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HFF Inc. today posted a second quarter profit of $2.7 million, or 14 cents per share, compared with a loss of $200,000, or 1 cent per share, in the comparable year-ago quarter.

For the quarter ended June 30, the Downtown Pittsburgh-based commercial mortgage broker (NYSE:HF) had revenue of $34.1 million, more than double the revenue of $16.4 million it posted a year ago.

For the first six months of the year, HFF had net income of $2.6 million, or 14 cents per share, on revenue of $53.5 million. That compares with a loss of $2.2 million, or 14 cents per share, on revenue of $29.7 million in the first six months of 2009.

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Attending school in California and becoming an engineering major can really pay off for college graduates — by thousands of dollars a year.

According to a report released Thursday from salary-tracker PayScale.com, petroleum engineering majors and graduates of Harvey Mudd College are taking home the biggest paychecks.

While mid-career salaries fell 1.5% overall between 2009 and 2010, engineers, scientists and mathematicians continued to rake in the big bucks, as well as students who graduated from Ivy League schools.

"Our society values something practical — that’s why poetry isn’t popping up on the top of the list," said Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale. "As in the past, engineering and [similar] fields with a strong math component plus a physical world component remain on the top, with lots of money to be made in these fields."

The data in the report, collected from 999 bachelor degree institutions in the last year, track median starting salaries of employees who graduated in the last five years and median mid-career salaries of graduates with more than 10 years of experience in a given field.

Follow the money: So where are all the lavishly paid engineers bred? According to PayScale.com, it’s Claremont, Calif., where Harvey Mudd alums go on to earn a mid-level salary of around $126,000.

"Harvey Mudd is the nexus of all good places to be in terms of graduate earnings," said Lee. "Not only do engineering majors make good money and this happens to be a specialized school for engineering, but southern California is an area that tends to have some of the highest wage earners in the country."

Meanwhile, Dartmouth College, which claimed the title as the school with the highest paid graduates for the past two years, was knocked down the list to number two — tied with Princeton — with its graduates receiving a starting salary of $54,100 and a mid-career salary of $123,000.

Since a large chunk of Dartmouth students typically head into financial services post-college, many graduates felt a blow to their wallets in the last year as financial companies cut back on pay, said Lee.

Harvard, California Institute of Technology, Colgate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, Duke and Bucknell rounded out the top ten list of schools with the highest-paid mid-career graduates no fax cash advance.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you choose Coker College in South Carolina — the worst-paying school on the list — be prepared for a starting salary of around $28,900 and a mid-level salary of $40,300.

Majors that pay: Topping the list of best-paying degrees this year, petroleum engineers earn a starting salary of $93,000 and a mid-level salary of $157,000.

That’s $49,000 more than the next most lucrative majors, aerospace engineering and chemical engineering, which both produce graduates earning a salary of around $108,000.

"Petroleum engineering has been an incredibly profitable sector for the last few years," said Lee. "It’s a very cyclical field and depends largely on the price of oil, and we’re very much on an up cycle right now."

Electrical engineering was the third-highest paying major on the list, with mid-level pay of $104,000 per year, followed by nuclear engineering, applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, physics and computer engineering.

But I don’t want to be an engineer! If science and math aren’t your thing, don’t worry. There are plenty of other majors — many you wouldn’t expect — that will put you on the money-making track.

"People always think they have to be an engineer if they want to make good money down the line, but there are a lot of other majors that will help you find good careers with salaries that anyone would be comfortable living on," said Lee.

A building construction major typically leads to a mid-career salary of more than $94,000, while mid-level government majors earn $87,300 on average. International relations, supply chain management and urban planning also boast average salaries of more than $80,000 a year.

Even majors like film production and zoology can help you land a good-paying job. While film-makers earn a starting salary of only $36,100 and recently-graduated zoology majors tend to make about $34,600, mid-level salaries come in at about $77,800 and $68,800, respectively. 

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Now that Goldman Sachs has likely put its troubles with the Securities and Exchange Commission behind it, can the company finally breathe a sigh of relief?

Not just yet.

On Tuesday, Wall Street’s most-gilded firm will report its second-quarter results. Analysts however, have been dramatically cutting forecasts for Goldman Sachs in recent weeks amid concerns that the combination of market volatility and economic tremors will hurt profits.

Current expectations are for the company to earn just under $1.3 billion, or $2 a share, according to Thomson Reuters. That’s down 64% from the $3.4 billion it earned a year ago.

Less-than-impressive numbers from some of Goldman’s closest rivals is shaking investor confidence even further.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), for example, reported a double-digit decline in trading revenues when it delivered its results on Thursday.

