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TODAY IN ARENA
XLIX: PUMP IT UP
The Ultimate Homes for Wildlife Watchers
FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2015 ~ VOL. CCLXV NO. 24
*****
DJIA 17416.85 À 225.48 1.3% NASDAQ 4683.41 À 1.0% NIKKEI 17606.22 g 1.1% STOXX 600 368.76 g 0.1%
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WSJ.com
OIL $44.53 À $0.08
i
Business & Finance
T
he surging dollar is roiling currencies world-wide
amid efforts to boost economic growth, spurring a
wave of bets by investors. A1
By Gregory Zuckerman,
Laurence Fletcher
and Chiara Albanese
n Alibaba said profit fell 28%,
largely due to expenses, and
defended itself against claims
it let fake goods be sold. B4
n Ford posted a sharp drop in
quarterly net, largely because
of accounting moves, but issued a strong 2015 forecast. B5
n Deutsche Bank swung to
a profit on lower litigation
reserves and higher investment-banking revenue. C3
n Blackstone beat earnings
expectations as the world’s
largest private-equity firm set
several full-year records. C3
n Spotify is working with
Goldman on a new round of
fundraising, potentially delaying an IPO for another year. B3
i
i
i
World-Wide
n Obama will ask Congress
in his budget to boost government spending by $74 billion,
or 7% above levels fixed in a
2011 deficit-cutting deal. A2
BATTLE WOUND: A government soldier is treated at a hospital in the town of Artemivsk while civilians in eastern Ukraine tried to flee renewed fighting. A8
Network Aided Terror Escape
Paris Killer’s Wife Spirited to Syria by Group Set Up to Recruit Jihadists, Officials Say
PARIS—When a young Frenchwoman showed up early this
month at an Islamic State border
checkpoint in northern Syria, the
extremists controlling that arid
expanse were expecting her.
They waved her right through
and let her bodyguards accompany her, according to Western
counterterrorism officials.
The militants had been told to
give Hayat Boumeddiene special
treatment by the network of
chaperones who had arranged her
n The Senate voted 62-36 to
approve the Keystone pipeline,
moving Congress closer to a
showdown with Obama. A5
n EU foreign ministers agreed
to extend by six months targeted sanctions against individuals and companies in Russia and eastern Ukraine. A8
n Egypt’s military said assailants attacked police stations
and military bases in Sinai,
killing at least 20 people. A6
n The Mexican government
plans to make spending cuts
to offset a drop in revenue
from falling oil prices. A9
n MIT researchers found that
they could identify individuals
with only limited metadata. A3
n The U.S. rate of homeownership fell to a 20-year low in
the fourth quarter of 2014. A2
n Dartmouth is banning
hard alcohol and warning fraternities they must reform. A3
CONTENTS
Corporate News......B2,3
Global Finance.............C3
Heard on the StreetC8
In the Markets.............C4
Movies.................D7,10,12
Opinion.....................A11-13
Sports...........................D1-4
Technology.....................B4
Television..............D1,6,10
Theater.......................D9,11
U.S. News...................A2-5
Weather Watch..........B6
World News.............A6-9
>
s Copyright 2015 Dow Jones & Company.
All Rights Reserved
Hard-Driving Uber
Gives Compromise a Try
42%
35%
31%
27%
16%
11%
’13
35%
BY DOUGLAS MACMILLAN AND LISA FLEISHER
20%
’12
West. They no longer need to be
part of a terror group’s rank-andfile to benefit from its resources,
according to Western counterterrorism officials and people close
to militant networks.
There isn’t any evidence Mr.
Coulibaly took orders from Islamic State, although he pledged
his allegiance in a video that circulated online after his death.
But he didn’t act in isolation
either. Instead, he tapped into a
Please turn to page A7
18% 18%
13%
’14
Uber Technologies Inc. has followed a pugnacious
expansion strategy as it rolled into 277 cities around
the world, sometimes skirting local laws and daring
regulators to stop the smartphone-based car service.
But as fierce challenges from regulators and taxi
operators pile up from Portland, Ore., to Paris to
Phuket, Thailand, executives at the San Francisco
company are trying a new tactic: compromise and
diplomacy.
Instead of defying government officials, Uber executives say their lawyers and lobbyists are increasingly trying harder to negotiate agreements that
bring the company into compliance with existing
N/A
Note: Facebook reported earnings on Wednesday, remaining companies reported on Thursday.
Source: the companies
The Wall Street Journal
BIG EXPENSES: Recent earnings reports show that technology
companies continue to spend freely on research and development, with
Facebook and Google outpacing Web rivals Alibaba and Amazon. B1, B4
Falling Prices
Spread Pain
Far Across
The Oil Patch
BY ERIN AILWORTH
AND DAN MOLINSKI
DALLAS—Rumor became reality here last week when dozens of workers lost their jobs at
Laredo Petroleum Inc. The
Oklahoma-based energy outfit
said it closed its regional office
to cope with plunging oil
prices.
The layoffs were “kind of like
a death in the family,” says
Robert Silver, age 62, a geophysicist who had helped Laredo decide where to drill in
the Permian Basin in West
Texas.
