ATLANTA (Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp reported a
47.5 percent decline in quarterly profit on Thursday on
increased markdowns and lower sales at its Kmart and Sears
stores.
Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe's largest telecommunications company, reports another loss, but said business is stabilizing and reiterated its forecast for flat operating profit and cash flow in 2008.
Stocks were poised to slide Thursday as concerns about the economic outlook and weak earnings kept a shadow over the market ahead of Fed chief Ben Bernanke's second day of testimony before Congress.
Reuters - Royal Bank of Scotland ,
Britain's second-biggest bank, met expectations with a 9
percent rise in 2007 profit, and raised both the cost savings
it expects from its takeover of ABN AMRO and its writedown on
risky assets. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 11:23 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland , Britain's second-biggest bank, met expectations with a 9 percent rise in 2007 profit, and raised both the cost savings it expects from its takeover of ABN AMRO and its writedown on risky assets.
Royal Bank of Scotland has lifted its dividend by 10pc after shrugging off the worst of the credit crisis to report an increase in profits for 2007. Source: Telegraph Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 11:20 am
Unilever, the UK consumer goods company, has instigated a management shake-up as part of a restructuring drive that will see 20,000 of its employees made redundant by 2010. Source: Telegraph Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 11:19 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service on Thursday
said it may cut its bank financial strength rating on Fannie
Mae , the largest provider of financing for U.S. home
loans, after it reported a $3.6 billion quarterly loss.
U.S. stock futures point to a lower start ahead of the latest reading on fourth-quarter economic growth and earnings from the likes of Dell Inc and American International Group.
Germany's jobless rate falls in February, suggesting economic worries are not hurting the labour market. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 28 Feb 2008 | 11:10 am
The cost of last summer's floods have sent the operating profits of the
general insurance arm of Aviva, one of the UK's biggest insurers, into sharp
reverse. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 11:05 am
Shares of InBev advance more than 9% after the Belgian brewer said fourth-quarter profit more than doubled, helped by a one-time gain and strong sales in emerging markets, and announced it would triple its dividend.
Liverpool fans who hope to buy the club from its US owners put together a support team with business experience. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 28 Feb 2008 | 10:57 am
AFP - Dutch bank ABN Amro reported a profits leap for 2007 on Thursday owing to special factors and despite a writedown of 1.561 billion euros (2.36 billion dollars) on account of the US subprime home-loan crisis.
PARIS (Reuters) - AXA , Europe's second biggest insurer, undershot expectations with its 2007 profit rise, knocking its shares lower, but said it expected further growth in 2008 despite a tough business environment.
Network Rail is fined a record £14m after engineering work over-ran over Christmas and the New Year. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 28 Feb 2008 | 10:35 am
Thom Yorke, Radiohead's elfin lead singer, has talked in interviews about the apocalyptic changes that await us in the not-so-distant future. So perhaps it wasn't surprising that he and his band mates recently dumped EMI, their longtime record company, and released their new album on their Web site.
AP - Japan's industrial output fell more than expected in January on weaker overseas demand for electronic devices and cars, the government said Thursday, adding to fears the nation's economy may be facing a recession. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 10:29 am
Royal Bank of Scotland reports a rise in annual profits despite sub-prime related writedowns. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 28 Feb 2008 | 10:24 am
Royal Bank of Scotland, the U.K.’s second-biggest bank, reports an 18% rise in net income for 2007 and lifts its dividend, though it also takes additional write-downs from its exposure to bond insurers.
ITV has extended the contract of executive chairman Michael Grade by a further year as the broadcaster seeks to press on with its recovery plan. Source: Telegraph Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 10:18 am
British American Tobacco (BAT), the world’s second-biggest cigarette maker,
has announced it will pay £1.15 billion for the cigarette businesses of
Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni (ST), the Danish owner of Prinz cigarettes. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 10:06 am
Guy Hands has put up his err… hands and admitted that turning round the entrenched philosophy at EMI was proving rather harder than he expected. Terra Firma forgot about the complete selfishness of "artistes" in their management equations. Source: Telegraph Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:59 am
Lend Lease, the Australian property group developing the London Olympic village, reported a 49 per cent increase in first-half net profit and said it was in a strong financial position to make acquisitions... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:55 am
Housebuilder Barratt Developments has shrugged off fears about Britain's cooling property market, reporting a "significant" rise in visitor numbers for the first seven weeks of the year. Source: Telegraph Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:50 am
Asian markets ended mixed Thursday, with Japanese stocks dropping as exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp. declined on a strengthened yen, while Hong Kong shares notched gains for a third session on property developers such as Sun Hung Kai Properties amid expectations of further interest-rate cuts.
