The Bank of England has resisted pressure to cut interest rates as Governor Mervyn King holds firm in the fight against inflation even as the UK economy slows. Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 2:45 pm
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Vonage Holding Corp. on reports a smaller first-quarter loss as the financially struggling Internet-phone company reduced its costs and generated more money from subscribers, giving shares an early bump.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Progress Energy said mild weather in the Southeast and slower-than expected customer growth bit into its third-quarter profit, but the power utility said it'll hit its 2008 target as it moves to contain costs.
Who thought generics could ever look so bad? This morning, Barr Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: BRL) has posted very poor numbers. The company posted $0.57 EPS, far under the First Call consensus of $0.79. Revenues rose 1.8% year over year to $608 million, while $684.1 million was the consensus estimate. To make matters worse, its mixed guidance for Fiscal 2008 was put at $2.75 to $3.05 EPS. This is under the $3.27 consensus estimate and down from previous range of $3.05-$3.35 EPS for the year. The company did keep 2008 revenues in a range of $2.7 to $2.8 billion, and First Call...
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures fell slightly Thursday after hitting a new record high of $123.93 a barrel earlier in the session as traders' insatiable appetite for energy futures continued unabated.
General Dynamics taps director Jay Johnson, a utility executive, to be next chief executive, assuming the defense contractor's top post from Nick Chabraja upon his retirement next year.
Stocks inched higher early Thursday, bouncing after the previous session's big selloff, as investors welcomed some positive retail sales from Wal-Mart Stores and other chains and a bigger-than-expected drop in weekly jobless claims.
Although many retailers reported improved April sales, following a disastrous March, analysts cautioned Thursday that it's premature to declare a resurgence in consumer spending.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened up slightly on Thursday as retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc , posted higher-than-expected monthly sales figures.
Everybody's been talking lately about how much News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch loves print. His company just paid $5 billion for Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Yesterday, he sounded confident that News Corp. would shortly acquire Newsday for $580 million from Tribune Co. Who better to spruce up these papers than a man who is often said to "have ink in his veins," right?
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- RiskMetrics Group reported a 20% increase in first-quarter net income on Thursday as the company benefited from rising demand for its risk-management and corporate governance advisory services.
Each year, Weddle's (www.weddles.com), a major U.S. publisher of print guides to Internet job hunting, invites the public to visit its Web site and vote for their favorite job boards. The 30 sites with the most votes at the end of the year are declared the winners of the Users' Choice Awards. It's not a scientific survey, since those polled are a self-selected sampling and tend to feel strongly about certain sites, both pro and con.
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The European Central Bank on Thursday held its key rate at 4%, as it refrained from stimulating an economy whose growth appears to be stalling with inflation running well over target.
Toyota said the strong yen and weaker U.S. sales took a bite out of January-March earnings and projected worse was to come _ a 27 percent plunge in its full-year profit. It would be... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 1:23 pm
US stocks recovered slightly on Thursday from the sharp sell-off in the previous session, buoyed by strong sales figures from Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 1:18 pm
US stocks were set to recover on Thursday from the sharp sell-off in the previous session, buoyed by strong sales figures from Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. About an hour before the opening bell... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 1:18 pm
El Paso Corporation (NYSE:EP) has reported earnings of $0.29 EPS on net income of $219 million and revenue of $1.269 billion for the first quarter of 2008. Analysts were expecting $0.30 EPS and revenue of $1.35 billion. The company's president and CEO Doug Foshee provided an upbeat projection for the rest of the year, saying that EP expects "sharply higher earnings than our $1.00 to $1.10 earnings guidance for 2008 as our hedging strategy has enabled us to participate in improved natural gas and oil prices." First Call has estimates at $1.19 for the year. A week ago, Chesapeake Energy...
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- El Paso Corp. on Thursday said it swung to a first-quarter gain from continuing operations as the pipeline and natural gas production company expects to beat its Wall Street targets for the year on higher fuel prices and its hedging strategy.
LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England kept British interest rates at 5.0 percent on Thursday but analysts say a slowing economy will force it to cut borrowing costs next month, even though inflation is heading higher.
