| Mixed data sends Wall Street lower ahead of payrolls Posted:  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were lower on Thursday as another round of mixed economic data left a muddled picture of the domestic recovery ahead of Friday's key payrolls report. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 27,000, the biggest weekly drop since May 2011. The report ran counter to data indicating weaker private sector hiring that pushed stocks lower Wednesday. But a report from the Institute for Supply Management showed the pace of growth in the U.S. services sector slowed more than expected in April and new orders dropped. ...
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| Jobless claims tumble, service sector slows Posted:  WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless aid dropped by the most in a year last week, easing fears the labor market recovery was stalling. But separate data on the vast U.S. services sector was less upbeat, with the rate of growth slowing more than expected and a gauge of employment falling to its lowest level in four months. ...
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| U.S. productivity drops in Q1, hours rise strongly Posted: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nonfarm productivity fell in the first quarter as companies hired more workers to maintain output, but a moderate rise in wages suggested little pressure on company profits and inflation. Productivity slipped at a 0.5 percent annual rate, the Labor Department said on Thursday, after rising at an upwardly revised 1.2 percent rate in the last three months of 2011. The decline in productivity, which measures hourly output per worker, was in line with expectations. Fourth-quarter productivity had been previously reported to have increased at a 0.9 percent rate. ... |
| April turns weak for retailers; apparel bucks trend Posted:  (Reuters) - Several large U.S. retailers, including Target Corp , Macy's Inc and Gap Inc , missed sales estimates for April, in sync with broader economic indicators and as cooler weather chilled some of the enthusiasm shoppers had shown earlier this year. An earlier Easter also hurt April sales by shifting demand into March. Of the 20 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters, nine missed Wall Street estimates of April sales at stores open at least a year. The Thomson Reuters same-store sales index showed a rise of 0.8 percent, short of analysts' estimates for an increase of 1.5 percent. ...
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| US Airways says April unit revenue rose 9 percent Posted:  (Reuters) - US Airways Group Inc said on Thursday that its unit revenue had increased about 9 percent in April from a year earlier amid higher passenger traffic. In a monthly operating statement, the airline said passenger traffic had risen 2.1 percent, while it increased its capacity -- the number of seats for sale -- by 1.6 percent. The airline said its load factor, which is a measure of how full airplanes are, increased 0.4 percentage point to 83 percent. (Reporting By Kyle Peterson in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
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| Freddie Mac posts profit, but needs $19 million in aid Posted:  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Freddie Mac , the No. 2 provider of U.S. mortgage money, said on Thursday it will seek another $19 million in taxpayer aid after its quarterly profit failed to make up for a dividend payment to the government for its controlling stake. The company has now drawn $72.3 billion from the U.S. Treasury since being seized by the government in 2008, and has returned $18.3 billion as the price for the taxpayer support. It warned it was unlikely to generate enough profit to cover the dividend payments any time soon. ...
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| GM outlook disappoints after profit beats Street Posted:  DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co offered investors a disappointing outlook for the upcoming six months in North America, raising questions about the U.S. economy's recovery and sending its shares down 2.7 percent. While the world's largest automaker posted a first-quarter profit that surpassed forecasts, the outlook for its core market fell short of expectations. GM's results and outlook echoed those of smaller rival Ford Motor Co , which last week also posted a stronger-than-expected profit, but offered a disappointing outlook. ...
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| China fuels record profits at German luxury carmakers Posted:  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Surging Chinese demand for sporty sedans and SUVs like the BMW 7 Series and Porsche Cayenne helped propel the two German luxury carmakers to record first-quarter profits, underscoring their growing dependence on Asian customers. Munich-based BMW, which already sells half its flagship limousines in China, said the country had become its biggest single market in the quarter, leap-frogging the United States in total sales volume for the first time. The same could soon be true for Porsche. ...
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| SocGen's fixed-income surge fails to quell doubts Posted:  PARIS (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale failed to convince investors a surprise surge in first-quarter bond, currency and commodities trading revenue was not a one-off. Like European peers, France's second-biggest lender is slashing costs, debt and jobs at its key investment banking division to meet tougher global bank capital rules and better resist the fallout from the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis. ...
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| Euro zone needs growth and fiscal discipline, Draghi says Posted:  BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, reflecting growing anxiety among Europeans about their economic plight, said on Thursday growth should be at the heart of euro zone policy but it needed to go hand in hand with fiscal austerity. At a news conference in Spain, one of the countries worst hit by the bloc's debt crisis, Draghi painted an uncertain picture of the euro zone's economy, saying while it was likely to improve this year there were risks of decline. ...
