Confab to highlight Israeli biotech cos.

More than 250 leaders in the life sciences industry, researchers, health care providers and investors will gather in Waltham beginning today for the third New England-Israel Business Council Life Sciences Summit.

The two-day forum at the Westin Hotel will feature more than 50 speakers who will discuss key issues affecting today's delivery of health care and present promising Israeli life sciences companies addressing tomorrow's challenges.

"The hope is to create new interactions between the Massachusetts and Israel life sciences ecosystems and invite a dozen Israeli companies to present their technologies," said David Barone, chairman of the council's life sciences committee and principal at Boston MedTech Advisors. "There are very significant collaborations already going on."

As a result of Gov. Deval Patrick's 2011 trade mission to Israel, EarlySense, an Israeli company that has developed a system to alert nurses to changes in hospitalized patients' conditions, later opened its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Barone said.

This year, Covidien, a $12 billion global health care products company whose U.S. headquarters is in Mansfield, acquired three Israeli companies.

"The hunger for innovation and the recognition that ideas are the new commodity create a tremendous demand for forums like this," said Dr. Ido Schoenberg, a native Israeli and CEO of Boston-based teleheath company American Well Corp. "Innovation needs to be part of an ecosystem. It cannot stand alone."

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Election is elephant in the room

After last week's Hurricane Sandy-shortened trading, Wall Street hopes for a full week as New York area residents get back on their feet and start rebuilding. More earnings are out this week, but the elephant — or donkey — in the room is tomorrow's election. Markets crave certainty and nothing has been more uncertain for the past few weeks than the presidential race outcome.

Many believe Wall Street has priced in a victory by President Obama while the "Greed is Good" guys are ready to rally if Mitt Romney's tax and fiscal policies prevail. Either way, traders will sleep easier once the election is settled — at least for a night.

Watch for a lightning-fast pivot to worries about the "fiscal cliff," the pesky combination of tax increases and federal budget cuts set to kick in Jan. 1.

Today, Toyota and Time Warner Cable report earnings. Tomorrow, CVS Caremark, Nissan and Dish Networks will report as we all watch the swing states and wonder whether the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center — Romney's Election Night base — will be hosting a victory party or not.

On Wednesday, Macy's, Prudential Financial and Whole Foods will announce earnings — and hopefully the presidential election will be decided.

On Thursday, Disney, Nordstrom, Kayak, Kohl's and Zipcar report earnings. We'll also get the weekly jobless claims report.

Covidien and JC Penney announce earnings to round out the week Friday and we'll get a read on consumer sentiment heading into the holidays.

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Board game shows ploys of politics

You can wait until Tuesday to see who wins the White House, or you can take matters into your own hands by playing a new board game that allows you to "buy" constituents as a candidate yourself.

Cynical? Maybe. But the creators of "Politocracy" promise a good time.

"We want it to be educational, provocative and fun," said Mark Strangio, the 62-year-old former high tech worker from Newton who developed the game with Frederick Zimonja, a Scituate attorney. "It's a great way for people to challenge themselves and talk about issues that seem to have polarized the electorate."

Each player takes on the political profile of a current or past presidential candidate but starts out as a moderate with a certain amount of campaign money that he or she uses to buy the support of constituents.

When candidates accrue enough popularity, they roll the dice to advance to the Money Trail, where they raise as much money as possible, all the while trying to stay on course, despite polls, debates, the media and the occasional scandal.

Ultimately, two candidates advance to the election and roll the dice to compete for electoral votes in 10 parts of the country. The candidate with 270 electoral votes wins.

A few weeks ago, Strangio and a group of friends got together for a game, and Mike Palin, a self-described "bleeding-heart liberal," played Sarah Palin.

"I'm always getting asked if I'm related to her," said Palin, a 61-year-old software company CEO from Sudbury. "I thought it would be great to play someone who was so antithetical to my views. And it was. I liked the mixture of competition and conversation the game triggered."

"Politocracy," which began selling for $39.95 last month on www.politocracythegame.com, is still in its infancy, with only about two dozen sold to date. But Strangio, who plans to vote for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, hopes it will remain relevant long after the election.

"If you don't like the election's outcome," he said, "you can relive it vicariously through the game and play for a different result."

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Shoe store doesn't fit with hotel

Plans for a boutique hotel in Boston's Downtown Crossing have garnered widespread support — but not from the owner of a longtime shoe store who must permanently check out from the building that will be gutted for guest rooms and new ground-floor retail.

"It's hard for me to look at it positively," said Foot Paths owner Steve Rollins. "I'm not saying I don't agree with the (hotel) concept, but it impacts me so severely it's hard to get up and be so rah-rah about it."

Rollins, who opened his store in a building at the corner of Washington Street and Temple Place more than 15 years ago, was excited by recent signs of a resurgence in the shopping district, including a skyscraper project to fill the gaping hole on the Filene's block.

But in August, shortly after he signed a five-year lease extension, Chicago developer Oxford Capital Group stepped in and bought the building and unveiled its 240-room hotel.

A clause in the lease allows for evictions in the case of a building demolition — even an interior renovation — so Foot Paths now has until next August to vacate the premises. The hotel project also will force out a package store and jewelry business, and office tenants from the upper floors.

At first Rollins figured he'd go kicking and screaming, but he found an adequate alternative up the street, renting the former Aldo shoe store space at 415 Washington for a second store that opened this weekend. The original will eventually close.

The downside there is the lack of display windows wrapping around a corner.

"The (shopper) traffic is a little bit better, but we're going to give up a lot of visual impact," he said.