Trouble has been looming
over the oil patch since crude
prices began falling last summer, from over $100 a barrel to
under $50 today. But only now
are the long-feared effects of a
bust starting to ripple through
the complex energy ecosystem,
Please turn to the next page
Many global central banks are
weakening their currencies as
they try to counter signs of economic gloom, signaled by falling
commodity prices, declining inflation and softening growth expectations.
Those shifts, together with
moves such as this month’s surprise decision by the Swiss National Bank to abandon its
three-year-old policy of limiting
gains in the Swiss franc against
the euro, have fed a jump in the
price swings of currencies.
These dynamics are tempting investors to make large bets on
currency moves, potentially fueling further exchange-rate shifts.
Denmark’s central bank cut
its deposit rate for the third
time in two weeks on Thursday,
charging banks more to hold
their money, as it sought to defend its long-established currency peg against a weakening
euro, which has tumbled since
last week when the European
Central Bank adopted a €1 trillion-plus ($1.129 trillion) stimulus package.
On Thursday, the dollar
climbed to an 11-year high
against a basket of currencies
and is up 15% in the past year.
The Turkish lira slumped to a
low against the dollar amid
Please turn to page A8
U-TURN
Capital expenditures and R&D as a percentage of revenue for latest quarter
Composite
n Jordan demanded proof
from Islamic State that a
captured pilot was still alive
as a deadline for a possible
prisoner swap expired. A6
travel. The reason would soon be
clear: The same day she crossed
the border, her husband, Amedy
Coulibaly, unleashed his terror
spree in Paris, and she became the
most-wanted woman in France.
No charges have been filed but
authorities are eager to question
Ms. Boumeddiene. “She is the
Hefty Spending by Tech Players
n Tensions between Israel
and Hezbollah eased and Israel said the Lebanese group
had asked for a cease-fire
through U.N. intermediaries. A6
n The U.S. has formed ties
with Houthi rebels who seized
control of Yemen’s capital, in a
sign of a shift in Washington’s
approach in that country. A6
prize—a high-value asset—because she knows a lot about the
preparation of the attack,” said a
counterterrorism official.
Her journey from the gritty
suburbs of Paris to the Syrian
border followed a circuitous route
that—much like an underground
railroad—allowed her to slip away
covertly.
Islamic State’s ability to provide safe harbor to friends and
family removes potential obstacles for would-be attackers in the
By Noémie Bisserbe,
Benoît Faucon
and Stacy Meichtry
laws, even if it leads to lower profit margins at the
company.
In cities where new laws are being written for
app-based car services, Uber is more willing to go
along with requirements such as providing wheelchair-accessible vehicles and capping fares charged
by its “surge pricing” system. Executives say they
are aiming to make Uber explicitly legal everywhere
it operates, up from just 22 cities and states now.
Many cities lack rules for car services like Uber,
which says it isn’t bound by traditional taxi regulations because it owns no cars and employs no
drivers.
“We are trying to intensify our partnerships
Please turn to page A10
Fans of PDX’s Magic Carpet
Don’t Want It to Disappear
i
i
i
Portland Airport Flooring Fans Scrap
For a Swatch; 28,000 Square Feet of Teal
BY RYAN KNUTSON
Many collectors own a piece of
the Berlin Wall. Ticket stubs from
1960s Beatles concerts are for sale
on eBay. And for a few hundred
dollars, you can own a seat from
the old Yankee Stadium.
Collectors will soon be able to
get their hands on another piece
of history: a piece of carpet
from the Portland International
Airport.
The 28,000 square feet of teal
is more than just a rug. It’s a legend, a monument to muffled footsteps, a selfie magnet that is the
background for more than 31,000
Instagram photos of feet. The rug
has more than 1,500 followers on
Twitter. People have dressed as
the carpet for Halloween. There is
a 176-square-foot mural in its
honor hanging in concourse D.
Emma Milkin, a 21-year-old Portland resident, tattooed the pattern
on her back.
Carpet fan with matching T-shirt
The carpet has large, dark blue,
purple and red X’s that resemble
the pattern of the airport’s crisscrossing runways as seen from
the control tower. Through the
pictures people post online when
arriving or departing the airport,
the pattern has become an icon.
Soon, though, it will be gone.
Despite a regular regimen of steam
cleaning and vacuuming, the carPlease turn to page A10
P2JW030000-5-A00100-1--------XA
n U.S. prosecutors are dropping insider-trading charges
against five men in the wake
of an appeals-court ruling. C1
Petr David Josek/Associated Press
n Google’s revenue grew more
slowly than expected in the
fourth quarter. The firm cited
the strong dollar as a factor. B4
n Ally’s CEO reacted angrily
to ex-parent GM’s decision
to squeeze the lender out of
the car-leasing business. C1
Currency
Tumult
Attracts
Big Bets
A surging dollar is pummeling currencies around the globe
amid efforts to boost economic
growth, prompting a wave of investor bets to profit from the
upheaval.
n Amazon posted higherthan-expected quarterly net
despite sales growth below
forecasts. Shares rose sharply
in after-hours trading. B1
n U.S. stocks rose as earnings
reports helped lift consumer
shares. The Dow climbed
225.48 points to 17416.85. C4
HHHH $3.00
GOLD $1,254.60 g $31.30 EURO $1.1321 YEN 118.29
Ukraine Suffers as Clashes With Russia-Backed Rebels Intensify
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