Latest News In Stock Market Investment Research – Dec 26, 2008

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India’s Reliance refinery could lean on oil margins: Journal

26 Dec 2008 at 1:16am

MADRID (MarketWatch) — India’s Reliance Industries Ltd. on Thursday revved up operations at its 580,000-barrel-a-day refinery in western India, a move that will likely raise pressure on refining margins globally, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The new refinery will form the world’s largest refining complex in Jamnagar in western India, with a capacity of 1.24 million barrels a day. Reliance said it expects the refinery to reach full capacity shortly, but the company will likely have a slow ramp-up owing to a slump in the global demand for oil products and weaker refining margins, the report said. “We will leverage our competitive advantage of scale, complexity and capability to process a wide range of crude oils and flexibility to produce high-quality transportation fuels, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani said in a prepared statement, The Journal reported. The new refinery is owned by Reliance’s Reliance Petroleumn Ltd. unit, in which oil company Chevron Corp. has a 5% stake.

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Retail sales plunge in Nov., Dec.: Journal

26 Dec 2008 at 1:05am

MADRID (MarketWatch) — Price-slashing failed to materialize into momentum for retail sales in the months of November and December according to new data released by MasterCard Inc.’s SpendingPulse unit, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell over the year-earlier period by 5.5% in November and 8% in December through Christmas Eve, the data showed. Stripping out gasoline sales, the fall in overall retail sales were 2.5% in November and 4% in December. The data showed that a 40% plunge in gasoline prices over the year-earlier period were a key reason for the sharp fall in sales.

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Japan’s unemployment rate rises to 3.9% in November

26 Dec 2008 at 12:20am

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Japan’s seasonally-adjusted jobless rate climbed to a lower-than-expected 3.9% in November, rising 0.2 percentage points from the previous month, according to official data released Friday. The number of unemployed people persons increased by 100,000 during the month to 2.56 million. Economists had expected the monthly unemployment rate to jump to 4%.

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Japan’s November inflation rises a lower-than-expected 1%

26 Dec 2008 at 12:19am

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Japan’s core consumer price index rose a lower-than-expected 1% in November from the year-earlier period on higher food charges, according to official data released Friday. The core data, which excludes fresh food items because of their price volatility, had risen 1.9% in October. The data estimated that consumer prices in the Tokyo metropolitan area could rise 0.8% in December from the year-earlier month.

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Japan’s November industrial output drops by a record 8.1%

26 Dec 2008 at 12:17am

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Japan’s industrial output fell a record 8.1% in November from the previous month as Japanese companies produced less automobiles and other machinery on waning demand, official figures showed Friday. The drop reportedly represents the biggest decline in industrial production since the government started releasing the data in 1953. Economists expected industrial output to fall 6.8%, after it fell 3.1% in October.

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New York Times selling Boston Red Sox stake

25 Dec 2008 at 4:08pm

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — The New York Times is actively shopping the company’s stake in New England Sports Ventures, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. The New York Times Company paid $75 million for a 17.5% stake in the holding company for the Boston Red Sox and New England Sports Network in 2002. It is the second largest shareholder behind hedge fund billionaire John Henry. The newspaper publisher has been under pressure to sell noncore assets. The Times said Wednesday that total ad revenue fell 20.9% in November. The weakness also crept into Internet advertising, which was down 4% during the month.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

New York Times selling Red Sox stake

25 Dec 2008 at 12:58pm

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — The New York Times is actively shopping the company’s stake in New England Sports Ventures, the paper reported. The New York Times Company paid $75 million for a 17.5% stake in the holding company for the Boston Red Sox and New England Sports Network. The newspaper publisher has been under pressure to sell noncore assets. The Times said Wednesday that total ad revenue fell 20.9% in November. The weakness also crept into Internet advertising, which was down 4% during the month.

