... InvestSource Inc.: China Health Management Hospital Appointed Medical Provider by ... more pessimism about the economy into the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly ...
Thursday, March 27, 2008
InvestSource Inc.: China Health Management Hospital Appointed Medical Provider by Australian Consulate General of Guangzhou for National Soccer Teams
Dollar slips on rebound in gold, commodities
... TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar slipped on Wednesday ... is tapering off," said Hiroshi Yoshida, a forex trader at Shinkin Central Bank. The euro ...
Forex - Dollar recovers some ground, remains vulnerable
... Forex - Dollar recovers some ground, remains vulnerable ... has weakened slightly against the dollar after Japanese officials aired some concerns about the outlook ... for the worlds second-largest economy. Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy board member Miyako Suda warned ...
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Iraqi Minister of Trade: Damascus Summit Bolsters Arab Relations
... Damascus, 26 March 2008 (SANA) -- Iraqi Minister of Trade Abdul Falah al-Sudani said ... March 2008 (Voices of Iraq) -- Iraqs Stock Exchange (ISX) index decreased by 0.661 % to ...
Dollar snaps winning streak as credit jitters linger
... markets," said Haruhisa Takagi, head of the forex trading group at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank. Many ... could be casualties in the crisis. The Australian dollar climbed about 0.6 percent against the ...
ABCs General Assembly ratifies 2007 consolidated accounts
... Authority. ABC is listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange. The ABC Group is a leading bank ... Frankfurt, New York, Singapore, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, Egypt, Bahrain, Beirut, Abu Dhabi, Tehran, Amman and ...
European shares led lower by miner Xstrata, banks
... impact of a global credit crisis hit stock markets worldwide. Xstrata was Europes biggest laggard on ... iron ore miner, said talks to buy Swiss rival Xstrata had failed and that Vale ...
Serial EEPROMs come in 2 x 3 x 0.6 mm MLP8 package.
... shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, on Euronext Paris and on the Milan ... P. 21 City : GENEVA Country : Switzerland Phone : +41 22 929 29 29 ...
Stock Market Alerts LLC.: Investment Tips for Aggressive Traders
... Stock Market Alerts LLC.: Investment Tips for Aggressive Traders ... fourth cobalt off-take agreement with a large Chinese refiner. This now brings the contractual commitments ...
Red tape targets are not what they seem
... well before either Germany invaded Russia, the Japanese brought in the Americans by attacking Pearl ... victory. The point Biggs makes is that equity markets steady not when the flow of bad ...
LSE index loses 41.80 points
... Equities moved both ways on the Lahore Stock Exchange and finally settled in red zone amid ... the absence of the top leadership of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim ...
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
NBAD investors okay $378m bond plan
... in the fourth-quarter, beating analysts forecasts, on stock market-related income and said it planned to expand ... plans to open eight new branches in Egypt to take the total to 30 by ...
Egypt Kuwait Hldg buys 5 pct of Sudans Petrodar
... March 25 (Reuters) - An affiliate of Egypt Kuwait Holding EKHO.CA(EKHK.KW: ) signed an agreement ... A company statement sent to the Egyptian stock exchange said its subsidiary Tri Ocean signed the ...
Whats Up With Asian Currencies?
... in North America, Latin America, Africa and Australia, in short everywhere have soared ... in and out of the region. Local stock markets make international headlines as thinly traded markets ...
Company Upgrade: Introduces Medistem Laboratories to our Small Cap Portfolio
... world renowned independent research firm, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Along with walking investors through ... of 1933 and Sections 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to ...
Monday, March 24, 2008
South Africa: Stock Trade Case to Set Precedent
... be notified within two days of the trades taking place. Doel said yesterday the JSE was still following the process with Blue Label. It had not been decided whether ...
BP plans refinery project with Cals Ltd
Commodity Online NEW DELHI: Energy giant BP Plc is likely to set a co operation with Cals Ltd, a Spice Energy holding company for its proposed five million tonns oil refinery at Haldia near Kolkata.
