Another new Internet stock offering got a rousing reception from investors Tuesday.

Search engine firm Yandex, dubbed Russia’s Google, went public on the Nasdaq market at $25 a share and rocketed to close at $38.84, for a 55% first-day gain.

The deal came less than a week after Silicon Valley social networking firm LinkedIn soared 109% in its IPO debut, reviving memories of the dot-com mania of the late 1990s.

Yandex sold 15.4 million shares in its IPO while some of its private shareholders sold 36.8 million. The total of 52.2 million shares raised $1.3 billion in all, making the deal the biggest tech IPO in 2011.

With a total of 321 million shares outstanding, the Moscow-based firm now has a market value of $12.5 billion -- about 7.5% of Google’s market value of $166.9 billion, and about 60% of Yahoo Inc.'s value of $21 billion.

Yandex’s revenue of $440 million last year was a sliver of Google’s revenue of $29.3 billion.

In the prospectus for the IPO, Yandex calls itself the “leading Internet company in Russia.” The firm said it had 64% of all search traffic in Russia in 2010, to Google’s 22%.

The company, founded in 1997, last year earned $134 million, or 44 cents a share. That gives the stock a price-to-earnings ratio of 88, compared with Google’s P/E of about 20 based on 2010 earnings.

Russia’s economy has great growth potential, and that obviously is drawing investors to Yandex. But besides the normal risks faced by any young company, Yandex's prospectus lists a host of risks specific to doing business in Russia. For example:

Well-funded, well-connected financial groups and so-called “oligarchs” have, from time to time, sought to obtain operational control and/or controlling or minority interests in attractive businesses in Russia by means that have been perceived as relying on economic or political influence or government connections. We may be subject to such efforts in the future and, depending on the political influence of the parties involved, our ability to thwart such efforts may be limited.

Still, in an interview with Reuters, Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh, 47, said that "Russia deserves to have a technology company of a global level," and that Yandex wanted to fill that role.

"Google is a great company but we are better," the company’s chief technology officer, Ilya Segalovich, 46, said in the same interview, apparently half joking.

Or maybe not.

-- Tom Petruno

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Photo: Yandex Chief Technology Officer Ilya Segalovich, left, and CEO Arkady Volozh, right, at the opening of trading on Nasdaq on Tuesday. Credit: Mike Segar / Reuters

House Republicans have been adamant since last year that they don't like the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- and it's also becoming apparent they don't like Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration advisor who is helping launch the agency.

After a bitter and contentious House oversight subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Warren showed that the feeling might be mutual.

The clash highlighted how Warren has become a lightning rod for opponents of the agency, created by last year's financial reform law. And it also could explain why President Obama hasn't nominated her to be the agency's powerful full-time director despite strong support from congressional Democrats, consumer advocates and liberal interest groups.

Warren, a Harvard Law professor, is so beloved by liberals that some Democrats are encouraging her to challenge Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) in her home state next year.

"In one respect, I congratulate you for instilling such fear … because they understand how effective you are about getting the message out to the American people," Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) told Warren, apologizing to her for what he called "the rude and disrespectful" questioning by some Republicans.

Warren and Republicans clashed often during the hearing, which followed approval by the House Financial Services Committee this month of legislation limiting the consumer bureau's power.

The disputes started with allegations from subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) that she had misled Congress about her role in federal and state negotiations with large mortgage servicers to resolve investigations into botched foreclosure paperwork. McHenry said agency documents indicated she and other consumer bureau staffers were actively involved in the negotiations, not just advising other federal agencies as she had said at an earlier hearing.

Warren denied misleading lawmakers and said the agency was only providing advice.

McHenry also pressed her about whether she would accept an appointment from Obama to head the agency. Nearly all Senate Republicans have vowed to block any appointment to the director's position unless changes are made to reduce its power, leading to speculation that Obama will be forced to make a temporary recess appointment to fill the job.

Warren said only that the appointment was Obama's decision. Asked if she had provided advice on who should fill the job, she said, "I’ve tried to help the president in any way I can on the nomination process."

Warren and Republicans clashed often over whether the consumer bureau would have too much power. And Republicans were frustrated with Warren's often lengthy answers. After unsuccessfully trying to get her to say whether she believed consumers had an obligation to educate themselves about financial products, a frustrated Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said, "Mr. Chairman, I give up."

The sniping culminated with a sharp-edged dispute between McHenry and Warren about how long they had agreed she would testify.