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| China willing to reform export credit system: U.S. official Posted: BEIJING (Reuters) - China is willing to reform its export-credit financing, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, a move that can help level the playing field between Chinese exporters and companies in other countries. "We have seen a very important shift in position on the part of Chinese authorities," the official said on the sidelines of the annual U.S.-China economic and diplomatic meetings in Beijing. "They are now talking about sitting down and negotiating a new international agreement on disciplines on export credits," the official said. ... |
| Cigna profit misses Wall Street target Posted: (Reuters) - Insurer Cigna Corp posted a lower-than-expected first-quarter profit on Thursday, as earnings slipped in its segment offering disability and life coverage policies. Cigna is the latest health insurer to miss Wall Street's earnings target in the period, following Aetna Inc , Coventry Health Care and Humana Inc . Cigna did raise its full-year earnings forecast. Net income fell to $371 million, or $1.28 per share, from $413 million, or $1.51 per share, a year earlier. Excluding special items, Cigna's earnings of $1. ... |
| Nokia defends strategy to exasperated investors Posted:  HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia's chairman-designate Risto Siilasmaa defended its turnaround strategy on Thursday before meeting shareholders who are losing patience with the company's efforts to catch up in the smartphone market. Nokia lost out to Apple Inc and Google Inc in the first wave of smartphone business and is now pinning hopes of a turnaround on Lumia, a new range which uses Microsoft software. ...
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| Lufthansa to cut 3,500 jobs in savings drive Posted:  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Lufthansa , Germany's biggest airline, announced plans to slash 3,500 administrative jobs around the world as it tries to offset soaring fuel costs and fierce competition in Europe to return to profitability. "We can only safeguard jobs for the long term and create new openings if we reorganize the administrative functions and accept job losses now," Chief Executive Christoph Franz said in a statement on Thursday. ...
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| Dewey & LeBoeuf, SNR Denton merger talks collapse: WSJ Posted:  (Reuters) - Merger talks between law firms Dewey & LeBoeuf and SNR Denton collapsed on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. Dewey & LeBoeuf, which is struggling with a debt crisis and criminal probe of its former chairman, is considering a number of alternatives including deals with other law firms. The full-merger discussions "effectively ended" after Dewey & LeBoeuf sent an email on Monday night encouraging its partners to seek new jobs, according to the newspaper. ...
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| World food prices fall; inflation fear remains Posted:  MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - World food prices eased in April after rising in the first quarter of this year, the United Nation's food agency said, but inflation worries are still simmering as soybean prices climb. Record high food prices last February helped to fuel the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. Prices receded in the second half of 2011 but the uptrend resumed in January. ...
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| UBS faces pay backlash as Weber becomes chairman Posted: ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS became the latest bank to face the anger of its shareholders over executive pay on Thursday, as investors queued up to voice their complaints in a packed meeting that echoed recent protests at Credit Suisse and Barclays. "Big banker pay hasn't been tamed at all. It's as though UBS hasn't learned any lessons at all from the past crises," Brigitta Moser-Harder, a small investor, told Reuters on the sidelines of the meeting attended by around 3,400 shareholders. ... |
| Special Report: U.S. documents allege HSBC money-laundering lapses Posted:  NEW YORK (Reuters) - In April 2003, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and New York state bank regulators cracked the whip on HSBC Bank USA, ordering it to do a better job of policing itself for suspicious money flows. Staff in the bank's anti-money laundering division, according to a person who worked there at the time, flew into a "panic." The U.S. unit of London-based HSBC Holdings Plc quickly rallied. It hired a tough federal prosecutor to oversee anti-money laundering efforts. It installed monitoring systems for operations that had grown unwieldy during the bank's U.S. expansion. ...
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| Settlement with HP isn't going to happen: Oracle Posted:  SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - An Oracle Corp attorney ruled out a settlement with Hewlett-Packard Co in a bitter lawsuit over the Itanium microprocessor, a day after the judge refused to resolve the case for either side before trial. At a hearing in a San Jose court on Wednesday, Oracle attorney Dan Wall said a settlement of the lawsuit "isn't going to happen." Oracle said in a court filing last week that HP is seeking about $4 billion in lost profit damages from Oracle, which argues that HP's claims are meritless. "In this one, it is not going to work out," Wall said. ...
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| Visa Inc beats estimates with higher profit Posted:  (Reuters) - Visa Inc , the world's largest credit and debit-card network, beat analysts' estimates with a 23 percent increase in adjusted earnings as people spent more with cards. The company also raised the high-end of its estimated range for full-year earnings per share, despite uncertainty over questions from United States government anti-trust investigators on how it is adjusting to new federal limits on fees charged merchants for debit card transactions. ...
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| JPMorgan to boost Technicolor stake in rights issue Posted:  PARIS (Reuters) - Technicolor said U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase plans to take a stake of up to 29.96 percent in the French digital video specialist to help it cut debt and push through its turnaround plan. The transaction will take place through a two-step capital increase, the first tranche reserved for JPMorgan and the second also open to existing shareholders. An investment vehicle jointly owned by JPMorgan's private equity investment arm and by the bank itself has committed to buy up to three-quarters of the second issue, Technicolor said. ...
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| Nokia files patent lawsuits against HTC, RIM Posted:  HELSINKI (Reuters) - Wounded cellphone maker Nokia has turned on one of its former allies in the patent protection battlefield by filing lawsuits against rival smartphone maker HTC as it steps up its efforts to raise funds. Nokia, based in Finland, filed several lawsuits in Germany covering 45 hardware and software patents, ranging from power management to data encryption technologies against HTC, Canadian rival Research In Motion and tablet-maker ViewSonic. In the United States it filed against HTC and ViewSonic, including a complaint to the U.S. ...
