Royal Bank of Scotland remains confident of securing a good price for its insurance business, chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin insisted today, as he confirmed the lender is on track to meet first half forecasts despite the continuing deterioration in credit markets. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 2:30 pm
With prices on the rise for the first time this week, benchmark Treasury yields get pushed back down from the highest this year, playing off a European Central Bank official's words that calmed investors worried about interest-rate increases.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened lower on Wednesday as a rebound in oil prices stirred investor caution and a broker downgrade hit shares of aluminum producer Alcoa Inc , a Dow component.
A trio of banks with the heaviest exposure to bond insurers -- Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS -- reported could book further write-downs of $10 billion after Ambac Inc. and MBIA Inc. recently lost their AAA credit ratings.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media and merchandising company Martha
Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc said on Wednesday its
chief executive, Susan Lyne, has stepped down after four years
in the post.
Stocks looked set to open slightly higher Wednesday, ahead of the release of a government report on fuel inventories and Federal Reserve report on economic conditions.
Britain's second-largest bank, Royal Bank of Scotland , said performance hasn't been any worse over the past two months, leading to a "satisfactory" first half, not counting roughly 5.9 billion pounds ($11.5 billion) in write-downs. See full story.
Reuters - U.S. corn futures hit an all-time
high on Wednesday after the U.S. Agriculture Department lowered
its yield forecast for 2008 due to wet weather hampering
development of the crop. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 1:31 pm
PARIS/TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. corn futures hit an all-time high on Wednesday after the U.S. Agriculture Department lowered its yield forecast for 2008 due to wet weather hampering development of the crop.
AP - China's overall trade surplus shrank 10 percent in May from a year earlier, though its contentious gaps with both the United States and Europe continued to expand suggesting more trade tensions ahead.
Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ: CPST) is set to report earnings this Thursday, June 12, 2008 after the market closes and a conference call will follow at 4:45 PM EST. This stock is still extremely thin in analyst coverage and no bulge bracket firms cover this stock (yet) because of its size. First Call has estimates for Q1-2008 pegged at -$0.05 EPS on $9.27 million in revenues. As a result of the small number of estimates, you should rely more on the overall feel and sound pertaining to long-term growth goals perhaps more than the actual firm numbers. Capstone is still...
Crude-oil futures make early gains, recovering much of their decline in the previous session, as traders await fresh data detailing the status of U.S. petroleum supplies.
Oil prices rose Wednesday as the dollar softened and traders got ready for the U.S. government's weekly inventory report, which is expected to show crude inventories shrinking.
US stocks were set for a moderately higher start after Staples succeeded in its efforts to buy Corporate Express with a revised offer and rising oil prices helped energy producers higher Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Jun 2008 | 1:10 pm
Car companies are working to perfect a new generation of gasoline engines that could get up to 20% better fuel efficiency. The system, which burns gasoline without spark plugs, relies in massive amounts of speed and power - the computer kind - to work.
Reuters - U.S. office supplies company Staples
has won its battle to buy Corporate Express after the Dutch
firm agreed to a sweetened bid of 1.7 billion euros ($2.65
billion) to create the world's biggest office products
supplier.
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - U.S. office supplies company Staples has won its battle to buy Corporate Express after the Dutch firm agreed to a sweetened bid of 1.7 billion euros ($2.65 billion) to create the world's biggest office products supplier.
