Biz Briefs: December sales were dismal; Countrywide buyout imminent
Friday, January 11, 2008 8:39 AM PST
By Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleNEW YORK (AP) -- The December sales results turned in by the nation's retailers were dismal this year.
Many merchants who reported sales figures Thursday failed to meet already lowered sales projections, making this the weakest holiday season since 2002. Their performance led a string of stores to reduce earnings outlooks for the fourth quarter.
The weak results crossed all retail categories.
NEW YORK (AP) -- A volatile Wall Street advanced Thursday for the second day in a row, as investors found renewed confidence in a report that Bank of America Corp. is close to buying struggling mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.
After seesawing earlier in the day, the Dow Jones industrials finished up nearly 120 points on the afternoon report from The Wall Street Journal. The stock market has been buffeted by concerns about fallout from the mortgage and credit crisis. Countrywide's problems with delinquent and defaulting loans have sent stocks falling even in recent days.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Capital One Financial Corp. said its 2007 earnings will fall short of its previous expectations, sending its stock to a new 52-week low and reaffirming the fact that turmoil in the nation's credit markets continues.
The McLean, Va.-based credit card company said Thursday that increased loan delinquencies and additional legal reserves in the fourth quarter will cause the company to report a fourth-quarter profit of 60 cents per share and full-year earnings of about $3.97 per share, below its prior forecast of "about $5 per share."
The news, which was announced early Thursday morning, confirmed fears by some analysts that the collapse of the subprime mortgage market has hurt other credit classes.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A buyout of hobbled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial likely would be approved by regulators, analysts say, because otherwise the company could file for bankruptcy, further disrupting the market for home loans.
Bank of America Corp. is in talks to acquire Countrywide, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported Thursday online, citing unidentified people familiar with the deal. The transaction would put the country's largest mortgage lender, which has experienced a surge in home-loan defaults and has seen its share price plummet, in the hands of the largest U.S. bank by market capitalization.
NEW YORK (AP) -- American Express Co. expects slower spending and more missed payments on credit card bills to hamper its profit throughout 2008, the company said Thursday.
While rich people are still doing fine, American Express said the slumping housing market has begun to take its toll on the American consumer.
Charges on the company's roughly 84.7 million cards began to tail off in December, American Express said, and more clients failed to repay their debts.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating possible violations of state and federal antitrust laws by Intel Corp., the world's largest manufacturer of computer microprocessors.
A Cuomo spokesman said subpoenas were being delivered Thursday seeking information on whether Intel coerced customers to exclude Advanced Micro Devices Inc., known as AMD, from the market for a specific computer processing unit.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures fell Thursday on growing concerns that a U.S. economic slowdown is imminent and will depress demand.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments that the central bank is ready to cut interest rates to help stave off a recession helped crude prices pare some of their losses, as did an attack on six oil industry ships by Nigerian rebels.
But prices stayed in negative territory after a tepid unemployment claims report and weak holiday sales at many large retailers, data that compounded the market's growing fears of an economic downturn.
NEW DELHI (AP) -- For millions of people in the developing world, Tata Motor's new $2,500 four-door subcompact -- the world's cheapest car -- may yield a transportation revolution with as great an impact as Henry Ford's Model T, which rolled off an assembly line one century ago.
The potential impact of Tata's Nano has given environmentalists nightmares, with visions of the tiny cars clogging India's already-choked roads and collectively spewing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the air.
Industry analysts, however, say the car may soon deliver to India and the rest of the developing world unprecedented mobility.
LONDON (AP) -- The European Central Bank and the Bank of England kept their benchmark interest rates on hold Thursday, both torn between the opposing challenges of higher inflation and worries about economic growth.
Those two factors could put the central banks on different paths in the coming months, with the ECB striking a hawkish note in the face of strong euro-zone inflation while the Bank of England is widely expected to deliver a cut next month to restore shaky consumer confidence.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 117.78, or 0.92 percent, to 12,853.09.
Broader stock indicators also rebounded. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 11.20, or 0.79 percent, to 1,420.33, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 13.97, or 0.56 percent, to 2,488.52.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell $1.96 to settle at $93.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after dipping as low as $93.30 earlier.
Other energy futures mostly fell Thursday. February heating oil fell 5.61 cents to settle at $2.5573 a gallon on the Nymex, while February gasoline futures dropped 7.54 cents to settle at $2.3601 a gallon. February natural gas futures rose 16 cents to settle at $8.259 per 1,000 cubic feet after the government reported that inventories fell by 171 billion cubic feet last week, slightly more than expected.
In London, February Brent crude fell $2.15 to settle at $92.22 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
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