The number of houses changing hands has "collapsed" to the lowest level in 30 years, an influential housing market survey shows today. Source: Telegraph Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 4:10 pm
The US trade deficit widened to its highest level in more than a year in April as the soaring cost of imported crude oil offset another record setting month for US exports Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 3:25 pm
Across the country, real estate agents and home sellers in wealthy neighborhoods who grew accustomed to seven-figure bidding wars during the boom are feeling the sting of the housing crunch.
A BBC investigation estimates that about $23bn may have been lost, stolen or not properly accounted for in Iraq. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 3:06 pm
Wall Street stocks fell after the chairman of the Federal Reserve warned about the risks of inflation on Monday night, raising the possibility of higher interest rates Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 3:05 pm
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -Sprint Nextel Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and Alcatel-Lucent led decliners in the telecom sector in Tuesday trades as most stocks tacked lower.
A rally in bank stocks kept the Dow stable Tuesday morning, but the broader market slipped as rising oil prices and comments from Fed chief Ben Bernanke raised worries about inflation and higher interest rates.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in April as the price of imported oil hit a record, pushing overall imports to an all-time high, a Commerce Department report showed on Tuesday.
Crude prices rebounded Tuesday on renewed concern about global demand, particularly in earthquake-ravaged China, while gasoline reached another record high average above $4 a gallon.
Arun Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone, will leave the telecoms giant with a
total cash and share package of £25.6 million when he retires. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:50 pm
John McCain hits back at Barack Obama over the issue of taxes, telling a business group that a vote for the Democratic presidential contender is a vote for higher taxes across the board.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Cleveland-based bank National City Corp rose more than 8% Tuesday after the company confirmed it had reached agreements with regulators about running its business, but said its required capital levels are strong.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - XTO Energy Inc said on Tuesday that it would buy crude oil and natural gas producer Hunt Petroleum Corp for $4.19 billion in cash and stock in its second major purchase in two weeks.
Brazilian mining giant Vale said it was preparing a share offering worth up to $15bn to help finance organic growth and potential acquisitions, but denied it was in talks on an acquisition Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:40 pm
Reuters - The Dow (.DJI) briefly turned higher
on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 (.SPX) cut most of its losses to
trade flat as shares of financial services companies stabilized
and a brokerage upgrade of Coca-Cola sent the soft-drink
maker's stock higher.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow briefly turned higher on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 cut most of its losses to trade flat as shares of financial services companies stabilized and a brokerage upgrade of Coca-Cola sent the soft-drink maker's stock higher.
In a dramatic turnaround from just a few weeks ago, financial markets are now expecting the Bank of England to raise interest rates as many as three times by the end of the year as inflation heads ever higher. Source: Telegraph Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:30 pm
Brent Wilsey, of Wilsey Asset Management in San Diego, says that investors should “invest by the numbers,” looking at the specifics of the balance sheet, financial statement and at a company’s earnings picture to determine if it’s a buy rather than relying on market trends.
The soaring cost of importing foreign oil widened America's trade gap in April to $60.9bn, the biggest for 13 months. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:27 pm
National City Corp. confirms that it has signed memoranda of understanding with regulators regarding capital levels, risk management practices and other aspects of its business, and said there have been no material developments since the documents' signings in April and May.
Wall Street traded mixed Tuesday as oil prices ratcheted higher and as speculation grew that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates to fight inflation. The International Energy Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:24 pm
Among the companies whose shares are seeing active trade in Tuesday's session are Discover, MasterCard, National City, Pall, Teva, TI, Visa, Wachovia and Yahoo.
Britain has secured a permanent right to opt out from the EU’s mandatory
48-hour working week in a hard-fought deal struck by employment ministers
alongside new rights for agency and temporary workers. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:23 pm
More than 23,200 people with 100% mortgages could owe more than their home is worth, the BBC learns. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:23 pm
Pinnacle Airlines Inc. (NASDAQ: PNCL) might as well have its wings clipped if you look at the news from this morning. Delta Air Lines, inc. (NYSE: DAL) has given notice of contract termination regarding its Delta Connection contract with Pinnacle. The effective date is on July 31. Delta Air Lines claims that Pinnacle (NASDAQ: PNCL) did not meet the minimum arrival-time performance requirements for a period since flights began late last year, and Pinnacle plans to fight this contract termination as the airline said factors affecting on-time performance are beyond its control. Pinnacle's CEO said its operational schedule is created...