Thorny legal battles and months of heel-dragging by financial regulators may
finally force HSBC to scrap its nine-month, £3 billion effort to buy into
the lucrative Korean banking market. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:44 pm
Oil prices rise amid concerns that demand will outstrip supply, pushing crude back above record levels. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:36 pm
The plight of Barratt Developments worsened this morning after shares fell a further 25pc to just 68.25 as fears mounted that the housebuilder's woes are so severe that it will have to resort to a debt-for-equity swap to stand a chance of survival. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:30 pm
Rosetta Genomics has Signed a Binding Term Sheet to Acquire Parkway Clinical Laboratories Inc., a Company Owning a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) Certified Lab The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:30 pm
America's #1 small business lender pays tribute to women business owners PHOENIX, June 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Celebrating the success of women business owners... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:30 pm
New Company Name To Be Four Crystal Funding, Inc. NEW YORK, June 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ProTech Communications, Inc. (OTC: PTCU) announced today that Four... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:30 pm
SEATTLE, June 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Boeing (NYSE: BA) announced today it has finalized the agreement to acquire Vought Aircraft Industries' interest in Global Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:30 pm
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., June 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ephren Taylor II, entrepreneur, speaker and CEO of City Capital Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: CTCC), will be... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:30 pm
SAN FRANCISCO, June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open standards and global interoperability within and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:30 pm
For Gary and Michelle Pierpont, the path to financial security began with an airline tragedy. They weren't passengers in a downed jet, luckily, merely shareholders in the now defunct ValuJet, whose shares plummeted in 1996 after one of its DC-9s crashed in the Everglades - just days after Gary bought $3,000 of the company's stock on a tip from a friend.
Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo Co. said Wednesday it will buy a controlling stake in India's largest drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. in a tender offer worth as much... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:10 pm
TAMPA, Fla., June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The Omnia Group, Inc., a leader in providing tools that create employee empowerment, partnership management and enhanced human... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:10 pm
CHANGGE CITY, China, June 11 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Zhongpin Inc. (Nasdaq: HOGS) (''Zhongpin''), a leading meat and food processing company in Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:00 pm
SEATTLE, June 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE: ALK), the parent company of Alaska Airlines, Inc. and Horizon Air Industries, Inc., today... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:00 pm
A sign of a possible peak in the oil boom has emerged.
Lois Weiss of the New York Postreports that the Abu Dhabi Investment Council is negotiating an $800 million deal for a 75 percent stake in the Chrysler Building.
Buying trophy properties can be a bad omen. In the 1980s, amid fears that Japan would overtake the United States as the leading economic power, Japanese investors bought properties like the Pebble Beach golf course, the Sony movies studio, and Rockefeller Center. It was the pride before the fall.
The Persian Gulf sovereign wealth funds have been more agile, more sophisticated investors, taking stakes in businesses from Barneys to Sony. Late last year, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council's larger sister, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority took a 4.9 percent stake in Citigroup for $7.5 billion, to become the bank's largest shareholder.
But with hundreds of billions of oil dollars to invest, and with oil headed for $150 a barrel, it may be a harder temptation to resist a famous name.
Since 1930, the Chrysler Building has been a major symbol of Manhattan, defining its Midtown skyline.
The talks come as the sale of another famous Manhattan building, the General Motors Building, has just closed. Mort Zuckerman, along with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and funds based in Qatar and Kuwait bought that building for $2.9 billion.
Weiss says that the Chrysler stake would be sold by TMW, which is the German arm of an Atlanta-based investment fund. Tishman Speyer Properties owns the other 25 percent.
It may be unfair to assume that with oil prices sky-high, Persian Gulf funds are losing their investment focus.
Dubai International Capital recently walked away from talks to buy 50 percent of Liverpool Football Club, for nearly $400 million, even though its chief executive is a huge fan of the soccer team.
And the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, for one, is becoming a more conservative investor, according to an article by Emily Thornton and Stanley Reed in BusinessWeek.
The fund, with an estimated $875 billion in assets, is cutting its investments in hedge funds and putting more money into index funds.
And the recent history of Japan is very much on the minds of the fund's managers.
"When people ask what keeps you awake at night, it is trying to avoid investing massively in another Japan in 1990," Jean-Paul Villain, a French executive in charge of strategy at the fund, told BusinessWeek.
Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU) is seeing a surge in shares this morning after the agriculture player raised its guidance for part of 2008. The firm raised guidance for its second quarter to $2.80 to $3.00 EPS from a prior range of $1.92 o $2.22, yet consensus estimates were already at $2.50 EPS. The company said this is due to its strong performance from both the retail level and growth from the wholesale operations. The company also noted that this is during a time that the North American spring application season has been hampered by excessively cold and wet weather so...