Asked by McHenry to stay later than 2:15 p.m. -- an hour after the hearing started -- Warren complained that he had moved the hearing's start several times, including late Monday night via a late-night phone call to a consumer agency staffer. McHenry countered that he had never personally called anyone and that the agreement was merely a promise from the subcommittee's staff that they would try to accommodate her schedule.

"Congressman, we had an agreement," Warren said.

McHenry responded, "We had no agreement. You're making this up."

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) jumped to Warren's defense, saying she should be treated fairly and allowed to leave to get to previously scheduled meetings. McHenry agreed when Warren offered to answer written questions from two remaining lawmakers.

Cummings praised Warren and the work she was doing setting up the consumer bureau.

"There are people in my district who applaud what you are doing and may God bless you," Cummings said. "Stay on the battlefield."

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Photo: Elizabeth Warren testifies before a House oversight subcommittee. Credit: Reuters

Uncle Sam easily found buyers Tuesday for $35 billion in new two-year Treasury notes, even with yields at their lowest levels since early December.

Strong investor demand pushed the annualized yield on the notes to 0.56%, down from 0.67% at the last two-year auction April 26.

The market yield on the previously issued two-year note (charted at left) was at 0.51%, down from 0.52% on Monday.

With Europe’s debt mess worsening and economic data mostly on the weaker side lately, the idea of playing it safe in two-year Treasuries continues to appeal to plenty of big investors. And while 0.56% isn’t much of a yield, it beats near-zero money market yields.

The approaching end of the Federal Reserve’s $600-billion Treasury-bond-buying program clearly isn’t keeping investors away from government bonds. The Fed will finish its purchases June 30. And the market seems completely unfazed by the bitter debate in Washington over whether to raise the federal debt ceiling.

Yields on longer-term Treasuries were holding Tuesday near recent lows. The 10-year T-note yield was at 3.12%, down from 3.13% on Monday.

Given the intensity of investors’ hunger for Treasuries, any backup in yields “is likely to be met with significant buying demand,” bond analysts at Nomura Securities said in a note.

The government will auction $35 billion in five-year T-notes on Wednesday and $29 billion of seven-year notes on Thursday. Current market yields are 1.78% on outstanding five-year notes (charted at right) and 2.45% on seven-year notes.

Pimco funds bond guru Bill Gross has for months been advising investors to avoid Treasuries, saying the yields were far too low to justify buying them. He has insisted that Treasury yields must jump once the Fed’s purchase program ends June 30.

But with yields continuing to slide since mid-April, Gross seemed to hedge his views in a Pimco tweet Tuesday.

Referring to the Fed’s program by its acronym, QE2 (for quantitative easing II, the second such program since 2008), Gross tweeted: “End of QE2 may or may not lead to higher yields, but what is clear is that a 1.79% 5 yr offers a negative real yield after inflation.”

-- Tom Petruno

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Here's a tip to anyone in the tourism business: Learn to speak Chinese, Portuguese or Korean.

International tourism to the U.S. will grow by 49% by 2016, according to a new forecast by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The projection anticipates the total rate of growth to climb between 6% and 8% each year, in addition to the 9% increase that took place in 2010, according to the federal agency.

The greatest rate of growth in visitors to the U.S. should come from China, Brazil, Australia and Korea, with China leading all countries with a 232% rise by 2016, according to the forecast.

In 2016, the agency expects 2.7 million Chinese tourists to visit the U.S., compared with 802,000 visitors last year.

Canada and Mexico will continue to generate the greatest share of tourists to the U.S. but the rate of growth will be modest compared with the pace expected for China, Brazil, Australia and Korea, according to the forecast.

A chart that outlines the forecasts for the top 20 countries of origin for tourism to the U.S. is available on the Commerce Department website.

-- Hugo Martin

Photo: Tourists ride a sightseeing bus through Los Angeles. Credit: Los Angeles Times

A far-reaching fraud at Bank of America serves as a cautionary tale for all consumers who entrust virtually their entire financial lives to major companies, consumer columnist David Lazarus says. "We want to believe those companies are worthy of the responsibility bestowed upon them," he says in his column today. But all too often, "the guardians of our personal info prove sloppy or negligent in keeping data secure. And in some cases, their own insiders have a hand in perpetrating fraud."

Watch the video to see what happened at Bank of America.

Read more columns by David Lazarus here.