DALLAS, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- BeaconEquity.com announces the availability of TraderNotes on stocks that are making news today. Investors can view all of the Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:20 pm
XTO Energy Inc. said Tuesday it is acquiring privately held Hunt Petroleum Corp. for $4.19 billion in cash and stock in a deal made more attractive by high oil and gas prices. XTO... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:19 pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil futures fell on Tuesday from highs over $137 a barrel after CNBC reported Saudi Arabia had increased output by 500,000 barrels per day to 9.45 million bpd this quarter, traders said.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, June 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (Vale) hereby discloses that its senior management approved on May 26, 2008 and will... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:18 pm
The chief executive at Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, today predicted that
the price of oil will nearly double to $250 per barrel and Europe's dependence
on Russia for supplies will increase.$ Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:15 pm
WILTON, Conn. and ARMONK, N.Y., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- DLB Capital, LLC ("DLB") and Global Secured Capital, LLC ("GSC") through a newly formed holding Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:15 pm
LONDON (Reuters) - World oil demand will rise at its slowest pace in six years during 2008 as a raft of fuel subsidy cuts in Asia erodes consumption, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.
MCLEAN, Va., June 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) announced today that it plans to issue a new $3 billion three-year USD Reference Notes(R) security, Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:10 pm
SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Stone Publishing, a Bay Area print services company since 1998, is pleased to announce the acquisition of The Press (formerly Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:10 pm
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the administration intends to keep pursuing a policy of "robust engagement" with China that will include filing unfair trade cases as needed and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:06 pm
Reuters - U.S. consumer confidence sank to a
record low in June as a surge in gasoline prices to more than
$4 a gallon and a jump in the unemployment rate helped torpedo
a modest rebound in Americans' outlook seen the previous month,
according to a survey released on Tuesday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 2:02 pm
Plenty of homeowners have recently faced the harsh reality that real estate isn't always the greatest investment. Now the big institutional money is learning the same lesson.
Yesterday, the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers) tried to downplay the news that one of its real estate deals has gone bust. Early last year, the pension fund put more than $900 million into a Southern California real estate venture called LandSource. Along with several investment partners, Calpers took a controlling stake in the venture that owns 15,000 acres of undeveloped property about 30 miles north of Los Angeles.
But land that once looked like a blank canvas waiting to be painted with cul-de-sacs and backyard pools is now considerably less appealing. Yesterday, LandSource filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced that it had secured a $135 million credit facility from a group of lenders led by Barclays.
In a statement, Calpers said that it had expected the bankruptcy filing, and that the investment represented a tiny fraction of its $245 billion fund.
Also yesterday, Lehman Brothers found itself talking through the hit it's taken on certain real estate investments. It teamed up with Tishman Speyer Properties to buy the apartment-building giant Archstone-Smith at the top of the market last year for $22 billion. Since then, it's had trouble unloading some of the debt to nervous investors and faced difficulties trying to sell some of its properties.
Lehman also discussed its battered investment in the land developer SunCal to build thousands of homes on lots across Southern California.
The bank's chief financial officer told Wall Street analysts it had significantly marked down its assets in the real estate holdings, although she wouldn't specify the amounts.
Donald Trump gives evidence as an inquiry into his plans for a £1bn golf resort gets under way. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 1:40 pm
Reuters - Crude oil futures fell on Tuesday from
highs over $137 a barrel after CNBC reported Saudi Arabia had
increased output by 500,000 barrels per day to 9.45 million bpd
this quarter, traders said.
United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) is seeing shares surge in pre-market trading. It seems it is doing what the old private equity acquisition couldn't do. It isn't going private, but it is cleaning up its books and retiring a large portion of its common stock and preferred shares. The company is tendering to repurchase up to 27,160,000 shares of common stock through a modified dutch auction at a price not less than $22.00 and not greater than $25.00. Shares closed at $19.50 yesterday and its 52-week trading range is $14.83 to $34.98. The number of shares to be repurchased in...
Reuters - The U.S. trade deficit widened more
than expected in April as the price of imported oil hit a
record, pushing overall imports to an all-time high, a Commerce
Department report showed on Tuesday.
As the convoy of gas-guzzling 4x4s pulled to a halt outside the modest croft
house, the neighbours across the road looked distinctly unimpressed. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 10 Jun 2008 | 1:21 pm
Yesterday, the energy sector gained 1.69%, as money flowed into ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), up 2.63%; ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), up 3.07%, Transocean (NYSE:RIG), up 3.21%; and Apache (NYSE:APA), up 6.04%. Other big gainers were oilfield services companies, with OMNI (NASDAQ:OMNI) up 11.52% and Newpark (NYSE:NR) setting a new 52-week high. Refiners fared worse, with Western Refining (NYSE:WNR) off 11.22% for the day and Alon (NYSE:ALJ) off 6.53%. In light of last Friday's huge jump in crude oil, this all makes some sense. The oil majors and the E&P companies are getting their reserves factored in at the new prices. New exploration and drilling...
Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK) has announced its official debut of its real estate search application through the O-Hot Value Indicator. The company site can be accessed at http://realestate.overstock.com. Overstock believes the site is unique as it helps shoppers identify great deals from more than three million classified, foreclosure, and hard-to-find auction homes for sale. The site is supposed to automatically highlight auction, distressed, and foreclosed properties. If you are seeing tools like this launched, you have to wonder if perhaps the foreclosures, auction, and other troubles are very close to reaching their own bubbles. Jon C. Ogg June 10, 2008
The governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King has warns that the financial crisis "is not yet over". Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 12:52 pm
HARWICH, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Rising food and energy costs are still trickling through the economy, complicating the outlook for inflation, Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren said on Tuesday.
