Archive for July 17th, 2009

Texas Instruments, one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, will be releasing its second quarter balance sheet, and Wall Street is expecting 18 cents per share. Texas Instruments has seen its stock rise 48.3% since the beginning of the year. Analog Devices has risen 34.7% and National Semiconductors has gained 36.2%. The Technology SPDR exchange-traded… »

Although prospects for automotive parts supplier Johnson Controls wouldn’t seem great, given weak auto sales, the company has been working to strengthen its other businesses, helping it accelerate ahead of weaker rivals. When Johnson Controls reports third-quarter earnings on Monday, analysts anticipate earnings of 18 cents a share on sales of 7.4 billion. The real… »

Boston Scientific’s second quarter report will be a point of departure for its new management team and its effort to get the medical equipment maker back on track.There’s reason to be optimistic. On Monday Boston Scientific is expected to report earnings of 13 cents per share. Late last month Michael Weinstein, an analyst at JPMorgan… »

Much of the same factors that afflicted the oil services sector during the first quarter: tight margins and lower rigs counts arising from slowed drilling activity, persisted into the second quarter. However, as oil prices have moderated, so have analysts’ estimates, resulting in reporting season that isn’t expected to hold many surprises. As the oilfield… »

Investor RHJ International, a bidder for Adam Opel, was moving closer to strike a deal with the struggling carmaker as fresh details of its plans emerged on Friday. RHJ Chief Executive Leonhard Fischer said the Belgian investment fund would cut a maximum of some 10,000 jobs at General Motors’ Opel unit if successful in its… »

Housing data this week were encouraging, with home building figures and industry sentiment measurements exceeding expectations, and some forecasters are straying into 2009′s heresy and calling bottoms for the national residential housing market.June housing starts unexpectedly rose to 582,000, the highest level since November of 2008, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Friday. The Street had… »

Risanamento, a little known Italian real estate company could create big waves for Italy’s banks. Several Italian banks including Intesa Sanpaolo and Banco Popolare are facing the prospect of sizable losses should the Milan-based firm go bankrupt.Risanamento has been summoned to a court hearing on July 29, after a state prosecutor sought a declaration of… »

Will 1 billion be enough to get British Airways through a dour mix of slumping premium traffic, swine flu and staffing disputes? This was certainly the hope of investors as the beleaguered British airline announced plans to raise that amount by issuing convertible bonds and tapping funding that was set aside for its pension fund.Shares… »

Renault’s efforts to keep a tight rein on its cash seem to be paying off. The French carmaker said Friday that car sales fell 13.7% in the first half of the year, but it had also achieved “significantly positive free cash flow.” Other European carmakers like Volkswagen and BMW are expected to end the year… »

The truth is being driven home to Nokia every quarter: being innovative is tough when you’re the biggest phone maker in the world. The Finnish behemoth disappointed investors on Thursday after it lowered its outlook for the rest of the year, going back on previous forecasts to predict its market share for mobile devices would… »