Here's your tell-me-another-one Tuesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Irony alert: Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, the second-largest tax preparer in the United States, helping millions of people avoid financial trouble, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company got in over its head with loans and now must restructure its debt. The loans in question are so-called tax-refund loans, also known as refund anticipation loans. They're offered by tax preparers and funded by various banks, but banking regulators are tightening the screws, saying the loans are unsafe. While under bankruptcy protection, Jackson Hewitt says it will have the liquidity to operate normally and handle the 2012 tax season. Um, am I the only taxpayer who'd feel a little awkward having his return prepared by a bankrupt company?

--An update from the e-reader front: Barnes & Noble is set to unveil a lighter, slimmer, cheaper version of its Nook for $139, stepping up the pressure on rival Amazon and its Kindle. Available on June 10, the new-and-improved Nook features a 6-inch touchscreen and can hold up to 1,000 digital books. Barnes & Noble Inc. says the latest Nook lets readers look up words, highlight passages, search, and adjust font size by typing on an onscreen keyboard. It says the device weighs 7.5 ounces and is 35% lighter than the first Nook, which launched a year and a half ago. The iPad 2 is nearly three times heavier at more than 1.3 pounds. The newest Kindle, meanwhile, is 8.5 ounces, though it holds more than three times as many books as the new Nook.

--That cup of joe may soon get even pricier. The company that sells Folgers and Dunkin' Donuts and several store-brand coffees has announced its second double-digit price increase this year. J.M. Smucker says the list price for most of its U.S. coffee products will go up 11% on average. Smucker blames a continuing rise in what it pays for unroasted beans, known as green coffee. Coffee companies and analysts say speculators may be causing most of the increase, though demand is rising in emerging markets and harsh weather in some major coffee-growing regions shrank supply. Green-coffee prices jumped 77% last year. Smucker says its latest price increase also affects Smucker's Millstone and Folgers Gourmet Selections packaged coffees. The Ohio company said in early February that it was raising coffee prices by an average 10%. Last August, it announced a 9% price hike, which followed a 4% increase in May 2010.

-- David Lazarus

Photo: Tax preparer Jackson Hewitt needs some financial help. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Gold: Trading now at $1,524 per ounce, up 0.6% from Monday. Dow Jones industrial average: Trading now at 12,363.10, down 0.2% from Monday.

Pricing AIG. The government is set to sell a big chunk of its shares in American International Group on Tuesday. The sale comes at an inopportune moment in the markets, and it is unclear if the price the government gets will make its investment profitable.

N.Y. probe widens. New York's attorney general is adding JPMorgan and UBS to the list of banks whose mortgage securitization deals he is probing.

Crisis acting. As the television take on the book "Too Big to Fail" comes to HBO, the actors discuss how they got into the heads of characters such as Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke.

-- Nathaniel Popper in New York

Photo credit: Stan Honda / Getty Images

U.S. drivers saw their auto insurance premiums rise an average of 18% in 2010 if they had a single moving violation that showed up on their record, insurance.com says in a new report.

Two moving violations on your record meant an average rate increase of 34% compared with drivers who had no violations, the website found, based on a study of 397,000 insurance quotes it generated last year.

At three violations your annual premium would be 53% higher than what an unticketed driver would pay.

The average annual auto insurance premium for drivers with no violations was $1,119 last year, insurance.com said. That rose to $1,318 for drivers with one violation, $1,497 for two violations and $1,713 for three.

Then there's the cost of the ticket itself, which in California now can easily exceed $200 for moving violations.

In California, if you're eligible for traffic school you may avoid having a ticket show up on your record. But drivers generally aren't eligible if they've gone to traffic school for another ticket issued in the previous 18 months.

-- Tom Petruno

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Photo credit: Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles has overtaken Miami as the U.S. city with the second-highest number of overseas visitors, behind only New York.

The latest statistics from the federal Office of Travel and Tourism Industries show Los Angeles had a 33% increase in overseas visitors in 2010  compared with 2009. Miami's number of such visitors increased 17% in the same period.

Los Angeles hosted 3.3 million overseas visitors last year, compared with New York's 8.5 million and Miami's 3.1 million. Orlando, Fla., had 2.7 million, and San Francisco came in fifth, with 2.6 million.

As a state, California ranked third with 5.6 million overseas visitors in 2010, behind New York with 8.6 million and Florida with 5.8 million, according to the federal agency.

Tourism officials say overseas visitors are highly coveted because they tend to stay longer and spend more money than domestic visitors or those from Mexico or Canada.

