Archive for July, 2009

The recession may be nearing an end, but don’t expect the economy to fall back into its old habits, says Bill Gross, manager of the world’s largest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management. Once it returns, economic growth will look meager compared with recent decades, he adds. Some assets are likely to suffer, such as… »

There has been a surge in corporate deals lately, from Sprint Nextel and Virgin Mobile USA to IBM and SPSS. Sprint Nextel acquired Virgin Mobile USA on July 28 for 483 million, including Sprint’s previous 13.1% diluted ownership in the company. That same day, IBM acquired predictive analytics firm SPSS for 1.2 billion in cash…. »

UBS has narrowly avoided a court hearing after reaching an “agreement in principle” with U.S. authorities over a tax conflict that has mired the bank’s road to recovery.The agreement was reached on “major issues” while outstanding issues were expected to be resolved in the coming week, UBS said in a statement on Friday. It follows… »

The debate over mark-to-market accounting—whether to value assets at market prices—will take on a strange twist once banks, investors and regulators get wind of the latest proposal from the group that sets accounting standards. Under new rules being reviewed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, companies will have to record gains or losses in the… »

Some of Europe’s biggest automakers surprised the market after posting substantial positive free cash flows during a busy earnings week for the sector.German automaker Volkswagen on Thursday posted an actual profit with a hefty 12.3 billion euro cash reserve, while France’s Renault posted a loss it managed to generate positive free cash flow of 848… »

With demand crumbling, tire maker Michelin is not yet out of the woods. Still, the Paris-based company managed to post a small operating profit and stuck to its cash flow goals, cheering investors.Shares of Michelin rose 6.4%, or 3.02 euros , to 50.53 euros in morning trading in Paris. “In this environment it is hard… »

Taking stock can sometimes lead to taking profit, especially for the oil industry. Total and Eni were the last of the big European majors to report quarterly earnings on Friday-with the exception of StatoilHydro-and the industry-wide pattern of slumping profits, falling production levels and crumbling refining margins were all on display. After a week of… »

British Airways should have been raking back business in the last quarter as travelers took the skies for the early summer months. Instead, the airline posted its first loss in decades for the busy May-to-June period. The airline posted a loss of 106 million pounds in the three months to June. Sales tumbled by 12%… »

Cynthia Carroll has much to prove. The chief executive of Anglo American has rebuffed a no-premium, merger of equals proposal from rival Xstrata and is fighting back against shareholder criticism that she’s not doing enough to cut costs after a string of acquisitions during the commodities boom. Anglo now seems to be making a strong… »

China vowed to use World Trade Organization tools to protect its exporters from trade protectionism cases. The Ministry of Commerce predicted China will be a major target of trade protectionism and thus will encounter more anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and special protection cases, especially from the U.S. and India, as these trading competitors are striving to survive… »