A profit warning from Rentokil Initial sent the shares plunging 28 per cent in early trading on Thursday.The pest control and washroom group said its City Link parcels business might only break even in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:44 am
Federal wildlife officials will target entire parcels of cattail- choked wetlands in North Dakota this year to kill the preferred habitat of sunflower-scarfing blackbirds. Some 60,000... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:41 am
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is proving to be a quick study in navigating a treacherous housing slump and credit crisis that could push the economy into a recession. He also... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:39 am
Vale's putative $85bn takeover of Xstrata was on Wednesday night on the brink of collapse after a leading shareholder in the Anglo-Swiss miner refused to agree to the terms of the offer.Glencore, the commodities... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:39 am
Vale's putative $85bn takeover of Xstrata was on Wednesday night on the brink of collapse after a leading shareholder in the Anglo-Swiss miner refused to agree to the terms of the offer.Glencore, the commodities... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:39 am
In a testament to the globalization of the wine business in recent years, a Chinese businessman purchased a chateau in Bordeaux in January, a first in the region. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:37 am
Pest control group Rentokil saw its shares collapse this morning after admitting that an unacceptable performance from its parcel delivery business City Link, will hit profits this year. Source: Telegraph Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:30 am
European equity markets eased back on Thursday, with France's CAC 40 leading the declines after French consumer confidence hit a record low.Paris' benchmark index fell 0.7 per cent to 4,936.83 after consumer... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:27 am
The son of the chief executive of powerful Samsung Group appeared for questioning Thursday by special prosecutors investigating allegations of corruption at the huge conglomerate. "I... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:11 am
London equities fell on Thursday, pressured by a dramatic fall in the Rentokil Initial share price, but solid earnings from the banking sector limited the falls.The eagerly anticipated annual results from... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:08 am
ITV on Thursday extended the contract of Michael Grade, its executive chairman, and announced the appointment of Peter Fincham, the controversial former head of BBC1, as head of programming.The 12-month... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:05 am
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch bank ABN AMRO NV said on Thursday it had made a 1.56 billion euro ($2.36 billion) writedown in its global markets business in its last results before being split between three buyers.
The US could be facing a "lost decade" like that suffered by Japan in the 1990s as the markets fail to respond to interest rate cuts and the US Federal Reserve runs out of options, the head of one of the leading private equity firms said today. Source: Telegraph Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 9:00 am
Reuters - A dispute over marketing rights held by
mining group Xstrata's biggest shareholder is threatening a
possible takeover by Brazil's Vale worth around $90 billion, a
source close to the situation said on Thursday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:58 am
Nissan still sees a partnership with a North American auto company as good for its long-term strategy, but the Japanese automaker isn't in any talks now, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:57 am
Royal Bank of Scotland on Thursday revealed an additional 450m of losses from the turmoil in the credit markets, as the banking group predicted it could squeeze a third more in cost and revenue savings... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:53 am
The bank reported full-year pre-tax profits of £9.9bn for 2007, up 8% on the previous year but slightly lower than expected by most analysts, and said it would lift its dividend by 10%. Source: FT.com - US homepage | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:53 am
European shares traded with modest losses on Thursday as Xstrata led mining companies lower, while investors also took on board a slew of results from companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland and InBev.