AP - The number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits dropped much more than expected last week. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 8 May 2008 | 1:03 pm
The Bank of England has resisted pressure to cut interest rates as Governor Mervyn King holds firm in the fight against inflation even as the UK economy slows. Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 1:01 pm
Two private equity firms will get their day in a New York court to press claims against six banks who agreed to lend about $22 billion for financing the buyout of Clear Channel Communications Inc.
New York Supreme Court Justice Helen Freedman has denied the banks motion for summary judgment on breach of contract claims by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners.
The banks argued that the plaintiffs claims were not "ripe" because the time for performance on the commitment letter --- June 12 they signed last summer is not yet passed. But Freedman found the plaintiffs established a "triable issue of fact as to whether the defendants presented the plaintiffs with an ultimatum" when they sought to change the terms of the deal under a "take-it-or-leave-it" approach.
Freedman relied on the "rather ominous tone of the defendants' internal emails. She said the "most noteworthy email" dated just after a December 2007 meeting, when the banks came "hat in hand" to change the terms of the financing to reduce their risk of loss. When Bain and THL Partners had not responded to the new terms, one bank employee wrote, "let's draft the nuclear version" and his colleague agreed, writing, "that may elicit the response." A January 31 email from another employee said he was delivering drafts of document that "are meant to be draconian. And on February 3, a bank employee wrote that it was "time to take the gloves off."
But Freedman dismissed the plaintiffs claims of fraud, conspiracy and violations of a Massachusetts consumer protection statute. The buyout firms had asked for a May 5 trial, but at a previous hearing, Freedman warned the firms not to count on that, because she is wrapping up another case.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing claims for initial jobless benefits fell to a lower-than-expected level in the latest week, a government report showed on Thursday.
Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) reported that first quarter revenue rose by 15% to $225 million. The company also generated an adjusted operating income of $8 million, while its net loss narrowed to $9 million or $0.06 per Share. The estimates from First Call were -$0.07 EPS and $223.17 million in revenues. After the earning, we aren't really concerned with the actual results today. The reason is because the company is in financing talks over its debt that is probably going to be put back to the company late this year. In a separate announcement, recently-bought Covad announced a pact...
AP - Consumers gave some of the nation's retailers a little relief in April following months of dismal sales, but business was helped along by heavy discounting that could hurt fiscal first-quarter earnings.
Consumers gave some of the nation's retailers a little relief in April following months of dismal sales, but business was helped along by heavy discounting that could hurt fiscal... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 12:40 pm
The Bank of England and the European Central Bank left their interest rates unchanged on Thursday, as they sought to balance slowing growth with inflationary pressures. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 12:37 pm
These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Thursday morning in pre-market trading: Boston Beer Co. (NYSE: SAM) cut to Neutral at HSBC Securities. Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) cut to Sell at Citigroup. Einstein Noah (NASDAQ: BAGL) raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray. Jefferies Group (NYSE: JEF) cut to Neutral at Wachovia. Macrovision (NASDAQ: MVSN) cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank. Neustar (NYSE: NSR) cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse. Orbitz (NYSE: OWW) cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray. Tenaris (NYSE: TS) cut to Hold at Citigroup. Wachovia (NYSE: WB) raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse. YRC...
Reuters - Apparel chains struggled through
another dismal month in April as they tried to bring in
cash-strapped shoppers, but discounters fared well as consumers
hungered for bargains to buy necessities.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apparel chains struggled through another dismal month in April as they tried to bring in cash-strapped shoppers, but discounters fared well as consumers hungered for bargains to buy necessities.
The number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits dropped much more than expected last week. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for unemployment... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 12:32 pm
Inroads in the U.S. market made Toyota Motor the biggest automaker in the world, outselling General Motors this year for the first time. But the same U.S. market—and the weakness of the dollar against the yen—has dragged down Toyota's profit.
Toyota reported that fourth-quarter earnings fell 28 percent, to $3 billion. The company also forecast its first annual profit decline in seven years.
The company is battling rising prices for raw materials and a dollar that has fallen more than 10 percent against the yen this year. At the same time, the North American market, which accounts for a third of Toyota's overseas profits, is being buffeted by an economic downturn and auto sales overall are slowing. And sales in its home market have been falling as Japan's population shrinks.