Petrol in India is cheaper than Coca Cola
By Yogesh BirlaIn fact, petrol is cheaper than the Coca Cola you drink. It is not just petrol most liquids that you daily use are more expensive than vehicle fuels.
Algeria Jan-Feb trade surplus jumps vs yr ago
ALGIERS (Reuters) - OPEC-member Algeria posted a $7.53 billion trade surplus for the first two months of 2008, up from $4.16 billion in the same period last year, thanks to soaring oil prices, official figures showed on Sunday.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Japans Nikkei up 1.8 pct as banks, brokers gain
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japans Nikkei average jumped 1.8 percent on Friday, closing higher for a third straight session as investors snapped up financial shares such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group amid hopes that U.S. measures to cope with the credit crunch will stabilise markets and support the economy.
At-home moms taking a bite out of Bennigans?
Restaurant visits have flattened out as the percentage of women in the work force has slipped. So as families switch to eating in, eateries are increasing their takeout and delivery options.
6 stocks immune to the credit crunch
The Bear Stearns meltdown shows how quickly a company with debt woes can unwind. Heres how to spot companies that are sitting safely on piles of cash.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
New arrest in SocGen trading scandal
(Reuters) - Police arrested another employee of Societe Generale on Wednesday as they probe the world's biggest rogue trading scandal, Paris prosecutors said.
In January, France's second-biggest listed bank SocGen unveiled 4.9 billion euros ($7.53 billion) of losses which it blamed on rogue deals carried out by Jerome Kerviel, a 31-year old junior trader at the bank.
The losses have made SocGen a possible bid target.
The Paris prosecutor's office identified the latest person being held as a trader from a subsidiary of SocGen.
A source close to the matter said the person being held works for SG Securities, the bank's share brokerage arm.
SocGen declined to identify the person or the division.
GO Capital Halts Redemptions From Global Hedge Fund
(Bloomberg) -- GO Capital Asset Management BV blocked clients from withdrawing cash from its Global Opportunities Fund, at least the seventh hedge fund in the past month forced to take steps to protect itself from falling markets.
Frans van Schaik, the former head of equity research at ABN Amro Holding NV who founded the Amsterdam-based fund in 2000, wrote to investors that the fund is not leveraged and not facing margin calls. The fund, which bets both on rising and falling prices, has assets of about 570 million euros ($881 million).
``A temporary suspension of redemptions is the best defensive measure to protect the interests of the participants,'' van Schaik and other members of GO Capital's management said in a letter posted on their Web site and dated March 11. ``Current market circumstances do not allow the fund to sell investments at a reasonable price.''
At least six hedge funds totaling more than $5.4 billion have been forced to liquidate or sell holdings since Feb. 15 as contagion from the U.S. subprime slump spreads for a seventh month. Others include Peloton Partners LLP's $1.8 billion ABS Fund, Tequesta Capital Advisor's mortgage fund and Focus Capital Investors LLC, which invested in midsize Swiss companies.
GO focused mostly on listed European equities, although it was not restricted in investments it could make, the Web site says. The fund planned to make bets on between 10 and 30 stocks and looked for ``situations of overreaction or stress,'' according to the Web site.
Dollar Falls to Record Low on Concern Fed Package Won't Succeed
(Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell to a record below $1.55 per euro on concern that the Federal Reserve's plan to provide funds to banks won't be enough to break the gridlock in money-market lending and stem credit losses.
The U.S. currency erased more than half of yesterday's 1.6 percent rally versus the yen, the biggest in six months, which came after the Fed said it would extend $200 billion of credit to financial institutions to spur lending. Traders bet the Fed will cut rates by as much as three quarters of a percentage point next week to avert a recession, while the European Central Bank keeps borrowing costs unchanged.
``It's difficult for the dollar to gain traction,'' said Paresh Upadhyaya, who helps manage $50 billion in currency assets at Putnam Investments in Boston. ``The Fed is probably running out of options; the market is fixated on interest-rate differentials, which are clearly negative for the dollar.''