French insurance giant AXA announced a lower-than-expected rise in net profits for 2007 on Thursday, and the departure of Claude Bebear, 72, as chairman of the supervisory board. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:50 am
Royal Bank of Scotland has lifted its dividend by 10pc after shrugging off the worst of the credit crisis to report an increase in profits for 2007. Source: Telegraph Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:50 am
Asian stocks dropped for the first time this week on Thursday as worries resurfaced that a efforts to avert a slowdown in US and global economic growth may fail, while the dollar sagged in the wake of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:48 am
The biggest German power company, EON, plans to sell its high-voltage network in anticipation of new European Union rules, press reports said on Thursday. Plans to split off... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:47 am
Production at Japan's factories shrank in January, adding to fears that the nation's economy is faltering. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:46 am
Royal Bank of Scotland reported a 9 per cent rise in underlying profits to
£10.3 billion for 2007, despite a £2.5 billion writedown related to turmoil
in global credit markets. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:41 am
LONDON (Reuters) - A dispute over marketing rights held by Xstrata's biggest shareholder is threatening takeover talks with suitor Vale of Brazil, a source close to the situation said on Thursday.
LONDON (Reuters) - A dispute over marketing rights held by Xstrata's biggest shareholder is threatening takeover talks with suitor Vale of Brazil, a source close to the situation said on... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:24 am
Peter Fincham, the multimillionaire television executive who had to quit as
BBC One controller in October after a dispute over a misleading trailer for
a programme about the Queen, is to be new head of television for ITV. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:21 am
German group Bayer said Thursday that 2007 was a record year thanks to its pharmaceutical and agro-chemicals activities. Net profit almost tripled to 4.7 billion euros (7.1... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:17 am
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch bank ABN AMRO NV said on Thursday it had made a 1.56 billion euro ($2.36 billion) write-down in its global markets business as it reports its last results as it Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:08 am
In more bad news for the beleaguered housing industry, sales of new homes fell in January for a third straight month, pushing activity down to the slowest pace in nearly 13 years. The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 28 Feb 2008 | 8:04 am
Original programming from a new studio dedicated to digital projects debuts today.
Eighty years after the 7 1/2 -minute cartoon "Steamboat Willie" helped launch the career of a certain iconic mouse, Walt Disney Co. has returned to its short-form roots with the debut of a digital studio that will develop original content for the Internet.
An early rally peters out as the dollar hits a record low against the euro and inflation fears flare. Muni yields rise.
Stocks ended a seesaw session mixed Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke indicated the central bank was more concerned about the sagging economy than the immediate risks of inflation.
. -- Dairy Queen is facing a dilly of a problem -- a rebellion against the revamping of restaurants by a growing number of mostly mom-and-pop franchise owners.
Consultant Eric Flamholtz offers steps that tote-bag firm Gigi Hill can take to grow into a big enterprise.
Gabrielle DeSantis-Cummings and Monica Hillman are on the hunt for about $250,000 to quickly expand their small company, Gigi Hill, which sells totes through home sales parties. But they're worried about making a fatal misstep.
Luxury home builder Toll Bros. Inc. on Wednesday reported its biggest quarterly loss in 22 years as the worst housing recession in more than two decades forced the company to write down the value of developments.
In testimony before Congress, the Federal Reserve chairman hints at a further interest rate cut next month.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke painted a bleak picture of the economy Wednesday, suggesting tough times ahead for many Americans and all but guaranteeing further interest rate cuts as the central bank tries to avert the worst of the trouble.
The action is intended to let Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae acquire more mortgages.
Federal regulators said Wednesday they had begun loosening restrictions on the giant mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a move that could bolster the ailing housing market.
Royal Bank of Scotland has lifted its dividend by 10pc after shrugging off the worst of the credit crisis to report an increase in profits for 2007. Source: Telegraph Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 7:55 am
Virgin Rail passengers face fresh rail misery this Easter as Network Rail
closes the West Coast Main Line south of Birmingham for four days over the
Bank Holiday weekend. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 7:47 am
Whitbread, the hotels and restaurants chain, has announced job cuts of "less
than three figures" from the combination of the two divisional managements
of the businesses . In addition, the group's logistics operation, which
employs about 300 people, is expected to be outsourced and talks are under
way with an unnamed supplier. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 7:32 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Alcoa has been accused of a
15-year conspiracy involving overcharging, fraud and bribery by
a company controlled by Bahrain, according to the Wall Street
Journal on Thursday.