To make matters worse, Oxford Capital recently wrapped 59 Temple Place in scaffolding to start repairs to the 11-story facade, obscuring Foot Paths' signs and shelves as it enters the crucial holiday shopping stretch.

"We're certainly sympathetic and providing whatever assistance we can," said Brad Mulvihill, a senior director at Oxford Capital, who will be in Boston for Wednesday's public meeting on the hotel project.

Peter Meade, director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, said he dispatched community planner Randi Lathrop to help the affected businesses.

"Hopefully this ends up being a win for them as well as for the people building the hotel," he said.

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MassMutual approves $1.39 billion in dividends

SPRINGFIELD — Insurer MassMutual Financial Group has approved an estimated $1.39 billion in dividends to participating policy holders in 2013.

Company officials say it is the highest payout in MassMutual's 161-year history. The dividends include a dividend interest rate of 7 percent on all eligible participating life insurance policies, unchanged from 2012.

The estimated payout of $1.39 billion is an increase of more than 4 percent more than the $1.33 billion in 2012.

John Chandler Jr., MassMutual's chief marketing officer, tells The Republican newspaper that despite the economy in general, MassMutual continues to do well.

Chandler said whole-life insurance policies are the most-familiar of the policies that make people participating policy holders. Those holders are the owners of MassMutual, which is a mutually-held company. The dividend represents the company's profits.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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China launches WTO case against EU solar subsidies

BEIJING — China has filed a World Trade Organization case challenging subsidies provided by some European Union members to help promote the solar panel industry, adding to a flurry of trade disputes that Beijing is locked in with Europe and the United States.

Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang said in a statement Monday that China brought the case against EU members that have provided subsidies for solar projects in which the main components are manufactured in European countries.

Shen said such subsidies "seriously damaged China's photovoltaic exports."

The case follows an anti-dumping probe Beijing announced Thursday into European exports of polysilicon used in making solar panels. Before that, the EU launched an investigation in September into whether Beijing was improperly subsidizing exports of solar panels.

China and its trading partners pledged after the 2008 global financial crisis to avoid taking actions that would hamper trade but have launched a series of anti-subsidy investigations and imposed punitive tariffs on some goods.

Solar and other renewable energy technology is especially sensitive because governments that are under pressure to cut high unemployment see it as a growth industry and source of well-paid jobs.

Washington imposed tariffs of up to 250 percent on imports of Chinese-made solar panels this year to counter what it said was improper subsidies to the industry.

The disputes have added to financial pressure on Chinese and other solar equipment producers that are suffering heavy losses due to lower sales and a price-cutting war.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Stocks open lower ahead of election

NEW YORK — Stocks opened slightly lower Monday, one day before the U.S. presidential election.

In opening minutes of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 24 points at 13,069. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is down three at 1,411. And the Nasdaq composite index was flat at 2,982.

Investors waited for the Institute for Supply Management's index for service companies, which measures growth at businesses that employ roughly 90 percent of the American work force.

The so-called service sector includes retail and construction companies and health care and financial services firms. It has grown for 33 straight months. Economists expect growth in October at a pace just below September's.

In Europe, renewed focus on the finances of Greece combined with uncertainty about the outcome of the U.S. election to push stocks lower. The benchmark index was down 0.4 percent in Germany, 0.8 percent in France and 0.5 percent in Britain.

The Institute for Supply Management's index for service companies is due at 10 a.m. Eastern Monday and economists are forecasting growth in October at a pace just below what was seen in September.

"With the race so close, investors are understandably risk-averse today," said James Hughes, chief market analyst at Alpari, a London brokerage.

Stocks in Asia finished mostly lower.

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Netflix moves to block a hostile takeover

NEW YORK — Less than a week after activist investor Carl Icahn announced a 10 percent stake in Netflix, the online video company is moving to protect itself against hostile takeovers.

The Los Gatos, Calif., company said Monday that it has adopted a shareholder rights plan.

Icahn disclosed his stake in Netflix Wednesday.

Under the plan, rights are exercisable if a person or group acquires 10 percent of Netflix, or 20 percent in the case of institutional investors, in a deal not approved by the board.

Netflix Inc. says its plan isn't intended to interfere with a transaction that's approved by its board.

Shares are down 99 cents to $75.91 in morning trading.

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Mass. gas prices down by a penny

BOSTON -- Gas prices in Massachusetts trickled down by a penny this week but remain well above the national average.

AAA Southern New England reports Monday that self-serve, regular dropped to an average of $3.65 per gallon. But even though prices in the state are down 23 cents per gallon the last month, Bay State drivers are still paying 18 cents more per gallon than the national average of $3.47.

State prices also remain 26 cents per gallon higher than at the same time last year.

AAA says it found self-serve, regular selling for as low as $3.456 and as high as $3.96 per gallon.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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General Motors gets new credit lines totaling $11B

DETROIT — General Motors says it has received $11 billion in credit lines from 35 financial institutions in 14 countries.

The lines of credit include a $5.5 billion, three-year credit facility and another $5.5 billion line for five years.

They replace GM's existing $5 billion credit line that was to expire in 2015.

Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann said in a statement Monday that GM will use the credit as a source of backup liquidity. The company said last week that it ended the third quarter with $31.6 billion in cash.

GM says the new lines have more favorable terms than the old one, and will allow GM to borrow in different currencies.

GM expects the new lines to get investment grade ratings from the major ratings agencies.

Shares of GM rose 12 cents to $25.91 in morning trading Monday.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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