For its next fiscal year, Toyota expects earnings to slump 27 percent, to 1.25 trillion yen, or $12 billion, on revenue of 25 trillion yen. Global vehicle sales are projected to rise only 1.6 percent next year, to 9.06 million.
"We are facing a severe business environment, Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota's president, said. "However, Toyota considers this headwind as a valuable opportunity to turn it into a more flexible and stronger company."
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has voted to hold interest rates at 5pc, holding firm in the fight against inflation even as the UK economy faces a sharp slowdown. Here are some initial reactions from City experts: Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 12:30 pm
Poor John Browett. The new chief executive of DSG International, the Currys and PC World owner, must have felt green around the gills this morning. Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 12:30 pm
The European Central Bank leaves eurozone interest rates on hold at 4% after its latest meeting. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 12:20 pm
Nationwide Building Society is to provide some respite for first-time buyers - arguably the biggest casualties of the current housing gloom Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 12:20 pm
The European Central Bank left its interest steady at 4 percent on Thursday, following a similar decision by the British central bank to leave its rate at 5 percent. Analysts had... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 12:16 pm
McDonald's Corporation announced today that global comparable sales increased 5.0% in April and 6.8% year-to-date. Systemwide sales for McDonald's worldwide restaurants increased 13.7% in April, or 6.5% in constant currencies. U.S. comparable sales rose 2.0% for the month as McDonald's breakfast menu, new products and compelling value attracted more customers into our restaurants. Douglas A. McIntyre
Consumers gave some of the nation's retailers a little relief in April following months of dismal sales, but business was helped along by heavy discounting that could hurt first-quarter... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 12:11 pm
The Bank of England has resisted pressure to cut interest rates as Governor Mervyn King holds firm in the fight against inflation even as the UK economy slows. Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 12:10 pm
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil slipped on Thursday on profit-taking after hitting a record of nearly $124 as traders weighed a rise in the dollar to a two-month high against news of a fall in U.S. diesel stockpiles.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp said it expects its operating profit to more than double over the next three years as it cuts costs, ramps up capacity for its semiconductors and seeks nuclear plant orders.
European shares slid on Thursday after the European Central Bank said it was keeping eurozone interest rates on hold at 4 per cent, while rising oil prices stoked inflations fears and earnings reports... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 12:08 pm
The MPC remains on a knife-edge. Today's vote to keep the bank base rate at 5pc was probably very close given the conflicting indicators on the economy and inflation. Although the hawks appear to have won the day this time, the doves will surely have had plenty to argue about. Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 12:01 pm
Consumers gave some of the nation's retailers a little relief in April after months of dismal sales, but business was helped by heavy discounting that could hurt first-quarter earnings. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 12:00 pm
When times get tough, Wal-Mart Stores turns into a star performer.
The world's largest retail chain reported April sales that were much stronger than analysts' estimates and its own forecast. Sales at U.S. stores open at least a year rose 3.2 percent in April, when gasoline and fuel sales are excluded.
It was a much better performance than March, when sales rose an anemic 0.7 percent as Wal-Mart blamed cold weather, which hurt apparel sales, and an early Easter.
Another big discounter, Costco Wholesale, said same-store sales rose 8 percent, or 5 percent excluding gasoline sales.
Other big retail chains are expected to show decent April sales, although some of that will be a result of Easter falling in March.
It's clear that consumers are throttling back their spending in the face of uncertainty over jobs and housing prices. The discounters are benefiting from a shift to spending on just the basics.
"The economy continues to get tougher and the paycheck cycle is more pronounced for customers than in past months," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and chief executive of Wal-Mart's U.S. business. "As money gets tighter for them toward the end of the month, sales drop more than we have seen in the past."
Total sales at Wal-Mart, including Sam's Club and international operations, rose 9.8 percent in the month, to $29.18 billion. International sales climbed 18.4 percent, to $7.6 billion. Wal-Mart China had double-digit gains in stores open at least a year.
Sales in food and groceries were strong, while allergy season helped sales of medications, Wal-Mart said.