The Shanghai stock index tumbled nearly 8 percent earlier today—its steepest fall in a year—after the central bank announced that it would raise the ratio of reserves that banks must set aside by 1 percentage point.
The move comes just days before consumer price data for May are to be released. Inflation in China, led by rising food prices, is at a 12-year high.
The Shenzhen stock market tumbled 8 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 4 percent.
Yves Smith on the Naked Capitalism blog says that the market reaction seems strange since others have argued that only if Beijing allows the currency, the yuan, to appreciate significantly, can China tighten credit.
"But the government assertion that this indeed constituted real tightening was sufficient to spook investors," Smith notes.
Howard Gorges, vice chairman of South China Brokerage in Hong Kong told MarketWatch: "People are having a bit of a rethink on China; they are reckoning the growth rate is going to slow with these earthquake problems and high energy prices. It's a revision downwards of growth expectations and profit growth in China."
But the Financial Times' Lex column questions whether the central bank's move was really about inflation.
"More likely, the move relates to the speculative capital pouring into the country." Given a recent surge in foreign reserves, Lex suggests that tighter capital controls may be coming.
With the iPhone 3G, Apple abandons its full-price, revenue-sharing strategy and embraces the wireless carriers' long practice of subsidizing cell phones.
The forecast from Russia's gas monopoly came as the International Energy Agency said that record high oil prices were needed to choke off demand in order to balance the oil market Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 12:22 pm
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economists have trimmed forecasts for U.S. growth in the second half of this year and in 2009, but more have come to the view that the United States will dodge a recession, a survey released on Tuesday showed.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is acquiring Denmark-based DiviTech A/S, which is noted as a leader in the digital-service management (DSM) market with a solution that offers media broadcasters, cable and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service providers an intuitive interface for creating, modifying and managing video networks. This acquisition is to further enhance Cisco's video-delivery strategy. Its technology includes a software application that allows service provider customers to centrally provision and easily deliver localized content, such as local and regional news and on-demand video and services, within a specific geography. Cisco will integrate DiviTech's DSM product with the industry-leading Cisco ROSA...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Yahoo employee severance plan meant to protect workers after a merger with Microsoft should be scrapped, according to a shareholder lawsuit against Yahoo and its directors, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Global demand for oil is likely to be slightly lower than previously estimated as shrinking subsidies for fuel in Asia softens demand, the International Energy Agency forecast. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 12:02 pm
Petrol stations and supermarkets in Spain start running out of supplies, as lorry drivers continue to blockade cities. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:58 am
American Superconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: AMSC) announced this morning that it has received a $450 million follow-on order from China's Sinovel Wind Corp. Ltd. for core electrical components. The components will be used for 1.5 megawatt (MW) wind turbines in shipments scheduled to begin in January 2009 and increase in amount each year through the contract completion date in December 2011. As far as how this compares in size, the company generated $52.18 million in fiscal March 2007 and $96.8 million in fiscal March 2008. Back in may it had $199 million in backlog and gave guidance for the fiscal year...
More than 23,000 homeowners may be stuck with houses worth less than their
mortgage debt after taking advantage of 100 per cent home loans as house
prices continue to plummet, leaving thousands more Britons at risk of
negative equity. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:54 am
World oil demand is set to expand at its slowest rate in six years during 2008
as high prices and the dismantling of Asian subsidy regimes start to choke
off demand, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said this morning. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:51 am
These are some of the top analyst calls we are looking at this Tuesday morning: ArvinMeritor (NYSE: ARM) Raised to Buy From Neutral at Goldman Sachs. BTU International (NASDAQ: BTUI) Started as Overweight at Thomas Weisel. Callaway Golf (NYSE: ELY) Started as Outperform at Raymond James. Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) Raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) Started as Buy at ThinkPanmure. JA Solar (NASDAQ: JASO) Started as Buy at Broadpoint. Kellogg (NYSE: K) Raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. Lehman (NYSE: LEH) Cut to Market Perform from Outperform as Wachovia. Omnicare (NYSE: OCR) Raised...
Asian markets have suffered sharp falls today as inflation fears and the global credit squeeze sours sentiment. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:34 am
"Why It's Worse Than You Think," is the headline on a column by Daniel Gross of Newsweek that points to all the reasons why the current economic slump is likely to last through the rest of the year and into 2009—much longer than the recessions of the early 1990s and 2001.
Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, has offered what appears to be a rebuttal, perhaps mindful that the expectations of consumers, businesses, and investors are half the battle in trying to generate a recovery.
In a speech in Chatham, Massachusetts, on Monday night, Bernanke said that despite an ugly employment report last week, "the risk that the economy has entered a substantial downturn appears to have diminished over the past month or so."