Folks, with layoffs mounting, gas prices surreal, mortgage defaults on the rise, the stock market in a swoon, and much of the U.S. staggered by truly awful weather of one kind or another, we could all use a good laugh right about now. So how about a look at the results of a new poll of hiring managers, by staffing firm OfficeTeam (www.officeteam.com)? The firm's researchers spoke with executives at 1,000 big U.S. companies, plus 100 in Canada, and asked them to recall the most embarrassing or bizarre interview moments they had witnessed or heard of. A sampling of their answers:
The British Government is being disciplined by the European Commission (EC)
because the budget deficit for the current financial year is set to break
the European Union’s (EU) public finance rules. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:49 am
Japanese pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo is to buy a stake in Indian drugs firm Ranbaxy for up to $4b.6n. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:48 am
Goldman Sachs has made some changes to its highly watched "CONVICTION" lists this morning. Lorillard (NYSE: LO) and State Street (NYSE: STT) were both added to the CONVICTION BUY LIST this morning. Marshall & Ilsley (NYSE: MI) and National Grid (NYSE: NGG) were put on the bulge bracket firms CONVICTION SELL LIST this morning. Jon C. Ogg June 11, 2008
UK motorists travelling in Europe will find the cheapest fuel in Spain and Switzerland, a survey says. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:41 am
Leaders of the main postal union today called on Royal Mail's chairman and
chief executive to quit and warned that the postal group's business plan was
in crisis. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:37 am
These are ten of the analyst calls we are focusing on this Wednesday morning in the early pre-market hours: Alcoa (NYSE: AA) cut to Neutral at JP Morgan. American Capital (NASDAQ: ACAS) started as Neutral at Robert W. Baird. Annaly Mortgage (NYSE: NLY) cut to Neutral at JPMorgan. Arris (NASDAQ: ARRS) cut to Perform at Oppenheimer. Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) raised to Neutral at Banc of America. Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) raised to Buy at UBS. Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs. Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) started as Outperform at William Blair. Microchip (NASDAQ: MCHP) cut to Neutral...
TOKYO/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd moved to take majority control of India's biggest drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd in a friendly deal worth up to $4.6 billion.
Unemployment in the UK rose by 38,000 to 1.64 million from February to April, the Office for National Statistics says. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:28 am
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The chairman of British oil major BP rejected as "apocalyptic" a prediction by the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom of oil prices soaring to $250 a barrel by the end of next year.
AP - The Dutch office supplies distributor Corporate Express NV accepted a sweetened buyout offer Wednesday of about $2.7 billion from U.S. office supplies retailer Staples Inc. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:20 am
Shares in leading housebuilders fall on concerns about the outlook for the industry. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:17 am
The US and Germany renewed warnings against Iran that Tehran would face further sanctions unless it stopped its uranium enrichment programme. Yet cracks were visible between Angela Merkel and George W Bush, who is on a farewell tour of Europe Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:13 am
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp's battery joint venture will start producing longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries in 2009 as it aims to roll out more electric cars over the next few years.
President Yoweri Museveni says he is "very happy" with the food crisis, because Ugandan exports will rise. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:11 am
Reuters - Mortgage applications rose after
falling for three straight weeks, bouncing back from the lowest
level in more than six years and overcoming a rise in home loan
rates, an industry trade group said on Wednesday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 11:06 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mortgage applications rose after falling for three straight weeks, bouncing back from the lowest level in more than six years and overcoming a rise in home loan rates, an industry trade group said on Wednesday.