Yahoo says it faces lawsuits from shareholders over its handling of Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 28 Feb 2008 | 7:24 am
Reuters - Alcoa has been accused of a
15-year conspiracy involving overcharging, fraud and bribery by
a company controlled by Bahrain, according to the Wall Street
Journal on Thursday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 6:59 am
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - At least four companies, including private equity firm Blackstone Group and a unit of General Electric Co are considering bids for Australia's Centro Properties Group , the Wall Street Journal reported.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 ended little changed on Wednesday after a rally fizzled when doubts emerged that lifting investment caps on the two largest home financing companies was enough to prevent deeper damage to the housing market.
The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether a $2.5 billion punitive damages award against Exxon Mobil was excessive. What might warrant a penalty that severe? The Exxon Valdez disaster.
Say what? For anyone who has not kept tabs on the case, it may seem unfathomable that this dispute is still alive in the courts. After all, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground off the coast of Alaska, spilling millions gallons of oil, in 1989.
In 1994, a federal court jury in Anchorage awarded $286 million in actual damages and $5 billion in punitive damages.
Since the verdict came down, however, Exxon has been fighting in court, bouncing between district court in Anchorage and the 9th Circuit appeals court in San Francisco, with more than four years of waiting between one appeal and a decision. The Supreme Court agreed to take the case last fall.
Meanwhile, more than 6,000 of the 32,677 fishermen, landowners, and Native Americans who were plaintiffs in the case have died. Hundreds more have gone bankrupt, many due to lingering effects of the spill.
"There was a lot of arm wrestling between the court of appeals and the district judge," says Andrew Frey of Mayer Brown, who filed an amicus brief in the case, Exxon Shipping v. Baker, on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute.
While more than 13 years of litigation may seem like a lot of years to the average citizen, Frey just shrugged. "These cases take time," he says.
Time has certainly worked in Exxon's favor. At the time the jury acted, its original $5 billion award was equal to the company's profit for about a full year. The current award, reduced to $2.5 billion in the appeals process so far, represents only "about three weeks of Exxon's current net profits," according to the plaintiff's brief to the Supreme Court. With interest, the award would amount to about $4.8 billion.
Exxon notes that the value of punitive damages, in legal theory, lies in deterrence, and it has already paid $3.5 billion for losses, cleanup, and fines—deterrence enough for "anyone," according to the company.
If the lawsuit itself seems old, the case law cited by Exxon is a real barnacle: It cites the 1818 case, The Amiable Nancy. That case established the principle that a ship's owner could not be held accountable for a robbery committed by its crew.
The maritime aspect of the case could prompt Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas to step into the argument, even though neither believes punitive damage awards are a federal matter. Maritime law, however, is another matter; much of it is federal judge-made—or "common law," in legal jargon.
If the first reports on the arguments are any indication, several justices, including Scalia, don't seem to believe that The Amiable Nancy shackles them to a decision from 1818.
But Exxon could both "lose and win" said Lyle Dennison, a veteran Supreme Court reporter, writing on the SCOTUSblog. Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and David Souter both suggested that a reasonable number for punitive damages might be twice what the company has already paid to compensate victims for their economic losses. Walter Delinger, who argued the case for Exxon, said those costs amount to $500 million.
The high court has tended to take punitive damages cases when it believes something has gone wrong. "It's unsurprising that the defendants have been relatively successful," Frey says of Exxon.
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Merger talks between Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce and Anglo-Swiss Xstrata PLC have broken down, casting doubt upon a deal that would result in the world's largest miner, according to a published report Thursday.
The Australian dollar rose to a fresh 24-year high against the US currency today, after strong investment data underlined robust demand in the economy and kept alive chances of more interest rate hikes.
By 12:01 p.m. the Aussie... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 2:48 am
The asset value of this country's commercial fish resource is estimated at $3.8 billion, according to new figures from Statistics New Zealand (SNZ).
That figure, for 2007, was down 1 per cent from a high of $3.9 billion in 2004.
