More Ads Coming to Facebook
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) is testing an advertising service that allows companies to place more promotional messages in the News Feeds of users, even if those members or their friends have not signaled they…
All Work
Trey Thoelcke
Olympics Boosts U.K. Employment
The Office for National Statistics, the United Kingdom’s largest independent producer of official statistics, reported Wednesday that the unemployment rate in the U.K. fell to 8% in the three months to June 2012, down…
Staples Tumbles on Disappointing Q2, Lower Outlook
Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) tumbled in premarket trading after posting disappointing second-quarter results and lowering its full-year guidance. The retailer reported quarterly earnings of $120.4 million, or $0.18 per share, and $5.5 billion in…
New Mobile Payments Network to Rival Google Wallet
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), CVS Caremark Corp. (NYSE: CVS), 7-Eleven Inc., Sunoco Inc. (NYSE: SUN) and other well-known retailers are expected to announce that they have banded together to develop a mobile payments…
TJX Falls Despite Earnings Beat
TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) reported earlier this morning that its second-quarter profit came to $421 million, or $0.56 per share, and revenue totaled $6 billion. The results were up from $348.3 million, or $0.45…
Samsung Mobile Phone Sales Remain Strong Despite Overall Decline
Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, announced today that worldwide sales of mobile phones declined 2.3% in second quarter to 419 million units, compared to the year-ago quarter. Smartphone sales, which accounted…
Michael Kors Profit Doubles on Strong Sales Growth
Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) has surged in premarket trading following this morning’s fiscal first quarter report. Michael Kors said earnings more than doubled from a year ago to $68.6 million, or $0.34…
Standard Chartered CEO in New York, Shareholders Push for Quick Settlement
Peter Sands, CEO of Standard Chartered, has flown to New York to personally take charge of the bank’s attempts to reach a settlement with U.S. regulators over allegations it hid transactions involving Iran. The…
Eurozone Q2 GDP and June Industrial Output Fall
nationsonline.orgFlash estimates published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, showed that gross domestic product in the eurozone fell by 0.2% during the second quarter of 2012, compared with the previous quarter.…
Economic Sentiment for Germany Falls in August
The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany slipped 5.9 points in August 2012 to a level of -25.5 points. While this is the lowest value of the indicator so…
Bank of America Sells Merrill Lynch International Unit
The Julius Baer Group has announced that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is selling Merrill Lynch’s international wealth management business to the Swiss private banking firm for approximately 860 million Swiss francs ($884.8 million),…
Nelson Peltz Joins Ingersoll-Rand Board
In order to avoid a proxy fight, Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE: IR) has named activist investor Nelson Peltz to its board of directors. Eleven of those board members, including Peltz, are independent directors. Peltz will…
Tesoro to Buy BP Refining and Marketing Business
Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO) announced that it that is has agreed to purchase BP PLC’s (NYSE: BP) integrated Southern California refining and marketing business for $1.18 billion, plus the value of inventory at the…
U.S. Markets Set to Open Lower on Fears of Global Slump
U.S. stock futures are marginally lower this morning, suggesting the S&P 500 Index could halt its longest advance in 20 months. Reports of slowing growth in Japan fueled concern that the global economy is…
Biotech: Dendreon and Regeneron Draw Short Interest
The short interest data is out from the July 31 settlement date and, with a couple of notable exceptions, short sellers generally have retreated from their gambles on biotech firms. For the period that…
U.S. Stocks Headed for Weaker Open on Chinese Trade Data
U.S. stock index futures are headed for a weaker open this morning, with futures for the Standard & Poor’s 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 down 0.3% to 0.5%. The S&P 500 index…
Kohl’s Opens Higher on Earnings Beat
Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS) opened higher this morning after the company posted a better-than-expected second-quarter profit as cost cutting offset weak sales. The retailer said its quarterly profit totaled $240 million, or $1.00 per…
OPEC Oil Demand Forecast for 2012 Remains Unchanged
In its August report on the global oil market, OPEC forecasts that demand growth for crude will grow by 900,000 barrels a day in 2012, unchanged from July’s report. The cartel is less certain…
Investors Not Impressed with Ralcorp Earnings
Investors do not seem impressed after Ralcorp Holdings Inc. (NYSE: RAH) said this morning that acquisitions helped boost its fiscal third-quarter profit. Shares are down slightly in early trading. The St. Louis maker of…
Computer Sciences Surges on Earnings Beat
Net income for Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC) fell to $42 million, or 26 cents per share, from $183 million, or $1.17 per share, in the same period of last year. And the company…