| Data boosts Wall St, S&P and Nasdaq up 1 percent Posted:  NEW YORK (Reuters) -Stocks rallied on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq up 1 percent, after concern over the U.S. economy abated as data showed the manufacturing sector expanded at a faster clip than forecast in April. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 93.32 points, or 0.71 percent, to 13,306.95. The S&P 500 Index added 13.88 points, or 0.99 percent, to 1,411.79. The Nasdaq Composite rose 32.81 points, or 1.08 percent, to 3,079.17. (Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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| GM, Ford sales dip; GM lifts sales outlook Posted:  DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co reported slight dips in U.S. new vehicle sales for April, but GM lifted its outlook for U.S. sales this year based on encouraging signs that the broader economy will grow. GM now projects the U.S. auto industry will sell between 14 million and 14.5 million cars and trucks this year, up from its previous outlook of 13.5 million to 14 million. "Over time, strength in the manufacturing sector and strong retail sales will lead to more job creation," GM sales executive Don Johnson said in a statement. ...
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| Chesapeake to replace McClendon as chairman Posted:  HOUSTON (Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy Corp will find an independent, nonexecutive chairman to replace Aubrey McClendon, who will retain his position as chief executive officer, the natural gas producer said on Tuesday. McClendon, who is Chesapeake's co-founder, also agreed to an early end to a controversial program that grants him minority stakes in Chesapeake's wells, a perk that had sparked investor anger and inquiries from U.S. regulatory and tax agencies. Shares of Chesapeake were up 8.5 percent at $20. ...
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| Dewey encourages partners to seek new jobs: source Posted:  (Reuters) - Partners at law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf were encouraged in an e-mail from management on Monday night to find new jobs, according to a current partner who read the e-mail. The e-mail also said that members of the firm's executive committee and office of the chairman had decided to remain members of those bodies while seeking other opportunities, the partner said. Monday's e-mail came as Dewey scrambled to negotiate with its lenders and as it held discussions with other firms. ...
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| Avon's profit sinks as sales dip; shares fall Posted:  (Reuters) - Avon Products Inc on Tuesday reported a disappointing quarterly profit as the company dealt with higher costs and declining sales, potentially giving new ammunition to smaller rival Coty's bid to take over the world's largest direct seller of cosmetics. Avon sold 1 percent fewer items, and its army of sales representatives shrank 2 percent. Excluding the impact of currency, sales edged up 1 percent, helped by modest price increases. The company's shares fell 8 percent, or $1.72, to $19. ...
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| Fed officials clash on need for more easing Posted:  (Reuters) - The philosophical divide within the U.S. Federal Reserve was on display on Tuesday as two top officials differed over the need to ease policy further. Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, a voter this year on the U.S. central bank's policy-setting panel, said he was "a bit reticent at this point to pull the trigger on any new action," including more asset purchases, known as quantitative easing. ...
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| P.F. Chang's to go private in $1.1 billion deal Posted: (Reuters) - P.F. Chang's China Bistro Inc , which has been fighting to recover from ill-timed price increases, said it would go private in a $1.1 billion deal with Centerbridge Partners, sending its shares up 30 percent. Centerbridge, a private equity firm that owns restaurant holding company CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries, will pay $51.50 per share for P.F. Chang's, a premium of about 30 percent to the stock's closing price on Monday. The shares jumped $11.83 to $51.52 on the Nasdaq Tuesday morning. ... |
| U.S. factories rack up best growth in 10 months Posted:  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. manufacturing grew in April at the strongest rate in 10 months, easing concerns the economy had lost momentum at the start of the second quarter. The Institute for Supply Management said on Tuesday its index of national factory activity rose to 54.8 from 53.4 in March. The figure bested expectations for a decline to 53.0 and came in above the top end of forecasts in a Reuters poll. A reading below 50 indicates contraction in the manufacturing sector, while a number above 50 means expansion. ...
