Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings Corp. has agreed to acquire medical equipment maker SonoSite Inc. (NASDAQ: SONO) for $995 million, including debt. The offer is $54/share, a premium of about 28% over SonoSite’s closing price yesterday.…
Shares of US automakers General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) were hit yesterday on the threat of a tariff on cars imported for sale into China. The government’s threat…
When it comes to executive pay, the amounts paid to today’s highest paid CEOs equals the GDP of a small emerging nation. The ten most highly compensated CEOs according to a recent survey by…
In 2009, just 18% of all mobile phone users owned a smartphone. By October of this year, that total had reached 44%, with the iPhone 4 from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) as the most…
The NASDAQ has always been considering the heavyweight exchange for technology listing, and it just put on more weight today with an announcement from Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) that the chipmaker would move…
US equity markets are getting a boost this morning from better than expected news on several fronts. First-time unemployment benefits claims fell last week from a revised 385,000 in the previous week to 366,000,…
What appeared just a few days ago to be an agreement on a funding bill to pay for government expenditures through next year now looks to be another in a long string of might-have-beens.…
The latest entry in the line of PlayStations from Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) is set for launch this weekend. The company has been touring Japan for the past several weeks to drum up interest…
Home foreclosures in the US fell by 3% month-over-month in November and by 14% year-over-year. Foreclosures totaled 224,934 in November. That’s the latest report from foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac. That is not altogether good…
The decision taken yesterday at the OPEC oil ministers’ meeting in Vienna to formalize a new production limit of 30 million barrels/day, up from the previously agreed quota of 24.85 million barrels/day, has pushed…
The West African nation of Burkina Faso sold 100% of this year’s organic cotton crop to factories in India and Sri Lanka where it was made into garments for retailer Victoria’s Secret, a division…
US stock futures are higher this morning, as markets look to end a three-day streak of losses. European markets are also higher, but Asian markets are down on news that China’s PMI was down…
Semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) will acquire competitor Novellus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NVLS) in an all-stock deal worth an estimated $3.3 billion. Novellus shareholders will receive 1.125 shares of Lam Research…
Equity markets started the day down and stayed there all day. Traders were mirroring the action on European and Asian markets, which all settled down before the US markets opened this morning. Falling crude…
The government of Brazil is asking Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) to stop its drilling program offshore of Brazil following a 2,400 barrel leak. The federal prosecutor is also asking the company to pay $10.7…
The US Treasury auctioned $13 billion in 30-year government bonds this morning at a record low yield of 2.925%. Analysts were expecting a yield of 2.976%. The lower yields mean that the federal government…
Nine earthquakes have been recorded in an area near Youngstown, Ohio, between March and November of this year. All have been mild, but the quakes didn’t begin until a drilling company began injecting waste…
The latest report on job openings indicated that there are 3.27 million positions to be filled. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there are 35% more jobs available now than there were in…
Gold is now trading at $1,584.40, down about -3.85%, well below its 200-day moving average of $1,612.80, causing traders to wonder if the record streak of closings above the average is about to come…
The US International Trade Commission has once again delayed its ruling on a filing by Taiwan’s HTC Corp. alleging infringement on the company’s patents by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Apple is also seeking to…