The dollar fell to $1.5504 per euro, the weakest since the euro's 1999 debut, and traded at $1.5492 at 10:12 a.m. in New York, from $1.5338 yesterday. The previous historic low was set yesterday. It dropped to 102.32 yen from 103.42, within one yen of an eight-year low. The euro traded at 158.59 yen from 158.61.
Euro gains were limited after Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said he is ``very vigilant'' on the euro in current circumstances and that exchange rates should reflect fundamentals. He spoke to reporters in Brussels.
Gulf Pegs
The yen climbed against major currencies, including a 1.3 percent rally versus South Africa's rand, as a government report showed Japan's economy grew an annualized 3.5 percent last quarter, faster than the 2.3 percent median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Forward contracts to buy United Arab Emirates dirhams rose the most in two weeks after Economy Minister Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri said the dirham's dollar peg is ``contributing'' to record inflation.
A Qatari official denied in a telephone interview that Gulf central bankers will consider dropping the dollar peg when they meet next week. Gulf countries are under pressure to revalue their currencies or drop dollar pegs after the U.S. currency fell 10 percent against the euro last year and the Fed cut rates. The weaker dollar boosts the cost of imports from Europe, while Gulf states have to follow rate cuts, stoking inflation.
The euro extended its gains against the dollar earlier after a European Union report showed industrial production in the region increased for the first time in three months in January. It rose 0.9 percent from the prior month, more than twice the rate forecast by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
`Stay Short Dollars'
The euro also rose on speculation ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet will highlight inflation risks today at a press conference. ECB council member Axel Weber yesterday said that he sees ``no room'' to lower rates.
The ECB's main rate is 1 percentage point above the Fed's 3 percent target rate for overnight loans between banks.
Policy makers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Switzerland and the euro region agreed yesterday on a second round of emergency- loans to curb rising money-market rates. The Fed said it will lend Treasuries through a new lending tool and widen the collateral it accepts to include mortgage-backed securities.
``Read the need for such new measures as being a symptom of what ails the world and not a panacea for its problems,'' said David Simmonds, the London-based global head of currency research at Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, the world's fourth- biggest foreign-exchange trader. ``Stay short dollars.''
Monday, March 10, 2008
Goldman says can't rule out Fed emergency rate cut
(Reuters) - An emergency interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve is possible ahead of its March 18th policy meeting, according to a Goldman Sachs research note on Monday.
Goldman said its view on Fed policy changed on Friday.
The government reported on Friday that a second straight month of job losses and the Fed announced new steps to inject liquidity into the financial system as credit availability remains tight.
McDonald's February Sales Increase 12%, Led by Europe
(Bloomberg) -- McDonald's Corp.'s February sales rose more than analysts estimated as the world's biggest restaurant company lured customers with burgers and chicken sandwiches in Europe and breakfast in China.
The stock rose the most in more than a month in New York trading.
Sales at U.S. outlets open more than 13 months rose 8.3 percent, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today in a statement. Comparable-store sales in Europe advanced 15 percent while gaining 11 percent in the region encompassing Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Last month's extra day for the leap year added 4 percentage points to worldwide same-store sales.
Specialty burger and chicken sandwiches spurred sales in Europe, McDonald's largest region by revenue, while breakfast boosted sales in China and longer hours helped out in Australia. In the U.S., a McSkillet breakfast burrito promotion and dollar- menu advertising lured consumers pinched by declining home values and higher fuel prices.
``McDonald's put up another remarkably strong result in Europe,'' Jason West, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities, wrote in a note today. The U.S. results suggest ``McDonald's is not losing share to U.S. competitors as some may have feared.''
McDonald's climbed $1.79, or 3.4 percent, to $54.06 at 10:14 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest increase since Jan. 31. The stock dropped 11 percent this year through last week after rising in each of the past five years.