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| BP's $7.8 billion Gulf spill pact wins initial court OK Posted:  (Reuters) - BP Plc won preliminary court approval of an estimated $7.8 billion settlement to resolve more than 100,000 claims by individuals and businesses stemming from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The accord comprises two agreements, including one that covers economic and property claims and one covering medical claims. In separate rulings on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans said the agreements reached on March 2 were "fair, reasonable, and adequate," had "no obvious deficiencies" and were reached without collusion. ...
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| China's shipyards founder as building boom ends Posted:  YUEQING, China (Reuters) - Welder Zhang fires up his blow torch and looks up at the towering, 8,800-tonnes oil tanker that is likely to be his last job at China's privately owned Qiligang Shipbuilding Co. Barring a miracle, the 50-year-old will soon join the thousands of unemployed shipbuilders who have fallen victim to the end of China's maritime boom and the long-awaited consolidation of its more than 1,600 shipbuilding companies. ...
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| Spanish borrowing costs to jump at auction, bank buying eyed Posted:  MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's borrowing costs are set to rise by more than a percentage point at an auction of three- and five-year bonds on Thursday, with markets watching for signs that its troubled banks are losing their appetite for the country's debt. The sale is the first since Standard and Poor's cut Spain's credit rating by two notches to BBB+ last week and follows data showing the economy has slid into its second recession since late 2009. ...
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| New LA Dodgers owners explore ways to boost value Posted:  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The group that paid a record $2.15 billion to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team expects to boost the return on their investment by creating value with stadium improvements, aggressive investment on talent and by exploring a regional sports network after a TV contract with Fox ends. "It's a lot of money, but if we do our jobs right ... the long-term point of view is that people will see that the value was there," said Mark Walter, the team's new chairman who is also chief executive officer of private equity firm Guggenheim Partners, at a news conference. ...
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| Natgas trading legend Arnold retires, ending era Posted: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Legendary natural gas trader John Arnold is closing down his flagship Centaurus fund, sources said o n Wednesday, ending an era in which the former Enron wunderkind defined the high-risk, big-reward energy speculator. After two years of struggling to maintain outsized returns as gas prices sank to 10-year lows and trading regulations grew tighter, Arnold told investors he would return their funds and pursue "other interests," according to an investor in the fund who had received the letter. ... |
| China official services PMI eases in April from 10-month high Posted:  BEIJING (Reuters) - China's non-Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) showed on Thursday that the services sector cooled last month, retreating from March's 10-month high to hit 56.1 in April. The softer reading underscores the two manufacturing PMI figures for April - one official, one from HSBC - which showed weakness among smaller enterprises despite improved headline figures. The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing revised its index last month to reflect seasonal adjustments, with the revision helping push the March index to 58, the highest since May, 2011. ...
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| Law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf loses 5 more partners Posted:  (Reuters) - Five more partners have left Dewey & LeBoeuf, the struggling U.S. law firm coping with partner defections, high debt and a criminal investigation of its former chairman. The latest defections include Ira White, co-chair of Dewey's private equity practice. Jones Day announced on Wednesday it hired White for its New York office. Separately, at least four other partners left Dewey's London office for outfits including Vinson & Elkins and KPMG. Angelo Kakolyris, a spokesman for Dewey, declined to comment. White did not respond to a request for comment. ...
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| Best Buy chief marketing officer leaves Posted: Another executive at Best Buy has left the company, the consumer electronics retailer said Thursday. |
| Pension fund urges vote against Wal-Mart directors Posted: New York City Pension Funds is urging shareholders to vote against the re-election of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Mike Duke and four other board members due to concerns about the world's largest retailer's bribery investigation in Mexico. |
| April retail sales worst since 2009 Posted:  Americans' spending — much like the economy — continues to yo-yo.
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| Union says it will resume talks with sugar company Posted: Officials representing American Crystal Sugar Co. and its locked-out union workers plan to meet again on June 8, but a resolution to the 10-month-long contract dispute appears unlikely. |
| US stocks dip after conflicting economic reports Posted:  U.S. stock indexes are trading lower at midday after a slew of conflicting economic reports and a disappointing close for European markets.
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| Oil falls after economic reports Posted: Oil prices fell Thursday after the U.S. government said worker productivity fell sharply in the first three months of the year. |
| US stocks mixed after conflicting economic reports Posted: Wall Street gnawed on a muddle of economic data and corporate earnings Thursday, pushing stocks lower after a brief rise. |
| The Carlyle Group raises $671M in trading debut Posted: Private equity firm The Carlyle Group raised $671 million from its initial public offering of 30.5 million common units Thursday, before underwriter commissions and other expenses. |
| ECB chief sees slow recovery, offers no new help Posted:  European Central Bank President Mario Draghi offered little promise of any more quick fixes for the struggling economies of the 17-country eurozone and urged governments to stay the course on tough spending cuts.
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| US service companies expand at slower pace Posted:  U.S. service companies, which employ roughly 90 percent of the work force, expanded more slowly in April. Companies saw less growth in new orders and hired at a weaker pace.
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