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Parents of slain Chabad emissaries light menorah in Mumbai

25 Dec 2008 at 11:06am

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — A-16 foot public menorah was lit outside the Nariman House in Mumbai Thursday evening by the parents of the rabbi and his wife who were tragically murdered there in last month’s terror attacks. Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, his wife Rivka and four Jewish visitors were killed by Islamic militants in the Nov. 26-29 attacks. Their two-year old son escaped with the aid of an Indian caregiver. The Holtzberg’s were emissaries, or shluchem, of Chabad, a Hassidic Jewish organization known for its outreach activities all over the world. The rabbi’s parents, Rabbi Nachman and Frida Holtzberg and the rebbetzin’s parents, Yehudit and Shimon Rosenberg, were joined by several friends and relatives at the ceremony as they lit for the fifth night of Hanukkah. The Chabad House was one of 10 sites targeted by Islamic militants in attacks that left 164 people.

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Harold Pinter dead at 78

25 Dec 2008 at 9:06am

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — British dramatist, actor and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter passed away from cancer Wednesday, his wife and agent Lady Antonia Fraser said Thursday. The playwright known for his dark humor and pregnant pauses in works such as “The Birthday Party” and “The Dumb Waiter” was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005. An outspoken critic of the Iraq war, Pinter turned down an offer of knighthood by former conservative Prime Minister John Major. Pinter was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in 2002.

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China Eastern Airlines stock suspended in Shanghai

24 Dec 2008 at 7:32pm

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — China Eastern Airlines Corp. said trading in its Shanghai-listed shares will be suspended from Thursday through Monday, as its parent company plans to make “material adjustments” to a share subscription plan announced earlier. The airline had said earlier this month that it will raise 3 billion yuan ($435 million) by selling shares to its state-owned parent, China Eastern Air Holding Co.

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Isuzu Motors to implement pay cuts in Japan

24 Dec 2008 at 5:58pm

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Isuzu Motors has decided to implement temporary pay cuts for all its full-time employees in Japan in response to a steep decline in truck sales, the Nikkei businesss daily reported Thursday. Compensation of executive-level employees will be cut by around 30% from January, while managerial staff will take about a 10% pay cut from spring, the report said. The company also plans to propose a pay cut to the labor union to reduce annual personnel costs by 200,000 yen ($2,222) per employee. Union members currently earn an average monthly base wage of 300,000 yen. The temporary pay cuts could last a year or longer, the report added.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

Tokyo stocks advance, taking cue from Wall Street gains

24 Dec 2008 at 5:34pm

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Japanese stocks advanced Thursday in light trading as exporters such as Elpida Memory Inc. and financials like Nomura Holdings gained in the wake of gains on Wall Street in a shortened trading session on Christmas Eve. The Nikkei 225 Average rose 0.4% to 8,552.62, after dropping 2.4% in the previous trading session, and the broader Topix Index added 0.6% to 832.21. Stock markets in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Sydney, Seoul and Singapore were closed for Christmas.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

GMAC gains bank-holding-company approval

24 Dec 2008 at 5:06pm

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — GMAC Financial Services said Wednesday that its application to become a bank holding company under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 has been approved by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. In addition, GMAC Bank has received approval from the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to convert to a state bank. GMAC said the approval means it will have “expanded opportunities for funding and access to capital, which will provide increased flexibility and stability.” GMAC had sought the designation in part because it wanted to tap the availability of federal bailout funds. GMAC said its previously announced separate private debt exchange offers and cash tender offers, which were subject to the approval of the bank holding company application, are ongoing and will expire on Dec. 26.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

Oil tumbles 9.3% as Cushing inventories hit record

24 Dec 2008 at 11:54am

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures fell for a third session Wednesday, tumbling 9.3% to close below $36 a barrel, as government data showed inventories at a key delivery point hit a record. Crude for February delivery dropped $3.63 to end at $35.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude inventories at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for Nymex crude futures contracts, reached 28.7 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 19, the Energy Information Administration reported. It was the highest since at least April 2004, when the government started collecting Cushing data.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

Gold slightly higher amid mixed trading in dollar

24 Dec 2008 at 11:34am

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) – Gold futures closed slightly higher Wednesday in the shortened pre-holiday session amid mixed trading in the U.S. dollar. Gold for February delivery ended up $9.90, or 1.2%, at $848 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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December 26 2008 12:34 am | Stock Market News

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