The median estimate of four analysts in a Bloomberg survey was for an increase of 7.3 percent in same-store U.S. sales.
ECB's Trichet `Concerned' About Euro's Appreciation
(Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet said he's ``concerned'' about the euro's appreciation, intensifying his rhetoric after the currency climbed to a record against the dollar.
``We're concerned about excessive exchange-rate moves in the present circumstances,'' Trichet told reporters in Basel, Switzerland today. It's the first time Trichet has specifically expressed worry about the currency since November, when he opposed ``brutal'' moves.
The euro fell as much as 0.3 percent after the comments before rebounding, as investors decided Trichet's ability to weaken the currency is limited. The strongest European inflation in 14 years is preventing the ECB from cutting interest rates while the Federal Reserve is slashing borrowing costs to stave off recession in the world's largest economy.
``Trichet is making a distinct change in emphasis,'' said Lee Hardman, a currency strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in London. Still, ``while the ECB is on hold and the Fed is cutting rates, rate differentials will continue to move in support for the euro.''
The euro rose to a record $1.5459 on March 7, a day after Trichet declined to sound a warning following the ECB's decision to leave its key rate unchanged at 4 percent.
`Strong Dollar'
On that occasion Trichet noted only that U.S. authorities support a ``strong dollar,'' an observation he repeated today with ``extreme attention.'' U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said March 7 that a strong dollar is ``in our nation's interest.''
Unlike the Fed, which has cut its benchmark interest rate 2.25 percentage points since September, Trichet's ECB has refused to reduce rates with inflation in breach of its 2 percent goal.
By signaling an unwillingness to take action, the ECB is indicating ``tacit support for its record-high euro as it uses currency policy to contain inflationary pressures rather than monetary policy,'' said Ashraf Laidi, a currency analyst at CMC Markets in New York.
ECB Executive Board member Juergen Stark told a conference in Paris on March 7 that the ECB does not target a euro-dollar exchange rate. Currency developments ``should be taken into account by monetary policy only to the extent that they have a medium-term influence'' on inflation, he said.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Billionaire dreamlist: helipad and private beach
(Reuters Life!) - Credit crunch? What credit crunch?
More billionaire house hunters than ever are scouring the globe in search of the perfect hideaway.
So how about a Parisian mansion with its own ballroom, a forest-fringed estate in Andalusia complete with helipad or maybe a villa in Anguilla with a "feather-topped beach lapped by deep turquoise waters."
Reveling in the purple prose so beloved by estate agents, the glossy magazine Country Life has picked five of the top properties on the market that even the super-rich dream about.
For $95 million, why not snap up Hillandale, an English country-style estate just 50 miles from Manhattan.
Just four minute's drive from the billionaire's playground of Monaco you could put in a bid for the Domain, a Cote d'Azur mansion with its own stud farm, paddocks and dressage arena.
The credit crunch may have hit big spenders in London's City financial district who once happily invested their huge bonuses in property. But the billionaires are not feeling the chill.
Gold's glitter lures buyers
(Reuters) - Gold's near vertical climb to historic highs approaching the key $1,000 mark shows no sign of abating as bullish forces such as a sinking dollar and record high oil are not seen fading anytime soon.
Fears that expensive oil will stoke inflation combined with worries over potential stock market losses and the U.S. on the brink of possible economic recession will propel gold higher still, analysts say.
"Don't be surprised to see gold trade up to $1,100 (an ounce) or even $1,200 before year-end 2008," said Jeffrey Nichols, managing director of American Precious Metals Advisors.
"And, with the right confluence of economic and geopolitical developments, we could see gold spike to $1,500 or even $2,000 in the next few years," he said.
Gold hit a record high of $991.90 an ounce on Thursday and was at $986.90/987.40 at 1144 GMT. It has jumped 20 percent this year, 56 percent in the past 12 months, doubled in about 2 years and surged from a low of around $250 in August 1999.
