Latest News In Stock market Investment Research – May 07, 2010

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European shares slide in early trading

7 May 2010 at 12:07am

LONDON (MarketWatch) — European shares fell on Friday morning, with Germany due to vote on aid to Greece, early indications of a hung parliament in the U.K. and massive stock losses in the U.S. overnight all adding to uncertainly. “It’s almost a perfect storm,” said Philippe Gijsels, strategist at BNP Paribas Fortis global markets. Banks were hit again, with Credit Agricole shares down 4.7% and Societe Generale shares down 4%. The U.K. FTSE 100 index fell 1.7% to 5,170.50, the German DAX index fell 2.2% to 5,776.79 and the French CAC-40 index dropped 3.2% to 3,442.82.

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European stock futures point to opening slide

6 May 2010 at 11:38pm

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Stock futures for major European stock market indexes pointed to an opening slide Friday after the tumble on Wall Street, the hung parliament in the U.K. and the ongoing worries over Greece. FTSE 100 futures fell 2.7%, German DAX futures dropped 2.2% and French CAC 40 futures fell 2.9%. U.S. stock futures by contrast held up, with the S&P 500 futures contract down 0.1%.

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Panasonic fiscal-year loss narrows but sales slip

6 May 2010 at 11:32pm

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Panasonic Corp. said Friday its full-year loss narrowed to 103.5 billion yen ($1.12 billion), or 49.97 yen a share, from 379.0 billion yen, or 182.25 yen a share, in fiscal 2009. Net sales for the year fell to 7.42 trillion yen in the year ended March 2010, compared to 7.77 trillion yen in the previous year. For the current fiscal year, the consumer electronics giant said it “anticipates the market conditions to continue to be unpredictable due to yen appreciation and ever-intensified global competition,” and forecast it would swing to a profit of 50.0 billion yen on sales of 8.80 trillion yen. Shares of Panasonic ended down 2.5% ahead of the results.

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Bonds drop, pound tumbles after U.K. vote

6 May 2010 at 11:26pm

LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.K. government bonds dropped and the British pound tumbled Friday as election results seemed to show a hung parliament with the Tories as the largest party. The yield on two-year U.K. government bonds rose 6 basis points to 1.13% and the yield on the 10-year rose 5 basis to 3.80%. Yields move in the opposite direction to prices. The British pound fell as low as $1.4594 but recently traded down to $1.4707 from $1.4874.

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BP: Three months to finish relief well

6 May 2010 at 11:20pm

LONDON (MarketWatch) — BP said it is expected to take some three months to finish work on the first relief well as it attempts to contain a leak in the Gulf of Mexico. To date the oil spill response team has recovered about 30,000 barrels of oil-water mix, BP said. The total length of deployed boom is now over 700,000 feet as part of the efforts to stop oil reaching the coast. Some one million feet is available and more than 300,000 feet is on order. Suitable weather conditions allowed controlled burning of surface oil to be carried out.

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Munich Re’s first-quarter profit rises 11%

6 May 2010 at 11:18pm

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — Munich Re said Friday its first-quarter profit rose 11.3% to 482 million euros ($607 million) from 433 million euros in the year-ago period. Gross premiums written increased 12.4% to 11.66 billion euros from 10.37 billion euros. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires expected net profit of 419 million euros and gross premium revenue of 10.63 billion euros. For 2010, Munich Re expects gross premiums written in its primary insurance and reinsurance business to be between 43 billion and 45 billion euros. Munich Re is also aiming to achieve full-year profit of over 2 billion euros.

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.


Royal Bank of Scotland posts smaller loss

6 May 2010 at 11:15pm

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Royal Bank of Scotland said Friday that its statutory first-quarter net loss narrowed to 248 million pounds ($364.2 million), from 902 million pounds in the year ago period. Impairment losses were 2.67 billion pounds, an improvement on the previous year’s 2.8 billion pound figure. Total income at the lender which is majority owned by the U.K. government declined to 8.5 billion pounds, from 8.9 billion pounds last year. “The year has begun for RBS broadly as we had expected. Economic recovery is benefiting our customers and thereby ourselves. However, we remain conscious of the economic imbalances still to be tackled globally and of the risk of specific events, such as those affecting Greece, with the associated danger of contagion,” said CEO Stephen Hester.

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Citi: Stock market may not snap back immediately

6 May 2010 at 11:12pm

MADRID (MarketWatch) — Analysts at Citibank said a market bounce back after Thursday’s big losses in the U.S. may not come so easily. Investors may be “unwilling to jump right back into equities until incremental signs of stability emerge from either sovereign risk factors or a series of positive economic data points,” said Tobias M Levkovich, in a note to investors on Friday. He said the plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average , which fell nearly 1,000 points before recovering to close down 347.8 points, was “thoroughly unanticipated” and there was no real piece of news on Thurdsay to merit such a drop. The analyst said there is no strong evidence of sharp snap backs in markets that “reward investors for taking on more risk.” Owing to recovery in corporate confidence and general investor sentiment vesrus a year ago, “it seems improbable that investors will feel emboldened to step up now, particularly when European economic challenges and a stronger dollar could crimp 2H10 earnings. Indeed, selling on rallies could be more pronounced than buying on the dips,” he said.

