Nike beats expectations, shares pop

September 30, 2009

beat quarterly profit as deep cost cuts and lower taxes more than offset lower revenue in Key markets like the and , sending its shares up 4.4%. The world’s top athletic shoe and apparel maker stressed it was gaining market share and stood to benefit when the global improved. But executives warned that retailers and consumers remained wary going into the pivotal holiday season, which accounts for the bulk of most retailers’ yearly sales. “People are still going to be relatively cautious going through that holiday period,” Nike Brand President Charlie Denson told analysts on a conference call, adding that Nike saw “sequential improvement” in retail orders through spring. Nike’s fiscal first-quarter net profit was US$513.0, or $1.04/shr, compared with US$510.5M, or $1.03/shr, a year earlier. Analysts, on average, had expected 97 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates. Revenue fell 12% to US$4.8B from US$5.4B a year earlier, when orders in advance of the Beijing Olympics and the European soccer championships boosted sales.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Crude Oil settles at 10 month high on Friday

August 24, 2009

rose about US$1 toward US$74bbl to settle at a 10 month high Friday as data in the United States promised economic recovery and a revival in energy demand. US Crude for October delivery settled up 98 cents at US$73.89bbl, the highest settle since October 20. London Brent crude for October settled up 86 cents at US$74.19bbl gained US$6.38 on the week, about 10%, from the US$67.51 settle on August 14. The US$ was down against the Euro, helping to support prices, with showing some appetite for risk.

Popularity: unranked [?]

The USA’s Shrinking Trade Deficit

May 8, 2009

The ’s is collapsing at the fastest rate on record, a testament to the ability of a worldwide recession to sharply reduce global economic imbalances that had grown to unprecedented size. The United States estimated this week that the , as a percent of fell to 2.4% in Y 2009 Q-1, the smallest deficit in a decade. Declining trade deficits in the United States are likely to be matched by falling trade surpluses in countries that have historically been net exporters. That is one reason Germany’s appears to be slowing and has embarked on a huge economic stimulus program of its own that appears to be working. The shrinking is not being caused by a rebound in American exports. They are falling as well, but not nearly as much as imports are declining.

Popularity: 4% [?]

US mobile banking market set for take-off

April 1, 2009

Technology companies like Sybase () and VeriSign (VRSN) are looking to tap robust growth in the nascent US mobile market as text message use rises and aggressively explore ways to save. Mobile services typically allow users to make payments, check balances, transfer between accounts and generate statements of recent transactions on their handsets. In the deepening recession, mobile is seen as a cost saver for , as customers who use mobile make fewer calls to customer service.”The big are all moving aggressively,” said , chief executive of Mobile Ventures, a joint venture between Citigroup Inc (C) and top South Korean mobile carrier (017670.KS). Text messaging, initially slow to catch on in the , has been getting more popular with Americans, especially younger ones.

Popularity: 4% [?]

A Rising US$ Lifts the US but adds to the crisis abroad

March 19, 2009

US investors are decamping foreign ventures and bringing their US$s home, entrusting them to the supposed bedrock safety of bonds, and China continues to buy huge quantities of the ’s debt. These actions are lifting the value of the US$, and providing the Obama administration with a crucial infusion of financing as it directs trillions of US$s toward rescuing and stimulating the , enabling the to pay for these efforts without raising rates. The movement of this money back to the appears to be exacerbating the financial crisis world wide. A US$ invested by foreign central and investors in US bonds is a US$ that is not available to Eastern countries desperately seeking to debt, also, it is a US$ that cannot reach Africa, where many countries are struggling with the loss of aid and foreign investment.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Ailing U.S. banks may require more aid to stay solvent

February 19, 2009

Some of the large in the may require more aid to remain solvent, say some economists and other finance experts. This is a sobering commentary on the growing mountain of losses that can overwhelm the value of the ’ assets.”The system is effectively insolvent,” it quoted Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at the at University, as saying. He estimates that total losses on loans by financial firms and the fall in the market value of their assets will reach US$3.6T, up from his previous estimate of US$2T according to the Times last week.

U.S. Treasury Secretary unveiled a plan last week to soak up as much as US$1T in bad assets on ’ books and expand a program to support up to US$1Tin new loans. The market yawned and rolled over as experts said that in order for the US to resume the ample lending needed to restart the wheels of commerce, bigger, and more direct government role than in the Treasury Department’s plan called outlined. The government needs to really get in and close the weakest , inject capital into the surviving , and sell off the bad assets sooner rather then later.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Clicky Web Analytics