The European Commission is to investigate a 300m euros Italian government loan to ailing airline Alitalia. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:58 am
Relief for the banking sector was short-lived on Wednesday, while housebuilders and retailers floundered under the tide of negative broker comment.By midday investors showed their disappointment that Royal... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:58 am
Shares in ScS Upholstery, one of Britain’s biggest furniture retailers,
plunged nearly 30 per cent today as it revealed that a credit insurer was
refusing to cover suppliers who are worried about not being paid by the
business. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:56 am
A US District Court judge ruled that Security Capital Assurance's XL Capital Assurance unit will have to stand by $3.1bn of guarantees on collateralized debt obligations, in dispute with Merrill Lynch Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:52 am
LOS ANGELES, June 10 - A US District Court judge ruled on Tuesday that Security Capital Assurance Ltd's XL Capital Assurance unit will have to stand by $3.1bn of guarantees on collateralized debt obligations,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:52 am
The plight of Barratt Developments worsened this morning after shares fell a further 25pc to just 68.25 as fears mounted that the housebuilder's woes are so severe that it will have to resort to a debt-for-equity swap to stand a chance of survival. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:39 am
The plight of Barratt Developments worsened this morning after shares fell a further 25pc to just 68.25 as fears mounted that the housebuilder's woes are so severe that it will have to resort to a debt-for-equity... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:39 am
Last-minute talks to stop a fuel strike begin as more than 600 petrol tanker drivers prepare four days of action. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:37 am
Speaking to businessmen at his office, President Lee Myung-bak gave his first comment on the massive outdoor rally against his four-month-old leadership. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:35 am
Asia-Pacific equities were mixed on Wednesday, still smarting after Tuesday's sell off over inflationary and credit crisis worries. Declines in crude oil weighed on energy stocks across the region, while... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:29 am
Fears over the rising cost of food escalated yesterday as the price of corn
hit a record high after bad weather. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:28 am
US corn prices continued their record breaking run on Wednesday, leading other agricultural commodities higher while oil prices rebounded ahead of the latest weekly US inventories data. The gains for... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:27 am
No sooner than the CEO of Russia-owned oil company Gazprom said oil would hit $250 a barrel next year, the head of BP called him criminally insane. According to Reuters, Peter Sutherland, "the chairman of British oil major BP (BP) rejected as "apocalyptic" a prediction by the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom of oil prices soaring to $250 a barrel by the end of next year. Sutherland also challenged his Russian counterpart to a duel. The reasons that the head of BP gave for moderating oil prices made sense. A need for new investment in developing existing fields and...
European stocks edged higher on Wednesday reversing a five-day slide, as financials gained on a report of a Russian billionaire buying shares in major Western banks. In late morning trade, the FTSE Eurofirst... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:22 am
The UK housing market has "gone beyond tipping point", according to Merrill Lynch, raising the prospect that prices may be headed for a steep downturn similar to that Britain saw in the early 1990s. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:20 am
The UK housing market has "gone beyond tipping point", according to Merrill Lynch, raising the prospect that prices may be headed for a steep downturn similar to that Britain saw in the early 1990s. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:20 am
China's trade surplus fell 10% in May after a surge in imported energy and raw material costs, figures show. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:18 am
Peter Sutherland, chairman at BP, the UK energy giant, today rejected an "apocalyptic"
prediction by Alexei Miller, deputy chairman of Russia's Gazprom, that the
price of oil will reach $250 a barrel.$ Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 10:15 am
FCC chair Kevin Martin can't get off the "free internet" hobby-horse. US citizens do not get free water, electricity, gas, or telephone service. Mr. Martin believes that access to the worldwide web should be different. It is old news that Martin wants buyers of wireless spectrum to provide no-cost internet as a part of the package. Companies who want to send signals perhaps, data, voice, and video, through the air can pay a big buck for the priviledge and then give a money-making service away. It is a plan that even Karl Marx would love. Some members of Congress and...
Reuters - GlaxoSmithKline Plc is axing
around 350 jobs in research and development as part of an
ongoing restructuring program, Europe's biggest drugmaker said
on Wednesday.
Daiichi Sankyo, the Japanese pharmaceuticals company, has acquired a majority
stake in Ranbaxy, India's largest maker of generic drugs, in a transaction
that will be worth up to $4.6 billion ($£2.35 billion). Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 9:43 am
Detroit may be falling behind the curve again. Toyota (TM) will begin to mass produce lithium ion-batteries in less than two years, making the chances that a working electric car will be in the market shortly. According to Reuters, Toyota "is keen to bring such vehicles into the mainstream by lowering their cost premium as more consumers around the world demand higher fuel economy." The power plant is plugged into an outlet and takes a charge which can be renewed a large number of time. Toyota may be able to put out a million batteries a year before the end...