Both Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) reported similar declines.

That prompted FBR Capital Markets analyst Steve Stelmach to cut his estimates for Goldman Friday.

And while Goldman (GS, Fortune 500) has taken part in several key initial public offerings recently, including that of electric car maker Tesla Motors (TSLA) and exchange operator CBOE Holdings (CBOE), investment banking activity remains sluggish.

Revenue from stock and debt activity worldwide fell 24% to $7.9 billion during the second quarter from $10.4 billion in the previous quarter, according to research firm Dealogic.

But the troubles for Goldman don’t appear to end there. With a significant presence in the United Kingdom, the company is also likely to take a charge worth several hundred million dollars as a result of the British government’s decision earlier this year to tax bankers’ bonuses.

At any other time, Goldman might have been able to pretty up its results by lowering the amount of money it sets aside for employee pay this quarter. The only problem, however is that the firm dramatically lowered the amount it added to its compensation pool last quarter.

In order to pay its famously large bonuses at year end, experts suggest the company won’t have that option this time around.

"They made the decision in the first quarter to start out at much lower levels than they ever had before," said William Blair analyst Mark Lane. "I don’t think they can do much there."

What could weigh on Goldman’s results even further is Goldman’s proposed $550 million settlement with the SEC. Analysts expect the company to take a charge this quarter for the full amount. That would be about 92 cents a share, according to FBR’s Stelmach.

Executives from the company are also likely to face tough questions Tuesday about the impact of the forthcoming financial regulatory bill.

Some analysts have suggested that Goldman could be among the hardest hit by changes to derivatives trading and the so-called "Volcker rule", which would limit how much banks can invest in private equity and hedge funds.

But with the bill expected to be signed into law by President Obama next week and official rules still several months away, Goldman will be able to breathe easier knowing it doesn’t have to answer those tough questions just yet.

"There is no way they will quantify anything," said Lane. 

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Home sales and the average price of homes sold continued to climb in June, according to the Memphis Area Association of Realtors.

In June, total Multiple Listing Service sales were 1,152, up 8.5 percent from 1,062 in June 2009. June MLS home sales were 3.6 percent lower than in May, however, when 1,195 homes sold.

The average sales price in June jumped 3.9 percent to $161,000, compared to $155,000 in June 2009, and was 7.3 percent higher than the previous month of May when the average sales price was $150,000.

For the first fix months of 2010, MLS sales are up 4.2 percent — from 5,842 in 2009 to 6,089 this year — while the average price is up 5 payday loan online.9 percent to $144,000.

Data shows that the average time on the market is 108.6. The majority of sales, 38.8 percent or 447 sales, were in the $0-$99,999 price group. The second largest was $100,000-$199,999, with 390 sales, or 33.9 percent.

MAAR’s MLS database records all property transactions in Shelby, Fayette, Tipton and DeSoto counties.

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Accounting and business consulting company LECG Corp. officially closed its first acquisition since merging with Smart Business Advisory & Consulting and relocating from California to the Philadelphia area earlier this year.

LECG agreed to buy Bourne Business Consulting, a 36-person consulting firm in London, on June 22 and the deal closed officially on Monday.

LECG (NASDAQ:XPRT) didn’t say what it plans to pay in the deal. But in a release Monday, the investment banking firm that assisted Bourne with the transaction, Equiteq, said the deal includes “an initial consideration of 2.75 million British pounds plus contingent consideration over the next four years.”

Picking up Bourne will give LECG more clout in the valuation, transfer pricing, intellectual property and tax consulting areas in Europe. Danny Ryan is LECG’s managing director in London.

Bourne was started in 2002 and has offices in London and Farnham in Surrey. It is led by four partners: Philip Feibusch, Colette Moscati, Ian Mackie and Toni Dyson.

LECG has 39 offices around the world and Devon, Pa.-based Steve Samek serves as CEO. LECG and Smart completed a merger in March and chose to operate under the LECG name but locate its headquarters and take its CEO from Smart. Samek said earlier this spring that he expected 50 jobs to transfer from LECG’s Emeryville, Calif., offices to Smart’s Devon, Pa., location and held a job fair to hire candidates.

With the headquarters transition, the combined firm has already named two new senior managers to handle chief financial officer and general counsel duties. Steve Fife, LECG’s CFO, and Deanne Tully, LECG’s general counsel, will resign from their roles this summer and will not make the move to the East Coast. Fife will be replaced on Aug payday loans. 15 by Warren D. Barratt and Tully stepped down June 30 in favor of Yuri Rozenfeld.