It was previously fixed at a record high of $850 in January 1980 as high inflation linked to strong oil, Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the impact of the Iranian revolution prompted investors to heavily buy gold. After adjusting for inflation, the 1980 high was $2,119.30 at 2007 prices.
The market has ridden waves of investor buying, which lifted prices nearly 50 percent in the past six months, ignoring a handful of negative factors, with most players betting on even higher prices this year and next.
Credit Swaps Thwart Fed's Ease as Debt Costs Surge
(Bloomberg) -- Credit trading models used by Wall Street have gone haywire, raising company borrowing costs even as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke cuts interest rates.
General Electric Co. is one of five U.S. companies rated AAA by both Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service, making its ability to repay debt unquestioned. Yet when the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company sold 2.25 billion euros ($3.35 billion) of five-year bonds last week, its annual interest payment was $17 million higher than on a sale nine months ago.
Borrowers from investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to Germany's HeidelbergCement AG face the same predicament. Yields on $5.12 trillion of corporate bonds tracked by Merrill Lynch & Co. average 2.05 percentage points more than U.S. Treasuries, the most since at least 1997.
The higher costs are an unintended consequence of securities that allow investors to speculate on corporate creditworthiness. So-called correlation models used to value them have become unreliable in the fallout from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. Last month some showed the odds of a default by an investment-grade company spreading to others exceeded 100 percent -- a mathematical impossibility, according to UBS AG.
``The credit-default swap market is completely distorting reality,'' said Henner Boettcher, treasurer of HeidelbergCement in Heidelberg, Germany, the country's biggest cement maker. ``Given what these spreads imply about defaults, we should be in a deep depression, and we are not.''
Hedging Losses
The problem started in the second half of last year when subprime mortgage delinquencies started to rise, causing investors to retreat from complex instruments such as synthetic collateralized debt obligations, or packages of credit-default swaps that became hard to value. The swaps are contracts based on bonds and used to speculate on a company's ability to repay debt.
As values of CDOs began to fall, banks that had sold swaps underlying the securities started to buy indexes based on them instead, a method of hedging their losses on portions of the CDOs they owned. The purchases are driving the cost of the contracts higher, raising the perception that company bonds tied to the swaps are suddenly riskier and leading investors to demand higher yields throughout the corporate debt market.
The Markit CDX North America Investment-Grade Index, a gauge of credit-default swaps on 125 companies from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to Walt Disney Co., more than doubled since the start of the year to a record 171 basis points on March 4. The index, which dropped to a low of 29 in February last year, was at 170.5 basis points at 7:10 a.m. in New York, according to Deutsche Bank AG.
Carlyle Fund Gets Default Notice After Margin Calls
(Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group's publicly traded mortgage bond fund failed to meet margin calls and said it received a notice of default.
Carlyle Capital Corp. missed four of seven margin calls yesterday totaling more than $37 million, the Guernsey, U.K.- based fund said today in a statement. The fund expects to get at least one more notice of default related to the margin calls.
The collapse of the subprime mortgage market has prompted investors to flee all but the safest forms of debt, leading to the failure of hedge funds including Peloton Partners LLP. The Carlyle fund raised $300 million in July and used loans to buy about $22 billion of AAA rated so-called agency mortgage securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
``The credit crisis is spilling over to the next asset class, agency bonds,'' said Philip Gisdakis, senior credit strategist at UniCredit SpA in Munich. ``There's never just one cockroach. If you see one highly leveraged hedge fund going bust, then there's another on the way.''
Peloton, the London-based hedge-fund firm run by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partners, announced plans last week to liquidate its ABS Fund after ``severe'' losses on mortgage-backed debt and demands from banks to repay loans. Thornburg Mortgage Inc. in Santa Fe, New Mexico, plummeted 62 percent in New York trading this week after the home lender received a default notice on a $320 million loan.
Widening Spreads
Carlyle Capital, run by John Stomber, fell 1.7 percent in Amsterdam trading today to $11.80. The fund originally sold shares at $19 each. Emma Thorpe, a London-based spokeswoman for U.S. private-equity firm Carlyle Group, declined to comment.