That view was supported by a survey of economists, the majority of whom believe that growth will slow this year but that the economy will avoid a recession. Blue Chip Economic Indicators said today that 53.5 percent of the 48 private economists surveyed for its June newsletter do not believe the U.S. economy is in or will enter a recession in 2008, up from 40 percent in the May survey, Reuters reports.
Yet the decline, while less steep than feared, will also go on longer than hoped for, as Gross contends.
"The subsequent recovery in growth to its trend rate will take longer than hoped a few months ago," the newsletter said.
Indeed, the glut of housing will take another 11 months to work through. Home prices are continuing to fall in many areas of the country, eroding the wealth of millions. Credit remains tight, and rising food and fuel costs will dampen spending for many months.
Bernanke also cautioned that housing and energy will continue to weigh on the economy.
"Over the remainder of 2008, the effects of monetary and fiscal stimulus, a gradual ebbing of the drag from residential construction, further progress in the repair of financial and credit markets, and still-solid demand from abroad should provide some offset to the headwinds that still face the economy. However, the ongoing contraction in the housing market and continuing increases in energy prices suggest that growth risks remain to the downside."
More important, Bernanke raised the inflation-fighting banner of the Fed, saying the recent surge in oil prices "has added to the upside risks to inflation and inflation expectations."
The Fed, he said, "will strongly resist an erosion of longer-term inflation expectations, as an unanchoring of those expectations would be destabilizing for growth as well as for inflation."
The comments were a clear sign that the Fed is finished with its aggressive cutting of interest rates that it began in September and concluded in late April, with its benchmark rate at 2 percent.
Interest rate cuts tend to take eight months to a year to work their way through the economic system, so Bernanke is apparently confident that the Fed's stimulus work is done and that inflation is the next battle.
Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, today launched an attack on
excessive risk taking by banks and financial institutions and gave warning
that "when the party ends, some innocent bystanders may lose their
homes altogether." Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:18 am
Gazprom, Russia's gas monopoly, on Tuesday predicted oil prices would reach $250 a barrel in 2009. The prediction came as the developed world's energy watchdog warned that record high oil prices were needed... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:18 am
Oil prices climbed back towards $135 dollars a barrel on Tuesday after the International Energy Agency surprised the market by cutting its forecast for oil supply growth from non-Opec countries.The IEA... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:17 am
Mobile phone operator O2 will stock the new Apple 3G iPhone on its UK shelves for under £100 from July 11, it was announced today. Source: Telegraph Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:15 am
The number of houses changing hands has "collapsed" to the lowest level in 30 years, an influential housing market survey shows today. Source: Telegraph Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:15 am
Homeowners are being warned to brace themselves for three years of falling house prices amid signs that tens of thousands of borrowers are already being sucked into negative equity, writes Paul Farrow. Source: Telegraph Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:15 am
Mobile phone operator O2 will stock the new Apple 3G iPhone on its UK shelves for under 100 from July 11, it was announced today. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:15 am
The number of houses changing hands has "collapsed" to the lowest level in 30 years, an influential housing market survey shows today. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:15 am
The Shanghai and Shenzhen markets fell after an increase in Chinese bank reserve requirements, increased worries about high food and oil prices, and fears about exports to the United States. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:11 am
European shares fell for a fifth day in a row on Tuesday as investors took profits on metals and mining and oil stocks, while banks recovered some lost ground. At midday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 0... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:04 am
Concerns over inflation and economic downturn ensured London equity markets extended their losses on TuesdayBy midday, the benchmark FTSE 100 was off its worst, down 29 points to 5,848.7, a loss of 0.5... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:03 am
The dollar strengthened on Tuesday after Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, stoked expectations of higher interest rates by warning that US inflation risks were increasing although the danger of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:00 am
Buy land. They ain't making any more of the stuff.--Will Rogers Corn prices, up 47% this year, are likely to rise again. The heavy rain in the Midwest is killing off some of the crop. Flooding will do that. According to Bloomberg, "Rainstorms sweeping the biggest corn states in the U.S. are damaging a crop that's already failing to keep pace with global demand." Demand for corn is already at record levels. That is old news. Humans eat it, Feed cattle do the same. And, now some cars eat it in the form of ethanol. The problem with corn and...
Gannett (GCI) may take as much as $3 billion in non-cash write-downs for some of its assets. It is that bad in the newspaper industry. The charge would cover as much as 20% of the value of Gannett's properties. Gannett can survive the accounting action, at least for now. Its debt is a modest $4 billion when it is taken against revenue and operating income. Some of GCI's smaller peers are not so lucky. Journal Register was recently kicked off the NYSE for trading below $1 longer for longer than the exchange rules allow. Newspaper companies including McClatchy (MNI) and...
