Samsung sees record-high 4Q profit

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest technology company by revenue, expects record earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012 as shoppers continued to snap up its smartphones and tablets.The company said Tuesday its operating profit for the October-December quarter would be about 8.8 trillion won ($8.3 billion), up 89 percent from a year earlier and higher than expectations....

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World stocks down ahead of US corporate earnings

BANGKOK (AP) — World stock markets headed lower Tuesday as investors turned cautious before U.S. earnings season kicks off this week.Investors will get a feel for corporate America's outlook as earnings reports start coming. Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. will unofficially launch the reporting season for the fourth quarter of 2012 on Tuesday after U.S. markets close.Events during the quarter such as...

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Futures dip ahead of start to US earnings season

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock futures are heading lower as the U.S. kicks off the first earnings season of 2013.Dow Jones industrial futures are down 10 points to 13,297. The broader S&P futures have given up 1.8 points to 1,454. Nasdaq futures are down 2.25 points to 2,715.50.Alcoa posts fourth quarter earnings after the markets close Tuesday and analysts that follow the company are looking for a profit...

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Discover Financial Services 4Q net income rises

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Discover Financial Services on Thursday reported higher earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter, as users of its namesake credit card stepped up purchases and the company wrote off fewer unpaid balances.Even so, the Riverwoods, Ill.-based company's results fell short of Wall Street expectations, and investors sent its shares down over 3 percent Thursday.Discover, the nation's sixth-largest...

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Oracle beats outlook, shrugs off fiscal debate

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Technology giant Oracle Corp said software sales growth will stay strong into the new year despite fears that there could be big tax hikes and U.S. government spending cuts that could cause a slump in spending by customers.Shares of the world's No. 3 software maker rose 1.3 percent after it reported fiscal second-quarter revenue and earnings that surpassed Wall Street...

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RIM shares fall at the open after earnings

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd fell in early trading on Friday following the BlackBerry maker's Thursday earnings announcement, when the company outlined plans to change the way it charges for services.RIM, pushing to revive its fortunes with the launch of its new BlackBerry 10 devices next month, surprised investors when it said it plans to alter its service revenue model, a move that...

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Oracle beats outlook, shrugs off fiscal debate

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Technology giant Oracle Corp said software sales growth will stay strong into the new year despite fears that there could be big tax hikes and U.S. government spending cuts that could cause a slump in spending by customers.Shares of the world's No. 3 software maker rose 1.3 percent after it reported fiscal second-quarter revenue and earnings that surpassed Wall Street...

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BofA CEO: Fed wants bank to show consistent earnings

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp needs to show the U.S. Federal Reserve it can produce consistent earnings as part of the annual process to gain permission to return more capital to shareholders, CEO Brian Moynihan said in an interview.The second-largest U.S. bank is turning a profit in most of its main businesses, but it inherited costly legal problems when it acquired...

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Top UBS shareholder pins rebound hopes on private wealth

LONDON (Reuters) - UBS's wealth management business will help it bounce back from a $1.5 billion rap for rigging interest rates, one of its largest investors said, although fears of costly civil lawsuits could cast a pall over its shares for some time.Paras Anand, European equities head at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, said legal action sparked by the Libor scandal posed an unpredictable threat...

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World shares hit highest since July 2011

 World shares hit their highest level since July 2011 on Wednesday after U.S. markets jumped sharply in response to the deal to prevent a fiscal crunch from sending the giant economy back into recession.MSCI's global share index rose to 346.57 points shortly after Wall Street opened, a peak not seen since July 8, 2011 after which a resurgence in the euro zone debt crisis sparked a sharp sell-off...

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'Cliff' deal sends stocks up, but problems lurk

NEW YORK (AP) — The "fiscal cliff" compromise, even with all its chaos, controversy and unresolved questions, was enough to send the stock market shooting higher Wednesday, the first trading day of the new year.All the major U.S. stock indexes swelled more than 2 percent in early trading and were still up significantly in the afternoon. The Dow Jones industrial average briefly surged to its biggest...

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Stocks surge after Congress passes budget deal

Stocks roared higher on Wall Street and around the world after Congress passed a last-minute budget deal to avert sweeping tax hikes and government spending cuts.The Dow Jones industrial jumped 308 points to close at 13,412 Wednesday, the first trading day of the year. That's the biggest gain the Dow has had since December 2011.The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 36 points to 1,462. The Nasdaq...

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S&P says U.S. fiscal deal will not affect credit outlook

The U.S. budget deal won't change Standard & Poor's perspective on the country's credit outlook, the rating agency said Wednesday, but the risk of another recession in the world's biggest economy has eased.The budget compromise "doesn't affect our view of the country's credit outlook, given that we believe yesterday's agreement does little to place the U.S.'s medium-term public finances on a more...

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Wall Street starts new year with a bang after "cliff" deal

Stocks kicked off the new year with their best day in over a year on Wednesday, sparked by relief over a last-minute deal in Washington to avert the "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts that threatened to derail the economy's growth.In 2013's first trading session, the S&P 500 achieved its biggest one-day gain since December 20, 2011, pushing the benchmark index to its highest close since...

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Wall Street ends sour week with fifth straight decline

 Stocks fell for a fifth straight day on Friday, dropping 1 percent and marking the S&P 500's longest losing streak in three months as the federal government edged closer to the "fiscal cliff" with no solution in sight.President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders met at the White House to work on a solution for the draconian debt-reduction measures set to take effect beginning next...

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Wall Street Week Ahead: Cliff may be a fear, but debt ceiling much scarier

 Investors fearing a stock market plunge - if the United States tumbles off the "fiscal cliff" next week - may want to relax.But they should be scared if a few weeks later, Washington fails to reach a deal to increase the nation's debt ceiling because that raises the threat of a default, another credit downgrade and a panic in the financial markets.Market strategists say that while falling off...

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Stung Bankia investors look to courts for justice

 Spanish savers and pensioners who have seen their money wiped out by investing in state-rescued lender Bankia are likely to seek redress in court rather than wait for any official inquiry, which looks increasingly unlikely.About 350,000 stockholders will share the pain of the bank's European bailout, many of them bank clients who were sold the shares through an aggressive marketing campaign...

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Indian stocks third best performers globally

Mumbai, Dec 31 (IANS) After a dismal show a year ago, the Indian stock market emerged as the third best performer globally in 2012, with a return of over 25 percent for a key index on the back of $24 billion foreign fund inflows and robust buying by domestic investors.The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ranked third in terms of returns after the yields of the 50-scrip...

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Stocks open mixed as budget deadline nears

 Stocks are little changed in early trading on Wall Street as a budget deadline approaches with no deal in sight.The Dow Jones industrial average was down six points at 12,931 shortly after the opening bell Monday.The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up two points at 1,405 and the Nasdaq composite edged up 10 points to 2,970.There are just hours to go before a midnight deadline, when sweeping...

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Drugs group Lundbeck's shares hit by profit warning

 Shares in Danish drugs firm Lundbeck fell to their lowest level in over 12 years on Wednesday after it cut its profits forecast for the next two years as European sales slow and spending on new products rise to combat generic competition.The company has already warned that earnings would stall until 2015 due to cheap generic competition for its existing drugs, meaning new products will be vital...

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