Archive for August 3rd, 2009

Commodity costs are much cheaper than a year ago, so you’d think the food sector would have an easier time pleasing the Street with higher profits. But it’s not that simple: Consumers remain a challenge as companies vie for a bigger portion of their limited spending. Whole Foods Market has seen its number of shoppers… »

It’s been on the lips of analysts, investors and bankers for months: commercial real estate. While the second wave of delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures could further harm the beleaguered banking industry, commercial loans are more complicated than home mortgages and some institutions will fare better than others, says Deutsche Bank analyst Richard Parkus.First, the bad… »

Analysts don’t anticipate that The IntercontinentalExchange will be hurt by possible upcoming regulatory changes. Meanwhile, ICE continues to try to build a transparent market place for derivative securities and credit default swaps.Kenneth Worthington and Funda Akarsu at JPMorgan Chase set a target price of 118.00 for the stock, which is currently trading at about 93.00…. »

Two sets of similar earnings, two different ways to get them. While net profits at HSBC more than halved to around 3.4 billion for the first six months of the year, they rose by 10% at Barclays to approximately 3.2 billion. While HSBC has been focusing on building up its Tier one capital ratio with… »

Media behemoths are fighting for survival, but the market for news mediums is thriving. Britain’s Plastic Logic has confirmed it will be launching its own version of the Kindle in the U.S. at the start of next year. The device, which will be the world’s first flexible electronic screen, is expected to retail at a… »

HSBC has probably never loved and loathed accountants quite so much. Analysts had thought the bank would report a loss in the hundreds of millions on Monday, after it said in May that an accounting charge on a rights issue in April would lead to a 4.7 billion write-down on its books. Yet thanks to… »

Savient Pharmaceuticals has said the Food and Drug Administration declined to approve its drug Krystexxa, for chronic gout. Approval was widely expected, and the news could shake Wall Street’s faith in the tiny company. Savient Pharmaceuticals says the FDA wants it to figure out how to explain Krystexxa’s risks to patients, which include severe allergic… »

Germany’s Metro dashed hopes for a speedy recovery among European retailers, on Monday. The country’s largest retailer said it saw signs of further decline in its business in the second half of the year, despite having posted better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter.Shares of Metro fell 1%, or 40 euro cents , to 40.23 euros… »