"Alice, it would be nice if something made sense for a change"--Mad Hatter, in "Alice In Wonderland" Overnight, the head of Russia's state-owned oil company, Gazprom, said that crude would hit $250 next year. He does not want to be bested by rising predictions from investment bankers and agencies in the US. Alexi Miller, the company CEO did say “Today we are witnessing a very great change for hydrocarbons. The level is very high and we think it [the price of oil] will reach $250 a barrel," according to the FT. Alexi may have gotten a bit of support for...
Relief for the banking sector was short-lived on Wednesday, while housebuilders continued to flounder under the tide of negative broker comment.By mid morning investors showed their disappointment that... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 9:24 am
MADRID, June 11 - Europe's biggest clothing retailer, Zara owner Inditex, held to full-year like-for-like sales guidance of 4 per cent on Wednesday despite slowing sales growth so far in local currencies... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperBusiness | 11 Jun 2008 | 9:20 am
The slowdown in the economy is taking its toll on the UK labour market as the
number of Britons seeking jobseekers’ allowance rose for the fourth month in
a row, increasing by a higher-than-expected 9,000 claimants. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 9:17 am
Inflation will continue to rise in France, economists warn, after figures show an above-forecast rise in May. Source: BBC News | Business | World Edition | 11 Jun 2008 | 8:54 am
The stock market value of British housebuilders has plunged by £11.34 billion
in just 12 months and is set to fall further after two investment banks
warned today the housing market downturn will descend to levels last seen in
the early 1990s. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 8:43 am
Reuters - Lawyers in a class action suit against
UnitedHealth Group Inc say freshly unsealed documents
show current CEO Stephen Hemsley was more involved in granting
backdated options than previously thought, The Wall Street
Journal reported on Tuesday. Source: Yahoo! News: Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 8:32 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers in a class action suit against UnitedHealth Group Inc say freshly unsealed documents show current CEO Stephen Hemsley was more involved in granting backdated options than previously thought, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Reuters - Retail sales excluding cars improved
in May, as consumers shelled out more money for gasoline at the
expense of other purchases, according to a private report
released on Wednesday.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retail sales excluding cars improved in May, as consumers shelled out more money for gasoline at the expense of other purchases, according to a private report released on Wednesday.
A look at short interest for stocks traded on the Nasdaq as of May 30 show that traders moved into Yahoo! (YHOO) and out of Sirius (SIRI) Shares short in Yahoo! rose 19.2 million shares to 66.6 million. Share short in Sirius fell 29.1 million to 141.3 million. Short sellers also moved out of several tech, telecom, and cable companies. Shares short in Dell (DELL) fell 3.5 million to 50 million. Shares short in Oracle (ORCL) moved down 2.3 million to 49.4 million. Short seller pulled out of Level 3 (LVLT), dropping their positions by 7 million shares to 231.9...
The takeover follows a string of overseas acquisitions by Japanese drugmakers and could permanently alter India's generic pharmaceuticals industry, which is struggling to maintain its rapid growth Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Jun 2008 | 8:05 am
Oil prices are to almost double to $250 per barrel, the chief executive of the world’s largest energy company has said, predicting a rise that would send the cost of unleaded petrol up to £2.30 per litre. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 8:05 am
Royal Bank of Scotland, the UK's second-biggest bank, said first-half profit will be "satisfactory," held back by credit-related writedowns and a slowdown at its securities unit. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 8:01 am
According to Reuters, volume sales are now the key to success for Apple's (AAPL) new iPhone. Reuters reports that the head of Merrill Lynch (MER) supports ongoing regulatory access to data from brokerages and believes the system needs further reform. Reuters writes that Corporate Express will support an improved buy-out offer from Staples (SPLS). Reuters writes that Toyota (TM) will start lithium ion-battery output next year. Reuters reports that Chrysler may cut output due to a downturn in truck sales. Reuters writes that Lehman (LEH) may raise capital from Korea. MarketWatch writes that China's imports of crude oil rose almost...