But it's not only the bare necessities. The company also pointed to growth in sales of flat-panel TVs and videogames (thank you, Grand Theft Auto IV).
Wal-Mart will benefit this month from the wave of 130 million rebate checks being mailed out to taxpayers under a $152 billion economic-stimulus package passed by Congress.
The retailer has announced that it will cash economic stimulus checks at no charge.
Best Buy of the US is to buy 50 per cent of Carphone Warehouse's European and US retail interests for 1.1bn to create a joint venture to sell consumer electronics goods in Europe.The move increased speculation... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:59 am
Best Buy and the UK's Carphone Warehouse are setting up a joint venture to sell consumer electronics goods in Europe, with the US group taking a 50% stake in Carphone's European and US retail interests for £1.1bn Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 11:59 am
A gangmaster is stripped of his licence after investigators said they uncovered forced labour. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 11:57 am
The European Central Bank and the Bank of England are leaving their key interest rates steady. The European Central Bank held its key rate at 4 percent on Thursday shortly after the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:56 am
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says sales of groceries and items such as flat- screen TVs boosted its same-store sales in April above Wall Street expectations. The world's largest retailer said... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:45 am
Eurozone interest rates have been left unchanged as the European Central Bank keeps up its battle against inflation, even as the economy slows Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 11:45 am
Eurozone interest rates have been left unchanged as the European Central Bank keeps up its battle against inflation, even as the economy slows. Meeting in Athens on Thursday, the ECB's governing council... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:45 am
ITV was fined a record 5.675m on Thursday for "grave" breaches of the UK's broadcasting code involving premium-rate telephone services, which regulator Ofcom said were the worst it had encountered.The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:39 am
The Bank of England left its interest rate unchanged on Thursday, and the European Central Bank was expected to do likewise as evidence mounts that growth in the euro zone is likely to... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:33 am
Wal-Mart (WMT) continued to amaze. How does the world's largest retailer grow faster than almost all of its competition? For the month of April, Wal-Mart's sales were up 9.8% to $29.8 billion. International sales rose 18.4% to $7.6 billion. US same-store sales were up an astonishing 3.2%. Douglas A. McIntyre
Nasdaq OMX Group says its first-quarter profits surged with its first combined quarterly report that includes Sweden's OMX stock exchange. The nation's largest electronic exchange said... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:31 am
London equities were steady on Thursday, after the Bank of England left interest rates on hold at 5 per cent, in line with market expectations.The benchmark index was 8 points lower at 6,253.1 in afternoon... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:27 am
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp posted a bigger-than-expected 28 percent drop in quarterly net profit due to a stronger yen and sliding U.S. sales, and forecast its first annual profit decline in seven years.
The pound edged higher from a 10-week low against the dollar on Thursday after the Bank of England's left UK interest rates on hold after its Monetary Policy Committee meeting.Most analysts were expecting... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:07 am
Charles Dunstone, the multi- millionaire founder of the Carphone Warehouse retail group, will today unveil a £1bn investment from Best Buy, a US company, in an attempt to become one of Europe's dominant retailers, The Daily Telegraph has learned. Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 11:05 am
The world's biggest brewer by volume, Inbev, blames soaring raw material costs for a surprise 11% fall in profits. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 11:03 am
Reuters - Best Buy, the world's biggest
electronics retailer, is to pay $2.1 billion for half of
Britain's Carphone Warehouse chain to take on the European
consumer electricals market.
LONDON (Reuters) - Best Buy, the world's biggest electronics retailer, is to pay $2.1 billion for half of Britain's Carphone Warehouse chain to take on the European consumer electricals market.