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| PIMCO's Gross cautions against inflation and credit "ocean" Posted: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Central bank policies will induce growth in developed countries this year but will create inflationary risks down the road, Bill Gross, founder and co-chief investment officer of PIMCO, said in his regular monthly letter to investors. In the outlook, entitled "Tuesday Never Comes," Gross highlighted how stimulative central bank policies have created an "ocean" of credit and said that the credit acceleration will produce economic growth this year for developed countries while also creating structural risks and rising inflation. ... |
| Pfizer profits solid despite Lipitor loss Posted:  (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings as improved profit margins and strong sales of its Lyrica nerve-pain drug partly offset plunging demand for its Lipitor cholesterol fighter, now facing cheaper generic rivals. The global drugmaker said sales of Lipitor, which lost patent protection in November, fell 42 percent to $1.4 billion. "The story here is that Pfizer is dealing with its Lipitor patent loss surprisingly well," said Morningstar analyst Damien Conover. ...
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| BP profit falls as Gulf spill costs still weigh Posted:  LONDON (Reuters) - BP Plc reported a bigger-than-expected profit drop on the back of a fall in production prompted by the need to sell oil fields to pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster, raising concerns about the oil group's turnaround plan. Europe's second-largest oil company by market value said on Tuesday output would continue to decline in the second quarter, helping send its shares down 3.6 percent to 429.3 pence by 0924 GMT against a 0.2 percent drop in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index . The shares are down 8.9 percent so far this year, against a 1. ...
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| INSIGHT:As chip plants get pricey, U.S. risks losing edge Posted:  CHANDLER, Arizona (Reuters) - It goes by the anodyne moniker Fab 42, but the new Intel Corp factory being built in the Arizona desert is hardly a run-of-the-mill production facility. At $5 billion, it will be the most advanced chip factory ever constructed, producing microchips with transistors so tiny that over 100 million of them could fit on the head of a pin. And it represents a giant bet by the world's largest semiconductor company that the United States can still be a good place to build things. ...
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| China data points towards economic recovery Posted:  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to a 13-month high in April, signaling the economy has found a footing and may be recovering from a first-quarter trough, but smaller factories are still struggling. The pick-up in the PMI to 53.3 from 53.1 in March indicated a further expansion in the vast factory sector, although it was slightly below market expectations of 53.6. Readings above 50 signal expansion while those below 50 point to contraction. The manufacturing output sub-index rose to 57.2 from 55.2 in March. ...
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| India's exports fall for the first time since 2009 Posted:  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's exports in March fell for the first time since the 2009 global financial crisis as demand weakened in the United States and Europe, further clouding the outlook for the country's balance of payments. Exports fell 5.7 percent to $28.7 billion from the same period a year earlier, continuing a sharp slowdown in shipments in recent months that, combined with high imports of oil and gold, has sparked concern over the country's swelling trade deficit. The export drop is the latest bad news for India's faltering economy. ...
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| Analysis: Permit glut points to new EU carbon policy tool Posted: LONDON (Reuters) - Any one-off European Union intervention to clear the massive glut of permits now clogging its emissions trading scheme is likely to lead to a 'central bank' or other policy tool to manage future imbalances in the world's biggest carbon market. If it does act, the European Commission, the bloc's executive, is cautious about entrenching such a mechanism in the scheme, the bloc's chief weapon to fight climate change. ... |
| Dubai sukuk to fund airport expansion: Sheikh Ahmed Posted:  DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai will employ $1.25 billion raised through an Islamic bond last week to fund the expansion of its airport and sees no risk to repaying creditors at its flagship conglomerate Dubai World on time, a top Dubai official told Reuters on Tuesday. "We will use proceeds from the $1.25 billion sukuk to fund Dubai International Airport expansion," Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum, a close advisor and uncle to Dubai's ruler and a key figure in the emirate's recovery from its 2009 debt debacle, said in an interview on the sidelines of a Dubai travel show. ...
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| Macquarie cuts U.S. semiconductor sector to neutral Posted: (Reuters) - Macquarie Equities Research downgraded shares of Texas Instruments Inc , Altera Corp and Xilinx Inc and cut its rating on the U.S. semiconductor sector to "neutral," citing stretched valuations and growing capacity. "Consensus estimates for our group are already assuming better-than-normal revenue growth throughout 2012 as the cyclical recovery has become broadly accepted," Macquarie analyst Shawn Webster said. Webster — who had been relatively positive on U.S. ... |
| New York pension funds to vote against 5 Wal-Mart directors Posted:  (Reuters) - A group of New York City pension funds will vote their 4.7 million shares against five Wal-Mart directors following reports senior executives stymied an internal investigation into alleged payments of bribes in Mexico, City Comptroller John Liu said. The New York Times reported last month a senior Wal-Mart lawyer received an email from a former executive at Walmex in 2005 describing how the Mexican affiliate had paid bribes to obtain permits to build stores in Mexico. ...