Royal Bank of Scotland, which this week completed Europe’s largest ever rights
issue, said trading in the first half of the year has been in line with
previous guidance but sees no immediate end to the credit crunch. Source: Latest Business News from Times Online | 11 Jun 2008 | 7:27 am
Corporate Express succumbed to a sweetened offer from Staples, ending a struggle for control that had seen it attempt a separate merger with a French rival as an alternative to the hostile US approach Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Jun 2008 | 7:27 am
The sharemarket remained mildly negative today, becalmed by negative economic pointers and last Friday's 3 per cent tumble on Wall St.
The benchmark NZSX-50 closed down 0.5 per cent or 18.47 points to 3487.42 on moderate turnover... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 5:42 am
TOKYO - Toyota said Wednesday it will introduce a plug-in hybrid vehicle with next-generation lithium-ion batteries in Japan, the U.S. and Europe by 2010.
The ecological gas-electric vehicles, which can be recharged from a home... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 5:35 am
US authorities were searching the Hudson River after the car of Samuel Israel was found on a bridge with the words 'suicide is painless' written in dust on its hood Source: FT.com - US homepage | 11 Jun 2008 | 4:27 am
Fisher & Paykel Appliances (FPA) is to establish a call centre in Dunedin from April next year.
The whiteware manufacture announced in April that it was moving its Mosgiel production to Mexico, Thailand and Italy, costing 430 jobs.
FPA... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 2:30 am
Freight and logistics company Mainfreight is close to a A$21 million ($26.7 million) purchase of privately owned Australian-based Halford International.
Mainfreight said it had today signed a call option deed to acquire all the... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:45 am
HSBC is proposing to raise the normal retirement age for its 58,000 UK staff to 65 from 60 and ask a third of employees to contribute to their final salary scheme. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
Shares in Tesco fell after the retailer announced that sales growth had slowed in the UK, heightening fears about the depth of the consumer downturn. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
It's enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that everyone has the right to shelter. For housebuilders, you'd think this should be a good thing, but the companies themselves have found nowhere to hide from the storms currently blowing through the sector.. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
The board of Independent News and Media (INM) lacks the autonomy to carry out its "primal task" of hiring and firing the chief executive, it has been alleged. Source: Telegraph Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:01 am
Property prices are now where they were a year ago, with house prices falling in eight out of 12 districts in May, says the Real Estate Institute.
Latest figures released by the institute show that national median prices fell 1.42... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 11 Jun 2008 | 12:00 am
Landmark Communications has distributed information to potential bidders on Dominion Enterprises, its portfolio of advertising websites and publications, now that its attempt to sell The Weather Channel is nearing its final stages Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:23 pm
The sharemarket continued to edge higher today after yesterday holding up in the face of weak markets in Australia and Asia.
Wall Street wobbled to a mixed close as the markets digested a tough message on inflation from Federal... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:10 pm
Higher prices for dairy product exports helped push New Zealand's terms of trade index up a much better than expected 4.1 per cent in the March quarter, figures published by Statistics New Zealand today show.
The terms of trade... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 11:00 pm
Lehman Brothers nearly struck a deal with a group of Korean financial institutions as part of its latest $6bn capital raising, and may still reach such a strategic arrangement by the end of the year Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 10:32 pm
China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange has agreed to invest more than $2.5bn in the latest TPG fund, in what could be the largest commitment ever made to a private equity firm, people familiar with the matter say Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 10:32 pm
Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS, the banks most exposed to Ambac and MBIA, could face further writedowns of up to $10bn after the bond insurers last week lost their fight to retain their triple A credit ratings Source: FT.com - US homepage | 10 Jun 2008 | 10:32 pm
Deviating from a building plan has seen an experienced property developer slapped with a $30,000 fine.
Manukau City Council granted City Link Properties a building consent, based on plans, to extend an existing house.
When the... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 10:31 pm
ANZ Bank, National Bank, TSB Bank and Kiwibank have all moved to cut their fixed mortgage rates.
The moves come in the wake of the cuts by ASB and Westpac last week which followed the Reserve Bank's flagging of an Official Cash... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 10:00 pm
Sky City Entertainment Group is to raise its stake in the country's second largest casino in Christchurch , after selling its stake in a hotel there.
