Four cruise ships docking in Portland this week

Four cruise ships carrying a total of nearly 2,500 passengers are scheduled to tie up in Portland this week.

The Grande Caribe, an American Canadian Caribbean Line ship carrying 100 passengers, arrived Tuesday and will leave Thursday.

On Friday, the American Glory, carrying 50 passengers, and the Independence, carrying 100 passengers, will arrive for an overnight stay. The ships, which homeport in Portland, are operated by American Cruise Line.

And on Saturday, the largest of the four ships, the Enchantment of the Seas, will arrive with about 2,250 passengers. The ship is operated by Royal Caribbean.

By the time the season is done, city officials say 63 ships will tie up in Portland carrying more than 86,000 passengers.

Sanrio seeks new character to diversify Hello Kitty appeal

Sanrio Co., the Japanese Hello Kitty brand licenser, aims to spend as much as $377 million to buy rights to a character for the first time to cut its reliance on the white cat with a red bow and no mouth.

“We want to diversify our character portfolio instead of spending time to boost recognition of our existing characters in overseas markets,” Managing Director Susumu Emori, 62, said in an interview. He declined to say whether the company is in talks with any candidates.

Sanrio relies on Hello Kitty goods for 80 percent of overseas licensing revenue. Character-goods deals with Walmart, Inditex’s Zara brand and Austrian luxury crystal maker Swarovski helped Sanrio more than double operating profit since 2009 and amass $265 million in cash.

“Sanrio depends on Hello Kitty too much, so it’d be good to add a major character,” said Takashi Oka, a Tokyo-based analyst at TIW Inc. The company needs the rights to a character that’s already well established as a brand, he said.

Downgrade for Ireland puts U.S. markets into late skid

Hope that the Federal Reserve might consider more economic stimulus wasn’t enough to keep bad news about Ireland from sinking stocks.

Ireland’s government bonds were downgraded by Moody’s to junk status shortly before U.S. markets closed Tuesday, sending stocks sharply lower and erasing the day’s gains.

The move puts Ireland back on the list of heavily indebted European countries in danger of default. Ireland has already received a financial rescue package from other countries.

If a European country fails to pay its debts, it could cause widespread disruptions in financial markets and lead to a slowdown in lending.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 5.85, or 0.4 percent, to close at 1,313.64. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 58.88, or 0.5 percent, to close at 12,446.88. The Nasdaq composite fell 20.71, or 0.7 percent, to close at 2,781.

Earlier Tuesday, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting on June 21-22 were released. In those minutes, several Fed officials said that the government would have to consider new monetary policy to stimulate the economy, especially if growth remains too slow to reduce the unemployment rate.

Judge rejects most claims in Toyota shareholder suit

A federal judge in Los Angeles has rejected most claims made in a shareholder lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp. that accused the automaker of knowing about and hiding purported acceleration problems in some of its vehicles.

U.S. District Judge Dale Fisher said in her July 7 ruling that Japanese law takes precedence, especially since many of those who sued Toyota bought company stock on foreign exchanges.

The lawsuit notes Toyota’s stock fell about 20 percent in January and February 2010 when the company began recalling some of its models.

There was no immediate response Tuesday to an email sent to a Toyota spokeswoman.