The Bank of England today rebuffed pleas for a new cut in interest rates as it
pursued its campaign to quell persistent inflationary pressures in the
economy. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 8 May 2008 | 11:00 am
UK interest rates are held at 5% by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, as inflation concerns persist. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 11:00 am
The Bank of England's monetary policy committee left interest rates unchanged at 5 per cent on Thursday, suggesting it does not yet think the UK economy has slowed enough to bring inflation back to target... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 8 May 2008 | 11:00 am
ITV was today fined a record £5.7 million for repeatedly misleading viewers
over the conduct of phone-ins on flagship programmes ranging from Ant &
Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon
and Soapstar Superstar. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 8 May 2008 | 10:53 am
Markets in Europe were off at 6.45 AM New York time. The FTSE was down .2% to 6,252. Barclays (BCS) was off 2.5% to 463.25. Unilever was up 3.9% to 1727. The DAXX was selling off .4% to 7,048. Deutsche Bank (DB) was off 1.1% to 77.11. SAP (SAP) was off 3.1% to 31.74. The CAC 40 .4% to 5,054. EADS was down 2.5% to 15.82. Societe Generale was down 2.5% to 74.15. Data from Reuters Douglas A. McIntrye
A slump in the number of stamped letters sees Royal Mail's losses widen to £279m in the year to March. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 10:49 am
AMD (AMD) is going to offer the world more powerful chips for servers and PCs. It is not enough that it and Intel (INTC) have hardware with four cores, or processors, to do Herculean computational work. Now AMD says it will produce chips with six cores and then eight. Intel will have to keep pace. According to The Wall Street Journal "More calculating engines tend to boost computing performance, although software modifications are sometimes needed to exploit the full benefits of such "multicore" chips." Therein lies the problem. At some point the chip power moves beyond the needs of the...
Microsoft will likely meet with stern resistance from within the Facebook
community should its reported approach to the fast-growing social networking
site gather momentum. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 8 May 2008 | 10:38 am
The Bank of England is charged with setting UK interest rates and keeping inflation low with a target of 2pc. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meet for two days every month to decide whether to cut interest rates, hold them at their current level, or increase them. Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 10:38 am
George Soros has taken the unpopular side of many economic bets over the years. He has not only lived to tell the tales. He has made himself and his investors untold billions of dollars in the process. Now, as the markets seem to be recovering and the clouds parting, Soros claims that what we are seeing now is a bit of a "bear market rally." If that is the case, investors buying into it will be crushed beneath the wheel of a vicious market reversal. The Wall Street Journal writes that Soros recently said “The markets are breathing a sigh...
Hit by a stronger yen, lower demand in the US and high raw material costs, Toyota is expecting net profit to fall 27 per cent in the final quarter Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 10:22 am
Since the government is blamed for all ills and catastrophes it should be praised for the good and right that it does. The SEC said yesterday that brokerages could not keep the dirty little secrets of their capital problems to themselves. According to The Wall Street Journal "SEC Chairman Christopher Cox said in a speech Wednesday that the four largest investment banks overseen by the SEC will disclose "actual capital and liquidity positions...in terms that the market can readily understand and digest." One of the reasons that investors, both individual and institutional, got burned in the current run down in...
The US military is still waiting for approval from the junta to fly in relief supplies for the survivors of Cyclone Nargis Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 10:17 am
Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) posted a
bigger-than-expected 28 percent drop in quarterly net profit
due to a stronger yen and sliding U.S. sales, and forecast its
first annual profit decline in seven years.
Mobile phone network T-Mobile UK reports an increase in first-quarter revenues thanks to rising user numbers. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 10:01 am
Royal Mail's post bag has shrunk by three million letters a day in the last
year, pushing its regulated letters and parcels business into a £200 million
loss. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 8 May 2008 | 10:01 am
Best Buy is the largest retailer of consumer electronics in the US and Canada, valued at around $20.5bn and with an annual revenue of $40bn, it sells electronic goods, home-office products, entertainment software, appliances and related services to a global market. Source: Telegraph Business | 8 May 2008 | 10:00 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch said on Wednesday stress in the U.S. economy is squeezing advertising budgets, adding that News Corp's Fox Interactive Media would miss an ambitious $1 billion annual revenue goal by 10 percent.
Oil prices reach a new peak near $124 a barrel as traders initially ignore a US report showing a rise in stocks. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 9:11 am
Rice prices soar for a fifth straight day as the cyclone damage in Burma worsens already tight supplies. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 8:50 am
Toyota, the industrial bellwether of the Japanese economy, today stunned
markets by issuing a profits warning, forecasting its first full-year slump
in operating profits in nearly a decade. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 8 May 2008 | 8:42 am
Carphone Warehouse is selling a half share in its retailing business to US firm Best Buy for £1.1bn. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 8:05 am
LONDON (Reuters) - Cable operator Virgin Media added a net 4,900 new customers for its services in the first quarter and said better customer retention and stabilizing revenue per customer left it positioned for growth.