Economic... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 2:30 am
Barack Obama and John McCain staged a skirmish over US strategy in Iraq, underscoring how the two presidential frontrunners now view each other as likely rivals in November's general election Source: FT.com - US homepage | 28 Feb 2008 | 2:16 am
Private equity firms are now approaching sovereign wealth funds for loans for big leveraged acquisitions, filling the gap left by investment banks struggling with the credit squeeze, leading buy-out bosses said Source: FT.com - US homepage | 28 Feb 2008 | 1:06 am
Finance company MFS Pacific's parent MFS Limited is teetering on the edge of the precipice, according to Australian media.
The Gold Coast investment company has sought permission to delay its half-year results and has asked for... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 1:00 am
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the US government-sponsored mortgage financiers, were given a green light to expand their loan portfolios amid mounting evidence that the US housing slump is deepening Source: FT.com - US homepage | 28 Feb 2008 | 12:45 am
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday signaled a readiness to cut interest rates again to prevent further damage to the weak U.S. economy, even as he took note of rising inflation risks.
Kiwis are still packing their bags for Australia in droves.
New Zealand's loss of population to our trans-tasman neighbour is at its highest level since early this decade, new figures show.
The net outflow of people from New... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 28 Feb 2008 | 12:25 am
The dollar fell to a fresh record low against the euro as Ben Bernanke signalled that the Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates again next month Source: FT.com - US homepage | 28 Feb 2008 | 12:23 am
Microsoft was fined a record €899 million (£683 million) by the European
Commission yesterday as it received its third financial penalty for failing
to comply with a landmark antitrust ruling issued four years ago. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 12:00 am
These are febrile times for bank shares. Whether innocently promulgated or
deliberately planted, the rumours are flying. Most turn out to be false. One
moment yesterday the Bank of England was supposedly having to pump emergency
funding into a major high street bank because of a client default; the next
a sovereign wealth fund was taking a meaty equity stake to bail out another
stricken UK bank. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 12:00 am
The opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5 in a month is the most significant event
to happen at Britain's most important airport for 20 years. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 12:00 am
Kane and Lynch are hardly the type of celebrity guests you would include in
your dream dinner party - one a flawed mercenary, the other a medicated
psycopath - but they are impressively famous, nonetheless, stars of an
18-rated computer game that is sufficiently reminiscent of Hollywood action
films that it is being made into a movie, too. Although such excitements may
be beyond some readers of The Times, this kind of entertainment does have
its fans. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 28 Feb 2008 | 12:00 am
Business confidence has hit the skids with firms taking a darker view of their prospects than at any time in the past two years.
The National Bank survey found 54 per cent of firms expected business conditions to get worse over... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 27 Feb 2008 | 11:00 pm
Clothing designer and businesswoman Peri Drysdale was acclaimed as supreme amongst an elite group of New Zealand's entrepreneurs at an awards ceremony in Auckland last night.
The 2008 World Class New Zealand Awards were organised... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 27 Feb 2008 | 10:50 pm
Reuters - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke on Wednesday signaled a readiness to cut interest
rates again to prevent further damage to the weak U.S. economy,
even as he took note of rising inflation risks.
Guinness Peat Group's annual net profit rose 258 per cent to £129 million ($318.2 million), with the increase largely due to sales of shares in two companies.
Despite the record profit, revenue for the year to the end of December... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 27 Feb 2008 | 10:45 pm
Strong results from GPG and Nuplex led the sharemarket higher in early business today after the local market also got modest encouragement from Wall Street.
The NZSX-50 index, which gained half a per cent yesterday, was up 22 points,... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 27 Feb 2008 | 10:45 pm
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke today said the US central bank will act as needed to ensure beleaguered housing and credit markets do not further undermine an already sluggish economy.
"It is important to recognise that downside... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 27 Feb 2008 | 10:30 pm
Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke hints that the central bank may cut US interest rates still further. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 27 Feb 2008 | 10:22 pm
Planned initial public offerings worth more than $21bn have been pulled from the global market in the first two months of the year, a figure almost double the amount raised through successful flotations, according to new data Source: FT.com - US homepage | 27 Feb 2008 | 10:01 pm
Shareholders in Auckland Airport could be forgiven for being thoroughly confused by now.