Afghanistan's government must be more accountable if it is to rebuild the economy, the World Bank warns. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 10:11 am
Incentives for buying SUVs and pick-ups are getting so large that soon the car companies will pay customers just to clear out inventory. GM (GM) announced another round of cash-back deals, some as high as $6,000, to get people into showrooms to buy light trucks. According to Reuters, GM's incentives follow Ford Motor Co's (F) announcement this month that it would offer employee pricing rebates on full-size F-Series trucks." It is a good deal, really. For a driver who uses 30 gallons of gas a week pumping in $4 fuel, the incentive pays for fill-ups for a year. Assuming that...
Lehman's second-quarter loss and decision to raise more capital weighed on banking stocks across the region, while inflationary pressure also fueled the slump Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 9:50 am
Reuters - One of the biggest U.S. money
managers said on Tuesday the Federal Reserve was unlikely to
raise interest rates despite surging oil prices until the U.S.
economy shows more signs of stabilization.
HONG KONG (Reuters) - One of the biggest U.S. money managers said on Tuesday the Federal Reserve was unlikely to raise interest rates despite surging oil prices until the U.S. economy shows more signs of stabilization.
Alliance Boots reports a 20% jump in annual profits to £771m in its first year as a private company. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 9:21 am
Apple confirmed today that the highly anticipated 3G iPhone will be available for Vodafone customers in four new countries on July 11 and a further six countries later in the year. Source: Telegraph Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 9:05 am
Financial flows to developing countries are at a record, but there are market dangers, the World Bank says. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 10 Jun 2008 | 9:00 am
BERLIN (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard, the world's biggest computer maker, launched a new generation of touchscreen PCs designed to lift user-friendly computing out of its expensive niche and bring it to a wider market.
British shoppers' quest for eternal youth helped to drive a 20.3 per cent
profit rise at Alliance Boots, the healthcare and pharmacy group, which
reported "very high demand" for its No7 Protect & Perfect
Beauty Serum. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 10 Jun 2008 | 7:45 am
Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket group, has reported a
bigger-than-forecast slowdown in sales in its core UK business and said that
trading in non-food categories has become more difficult as consumers become
more cautious. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 10 Jun 2008 | 6:53 am
Reuters - Economists have trimmed forecasts
for U.S. growth in the second half of this year and in 2009,
but more have come to the view that the United States will
dodge a recession, a survey released on Tuesday showed.
Emirates Airlines will debut its new A380 aircraft on a commercial route for the first time on August 1, with a flight from Dubai to New York.
The 14-hour non-stop flight will be the first-ever commercial A380 service into US territory.
"North... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 1:30 am
Soaring fuel costs are forcing fishermen to trawl for other work, according to an industry spokesman.
Fuel companies are expected to lift prices after oil hit an all time high of US$139 a barrel on Friday. It is currently trading... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 1:00 am
Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, believes that the danger of a 'substantial downturn' in the US economy has abated over the past month, but that inflation risks are increasing Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 12:18 am
The number of houses changing hands has "collapsed" to the lowest level in 30 years, an influential housing market survey shows today. Source: Telegraph Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
The owners of Springer Science+Business Media, one of the world's largest academic publishers, are actively considering an approach for business publishing group Informa, which is in £3bn merger talks with United Business Media (UBM). Source: Telegraph Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
Willis Group, the world's third-largest insurance broker, is to buy New York-based Hilb Rogal & Hobbs for $2.1bn (£1.05bn) Source: Telegraph Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
The danger that the US economy has fallen into a "substantial downturn" appears to have waned, says Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, despite a recent spike in unemployment.
Bernanke said a government report last week showing... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 12:00 am
CANBERRA - Australia's first hybrid car will be in production within 18 months after Toyota committed to building 10,000 petrol-electric Camry models each year in Melbourne from 2010.
The decision is tipped to lead to a local explosion... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 Jun 2008 | 11:45 pm
A small rise in mortgage application figures released by credit information provider Veda Advantage is being viewed as a "hint" of some stability in the housing market.
Veda said today that consumer mortgage inquiries in May were... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 Jun 2008 | 11:30 pm
Chinese white-goods maker Qingdao Haier is considering a bid for General Electric's appliance business and has begun to approach investment banks to advise it, according to a person familiar with the matter Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 Jun 2008 | 11:11 pm
Russia tightened the screw on TNK-BP yesterday when the beleaguered oil group
was ordered to hand over masses of documents to the authorities. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 9 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
Pyne Gould Corporation-owned Marac Finance has forecast a rise in annual net profit despite slowing growth in assets.
Yesterday, PGC said it was considering a capital raising of up to $125 million through a bond offer to finance... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
Apple sought to boost the limited appeal of its acclaimed, but modestly selling, iPhone as it announced that new models would sell for as little as half the price of the first version Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 Jun 2008 | 10:58 pm
Yahoo and Carl Icahn, the activist investor, exchanged barbs again as the internet company prepared for a showdown at its annual meeting Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 Jun 2008 | 10:51 pm
Finding a job is getting harder, but a new survey has still found more employers expecting to increase headcount than to reduce staff numbers.