AP - Consumer borrowing rose in March at the fastest pace in four months, more than double the increase of the previous month, in what was seen as a sign of rising economic stress.
Toyota predicts its first annual profit fall for seven years as the US slowdown takes its toll. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 8 May 2008 | 7:39 am
Reuters - Cable operator Virgin Media
added a net 4,900 new customers for its services in the first
quarter and said better customer retention and stabilizing
revenue per customer left it positioned for growth. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 8 May 2008 | 7:24 am
The gloom on the high street continued today as Next reported an expected
sharp slide in sales in the first quarter. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 8 May 2008 | 7:14 am
Yet another new high puts crude back on investors' radar and sends three major indexes lower.
The relentless rise in oil prices caught up with the stock market Wednesday when crude climbed above $123 a barrel and drove the major indexes to their worst day in almost a month.
Kevin Sharer tells often-hostile investors that the company is off to a good start this year.
The beleaguered chief executive of biotech giant Amgen Inc. confronted an often testy group of shareholders Wednesday, his first annual meeting with investors since the company's fortunes took a hard turn last summer.
The president says the measures under consideration in Congress will benefit speculators and lenders.
President Bush declared Wednesday that he would veto the foreclosure relief legislation under consideration in Congress, surprising Democrats who believed that they had administration support for key portions of the bills.
Its $500 million in first-week sales blows away previous mark
The mob-themed video game "Grand Theft Auto IV" raced into stores and off the shelves, smashing previous game records with $500 million in worldwide sales its first week, publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. said Wednesday. ¶ That topped the previous high set last year by Microsoft Corp.'s "Halo 3," which took in $300 million in its first week. Take-Two said it sold about 6 million units of "GTA IV" during the first week, and 3.6 million units for $310 million on its first day of sale, April 29. ¶ "We believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date," Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick said. "This signals just how important interactive entertainment has become in entertainment writ large."
Bernanke will ask Congress to step up the program's timetable for commercial institutions, which is currently slated to begin in 2011.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, seeking ways to stabilize money markets, will ask Congress for authority to pay interest on commercial-bank reserves this year, a person familiar with the discussions said.
Satellite television company DirecTV Group Inc. said Wednesday that its first-quarter earnings rose 10.4% after it acquired a surprising number of new U.S. subscribers despite a housing meltdown.
The union is seeking to narrow the gap in a two-tier pay system in Los Angeles County. Walkouts were to begin Wednesday night.
Hours after contract negotiations broke down, janitors authorized a strike in a near-unanimous vote Wednesday and launched walkouts at buildings across Los Angeles County.
Fox Interactive, which includes the networking site, will fall short of revenue projections for the year, the media giant says, but growth is expected.
News Corp. executives worked Wednesday to bolster investor confidence for MySpace, the online social network it won praise for buying in 2005 but lately has attracted concern from Wall Street.
A sharp increase in competition for consumer electronics on Britain's high
street was signalled today after Carphone Warehouse clinched a £1.1 billion
joint venture deal with Best Buy, the US retailer. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 8 May 2008 | 6:37 am
House sales in the first quarter of 2008 are down more than 40 per cent per cent on the same period last year, according to new research from PMI Mortgage Insurance.
It shows a 53.3 per cent fall in sales from the same month last... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 2:30 am
A stunning drop in the number of people in jobs has strengthened the case for an early cut to official interest rates.
Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) data today showed a fall of 29,000, or 1.3 per cent, in seasonally adjusted employment... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 2:15 am
Retail stocks continued to tumble today following Briscoe Group's April quarter report that showed same store sales slumped 10 per cent.
Briscoe managing director Rod Duke warned first half profit would about halve from last year... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 2:00 am
The US and Europe now have a united desire to see the dollar strengthen against the euro, senior officials have told the Financial Times Source: FT.com - US homepage | 8 May 2008 | 1:01 am
PMI Mortgage Insurance issued a report today on the state of the housing market. See below for what it said about your region.