“Having the management team centralized in one location is an important part of our strategy to drive operational excellence, effectively manage costs, and provide support for our professionals,” Samek said. “With more than two-thirds of our clients located in Europe or on the East Coast of the U.S., we cannot underestimate the value of having our leadership close to our engagements and the professionals who serve them.”

Barratt has more than 27 years of financial, accounting and general management experience. In addition to 11 years in public accounting with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, he has served as CFO for a variety of public and private companies in the services, technology and life sciences industries. Most recently, he was senior vice president and CFO of Epitome Systems, a privately held business process software company. Prior to that, he was CFO of Oncura, a multinational medical device joint venture.

Rozenfeld joined LECG June 1 and brings nearly 15 years of legal experience, most recently as senior securities counsel at Walgreens. Previously, he was general counsel and secretary at I-trax.

LECG also recently said it promoted two managing directors who joined the firm earlier this year from Huron Consulting to the positions of regional managing partners in the firm’s litigation, forensics and finance practice. Joe Decilveo, who joined the firm earlier this year from Huron Consulting, has responsibilities on the east coast while Stan Logan oversees the firm’s Midwest region and operations in Asia-Pacific, including the firm’s new Shanghai office.

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Alibaba.com’s first U.S. acquisition will be small-business sales software company Vendio Services Inc. of San Mateo.

Terms of the deal, announced Thursday, were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close next month.

Alibaba, the giant Chinese Internet company based in Hangzhou, said the acquisition is part of its $100 million investment plan for AliExpress, a wholesale transaction platform operated by Alibaba.com.

With the deal, Alibaba picks up a company with more than 80,000 small-business customers in the United States that use Vendio software to sell across multiple online marketplaces.

Alibaba.com CEO David Wei called Vendio a “strong strategic fit” for the company.

“We continue to look for synergies and investment opportunities to grow our customer base, acquire additional technology and add new applications that will help our customer base grow and prosper,” Wei said in a press release.

Vendio will become a new business unit within Alibaba.com and will retain its own brand name and operations. Mike Effle, Vendio’s COO, will assume the role of CEO while current CEO, chairman and co-founder Rodrigo Sales becomes a strategic advisor to the company.

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Consumer confidence in the D.C. region has stalled, according to the results of the Greater Washington Board of Trade Mid-Year Consumer Confidence Survey.

Consumer confidence, which had been growing for the past year and a half is now stagnant, mostly because of concerns about the job market.

As measured by the biannual survey, consumer confidence has remained virtually unchanged over the past six months. Since the last survey in November 2009, the Consumer Confidence Index rose only two points. (The survey’s margin of error is +/- 2.83.)

Survey results show that concern about the employment market is holding back overall consumer confidence in the region, with 61 percent of the respondents saying that jobs in the area are “scarce” and hard to find.

When asked about the future, half the respondents predict that the job market will either stay the same or even get worse over the next six months.

“Consumer confidence in our region has barely moved since last November indicating that there is growing trepidation in the economy,” said Jim Dinegar, president and CEO of the Greater Washington Board of Trade bad credit payday loans. “There have been too many disruptions to the recovery to give people confidence through the recession, but confidence will return.”

The percentage of consumers saying it is a good time to make major purchases has remained the same as it was in November 2009, at 43 percent.

Data indicate that homeowners in the D.C. region are a little less optimistic about home values rising over the next six months, dropping from 33 percent to 30 percent.

In contrast to the Greater Washington Board of Trade’s Consumer Confidence Survey, the Business Outlook Survey, which is based on a survey of the region’s business executives, jumped a hefty 18 points, from 68 to 83, between December 2009 and April 2010.

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Wisconsin Power and Light Co., a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corp., said Thursday it has priced a public offering of $150 million in debentures.

The debentures have an interest rate of 4.6 percent and will be due on June 15, 2020.

The Madison-based utility said it intends to apply the approximately $148.5 million in net proceeds from this offering initially to repay short-term debt, including that incurred to finance equipment purchases and construction expenditures on an interim basis. The net proceeds also will be used to invest in short-term assets and, thereafter, to fund capital expenditures principally consisting of wind farm and pollution control equipment, and for general working capital purposes no teletrek payday advance.

The offering was marketed through a group of underwriters, including RBS Securities Inc., UBS Securities LLC, Barclays Capital Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. as joint book-running managers.

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BP sought to reassure both the general public and investors Friday, saying it has the money to spend whatever it takes to clean up the Gulf oil spill.