Sky City has sold its stake in the Crowne Plaza Christchurch hotel to an Australian... Source: New Zealand Herald - Business | 10 Jun 2008 | 10:00 pm
We've all heard the advertising slogan that milk does a body good, but followers of a new trend say milk straight from the cow is even better. Sasha Khokha explains. Source: Marketplace | 10 Jun 2008 | 8:26 pm
It's hard to walk into the grocery store without experiencing sticker shock. But economist and commentator Tyler Cowen says as time passes we'll get so used to the higher prices, we may even be tempted to splurge. Source: Marketplace | 10 Jun 2008 | 8:26 pm
Moody's, Fitch and other ratings agencies have been slammed for not spotting the risks in the subprime mortgage market. Now they're hard at work to earn back their reputations. Amy Scott reports. Source: Marketplace | 10 Jun 2008 | 8:26 pm
In the wake of the massive tomato recall, the White House is asking Congress for $275 million more to increase FDA staff and inspections in its effort to secure the food supply. John Dimsdale reports. Source: Marketplace | 10 Jun 2008 | 8:26 pm
The International Energy Agency says global demand for oil is slowing. What will that mean for prices? Dan Grech reports. Source: Marketplace | 10 Jun 2008 | 8:26 pm
Banks have made bad decisions and lost billions in the credit crunch. In this installment of Conversations from the Corner Office, Kai Ryssdal talks with Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf about how his bank has been riding out the subprime storm. Source: Marketplace | 10 Jun 2008 | 6:20 pm
David Verklin, former C.E.O. of Aegis Media Americas, has advised and helped advertisers to buy billions of dollars worth of advertising space. He's now placing his bets on the U.S. cable companies.
As of August 4, he will be the first C.E.O. of Canoe Ventures, a firm created by a consortium of cable operators—Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, and Time Warner Cable—to create targeted TV advertising.
Before Verklin announced his career move, he talked with Portfolio.com about the new endeavor and one of its major challenges: your privacy.
Portfolio.com: Can you tell us more about Canoe Ventures and its role in what you've described as a resurgence of television?
David Verklin: Advertising to the interested is what we're all trying to do. Advertise to the interested. Put dog food commercials just in front of people who own a dog. And that's really the promise of something like Project Canoe [the former moniker of Canoe Ventures].
The six major U.S. cable companies have come together to create a national technology platform to bring interactivity to television advertising.
Think about this: You'll be watching a Kraft macaroni and cheese ad someday, and in the not-too-distant future, and the pop-up menu will come up. And it will say push "A" if you want a coupon or push "B" if you would like a free sample.
We're not that far off from maybe three years from today, when you're watching a commercial on television, and it'll say push "C" if you'd like to buy this product...It'll be charged to your cable TV bill.
The promise of something like Project Canoe and the cable television industry is bringing interactivity to television advertising and programming, and two, to bring new kinds of targeting to television advertising.
Portfolio.com: In order to target ads, will cable companies get data from your set-top box?
David Verklin: Yes.
Portfolio.com: Do you think that there would at all be a backlash to an effort because of consumers' concerns about privacy?
David Verklin: We have to be very, very concerned about privacy, and I believe there are two ways to solve the problem.
One way to control the advertising you see is the survey-based method. Fill out a survey maybe administered by your cable company and you check off categories of ads you'd like to see and not like to see. I don't think there's any privacy issue there...
The part of the future that people are more concerned with is what's called behavioral targeting. This is the idea of watching and keeping track of the television programs you've watched and keeping track of the website you visited and using that information to adjust the advertising load that comes into your house. That will be where the privacy debate will take place over the next 36 months: whether people are comfortable with that or not.
Cable is one of the most highly regulated industries in the media business, so there's a lot of regulation that's going to have to be discussed to allow the cable companies to keep track of your viewing and take a look at your websites in order to adjust the advertising load.
Personally I think it can be done in a way that your name and address would never be known; same way that cookies [on the Internet] are done. I would argue if you have concerns about privacy on television, why do you not have those same concerns about how Google's tracking your behavior on the Web?