Their directors, or at least a majority of them, are advising them to tell the Canadians to get lost, and vote no to a resolution which would... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 27 Feb 2008 | 10:00 pm
Reuters - The Dow and S&P 500 ended little
changed on Wednesday after a rally fizzled when doubts emerged
that lifting investment caps on the two largest home financing
companies was enough to prevent deeper damage to the housing
market.
Oil prices hit a record level of $102 a barrel, a day after breaking the previous record of $101.43. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:49 pm
The European Union fines Microsoft for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:40 pm
The dollar falls to a fresh record low against the euro due to renewed fears that the US may be facing recession. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 27 Feb 2008 | 8:19 pm
Domesticated elephants had been used to lug timber in Thailand until the country banned logging. Now a philanthropist has created a new home for the pachyderms that's also a tourist destination. Jocelyn Ford reports. Source: Marketplace | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:25 pm
After 40 years with the company, Jimmy Bedford is retiring from his position as the master distiller for Jack Daniel's. Kai Ryssdal talks with him about how he helped make the signature whiskey. Source: Marketplace | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:25 pm
Cargill is suspending construction of a $200 million ethanol plant outside Topeka, Kan. The agribusiness giant says market conditions for ethanol are deteriorating. Jeremy Hobson reports. Source: Marketplace | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:25 pm
Some economists and pundits have said we should spend our way out of the current economic slowdown. But commentator and economist Susan Lee says it was that same worry-free attitude about buying that got us into the housing crisis in the first place. Source: Marketplace | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:25 pm
Homeowners are not the only victims of the subprime mortgage crisis. Many renters are being evicted from homes and apartments going through foreclosure. Monica Brady-Myerov reports. Source: Marketplace | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:25 pm
Years of fighting over Microsoft's failure to obey a 2004 antitrust order have finally ended with European Union regulators fining the company a record $1.3 billion. Kai Ryssdal talks to Stephen Beard about whether the fine will repair Microsoft-EU relations. Source: Marketplace | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:25 pm
Federal regulators for the mortgage securitizers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are lifting restrictions on the growth of their mortgage holdings. The caps had been put in place as a response to accounting errors in both companies. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports. Source: Marketplace | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:25 pm
Ben Bernanke went to Capitol Hill to once again express the critical state of the economy. He signaled that the Fed is still deciding whether to cut interest rates. Kai Ryssdal has more. Source: Marketplace | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:25 pm
Apple, Research In Motion and ZTE Corp joined the ranks of the world's 10 largest mobile phone makers in 2007, underlining how technology advances and emerging markets are producing a new cast of winners and losers in the industry Source: FT.com - US homepage | 27 Feb 2008 | 7:00 pm
FT.com - ASX, the Australian stock exchange and market regulator, on Wednesday said it was looking into sales of shares by executives of ABC Learning Centres that were made both before and after it announced on Tuesday a drop in earnings that sent its share price plummeting as much as 70 per cent. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 27 Feb 2008 | 5:35 pm
Amid a long, dark winter for homebuilders, can one think of spring?
One of the nation's biggest builders, Toll Brothers, said that it saw some signs of improvement in housing, even as it took a loss of $96 million for the fourth quarter.
The company's chief executive, Robert Toll, said in a statement this morning that the luxury homebuilder saw a few "glimmers of hope" in Naples, Florida, and suburban Washington, D.C.
Those expectations stand in contrast to data released in the past few days indicating that the sector has not yet hit bottom.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that new-home sales sunk to the lowest point in nearly 13 years in January. Sales of single-family homes decreased by 2.8 percent to an annual rate of 588,000, below the annual rate of 600,000 that economists were expecting. On Tuesday, it was announced that the Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller home-price index fell 8.9 percent for the fourth quarter of 2007, with all 20 metropolitan areas covered showing declines in December (including Washington, which fell 2.7 percent from November to December).
To be sure, Robert Toll has rather optimistically called bottoms before.
"Fifteen months into the current slowdown, we may be seeing a floor in some markets where deposits and traffic, although erratic from week to week, seem to be dancing on the bottom or slightly above," he said in December 2006. Yes, 2006.
On a conference call this afternoon, Toll Brothers executives said that they estimated the average home prices for 2008 would range from $630,000 to $650,000; the average for the first quarter was $634,000. The company said that it expected the average home price would decline as the year progressed, while the cost of sales increased, the latter of which will be higher overall during 2008.