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Lib Dems’ Clegg: No one has won ‘emphatically’

6 May 2010 at 10:50pm

LONDON (MarketWatch) — British Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg urged politicians to refrain from rushing into decisions on efforts to form a new government amid indications the general election will result in a hung parliament, with no party winning an outright majority in the House of Commons. “I don’t think anyone should rush into making claims or taking decisions which don’t stand the test of time,” Clegg said Friday morning after winning re-election to parliament in his Sheffield constituency. Clegg said “people have voted, but no one appears to have won emphatically.” He acknowledged disappointment in the performance of the Lib Dems, who have lost seats despite a strong surge for Britain’s third party earlier in the campaign.

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.


China banks April new loans $102 billion: report

6 May 2010 at 10:17pm

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Chinese banks accelerated their lending activity in April, extending 700 billion yuan (US$102 billion) of new loans, compared to 510.7 billion yuan of new lending in March, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency, citing figures in the Shanghai Securities News.
The lending outpaced expectations, with analysts forecasting 500 billion yuan to 600 billion yuan of new loans, reports said. But the Xinhua report said the total was in line with guidance by state regulators for banks to smooth out their lending activities. The report also said about 2.25 trillion yuan in new lending has been penciled in for the second quarter by regulators.

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.


Asian markets pare steep early losses

6 May 2010 at 9:30pm

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Asian stock markets pared their sharp early losses Friday in spite of a steep sell-off on Wall Street overnight, with Hong Kong and Chinese stocks supported by bargain buyers after a string of recent declines. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Average, which tumbled 3.7% in the Tokyo morning session, recouped some losses and was down 2.6% at 10,422.87 in afternoon trade. Other regional markets also recovered, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index down 0.6% just before the midday break, while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index was flat. Elsewhere, China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.7%, Australia’s S&P/ASX dropped 0.8%, South Korea’s Kospi gave up 1.8%, Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.6% and India’s Sensex declined 0.9%.
Banks and resource stocks were among the decliners, with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group falling 2.3% and Inpex Corp. dropping 1.8% in Tokyo, HSBC Holdings PLC sliding 4.2% and Cnooc Ltd. falling 1.1% in Hong Kong, and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. and Westpac Banking Corp. shedding 0.8% and 2.5%, respectively, in Sydney.

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.


L’Occitane falls in Hong Kong debut, but off lows

6 May 2010 at 8:55pm

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — French cosmetics retailer L’Occitane International S.A. fell as much as 8.5% in its Hong Kong debut Friday before paring losses to trade down less than 2%. Shares of the company, the first French firm to list in Hong Kong, fell to 13.80 Hong Kong dollars ($1.77) before recovering to 14.92 Hong Kong dollars, or 1.1% below its initial public offering price of 15.08 Hong Kong dollars. The company, which has more retail stores in greater China than it does in France, is planning to use funds raised from the IPO to broaden its Chinese retail footprint, doubling the number of stores it operates there in five years.

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.


Japan’s Kan: G7 unlikely to discuss euro support

6 May 2010 at 8:05pm

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Japan’s finance minister, Naoto Kan, told reporters Friday that a Group of Seven finance ministers’ telephone conference later in the day was likely to focus on Greece’s debt turmoil and unlikely to include any talk of joint intervention to support the euro, according to reports. “I don’t think the talk will proceed along the line” of reaching an agreement to intervene to buy the euro, Kan said at a regular news conference, according to Dow Jones Newswires. “I don’t think there will be a request for intervention.” He reportedly added that he expects the dollar to gradually stabilize against its Japanese counterpart. In Tokyo trading around midday, the euro was buying $1.2707, up from $1.2639 late Thursday, a day on which it fell to a 14-month low against its U.S. counterpart. The dollar rose to 92.43 yen, up from 90.44 yen late Thursday.

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.


Simon Property increases bid for General Growth

6 May 2010 at 7:30pm

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Simon Property Group Inc. raised its bid to acquire General Growth Properties Inc. by $2.6 billion, bringing its revised cash-and-stock offer to $20 a share, or $6.5 billion in total, the company said Thursday in a statement. The revised offer was a 66% premium to the rival Brookfield-sponsored bid, the company said. Simon said its offer was a “last and final” effort to sway investors from moving ahead with the rival offer. Its per-share offer consists of $5 in cash, $10 worth of shares of SPG common stock at current value, and the distribution to General Growth’s shareholders of shares in General Growth Opportunities. The deal, valued at $33.5 billion, would also see Simon pay $7 billion to eliminate General Growth’s unsecured debt, and take on about $20 billion in mortgages linked to General Growth’s malls.

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.


North Korea hints at return to nuclear talks

6 May 2010 at 7:25pm

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il wrapped up a visit to China on Friday, with Chinese official media citing comments that Kim may be willing to return to talks on his nation’s nuclear weapons program. Kim, who met with Chinese President Hu Jintao, said North Korea was “unchanged” in its commitment to see the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. China had been expected to pressure Kim to resume the “six party talks” on rolling back North Korea’s nuclear arms development. “Kim said that [North Korea] will work with China to create favorable conditions for restarting the six-party talks,” the Xinhua report said. The May 3-7 visit was Kim’s first to China since January 2006, according to the Kyodo news agency.

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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May 07 2010 12:24 am | Stock Market News

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