Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News
- Vodafone swings to profit. Vodafone (VOD) swung to a £6.66B ($13.2B) profit for the year, from a £5.43B loss a year ago. Sales rose 14% to £35.48B, just beating analyst consensus of £35.2B. Looking ahead, Vodafone sees 2009 revenue of £39.8-40.7B and operating profit of £11-11.5B. CEO Arun Sarin said he's stepping down in July, to be replaced by deputy Vittorio Colao. Shares gained 2.2% in London.
- LG mulls bid for GE unit. LG Electronics is considering a bid for GE's (GE) appliance unit, which is up for grabs.
- Home buyers go bargain hunting. While home sales remain weak, they are rising in some areas -- those where lenders are offering deep discounts on foreclosed properties, including Las Vegas, Sacramento, and Detroit.
- Auction-rate suits on shaky ground. Legal experts say at least 24 proposed class-action suites against broker-dealers including Citigroup (C) and Morgan Stanley (MS) for the $330B failure of the auction-rate securities market will have a hard time making a case. "I don't see how you get around the fact that, for the most part, the investors are doing better," former SEC lawyer David Gourevitch says.
- Small business sentiment weak, but improved. Small business owners think the U.S. economy is deteriorating, though sentiment was up slightly from recent lows. 28% of business owners say business is improving, up from 24% in April. 71% feel the economy is worsening.
- Microsoft calling Yell? Shares of UK local search engine Yell.com gained as much as 5.4% on rumors Microsoft (MSFT) is mulling a bid for the company.
- BUDding merger. Belgian business daily De Tijd says InBev's board will decide today whether to allow its advisers to start negotiating with Anheuser Busch (BUD). Shares of InBev fell 2.8%.
- Betting dollar pegs will relax. Hedge funds and currency investors are betting heavily gulf nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will loosen their dollar pegs and allow their currencies to rise. "The rope is pretty strained, and once it breaks, the rubber raft is going to shoot to the surface," one fund manager says.
- Private equity deals rising from dead? Private-equity firms Blackstone (BX) and Apollo Management are in talks to buy Chemtura (CEM), a manufacturer of specialty chemicals. Chemtura as a market cap of about $1.9B. Chemtura said in December it would pursue strategic alternatives.
- HSBC warns worst may not be over. HSBC (HBC) CEO Michael Geoghegan says the bank may see further losses on its U.S. subprime assets. "We see a slowing of provision requirements in the first quarter. But is this permanent? We do not know," he said this morning in Hong Kong. "We are not convinced yet that the worst is over." HSBC put aside $3.2B for bad debt in Q1, down from a previous $4.6B. Noteworthy: 80% of the bank's subprime mortgage borrowers continue to make repayments.
Today's Markets
- Asian markets were mainly higher. Nikkei +1.5%. Hang Seng +0.6%. Shanghai +0.3%. BSE Sensex -0.45%.
- In Europe, markets are largely down at midday. FTSE +0.08%. CAC -0.66%. DAX -0.3%.
- U.S. futures are down at 7:15 AM. Dow -0.17%. S&P -0.11%. Nasdaq +0.03%
- Gold -0.33% to $923. Oil +0.79% to $133.24.
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This article has 15 comments:
Yes, that's what it means. Look for engineered dollar strength in response to this ("see, it doesn't matter!"), but then back to trend, and probably accelerated.
Worst. President. Ever.
Eli Hoffmann
I see the BDS afflicted (Bush derangement syndrome) have shown up. Too bad you can't see the socialism that your favorite candidate will bring. God help us all.
I guess...
Kowkabany
And he did not make fools buy houses.......
In your 'Todays markets' summary, could you pls include the closing values of the respective markets? Its very useful to quickly scan the values as well as the %
Thanks
re-designing their next rocket.