Archive for August 11th, 2009

China fired another round in its ongoing trade dispute with Australia when it formally arrested four Rio Tinto employees it had accused of bribery and spying. Normal 0 false false false EN-US ZH-TW X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan;… »

With bond markets soaring and investors piling cash into fixed-income funds, the mammoth mutual fund manager Vanguard unveiled seven new bond index funds on Tuesday. Expected to open to investors by the end of the year, the funds track a range of corporate and government bond indexes from Barclays Capital. One tracks mortgage-backed securities. As… »

The Euro is losing its friends, said Andrew Wilkinson, a senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group, and could fall as low as 1.33 by the end of the summer.The argument for the euro has centered on the Eurozone’s tempered measures in stimulating its economy, at least compared Britain and the United States. Many on… »

Retailers know that this year the back-to-school season won’t be enough to get consumers back to shopping. Unemployment remains a focal concern as consumers keep spending limited to necessities – and the occasional bargain. As retailers gear up to report quarterly earnings, the market will be looking to see how stores plan on luring shoppers… »

You have to feel sorry for Willie Walsh. His reputation as a turnaround king, borne out of his track record at previous company Aer Lingus, is taking a pasting now that he’s at the helm of British Airways. The airline that once boasted it was the “world’s favorite” posted its biggest-ever annual loss in May,… »

Dick Bove, vice president of equity research at Rochdale Research, thinks the banking industry is an attractive long-term investment, but for now he believes bank stocks are running on fumes and recommends investors take short-term profits.”The issue as I see it is that bank earnings will not improve in the third or even fourth quarter… »

When it came to explaining UBS’ woeful performance in the second quarter during a conference call last week, Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel was very blunt about what had gone wrong at his fixed-income division. “I would say the three issues are people, people and people,” he told the analyst who had asked him what the… »

Sales may be down while unemployment is up but retailers are doing well, nonetheless. Since the start of the year the sector has walloped the broad market by a wide margin. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF gained 55% since Jan. 1 while the S&P 500 is up just over 10%. Now, with the biggest retailers… »

Commodity costs have been a huge boon to packaged food companies, along with favorable dining trends as consumers prepare more meals at home to conserve cash. Sales of cheap, quick and satisfying meal options are heating up in the current environment, leading Sara Lee to focus on packaged meat product lines like Hillshire Farm and… »

European carmakers which had been pinning their hopes on tasty opportunities in the Russian car market will have to look elsewhere in the short term. “We do not expect any substantial improvements in the sales figures in the coming months while the government doesn’t plan to implement any additional incentive measures for car buyers,” analysts… »