetsk Thursday. The cease-fire offers Kiev a chance to end a costly and bloody conflict.
CONFIRMED: The Senate voted93-5 to clear Ashton Carter as thenext defense secretary. A5
American Express Co. andCostco Wholesale Corp. are end-ing their 16-year relationship, asurprise move that pummeledAmEx’s stock price and will trig-ger a major upheaval in the cardindustry.
The unusual partnership, inwhich Costco exclusively ac-cepted AmEx cards, had driven asignificant chunk of business tothe New York card company. Inaddition, AmEx and Costco is-sued a credit card together thatcould also be used at other mer-chants. When the arrangementends next year, millions of cus-tomers will be forced to use adifferent credit card when shop-ping at the wholesale store.
The failure to agree on newterms was a fresh blow to AmEx,which was already falling shortof some sales targets. AmericanExpress Chief Executive KenChenault said the move, affect-ing roughly one in 10 AmExcards in circulation, would eatinto the company’s results in thenext two years.
On Thursday, AmEx’s sharesdropped $5.53, or 6.4%, to$80.48, its largest one-day per-centage decline since August2011.
The move sets up a raceamong credit-card firms to teamup with the fast-expandingwholesale club, which sells ev-erything from car tires tosmoked salmon.
AmEx, which issues credit andcharge cards and owns a pro-cessing network, said it hadbeen unable to reach a newagreement with Costco on termsthat “would have made economicsense” for the company.
“It’s not easy to see a long-Pleaseturntothenextpage
BY ROBIN SIDEL
CostcoDivorceShakes UpAmEx
One measure of the Ukrai-nian cease-fire agreementsigned in the early hours ofThursday in Minsk is the mutedenthusiasm that has sur-
rounded it. GermanChancellor AngelaMerkel, who
helped broker the deal withFrench President François Hol-lande, said it offered “a glim-mer of hope, no more and noless.”
There were no declarationsof peace in our time, no back-
slapping or self-congratulationwhen the exhausted French andGerman leaders arrived inBrussels later that day for a Eu-ropean Union summit. Instead,there was recognition that theagreement could, within days,be rendered as meaningless asthe previous cease-fire signedin the Belarusian capital in Sep-tember. Since then, Russia-backed separatists haveclaimed huge swaths of Ukrai-nian territory.
In part, that is because inmany European capitals thereis little remaining trust in Pres-ident Vladimir Putin. The Rus-
sian leader has convinced themthat he is a man of action—andan unpredictable one at that—but not a man of his word.
Yet, Berlin and Paris feltthey had to act to quell the cri-sis, fearing that if Washingtondecided to supply arms toUkraine it would merely esca-late the conflict. Moreover, itwas also clear that an ex-hausted Ukrainian governmentwas ready for a deal.
Mr. Putin said the accordcovered a lot of ground. ButEuropean leaders at the sum-mit in Brussels expressed an al-most universal refrain that was
repeated by British Prime Min-ister David Cameron: “Whatmatters most is actions on theground and not words on apiece of paper.”
Lawrence Freedman, emeri-tus professor of war studies atKing’s College London, said anyrealistic cease-fire agreementwould look a lot like the dealsigned Thursday. “The princi-ples, by and large, are fine, butit’s hard to be optimistic aboutimplementation,” he said.
The agreement is in partsvague and conditional. It lacksstrong monitoring and is likely
PleaseturntopageA6
BY STEPHEN FIDLERAND LAURENCE NORMAN
Cease-Fire Hopes Exceed Expectations
ANALYSIS
War-torn region skeptical........ A6 Asset sales muddy sanctions... B1
CM Y K CompositeCompositeMAGENTA CYAN BLACK
P2JW044000-5-A00100-1--------XA CL,CN,CX,DL,DM,DX,EE,EU,FL,HO,KC,MW,NC,NE,NY,PH,PN,RM,SA,SC,SL,SW,TU,WB,WEBG,BM,BP,CC,CH,CK,CP,CT,DN,DR,FW,HL,HW,KS,LA,LG,LK,MI,ML,NM,PA,PI,PV,TD,TS,UT,WO
P2JW044000-5-A00100-1--------XA