Portfolio.com: Because you can delete cookies.
David Verklin: You can delete cookies but not completely. But I won't go technically into that.
I would say the solution to this is an opt-in situation. If you do not want to have your advertising load adjusted, then either do a survey-based method and we'll adjust your advertising load that way, or opt out.
The privacy issue will be a key issue that the cable operators as well as the advertising industry has got to debate over the next 36 months. But the flip side is we'd really like to put advertising in front of you that you're interested in. If you're not interested in it, it's bad for all parts of the food chain.
On Thursday, Bravo will present its first-ever A-List Awards, a new entry to the increasingly crowded field of cable and broadcast awards shows.
Not only is the number of such programs growing—cable channels from TV Land to Spike have introduced awards shows—but they are snaring smaller and smaller audiences.
This year has been especially bad for awards shows. On broadcast channels, the People's Choice awards and Golden Globes were hurt by the writers' strike. The three biggest awards shows on television—the Emmys, Grammys, and Oscars—all suffered their lowest-ever ratings even though they were not hampered by the strike. The Tonys, long a ratings loser for CBS, airs this Sunday.
None of this has discouraged Bravo. Its awards ceremony, which was taped on June 4, is meant to honor the creative process in fields like fashion, food, and design—conveniently, all well-trodden areas for Bravo—and was hosted by Kathy Griffin, one of the network's stars. In addition to Griffin, when it airs on Thursday, the show will feature all manner of Bravo celebrities, including Tim Gunn in a pre-awards show.
"We wanted to create one night where all of Bravo's worlds collided," says Andy Cohen, Bravo's head of programming and development.
Asked if Bravo might suffer from awards-show fatigue, Cohen disagrees. "One of our winners last week got up and said, 'Wow. At what other awards show could you see Tila Tequila and Alain Ducasse in the same audience?' That's Bravo. We're high and we're low and everything in between."
In cable, the awards-show success story has long been MTV, which introduced its movie and video music awards in the early '90s. Strong performers and brand builders for the channel, the shows have increased MTV's profile with offbeat categories like "Best Kiss" for the movies and buzz-worthy performances by stars like Britney Spears for the video music awards. But the V.M.A.'s performance last September, a 3.8 percent household rating, was among the lowest since Nielsen has tracked the show (albeit higher than 2006's rating). The movie-awards ratings have also suffered in recent years.
Brad Adgate, senior vice president at media planning and buying agency Horizon Media, says that the same factors hurting the ratings of awards shows in general could also affect Bravo's.
They include DVR; increasing competition from reality shows, which, like many awards shows, are unscripted but often higher in drama content; the overexposure of celebrities and pop-culture mainstays through entertainment blogs, news programs, and magazines; and the ready availability of acceptance speeches, featured songs, and outfit pictures via online forums like YouTube and iTunes.
Still, the new awards show could be a smart move for Bravo. These shows, like unscripted reality series, are cheap to produce, and the publicity can be priceless. Page Six, the New York Post's gossip column, already ran an item about the event, and the "real housewives" of Orange County and New York were in attendance and said to be in an attention-getting feud.
If nothing else, the show will serve as a convenient tie-in for the fourth season of Griffin's show, My Life on the D-List, which airs at 9 p.m. on Thursday, an hour before the A-List Awards.
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.
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.
AP - China's overall trade surplus shrank 10 percent in May from a year earlier, though its contentious gaps with both the United States and Europe continued to expand suggesting more trade tensions ahead.
Reuters - U.S. office supplies company Staples
has won its battle to buy Corporate Express after the Dutch
firm agreed to a sweetened bid of 1.7 billion euros ($2.65
billion) to create the world's biggest office products
supplier.
Reuters - GlaxoSmithKline Plc is axing
around 350 jobs in research and development as part of an
ongoing restructuring program, Europe's biggest drugmaker said
on Wednesday.
Reuters - Retail sales excluding cars improved
in May, as consumers shelled out more money for gasoline at the
expense of other purchases, according to a private report
released on Wednesday.