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| Tax & accounting sales drive Thomson Reuters profit Posted:  (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp reported a higher-than-expected profit for the first quarter on strong sales in its tax and accounting division, and the company affirmed its outlook for the year, sending shares up nearly 2 percent. The global news and information provider said on Tuesday that first-quarter revenue from ongoing businesses grew 4 percent before currency changes to $3.19 billion, above the analysts' average forecast of $3.13 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Adjusted earnings per share rose to 44 cents from 37 cents a year earlier. ...
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| Polyus raises $635 million selling stakes to CIC, VTB Posted: LONDON (Reuters) - Polyus Gold , Russia's largest gold producer, has sold a 7.5 percent stake to two strategic investors, raising $635 million and helping to boost its free float ahead of plans to apply for a premium listing in London. Polyus, worth about $10 billion and sitting on potentially lucrative gold reserves in Russia's far east, said on Tuesday it had sold a stake of 5 percent less one share to Chengdong Investment Corporation, a subsidiary of China's CIC , and a 2.5 percent holding to Russian bank VTB . The company had originally looked at selling up to 10. ... |
| Growth worries mount, sending the dollar lower Posted:  LONDON (Reuters) - World shares eased and the dollar hit a two-month low against the Japanese yen on Tuesday, after signs of recovery in China's vast factory sector failed to offset worries over the health of the global economy and the euro zone crisis. But activity was limited with many markets in Asia and Europe closed for the May Day holiday. The MSCI's world equity index was down just 0.1 percent to 328.40, as it added to losses of about 1.5 percent in April. The stronger yen hit Japan's export-related equities, sending the Nikkei index to a 2-1/2 month closing low. ...
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| BofA planning more job cuts: WSJ Posted:  (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp is planning to cut up to 400 jobs in its investment banking, corporate banking, and sales and trading units, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation. An expected sale of the bank's non-U.S. wealth-management operations in Asia, Latin America and Europe would eliminate up to 2,000 jobs, the Journal also said. Reuters reported on April 17 that Bank of America was looking to sell its wealth management units outside the United States for as much as $3 billion. Bank of America declined to comment on the Journal report. ...
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| U.S., Japan still mulling regional trade pact: Obama Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama voiced support on Monday for Japan joining talks with the United States and eight other countries on a free trade agreement in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region, but said no final decision had been made. "We instructed our teams to continue our consultation regarding Japan's interest in joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would benefit both our economies and the region," Obama said at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. ...
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| Microsoft buys Nook stake, Barnes & Noble shares soar Posted:  NEW YORK/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is jumping into the fast-growing e-books market by investing $605 million over five years in Barnes & Noble Inc's Nook e-reader and college business, as it looks to unlock Amazon.com and Apple Inc's grip on the exploding tablet computer market. The move comes just six months before the world's largest software maker is due to launch its new touch-enabled Windows 8 operating system, and the inclusion of a Nook app on Windows tablets should allow them to compete with Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle Fire. ...
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| Exclusive: CME readies round-the-clock grains trade: sources Posted:  CHICAGO (Reuters) - CME Group Inc will extend trading hours for its hallmark grain contracts, two sources close to the matter said on Monday, as the Chicago exchange moves to defend its turf against rival ICE's bid for nearly round-the-clock transactions. The board of the CME, which has a stranglehold on grains trading through the Chicago Board of Trade, the world's largest grain exchange that it acquired in 2007, has agreed to extend trading hours, but has not decided on how many hours to add to its trading day or when to implement them, the sources said. ...
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| GM CEO: top woman executive a potential successor Posted:  PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - The boss of General Motors Co said on Monday the automaker's most senior woman executive is one of his potential successors, adding that women deal with change better than men and GM still has a lot of changes to make since its 2009 bankruptcy and $50 billion government bailout. GM Chief Executive Dan Akerson also said he did not know whether taxpayers would get their money back, though the automaker is generating record profits. Akerson said it was critical for the world's largest automaker to boost the ranks of its top female executives. ...