* Northland
House price growth has slowed significantly over the last nine months, with a 1.7 per... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 8 May 2008 | 1:00 am
A chill wind blowing through the retail sector continued to cool the sharemarket in early trading today.
The local market, which was down in early trading for the third successive day following four up days, got no encouragement... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 11:38 pm
Millions of current account customers face an increase of up to 20 per cent in
monthly fees as banks seek to boost revenues before a ruling by the Office
of Fair Trading (OFT) that could cap overdraft charges. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 7 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
Loyalty is a strange beast. Despite the dizzyingly rapid proliferation of
media that technology has brought about, audiences have remained
reassuringly attached to the old, traditional means of delivery. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 7 May 2008 | 11:00 pm
Wall Street banks will soon be required by US regulators to disclose publicly more details about capital and liquidity positions, according to the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 10:53 pm
Bad harvests, bad weather, bio-fuel policy.... They could all conceivably turn around. But over the long term there's one big unknown we can't really control: the growing collective appetite of China's 1.3 billion people. Scott Tong reports. Source: Marketplace | 7 May 2008 | 9:44 pm
New Zealand has a relatively narrow gap between low and highly-paid workers, a new survey says.
In the Hay Global Pays report, New Zealand was 48th, with senior managers earning on average 3.3 times the average worker.
Australia... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 9:30 pm
Agricultural economists have been saying for years that we were due for a global food crisis. Still, for most of us, the current worldwide spike in food commodity prices has come from out of the blue. Today, Kai Ryssdal begins our special series, "Food Fight." Source: Marketplace | 7 May 2008 | 9:19 pm
Cuba has eased restrictions on certain products, such as computers, that its citizens previously weren't allowed to buy. But reporter David Adams, who recently visited the country, tells Kai Ryssdal that significant change is a long way off. Source: Marketplace | 7 May 2008 | 9:19 pm
The Federal Reserve says consumer credit, basically everything we owe money on except our houses, rose more than 7% last month to $2.5 trillion. Commentator Robert Reich says the mortgage crisis offers a valuable lesson in the hazards of our mounting credit card balances. Source: Marketplace | 7 May 2008 | 9:19 pm
Ford Motor Co. is going to start installing a new kind of transmission in nearly all of its vehicles that it says will make them more fuel-efficient. Sam Eaton reports. Source: Marketplace | 7 May 2008 | 9:19 pm
The House is debating a $300 billion home-loan rescue package that would dramatically increase the Federal Housing Administration's role in cleaning up the subprime mess. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports on whether the FHA is up to the job. Source: Marketplace | 7 May 2008 | 9:19 pm
Oil prices extended their seemingly relentless advance overnight, rising to a new record near US$124 a barrel as investors captivated by the market's upward momentum looked past the US Government's report of an increase in crude and... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 8:30 pm
U.S. worker productivity increased in the first quarter of 2008 at an annual rate of better than 2% -- which is pretty good. But the underlying reason is that job cuts required the remaining employees to do more work. Dan Grech reports. Source: Marketplace | 7 May 2008 | 8:15 pm
Sprint and a company called Clearwire today announced a $14.5 billion deal to establish a wireless network that would make it possible for you to be online almost anywhere. A slew of companies are involved, including Google. Lisa Napoli reports. Source: Marketplace | 7 May 2008 | 8:15 pm
The New York Times confirmed today that it had made a limited but unspecified number of involuntary cuts to its newsroom staff in order to meet its goal of reducing head count there by 100.
Executive Editor Bill Keller said in... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 7:50 pm
The Reserve Bank yesterday moved to ensure the financial sector has enough cash on hand to function properly should the credit crunch get worse.
In its twice-yearly Financial Stability Report, it said New Zealand's financial system... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 7:40 pm
After a 38% collective pay raise in 2006, chief executives of the 500 biggest companies in the U.S. (as measured by a composite ranking of sales, profits, assets and market value) took a pay cut of 15% last year. The last time the big bosses took a pay hit was in 2002. In total, these 500 executives earned $6.4 billion in 2007, an average of $12.8 million apiece.