The agency mortgage-bond market has about $4.5 trillion of securities, according to estimates from UniCredit. The spread between 30-year agency mortgage bonds and 10-year U.S. Treasuries widened to more than 200 basis points yesterday, the highest since 1986, according to Bloomberg data cited by UniCredit today.
At the same time, money-market rates for euros and pounds climbed to the highest since mid-January, signaling the global squeeze on short-term bank lending may be returning. The three- month London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for euros advanced 1 basis point to 4.4 percent yesterday, the highest since Jan. 18, according to the British Bankers' Association.
``Market conditions are the worst anyone in this industry can remember,'' said Alain Grisay, chief executive officer of London-based F&C Asset Management Plc, on a conference call with reporters today. ``I don't think anyone has a recollection of a total disappearance in liquidity. I just cannot remember a time when for six months there are billion of dollars worth of assets out there for which there is just no market.''
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Copper May Rise on Dollar Slide; Lead Gains to Four-Month High
(Bloomberg) -- Copper may advance in London on speculation declines in the dollar will accelerate investor demand for the metal used in plumbing and power plants.
The U.S. currency reversed gains and fell against the euro and declined for a sixth day against the yen. Copper has climbed 29 percent this year as an index of the dollar against six currencies including the euro and the pound has dropped 4.1 percent.
``The dollar is helping to support commodity prices,'' said Leon Westgate, a metals analyst at Standard Bank Ltd. in London. ``The main driver is money flow.''
Copper for delivery in three months gained $10 to $8,585 a metric ton as of 12:48 p.m. on the London Metal Exchange. Prices yesterday rose to $8,661, the highest since May 2006 when copper gained to a record $8,880 a ton.
The higher prices have curbed demand in China, the world's biggest user, said Eric Yan, head of China trade at Triland Metals Ltd. in London.
``If copper goes up to $10,000, Chinese demand will be dramatically reduced,'' he said. ``Chinese demand is quite weak and I don't think it will recover very soon.''
Nickel rose $400 to $33,600 a ton. Prices have climbed 15 percent since a strike began Feb. 28 at a Colombian mine owned by BHP Billiton Ltd. The workers are still on strike, Illtud Harri, a spokesman for BHP in London, said in an e-mail today.
Global nickel inventories in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange dropped 120 tons to 47,592 tons, the exchange said today in its daily warehouse report. Supplies are little changed this year.
Read more at Bloomberg
Staples Net Income Falls 1% on Lower Retail Sales
(Bloomberg) -- Staples Inc., the world's largest office-supplies retailer, said fourth-quarter profit fell 1 percent on lower North American retail sales to small companies and consumers.
Staples dropped in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
Net income declined to $333.2 million, or 47 cents a share, from $336.5 million, or 46 cents, a year earlier, Staples said today in a statement. Profit met some analysts' estimates. Revenue for the three months ended Feb. 2 rose less than 1 percent to $5.32 billion. Staples cut its full-year forecast.
Sales at U.S. and Canadian stores open at least a year dropped 6 percent. Office-supply retailers' sales slowed as customers concerned about a declining job market and the worst housing slump in a quarter century reduced purchases of copiers and desks. North American sales have also declined at smaller competitors such as Office Depot Inc.
``The environment is hitting everyone pretty hard,'' Walter Todd, who helps manage $800 million for Greenwood Capital Associates LLC in Greenwood, South Carolina, said yesterday in an interview. ``It's all macro-driven.'' The firm held 175,048 Staples shares as of Dec. 31.
The retailer predicted a ``mid single-digit'' percentage increase in sales and ``high single-digit'' percentage growth in earnings per share for the year ending next Jan. 31. Staples said in November that it expects earnings per share this year to increase by a percentage in the ``low teens,'' with ``high single-digit'' sales growth.