The Manpower employment outlook survey for the three months from July to September,... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 Jun 2008 | 10:45 pm
The sharemarket, which yesterday slumped 1.5 per cent to a seven-week low, opened firmer today, encouraged by a pick-up on Wall Street.
The benchmark NZSX-50 index was up 21 points to 3517 at 10.20am, following yesterday's 51.5... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 Jun 2008 | 10:45 pm
Funds under management slumped 8 per cent in the March quarter, reflecting both a sharp fall in market values and a flight to safety as investors withdrew from managed funds and put their money in the bank.
Reserve Bank figures... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 Jun 2008 | 10:15 pm
Trading in securities of OPI New Zealand Ltd has been suspended on the sharemarket after the company failed to provide its full year results.
A week ago NZX said the results had been due to be issued by May 30. At the time NZX... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 9 Jun 2008 | 10:10 pm
Shares in Lehman Brothers plunged as the bank disclosed a worse-than-expected $2.8bn second-quarter loss and said it would raise $6bn in common and preferred shares to bolster its financial position Source: FT.com - US homepage | 9 Jun 2008 | 10:03 pm
As the euro drives up the prices of international wines, U.S. vineyards are seeing a bump in sales. Jeremy Hobson reports. Source: Marketplace | 9 Jun 2008 | 9:56 pm
We think it's cleaner and safer, and we'll pay any price to get it, even though it comes out of faucets for a fraction of a cent. Author Elizabeth Royte talks to Kai Ryssdal about America's obsession with bottled water. Source: Marketplace | 9 Jun 2008 | 9:55 pm
Grocery stores and restaurants are rushing to remove tomatoes as salmonella fears spread and regulators try to figure out where the bacteria came from and how to stop it. Janet Babin reports. Source: Marketplace | 9 Jun 2008 | 9:55 pm
U.S. manufacturers may complain about China's weak currency, but a lot of Americans are finding job opportunities there that they can't find at home. Bill Marcus reports. Source: Marketplace | 9 Jun 2008 | 9:54 pm
Apple's latest iPhone delivers faster downloads and a dramatically slashed price tag. Kai Ryssdal talks to CNET's Tom Kravitz from the floor of Apple's developers conference Source: Marketplace | 9 Jun 2008 | 9:54 pm
Both the Obama and McCain campaigns have started stumping on economic issues. Steve Henn reports on the dollars and cents in the nominees' recent speeches. Source: Marketplace | 9 Jun 2008 | 9:54 pm
Charities are having a harder time recruiting help because volunteers can't afford to drive where they're needed. Sarah Gardner reports on the impact of gas prices on America's most needy. Source: Marketplace | 9 Jun 2008 | 9:54 pm
Lehman Brothers, the smallest of Wall Street's big investment banks, is reporting big losses -- and that's making many market watchers nervous. Jill Barshay reports. Source: Marketplace | 9 Jun 2008 | 9:54 pm
"I want you to arrange a meeting, with the heads of the Five Families. This war stops now."
—Don Corleone, The Godfather
They operate largely free from the strictures of the government's regulators, pushing their wares on the fringes of official marketplaces. What they sell, America couldn't function without. But they are under threat; last year, one of their own, from the reckless Bear Stearns family, was rubbed out in a way that nearly wiped out the others.
On Monday, representatives from each of the remaining 17 families—er, banks—that control the market for credit insurance contracts sat along the perimeter of a long rectangular table at the New York Federal Reserve Bank to tackle problems they face since the Bear Stearns crisis. Their host: Timothy Geithner, the New York Fed president, who has convened meetings with the group since 2005.
Credit derivatives have been described as the fastest-growing financial market—a market for buying and selling the risk that an investment will fail, or default. In the parlance of the Corleones, it's like buying protection.
If a pension fund owns a bond—say, one backed by subprime mortgages—it may try to reduce its risk by purchasing a credit-default swap that pays out if the bond goes bad.
Investment banks like Bear Stearns were active players in the market, and they paid dearly for that error in judgment when the market for mortgage-backed debt bit the dust.
The families, which control 90 percent of the credit derivatives market, will discuss ways to simplify and protect their business. Their market came dangerously close to a meltdown after Bear Stearns, an active trader of credit derivatives, nearly collapsed. (The Federal Reserve, in a still-controversial move, engineered a sale of Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan Chase.)
The loss of Bear still sends shudders through the market: Who, if anyone, would have made good on Bear's massive credit positions if the bank truly disappeared?
Congress exempted credit derivatives from regulation in 1974, and the industry has grown largely unfettered under self-regulation. At the end of 2007, there were $62.2 trillion outstanding in credit-default swaps, up 81 percent from the end of 2006, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.
Without formal regulation, credit-derivatives players, including all of the major investment banks, meet occasionally to discuss new practices and policies.
At a recent meeting, they banned a dodgy practice of reassigning trades without the approval of the counterparty. This was akin to betting your sister that the Mets will beat the Angels, only to find out that she passed along her side of the bet to an ex-boyfriend doing time in San Quentin.