Bear Stearns teetered on the brink of bankruptcy after nearly $16 billion in liquidity evaporated in a matter of days.
Invoking the specter of that violent near collapse, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox, announced today that the commission would require Wall Street banks to disclose their liquidity and capital levels on a more regular basis and "in terms that the market can readily understand and digest."
After a speech before a conference of the Security Traders Association in Washington, D.C., Cox told reporters, "The idea is to provide current information to the markets," Reuters reported.
Shares of financial services companies fell sharply after the speech, apparently on worries that further disclosure could reveal additional problems.
"The market is obviously worried about what will be disclosed,'' Janna Sampson, co-chief investment officer at Lisle, Illinois-based Oakbrook Investments, told Bloomberg News. "From an investor's perspective, you want to know the firm you are invested in has a strong capital standing. Why these firms wouldn't disclose this data is a mystery.''
In his speech, Cox noted that Bear met all the regulatory requirements. "The Bear Stearns experience demonstrated, however, that the prevailing measurements of capital and liquidity that were then being used by the S.E.C. and by every bank and securities regulator, not only here in the United States but around the world, were inadequate to prevent or predict the run on the bank that Bear endured," Cox said.
The S.E.C. has been criticized for not keeping a closer watch on Bear Stearns, failing to spot signs that the firm was in danger.
"Some people think that the S.E.C. missed the boat here, was asleep," Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, said at an April 3 Senate Banking Committee hearing.
Cox also called on Congress to give the S.E.C. the power to regulate Wall Street banks in their entirety, not just their broker-dealer operations.
"Very soon, the S.E.C. —or if not the S.E.C., then another regulator —must be given the express authority and a regime appropriately tailored to securities firms to supervise the nation's investment banks on a consolidated basis," he said.
Briscoe Group expects a potential fall in first half profit of more than 50 per cent as a retailing malaise sets in and says other firms face a similar prospect.
The sporting goods and homeware retailer, widely seen as a barometer... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 7 May 2008 | 7:20 pm
Hillary Clinton is scrambling to raise new money to keep her presidential hopes alive amid speculation that she can not afford to continue the battle against Barack Obama Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 4:47 pm
US productivity rose at an annualised rate of 2.2 per cent in the first quarter, significantly more than expected by most economists Source: FT.com - US homepage | 7 May 2008 | 3:20 pm
Did Grand Theft Auto IV live up to the hype? Oh, yeah.
Its maker, Take-Two Interactive Software, says that it sold 6 million of the videogames the week of April 29, and 3.6 million games on its first day.
That totals more than $500 million in global sales, easily surpassing the record of more than $400 million by Microsoft's Halo 3 in September. Some analysts expect sales of the $59.99 game to top 10 million this year.
That is vital for Take-Two, which has recorded two years of losses.
"Grand Theft Auto IV's first-week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail-sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date," said Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two.
And the success of Grand Theft could determine the next step in a $2 billion hostile-takeover effort being waged by rival Electronic Arts.
Matt Richtel of the New York Times said, "If Take-Two can exceed sales expectations on Grand Theft Auto IV, it has the potential to drive up the share price and force Electronic Arts to raise its offer."
Or Electronic Arts may decide it is too expensive and walk away.
Reuters - Stocks opened up slightly on Thursday
as retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc , posted
higher-than-expected monthly sales figures.
AP - Consumers gave some of the nation's retailers a little relief in April following months of dismal sales, but business was helped along by heavy discounting that could hurt fiscal first-quarter earnings.
Reuters - Apparel chains struggled through
another dismal month in April as they tried to bring in
cash-strapped shoppers, but discounters fared well as consumers
hungered for bargains to buy necessities.
Reuters - Best Buy, the world's biggest
electronics retailer, is to pay $2.1 billion for half of
Britain's Carphone Warehouse chain to take on the European
consumer electricals market.
Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) posted a
bigger-than-expected 28 percent drop in quarterly net profit
due to a stronger yen and sliding U.S. sales, and forecast its
first annual profit decline in seven years.
AP - Consumer borrowing rose in March at the fastest pace in four months, more than double the increase of the previous month, in what was seen as a sign of rising economic stress.