On the call, Robert Toll reined in some of the optimism regarding recovery in 2008 expressed in the morning's press release.
"I don't want to give an impression that by my exuberant description of the Naples, Washington, D.C, Northern Virginia, and Maryland [area] that we're on the comeback trail," Toll said. "Because there's a lot of markets that still haven't spoken. There are another 35 markets out there we're still waiting to see hope in."
Still, some on Wall Street, at least, seem to agree with Toll Brothers' anticipation that better times are not that far off.
"We continue to expect a very weak sales environment" in the first half of this year, said Bank of America securities analyst Daniel Oppenheim in a February 6 note, "but think lower mortgage rates and pricing should help demand to gradually materialize in the back half of the year."
Oppenheim reiterated his "neutral" rating for Toll Brothers in a note published on Wednesday, saying he continued to believe that lower prices and interest rates would help sales improve.
It was just a month ago that Toll Brothers announced that it saw "no light at the end of the tunnel," with orders having fallen 37 percent in January and revenue down 22 percent for the month. So perhaps it really is seeing some positive signs that have changed its outlook.
Robert Toll said that at the present time, it was overwhelming talk of recession rather than truly poor fundamentals that was continuing to dampen the mood of buyers.
"We believe that revived buyer confidence is paramount to getting the market moving again. Only when customers believe we are done with housing deflation will the excess supply clear and the market return to equilibrium," Toll said.
Some analysts are calling for Toll Brothers to do more on its end, such as lowering prices more aggressively.
"We note Toll Brothers pointed to the emergence of another weak spring selling season, as well as a restrained consumer, which we believe will lead to further pricing pressure and further material impairment charges for the industry," said J.P. Morgan analyst Michael Rehaut in a note published today.
NewsFactor - Move over, Best Buy. Watch out, Wal-Mart. Apple's iTunes Store is now the number-two music retailer in the U.S., behind only Wal-Mart, based on the latest data from the NPD Group MusicWatch survey, which tallied the amount of music sold during 2007. Apple sold more than four billion songs, with 20 million sold on Christmas day. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 27 Feb 2008 | 4:17 pm
Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, again indicated that the Fed was prepared to cut interest rates as he provided a downbeat economic forecast.
The Fed chief pointed to risks from the credit markets and the slump in housing, telling the House Financial Services Committee that "the housing market is expected to continue to weigh on economic activity in coming quarters." He also noted potential inflation risks as well.
The Fed, he said, "will act in a timely manner as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks."
His testimony comes as more signs emerge that the economy is sliding into a recession. Recent reports have shown a nationwide slump in home prices, a rise in foreclosures and bank repossessions, and a decline in new-homes sales. At the same time, rising food and energy costs appear to be revving up inflation.
The Fed's semiannual monetary policy report to Congress said that "the outlook for 2008 has become less favorable since last summer, and considerable downside risks to economic activity have emerged."
"The economy seems to have entered 2008 with little momentum."
Bernanke's testimony echoed comments he made earlier this month before the Senate Banking Committee as well as those by Donald Kohn, the Fed vice chairman, on Tuesday.
The Fed is now universally expected to cut rates again when it next meets, on March 18. In January, the Fed slashed its benchmark rate in two moves, to 3 percent from 4.25 percent, and market participants expect that rate to fall to 2 percent by year-end. (See a chart of the Fed's rate moves here.)
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York subpoenaed records from the company, the nation's largest cable-TV operator. His office declined to say exactly what information it was seeking.
Dow Jones Newswires, citing unnamed sources, and the Associated Press said that the probe relates to Comcast's practice of slowing down or blocking the delivery of some internet content over its cable network. The company says it is engaging only in prudent network management, but critics have accused it of trying to hobble rivals in the video-on-demand business.
The controversy has already attracted the attention of both Congress and the Federal Communications Commission, which have opened separate investigations of the company's practice.
It has also prompted some customers to sue, and led to the creation of an ad hoc coalition of academics and other free-speech advocates to push regulators to prevent cable operators and phone companies from slowing or blocking the delivery of targeted internet content over their systems.