"Our first call on dollars is to ensure we do everything we can to get the Gulf Coast back to normal," BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said on a conference call with investors. "But that still leaves us with plenty of dollars to spend on other things."

An executive on the call noted BP (BP) generated $30 billion in cash flow over the last four quarters.

The spill has so far cost BP just over $1 billion. Estimates as to how much it will ultimately cost range from $3 billion to $40 billion, although that amount would likely be paid out over a number of years.

Hayward said the amount the company is spending per day in the Gulf could be "diminished dramatically" if the cap they put over the well Thursday is successful in channeling most oil to the surface. The success of that cap should be known in the next 24 hours.

He also sought to reassure investors that the company will not only pay its current commitments, but still has enough money to invest in its core business - finding and selling new oil.

To that end, he said the firm is creating a separate organization to deal with the oil spill, so the rest of the company is not distracted.

Hayward expects deep water drilling and oil production to ultimately resume in the Gulf, albeit under stricter safety standards.

President Obama has issued a six month halt to new deepwater drilling pending an investigation into the accident April 20 that claimed 11 lives and a more thorough review of drilling safety and procedures in general.

Some have called on BP to suspend its dividend in the wake of the spill, saying the money should be set aside for clean-up costs and damages rather than returned to investors. Last year, the company returned more than $10 billion to shareholders.

But BP executives said the company has a commitment to not only the Gulf of Mexico and its residents, but to the company’s 80,000 employees, the hundreds of thousands of people that invest in the firm, and the millions who receive the dividend as part of pension plans.

"BP faces this situation as strong company," said Hayward. "We will stand behind all our commitments."

Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP’s chairman, said decisions on the size of the dividend will be made "how they’ve always been," which is based on the financial health of the company at the time. He said final decision on the dividend will be made in late July.

There have also been proposals by U.S. lawmakers to force BP to stop paying the dividend. Svanberg said those proposals are "something we’ll have to follow."

Earlier this week, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said paying a dividend before the ultimate cost of the disaster has been tallied would be "unfathomable." 

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Out-of-pocket costs for the millions of Americans with employer-based health coverage rose again in the past year, although at a slower pace than the year before, according to a new industry report released Tuesday.

However, as employers prepare to make health reform’s mandated changes to their benefits plans later this year, the changes could shift some costs away from workers and raise them for companies.

American workers spent 7.4% more on their health care coverage over the past year, according to the sixth annual survey conducted by health care consulting firm Milliman Inc. The increase translates to about $506 more that workers contributed to their care - $321 for their company’s health plan and $185 for employee out-of-pocket expenses.

But, in a bright spot for workers, the increase was lower than the 10.6% boost in the survey a year ago.

"Although employers are still bearing about 60% of their workers’ health care costs, this is a pretty significant amount that employees are paying," said Lorraine Mayne, principal and consulting actuary with Milliman.

"If you think about a family of four with a household income of $50,000, they are paying about 8.7% of their income in employee contribution to their coverage," she said.

The report also showed that employers’ subsidies on their workers’ coverage increased about $797, or 8%, over the past year.

According to the Census Bureau, about 177 million Americans — more than half the population — are covered by employer-provided health insurance.

Under health reform, there are four major near-term changes that companies have to make to their coverage plan that will push up their share of health care costs.

These changes include expanding dependent coverage for adult children up to age 26, removing lifetime and annual limits, eliminating co-payments and co-insurance for certain preventive services, and prohibiting any restrictions of children’s coverage for preexisting conditions.

"For many employees, these changes will increase the value of their benefits," said Mayne. "But for many others, those who don’t have adult children for instance, the changes will have little effect."

Your medical costs

Including both what employees pay and what employers contribute, the total 2010 cost of health care for a typical family of four increased 7.8% to $16,771, according to the Milliman report.

Physicians made up the biggest chunk, at 33% of total medical costs, according to the report. However, the rate of increase in physician costs declined to 5.2% from 6% in 2009.

The fastest growing component of health costs is hospital outpatient care, up 11.6%, compared to an increase of 10.2% the prior year. The report said the increase was driven by increases in the cost of care rather than people using the facility more.

Elsewhere, hospital inpatient costs increased by 9.8% and pharmacy costs rose 6.1%

In a look at 14 metropolitan areas, the report cited Miami, New York and Chicago as three cities where health care expenses are about 10% higher than the national average.

Total health care costs for a family of four exceeded $20,000 in those three cities, with Miami topping out at $22,089.

The Milliman Index is based on a national survey of more than 4,000 employers as well as data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. 

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