If not for the bargain hunting, Asian market would not climb positively. Would the trend successfully help Asian market? find out...
Australian shares rose 1.1 percent as energy firms such as Woodside Petroleum advanced on stronger oil prices, while investors bought back beaten-down banking stocks. Building materials maker James Hardie Industries climbed over 5 percent after it posted a 32 percent fall in second-quarter profit, hit by a drop in home building in the United States. Hardie said it was comfortable with the bottom end of analysts' full-year forecasts.
Singapore's Straits Times Index opened higher.
more...
Business - Google News
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Oil prices slap lower-income american
Study said that more lower-income Americans spent eight times than the much wealthier do when it comes to gas expenses. find out how the study describes the disparity among the working class and the wealthy class.
And gas prices also play a role. New Jersey, with its multiple refineries and low state taxes, often has the cheapest gas in the nation. As of Tuesday, the average for a gallon of regular in the Garden State went for $2.905. In Alabama it was $3.026.
The study shows that the amount people spend on gasoline as a percentage of their income has about doubled since 2002. In that period, gas prices have tripled and oil prices have soared nearly five-fold. Nationally, Americans spend 3.8 percent of their income fueling one vehicle, versus 1.9 percent in 2002.
more...
Home depot showed 27% drop of earnings
One of the top home improvement retailer in America, HOME DEPOT, has lost 27 percent of its profit for the third quarter. analysts said that the housing sector is definitely struggling, just like other businesses.
Sales declined 3.5 percent to $18.96 billion, short of analysts' estimates of $19.4 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year, an important retail measure, fell 6.2 percent.
During a conference call, Chairman Frank Blake said Home Depot continued to lose overall home improvement market share but at a lower rate compared with the year earlier.
Results at Home Depot
Home Depot Inc
HD
29.12 0.66 +2.32%
NYSE
Quote | Chart | News | Profile | Add to Watchlist
[HD 29.12 0.66 (+2.32%) ] and rival Lowe's
Lowe's Companies Inc
LOW
25.05 0.68 +2.79%
NYSE
Quote | Chart | News | Profile | Add to Watchlist
[LOW 25.05 0.68 (+2.79%) ] have weakened as slowing home sales and sliding house prices led consumers to curb big-ticket projects such as kitchen remodels. Lowe's cut its full-year outlook in late September.
Crisis in the subprime-mortgage sector that serves borrowers with poor credit, rising foreclosures and higher fuel prices have exacerbated conditions for consumers.
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Wal Mart surprised with strong profit
The latest results included a tax benefit of 1 cent per share from the sale of real estate.
Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 67 cents per share excluding the gain, according to Reuters Estimates.
"These earnings numbers are actually pretty encouraging," HSBC Securities retail analyst Mark Husson told CNBC. "If you look across where they've made their money, they've made it in ... Division One, USA, which has been the problem division for sales, and yet operating earnings are up in double digits."
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Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Merrill Lynch discloses more billions in CDO exposure
Merrill Lynch said SEC staff initiated the inquiry on Oct. 24, the same day the company reported a $2.3 billion loss for the third quarter, mostly because of writedowns of subprime mortgage related assets. Merrill made the disclosure in a quarterly SEC filing. The company said it is cooperating with the SEC.
In addition, Merrill said its exposure to CDOs is now $15.82 billion, or about $600 million 
more than what the company revealed in its third-quarter earnings release on Oct. 24. The figure is larger because a hedge against potential loss was terminated recently after a dispute with a counterparty, which Merrill declined to name.
US Dollar still low against Yen for 3 months
Merrill Lynch's Wednesday news that its total exposure to risky collateralised debt obligations and subprime mortgages is $27.2 billion -- about $6.3 billion more than it disclosed last month -- also weighed on sentiment, he said.
"This suggests there are still potential additional losses, keeping the dollar firmly capped," the bank dealer said, adding player
s were wary before an earnings report later in the session from BNP Paribas, France's biggest listed bank.
Aussie umemployment increases;full time jobs also increase
Investors were too preoccupied with a revival in global credit concerns to give the data much attention. The S&P/ASX 200 Index sank 2.6 percent following a slide in U.S. equities while bond gained on safe-haven flows.
In any case, the jobs figures were considered too mixed to clarify the near-term risk of another rise in domestic rates.
Only the day before, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lifted interest rates to a decade high of 6.75 percent, warning the economy had to cool if inflation was to be restrained.
more...
First Solar profits soars; sales growth jumps
Net income was $46 million, or 58 cents per share, versus $4.3 million, or 6 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Revenues rose to $159 million from $40.8 million a year ago as the company ramped up production from its plant in Germany that opened earlier this year.
Strong demand for renewable energy sources have driven solar sector shares sharply higher over the past year. First Solar's shares have rallied by more than five-fold since they debuted in November last year.
Morgan Stanley will reduce $2.5 billion by 4Q
"Morgan Stanley can take the hit," said Sean Egan, managing director of Egan-Jones Ratings Co. in Philadelphia, an independent credit rating agency. "Of all the players we worry about, Morgan Stanley is nowhere near the top of the list."
The investment bank said it has reduced its net exposure to U.S. subprime debt -- defined as the potential loss if all of the debt's value were wiped out -- to $6 billion as of Oct. 31 from $10.4 billion as of Aug. 31
.
It has also reduced its total exposure to asset-backed collateralized debt obligations and related subprime debt to $9.3 billion on Oct. 31 from $12.3 billion on Aug. 31.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Foreign buyers prefer manhattan
Manhattan is the the new preferred place for foreign investors. Find out what are "ought to be lived for" reasons of buying houses and condo units in Manhattan.
Jonathan Miller, an executive vice president and the director of research at Radar Logic, estimates that foreign buyers have bought about 1,000 newly constructed or converted condos in Manhattan in the last 18 months, which is about a third of the condo sales in Manhattan in that period.
And while in the past an influx of foreign buyers could often be traced to boom times in a particular country, brokers say that the interest in Manhattan real estate is now worldwide, with buyers from Australia, Korea, Russia, Israel, Italy and Colombia.
Former treasury secretary to replace Prince at citigroup
The citigroup is now facing turmoil of problems, following the resignation of Charles O. Prince, the now former Chief Executive Officer of citigroup. Earlier this week, the company is allegedly considering Robert E. Rubin to replace the post of Mr. Prince. Mr. Rubin is the former treasury secretary.
Mr. Rubin’s standing at Citigroup has long been contentious. In better times, his role as a 
board member and chairman of the bank’s executive committee was often referred to as the “best job in the world.”
He has collected more than $150 million in cash and stock over eight years to serve as the bank’s elder statesman, meeting with important clients and building relationships with government and business leaders around the world, though his contract states that he is to have no daily operational responsibilities.
Prince Charles steps down at Citigroup
Charles Prince, the chief executive of one of the leading banking industries in America, has resigned from his post as chairman and chief executive of the citigroup. Was the resignation due to estimated billions of losses? Find out....
Prince's departure ends a tumultuous four-year tenure marked by heavy management turnover, questions over strategy, and mounting losses from bad loans and mortgages. It also comes five days after Merrill Lynch ousted its own chief executive, Stanley O'Neal, following an $8.4 billion writedown.
Meanwhile, shifts in Citi's executive suite may not be over just yet, depending on who gets the nod as new permanent chief executive. CNBC has learned that Vikram Pandit, who heads Citi's investment banking and alternative investment businesses, has told people inside the company that he will quit if Citi selects NYSE Euronext CEO John Thain as its new head.
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