At the current meeting, participants including JPMorgan Chase and Lehman Brothers pledged to develop a central clearinghouse for credit-derivatives trades, aimed at preventing a panic that could be triggered by the next failure of a major firm.
This could effectively move the credit markets from a largely over-the-counter operation into one resembling an exchange-based system like that for stocks or commodities futures. Instead of trading with a single counterparty, buyers of credit swaps would do business with a middleman who could enforce safeguards to help ensure that the other party keeps its obligation.
They also agreed to to eliminate some the clutter of trades by "netting out" trades on the books of parties, and to simplify the process of settling a credit swap contract in the event of a default using an auction process.
Geithner, who outlined his thoughts in a speech to the Economic Club of New York earlier Monday, said he expects progress within six months.
Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, has delivered on the hopes for the next generation of iPhone: cheaper, faster, and more enterprise-friendly.
The new phone, which will go on sale July 11 in 22 countries, will run off the 3G network, which Jobs said would enable the phone to work 2.8 times faster than it does with the current E.D.G.E. technology.
Pictures of the new gadget displayed at Apple's annual conference on Monday show it to be even thinner, with a black plastic back, solid metal buttons, and the same display and camera. The announcement that the new device would have a flush headphone jack and dramatically improved audio was greeted by roaring applause.
In addition to 3G support, Jobs cited affordability as a second major concern for Apple. The 8-GB iPhone 3G will retail around the world for $199—that's $400 cheaper than the original iPhone, which made its debut a year ago—and $200 cheaper than the current price.
Jobs also said that a 16-GB version will be available for $299, and will come in black as well as white.
The 3G iPhone, which Apple is hoping will effectively compete with Research in Motion's latest BlackBerry offerings, will also have G.P.S. functionality and enhanced battery life; the device can now hold 300 hours of standby, five hours of 3G talk-time, seven hours of video, and 24 hours of audio.
Before Jobs unveiled the device itself, around 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time, he and fellow presenters spoke extensively about the new iPhone 2.0 software, which will also become available to the general public at the beginning of July.
The new software will enable the iPhone to support corporate email accounts (as R.I.M.'s BlackBerry and Palm's Treo already do), as well as a wide variety of add-on applications from third-party sources like the Associated Press, Pangea, and Major League Baseball.
Another major innovation unveiled by Apple today is a new platform for .mac users called "MobileMe," a "push" technology that will allow for automatic loading and syncing of mail, address book, and calendar items on the device—making its mail functionality much more similar to that of a Treo or BlackBerry.
The last time Lehman Brothers' chief financial officer Erin Callan hosted a conference call with analysts, the firm's stock was in the toilet. Investors worried that it would follow the same path that Bear Stearns had taken just days before. By exuding an air of confidence and advertising total transparency, Callan gave a commentary that helped the stock rally 46 percent.
Three months later, it seems, investors aren't so easily persuaded.
This morning, Callan tried again to quell fears that Lehman is destined for failure. In a conference call announcing an unexpectedly jaw-dropping loss for the second quarter of $2.8 billion, Callan played down fears that there will be more bad news to come.
Instead, she said, the firm aggressively took action in deflating its bloated balance sheet. It effectively ripped the band-aid off swiftly so as to minimize the pain. It raised $6 billion in capital not because it needs it to compensate for losses on its tainted assets, but because it plans to use the funds to take advantage of investment opportunities in this depressed market.
While its hedges didn't really work during the quarter, Callan expects that will be only a temporary problem. While March and April weren't so kind to the markets (Bear! Peloton! Credit spreads!), May was spectacular and so was the first week of June. We've de-leveraged our balance sheet so aggressively, she said, we don't plan to reduce it further.
But Callan's confidence didn't quite have the same effect this time. While it certainly sounds like the worst is behind Lehman, as its chief executive Richard Fuld proudly proclaimed back in April, investors would have none of it. Lehman's stock remains in the toilet, down nearly 8 percent today and off by more than 50 percent year-to-date.
Was it the lawyers who took the wind out of Callan's sails? On the call, she said over and over again that the results could change materially by the time they announce their final numbers next week. That kind of disclosure is perfectly acceptable, but her emphasis on it almost had the effect of neutralizing her confidence.
How about the fact that Callan and Fuld said everything would be fine back in March and April, when Callan now says they simply didn't have the visibility that the quarter would be so horrendous? Who's to say they have any clue what the next three months have in store?
The market well knows that they don't. Lehman's $130 billion in asset sales during the second quarter are certainly commendable. Its $6 billion capital raise? A relief.
Callan said that if you were to chart Lehman's business during the quarter, it would be a straight lineup. Lehman's stock chart went straight up, too, back in March after Callan's first-quarter remarks. The problem is, it went back down.
Lehman has good reason to hope that it's out of the woods and that Fuld can finally say with total conviction the worst is behind it.