-- Hugo Martin

Photo: Tourists pose for pictures on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Almost two-thirds of car owners put off automotive maintenance, increasing the chances they will have mechanical breakdowns on the road, according to CarMD.com.

Here's what the automotive repair website says are the most common car problems, according to its database, which uses engine electronic diagnostic reports and other measures to track vehicle failures and repairs.

Replace oxygen sensor: This is the top failure and the most frequent reason for that dreaded "check engine" light to come on. The sensor monitors the amount of unburned oxygen in the exhaust. Failure of what is typically a $20 fan drastically cuts your fuel economy.

Check gas cap: Another culprit behind "check engine" lights is a loose, faulty or cracked gas cap. This also hurts fuel economy by allowing fuel to evaporate, and is an inexpensive repair.

Replace catalytic converter: CarMD says a catalytic converter normally won't fail unless a smaller faulty part, such as a spark plug or an O2 sensor, is ignored for too long.  So if you are maintaining the rest of your vehicle, this shouldn't be a problem. But when it is, it hurts. The repair can cost as much as $2,000. A broken catalytic converter is signaled by a blinking "check engine" light. Pull over and have your car towed if you see that -- before you inflict more damage to your car.

Replace mass air flow sensor: The mass air flow sensor measures the amount of air supplied to your car's engine and determines how much fuel to deliver into the engine. When malfunctioning, it can result in a lack of power, engine hesitation or a surge when accelerating. The repair can run as much as $300. Replacing the $20 air filter periodically will protect your car from this problem.

Replace spark plug: The plugs or wires can go out, once again killing fuel economy and hurting other systems in the vehicle. Spark plugs usually need to be replaced every 30,000 to 40,000 miles.

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-- Jerry Hirsch
Twitter.com/LATimesJerry

It's a brutal day for stock markets worldwide as Europe's debt crisis worsens and fresh data point to slowing growth in China.

But the U.S. is looking better than most other markets, a sign that Wall Street is viewed as a relative haven -- for now.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 118 points, or 0.9%, to 12,394 at about 11:50 a.m. PDT. [Updated at 1:20 p.m.: The Dow closed off 130.78 points, or 1.1%, to 12,381.26.)

Nervous money flowed into U.S. Treasury bonds, pushing the 10-year T-note yield down to 3.13% from 3.15% on Friday. Gold also attracted buyers, rising $6.50 to $1,515.30 an ounce in New York.

Europe’s government-debt woes deepened over the weekend after Standard & Poor’s warned that it may downgrade Italy’s credit rating and as Spain’s ruling party suffered a major defeat in nationwide elections.

While most of the focus in Europe this year has been on the heavy debt burdens of Greece, Ireland and Portugal -- all three of which have been bailed out by the European Union -- Italy and Spain are far larger economies, and any thought that they, too, would need debt bailouts strikes terror in financial markets.

With rising expectations that Greece will be unable to pay private bondholders in full despite previous help from the EU, “Europe’s failing approach to its debt crisis has renewed fears of a contagious sovereign default and a possible euro zone breakup, sending shockwaves across capital markets,” said Lena Komileva, a currency strategist at Brown Bros. Harriman in London.

The euro sank 0.7% to $1.406, its lowest since mid-March.

Interest rates jumped on government bonds of Greece, Portugal and Ireland, with the annualized yield  on two-year Greek bonds reaching a record 26.3%, up from 25.5% on Friday, as the market price of the securities continued to sink.

Italian bond yields also rose, but modestly. The yield on two-year Italian notes edged up to 3.07% from 3% on Friday.

The reaction was much worse in the Italian stock market, which plummeted 3.3% to its lowest since mid-January. Stocks also fell 2% in Germany, 2.1% in France and 1.9% in Britain.

Earlier, Asian stock markets had slumped overnight on worries over Europe and after a survey of manufacturing activity in China pointed to a further slowdown in May.

The Shanghai stock market plunged 2.9% to its lowest since early February. China’s slide helped pull the Japanese market down 1.5%%, Hong Kong down 2.1% and India down 1.8%.

The U.S. dollar, the great weakling of global currencies for much of the last nine months, suddenly is back in demand as global investors look for a place to hide. The DXY index of the dollar’s value against six other major currencies is up 0.9% to 76.13, its highest level since March 30.

But that won't be welcomed by American exporters that have benefited from the greenback's slump.

-- Tom Petruno

Photo: On the New York Stock Exchange floor on Monday. Credit: Jin lee / Bloomberg News