Cuomo's office has joined the assault even though only a few New Yorkers are Comcast customers—less than 1 percent of all cable subscribers in the state.
Comcast has also sparked fury in the tech community for having paid people to show up to a public hearing that the F.C.C. held at Harvard on Monday. The company said it did so to reserve space for its employees to attend, but critics accused Comcast of trying to keep opponents out while creating the false impression that it had broad support.
A hundred dollars a barrel for oil? Been there, done that. One thousand dollars for an ounce of gold? Still waiting. But the latest big market threshold has now been broken: the euro at $1.50.
The dollar fell to $1.50 against the euro in trading today. The dollar also weakened against the British pound, which again flirted with $2. And the dollar fell to an all-time low against the Swiss franc.
"We're in a new regime for the dollar," Bilal Hafeez, global head of currency strategy at Deutsche Bank in London, told Bloomberg News. "The proximate cause has been European data, which has indicated that Europe hasn't suffered on the growth side as the U.S. has."
The slide in the value of the dollar began several years ago and is picking up steam amid signs that the Federal Reserve will need to make additional cuts in interest rates. Lower interest rates typically weaken a currency's value.
Those expectations were heightened on Tuesday after separate reports showed a broad slump in housing prices and a rise in foreclosures. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke may give further clues to the Fed's direction when he delivers his semiannual testimony on monetary policy to the House Financial Services Committee this morning.
The European central bank, meanwhile, has been holding interest rates steady. In the last 12 months, the dollar has fallen 14 percent against the euro, which made its debut in January 1999. The euro is the common currency for 15 European nations.
The weak dollar is, of course, good for American exporters and bad for American tourists in Europe.
More significant may be the role that it plays in inflation. Imports become more expensive. Mitigating that is the fact that the most crucial import, oil, is priced in dollars. Still, any upward pressure comes at a time when inflationary pressures are worrying investors.
Microsoft may yet win over Yahoo. Brussels, however, is another story
European regulators have fined the software behemoth 899 million euros, or $1.4 billion, for failing to comply with a 2004 antitrust decree. It is the largest fine ever imposed by the European Union against a single company.
Microsoft has now been fined a total of $2.5 billion in Europe.
"Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," said Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner. "I hope that today's decision closes a dark chapter in Microsoft's record of noncompliance."
While the fine is breathtakingly large, it is for practices that have since been changed. In October, Microsoft settled with European regulators, agreeing to license all its intellectual property except patents to enable rivals to develop software that works with Windows, for a low royalty payment.
The decision today is a finding by the European Commission that the royalties paid after the 2004 antitrust decree and before October 2007 "were unreasonable."
When Kroes, a former Dutch politician, became Europe's chief antitrust regulator, there was some concern that she would be more pro-business than her predecessor, Mario Monti, because she sat on a number of corporate boards. That has proved to be clearly not the case, as detailed in a profile by Charles Forelle of the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
The new game of hardball being played by European regulators comes as they have started two new investigations into whether Microsoft abused its dominance in software to help its Office and Web-browser products.
Last week, Microsoft announced with much fanfare that says that it would disclose more information about its software to enable rival products to work more smoothly on its operating system.
That announcement, which was met coolly by European regulators, may be an attempt to repair some of the damage in Europe. Or it might be part of an effort to cast Microsoft in a new, more internet-friendly light as it pursues a not-very-friendly takeover of Yahoo.
Trying to repackage Microsoft as a company that is more open and less hostile to open source is difficult when European regulators continue to hammer monopolist charges against the company.
AFP - Dutch bank ABN Amro reported a profits leap for 2007 on Thursday owing to special factors and despite a writedown of 1.561 billion euros (2.36 billion dollars) on account of the US subprime home-loan crisis.
Reuters - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke on Wednesday signaled a readiness to cut interest
rates again to prevent further damage to the weak U.S. economy,
even as he took note of rising inflation risks.
Reuters - The Dow and S&P 500 ended little
changed on Wednesday after a rally fizzled when doubts emerged
that lifting investment caps on the two largest home financing
companies was enough to prevent deeper damage to the housing
market.