But the only certainty this market seems capable of believing is the worst one of all for Lehman: uncertainty.
As Apple prepares to launch the iPhone 2 on Monday, competitors like Palm and RIM are not worried. On the contrary, they are licking their chops, preparing for a surge in sales, even though Apple expects to sell millions of new iPhones worldwide.
"The way I look at it is there are 1.2 billion cellphones out there, and we're just scratching the surface," said Mike Laziridis, CEO of Research In Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, the iPhone's closest rival.
Steve Jobs is expected to announce the second version of the iPhone on Monday morning during a keynote speech kicking off Apple's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference.
The iPhone 2 has already been dubbed the "BlackBerry killer." It promises to be faster, slicker and cheaper, boasting features like fast 3-G networking, Exchange support and even carrier subsidies. If the rumors prove true, it will be the iPhone many buyers have been holding out for.
It's a standard line for companies to say they "welcome competition," but it's usually a throwaway meant to deflect attention from strategic vulnerabilities.
In the case of the iPhone, however, competitors earnestly have reason to welcome Apple to the market. Sales show that what's been good for Apple has been verrrry good for smartphone makers. Retail sales of the BlackBerry, for example, are up 38 percent in the year since the iPhone's introduction.
It didn't initially look that way. When the iPhone 2 rumors first surfaced, nervous investors sold off shares of RIM under the assumption that the company would get creamed by Apple. Instead, RIM's market share of smartphones in the United States has actually swelled from 35 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 45 percent in the first quarter of 2008.
"The fact of the matter is this," said Pablo Perez-Fernandez, an analyst with Global Crown Capital. "There were a lot of BlackBerrys in those stores where iPhones were selling, and there were people who may not have thought about a smartphone before, wanted the iPhone, thought it was too expensive, and bought a BlackBerry instead."
And for smartphone makers like Palm, Nokia and RIM, Apple helped whet the market's appetite while they went in for the kill, helped by discounted prices and a choice in carriers.
Palm says the sell-through rate on smartphones over the last two quarters has climbed 21 percent to 833,000 units in the third (and most recent) quarter, from 686,000 in the previous quarter (although the sell-through rate was 689,000 in the first quarter).
"The Centro has played a critical role in moving our transformational efforts along at a fast pace," said Ed Colligan, CEO and president of Palm, in a March conference call. He added that more than 70 percent of Centro buyers are traditional cellphone users who are purchasing a smartphone for the first time.
"What the iPhone did was make it cool to use smartphones," said Ramon Llamas, an analyst with research firm IDC. "Before, you had the BlackBerry, which mostly just resonated with enterprise users or business people. Now, there's a whole new market of smartphone consumers . Before the phone came out, I actually asked guys from companies like Nokia and RIM how they were going to respond, and the answer was unanimous -- it was, 'Welcome to the party, hop in the pool, the water's fine'"
It's an odd phenomenon because it's not as though Apple invented the smartphone or any of its features – touch screen devices have been around for years and lots of mobile phones already had music capabilities on phones. What Apple did was package it -- and market it -- in a way that made it attractive to mainstream consumers.
"The fact that it looks cool and sexy has helped Apple, and has called attention to a portion of the market that had been under the radar for a lot of people," Llamas said.
In many ways, the iPhone's effect on the market can be compared to what the iPod did for MP3 players.
Before Apple rolled out the iPod, the portable audio market wasn't doing much. In 1999, there were really only a handful of MP3-player makers and unit sales were marginal. Just a couple years after Apple rolled out the iPod in 2001, an industry was born.
Total sales of MP3 players in the United States jumped from a paltry couple million (depending on whose data you use) up to tens of millions over the last few years, as less-expensive models have become readily available.
"The combination of Apple's iPod device and its iTunes Store for music downloads has energized the music industry," gushed a JupiterResearch report in 2003.
Now we'll have to see whether the iPhone will have the same effect on the smartphone market.
Reuters - The Dow (.DJI) briefly turned higher
on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 (.SPX) cut most of its losses to
trade flat as shares of financial services companies stabilized
and a brokerage upgrade of Coca-Cola sent the soft-drink
maker's stock higher.
Reuters - Crude oil futures fell on Tuesday from
highs over $137 a barrel after CNBC reported Saudi Arabia had
increased output by 500,000 barrels per day to 9.45 million bpd
this quarter, traders said.
Reuters - The U.S. trade deficit widened more
than expected in April as the price of imported oil hit a
record, pushing overall imports to an all-time high, a Commerce
Department report showed on Tuesday.
Reuters - One of the biggest U.S. money
managers said on Tuesday the Federal Reserve was unlikely to
raise interest rates despite surging oil prices until the U.S.
economy shows more signs of stabilization.
Reuters - Economists have trimmed forecasts
for U.S. growth in the second half of this year and in 2009,
but more have come to the view that the United States will
dodge a recession, a survey released on Tuesday showed.