Staples Stock
Staples, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, fell 54 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $21.95 at 9:44 a.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The stock lost 2.5 percent of its value this year through yesterday, compared with a 20 percent decline for Office Depot, the second-largest office-supplies retailer.
``In the context of a tough retail environment, we view Staples as relatively stable,'' Jack Murphy, an analyst at William Blair & Co. in Chicago, wrote yesterday in a research note. He rates Staples shares a ``buy.''
Analysts estimated fourth-quarter profit of 47 cents a share, the average projection of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Eleven analysts, on average, estimated sales of $5.4 billion.
In November, Staples forecast a ``low double-digit'' sales growth in the fourth quarter, with North American same-store sales unchanged or ``slightly negative.''
Dollar Falls Against Yen on Bets Fed Will Lower Rate 0.75-Point
(Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell for a sixth straight day against the yen and traded near a record low versus the euro as traders increased bets that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates by 0.75 percentage point this month.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which compares the currency with those of six trading partners, dropped as futures showed a 74 percent likelihood the Fed will reduce rates to 2.25 percent. Last week, traders saw no chance of a cut that steep. Canada's currency fell after the Bank of Canada cut rates today to help offset a slump in exports to the U.S.
``The dollar will remain under pressure,'' said Omer Esiner, an analyst at currency-trading company Ruesch International Inc. in Washington. ``The U.S. economy is looking weak.''
The dollar fell to 103.08 yen at 9:10 a.m. in New York, from 103.49 yen yesterday, when it fell to 102.62 yen, the lowest since Jan. 28, 2005. The U.S. currency traded at $1.5202 per euro, from $1.5204 yesterday, when it touched $1.5275, the weakest level since the European currency's 1999 debut.
``Don't fight the dollar weakness,'' a team of strategists at Zurich-based UBS AG, led by Mansoor Mohi-uddin, wrote in a research report published today. This week's U.S. data ``will likely increasingly suggest a recession,'' they wrote.
The U.S. Dollar Index traded on ICE Futures in New York was at 73.584 after declining to a record low of 73.354 yesterday. The slump in the U.S. currency helped push the price of oil to a record of $103.95 yesterday and gold to an all-time high of $989.54 an ounce.
`Grossly Misaligned'
The yen advanced to 156.71 per euro from 157.35.
UBS Wealth Management Research, a unit of UBS, wrote in a separate report that the world's foreign-exchange markets are ``grossly misaligned'' and Asian currencies may ``appreciate sharply.''
The Singapore dollar reached S$1.3897 against the U.S. currency, a decade-high, before trading at S$1.3904, from S$1.3910 yesterday. The Taiwan dollar advanced 0.6 percent to NT$30.922 per dollar.
The Australian dollar, also known as the Aussie, fell as the central bank governor said there is evidence consumer spending is moderating. The central bank raised the main rate to 7.25 percent today, the highest in 12 years. The Aussie was at 93.29 U.S. cents, from 93.96 cents yesterday and 94.98 on Feb. 28, the highest since March 1984.
``The Australian dollar is likely to be sold hard in the near-term,'' Hans-Guenter Redeker, head of currency strategy in London at BNP Paribas SA, one of the world's 10 biggest currency traders, wrote in a note to clients. A support level at 92.75 cents per dollar ``looks set to be broken,'' he said.
Canadian Rates
The Canadian dollar fell to 99.36 Canadian cents per U.S. dollar, from 99 cents yesterday, after the central bank cut Canada's benchmark rate by a half-point to 3.5 percent and said further ``stimulus'' will likely be required.
Japan's currency also climbed 1.3 percent to 95.97 against the Aussie and 1 percent to 82.68 per New Zealand dollar as widening credit-market losses prompted investors to reduce so- called carry trades
Japan's benchmark rate of 0.5 percent, the lowest among industrialized nations, compares with 8.25 percent in New Zealand and 4 percent in Europe. In carry trades, investors get funds in a country with low borrowing costs and invest in one with higher rates, earning the difference between the two. The risk is that currency moves erase those profits.
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