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| U.S. wants Gupta insider trading jury to hear Rajaratnam calls Posted:  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prosecutors want the jury in May's insider trading trial of former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta to hear three secretly-recorded phone conversations of Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam as evidence of the purported conspiracy between them. In a pre-trial filing in Manhattan federal court on Monday night, the government said two of Rajaratnam's conversations with his principal trader and another with Galleon's then portfolio manager showed Gupta leaked Goldman board secrets at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. ...
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| Key Freddie Mac executive steps down: filing Posted:  (Reuters) - A top executive at Freddie Mac is leaving the mortgage buyer a year after he was appointed to head its single-family business. The regulator for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae responded to political pressure in March by slashing salaries for the chief executives of the two firms and ruling out bonuses for many top executives. The companies, which guarantee half of all U.S. mortgages, have soaked up about $170 billion in taxpayer aid since they were taken over in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Freddie Mac said in a filing with the U.S. ...
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| China's official PMI rises to 13-month high in April Posted:  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose to a 13-month high in April, signaling the economy has found a footing and may be recovering from a first-quarter trough, but smaller factories are still struggling. The pick-up in the PMI to 53.3 from 53.1 in March indicated a further expansion in the vast factory sector, although it was slightly below market expectations of 53.6. Readings above 50 signal expansion while those below 50 point to contraction. The manufacturing output sub-index rose to 57.2 from 55.2 in March. ...
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| Air Lease orders more 787 Dreamliners Posted:  (Reuters) - Aircraft lessor Air Lease Corp said on Monday it had ordered eight new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft worth $1.8 billion at list prices for lease to Vietnam Airlines. Deliveries of Boeing's new lightweight carbon-composite aircraft are scheduled for 2017 and 2018, the Los Angeles-based company said in a statement. Air Lease Corp had already placed an order for four 787-9s in December last year, according to the Boeing website. The company was founded in 2010 by Steven Udvar-Hazy, widely considered the pioneer of modern aircraft leasing. ...
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| Dutch try ban on some tourists buying marijuana Posted: A policy barring foreign tourists from buying marijuana in the Netherlands went into effect in parts of the country Tuesday, with attention focused on the southern city of Maastricht, where a cafe was warned over violating the ban and around 200 smokers marched in protest. |
| US hopes buoy markets in thin holiday trading Posted:  Global markets rose Tuesday on signs of growth in U.S. and Chinese manufacturing, though trading volumes were thin due to a holiday in much of Europe and Asia.
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| Stocks higher on better manufacturing report Posted:  The fastest growth in U.S. manufacturing in 10 months gave stocks a lift in early trading Tuesday and put the Dow Jones industrial average on track for its highest close in more than four years.
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| US manufacturing grows at fastest pace since June Posted: U.S. manufacturing grew last month at the fastest pace in 10 months. New orders, production and a measure of hiring all rose. |
| Toyota, Chrysler see big April sales gains Posted:  Toyota and Chrysler saw big U.S. sales gains in April, but they came at the expense of General Motors and Ford.
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| Avon Products 1Q profit, shares skid Posted:  Avon Product's new CEO, on the job for a week, said Tuesday she plans to review every aspect of the beauty seller's business, including its operating model, cost structure and product portfolio.
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| Stocks turn higher on better manufacturing report Posted: The fastest growth in U.S. manufacturing in 10 months gave stocks a lift in early trading Tuesday and put the Dow Jones industrial average on track for its highest close in more than four years. |
| Business events scheduled for Wednesday Posted: Major business events and economic events scheduled for Wednesday: |
| Highway bill enters legislative homestretch Posted:  Defying expectations, Congress has reached the homestretch on a major overhaul of federal transportation programs that is critical if the nation is to avoid steep cutbacks in highway and transit aid.
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| Chesapeake's McClendon to step down as chairman Posted: Aubrey McClendon said Tuesday he's giving up the chairmanship of Chesapeake Energy Corp. following shareholder complaints that his personal business interests could conflict with those of the company he runs. |
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