Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Accor, Atos Origin, Rexel, Nexans, Scor, Schneider: French Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- Shares of the following companies may make gains or losses on the Paris stock exchange. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are from yesterday's close.

April futures on the CAC 40 benchmark tumbled 41.5 to 5796.5 at 8:17 a.m. in Paris.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Gold little changed near 11-month high, $700 eyed

(Reuters) - Gold moved little near its 11-month high on Thursday as traders were reluctant to take large buy positions after seeing the metal struggle to advance beyond the psychologically sensitive level of $700 an ounce this week.

-- As of 0027 GMT, spot gold was trading at $690.30/690.80 an ounce, slightly up from $689.20/689.70 late in New York on Wednesday.


Read more at Reuters Africa

UK's Prudential first-quarter sales climb 8 pct

(Reuters) - Fifteen analysts polled by the company had forecast sales between 580 million and 662 million pounds, with a consensus of 619 million pounds.

The sales are on an annual premium equivalent basis, a standard measure used to iron out volatility.


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

Japan's Two-Year Swap Rates Are `Too Low' Given BOJ Outlook, Mizuho Says

(Bloomberg) -- Japan's two-year swap rates are ``too low'' given that the central bank may raise borrowing costs as early as August, Mizuho Investors Securities Co. said.

Two-year swap rates may climb to 1.1 percent by August, the highest since 1997, as consumer spending helps the economy sustain its longest postwar expansion, said Akihiko Inoue, a Tokyo-based market analyst at Mizuho. The median forecast of 40 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News this month showed the central bank may raise rates to 0.75 percent from 0.5 percent in September.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

China shares down 2.4 pct as inflation data nears

(Reuters) - The Shanghai Composite Index fell as much as 3.3 percent in morning trade and stood at 3,526.004 points at midday, down 2.39 percent. Losers outnumbered gainers by 685 to 185.

Turnover in Shanghai A shares jumped to 100.9 billion yuan from Wednesday morning's 86.2 billion yuan, putting turnover on track to hit an all-time high for the day.


Read more at Reuters.com Hot Stocks News

Crude Oil Falls as Higher U.S. Refinery Output May Boost Gasoline Supplies

(Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell in New York on speculation higher refinery output in the U.S. will increase gasoline supplies before the start of the peak demand season.

Refinery operating rates rose 2 percentage points to 90.4 percent of capacity last week, the highest since Jan. 5, and six- times the increase forecast by analysts, the U.S. Energy Department said yesterday in a report.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

LG Elec Q1 display margin fell to negative 16 pct

(Reuters) - LG said in a statement that its operating profit margins from handsets rose to 6.6 percent, from 2.6 percent in the previous quarter.




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Top deputy tells Wolfowitz to step down: sources

(Reuters) - The sources told Reuters that World Bank Managing Director Graeme Wheeler, a bank veteran named by Wolfowitz as one of his two deputies a year ago, raised the issue at a meeting of the bank's vice presidents.

Asked to comment, World Bank spokesman Marwan Muasher said: "I feel it is inappropriate to comment on private meetings."


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Brazilian Real, Argentine, Mexican Peso: Latin American Currency Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following events and economic reports may influence trading in Latin American currencies today. Exchange rates are from the previous session.

Argentine peso: Industrial production likely increased 7.3 percent in March from a year earlier, after expanding 6.9 percent during the 12 months through February, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of six economists.


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Pakistan Stocks Favorite in Asia on Growth, Easing Tensions, Merrill Says

(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan stocks, near a year-old record high, are the region's best bet as the economy expands and political tensions ease, according to Merrill Lynch & Co.

``Pakistan is my favorite market,'' Mark Matthews, the brokerage's new chief Asian strategist, said in an interview in Singapore yesterday. ``It's really a domestic story, as only 15 percent of the economy comes from exports.''


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Camaieu, Carrefour, Etam, Haulotte, Schneider: French Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- Shares of the following companies may make gains or losses on the Paris stock exchange. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are from yesterday's close.

The CAC 40 benchmark dropped 22.19, or 0.4 percent, to 5835.95 in Paris as all but six stocks fell. The broader SBF 120 Index lost 14.81, or 0.3 percent, to 4284.87.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News

Bell Aliant, Husky Energy, Magna Entertainment: Canada Equity Preview

(Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in Canadian markets. This preview includes news that broke after markets closed. Symbols are in parentheses after company names and prices are from the last close.

The Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index added 54.01 to 13,711.96 in Toronto.


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US tech shares fall on IBM, Yahoo results

(Reuters) - U.S. technology stocks fell on Wednesday after disappointing results from Yahoo Inc. and IBM raised concerns about the outlook for tech spending.

Shares of International Business Machines Corp. dropped more than 2 percent and were the biggest drag on the Dow. But a 4 percent rise in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co., which posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, buoyed the blue-chip average. For details, see ID:nN18454450.


Read more at Reuters Africa

Korean Won Rises to Three-Month High on Stock Buying, Taiwan Dollar Drops

(Bloomberg) -- South Korea's won rose to the strongest since January as overseas investors added to holdings of the nation's stocks on signs the economy is improving.

Global funds have bought more shares than they sold for five days, helping the won advance 0.5 percent and sending the Kospi stock index to a record high. Government reports this month showed department store sales increased and exports, which account for 40 percent of the economy, climbed more than expected.


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Canada Dollar Trades at 5-Month High as Investors Increase Asset Purchases

(Bloomberg) -- Canada's dollar rose to a five- month high after a report showed international investors added Canadian assets in February.

Investment inflows have helped the Canadian dollar gain more than 2 percent this month against the U.S. dollar.


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Brazil Bond Yields Fall on Speculation Central Bank to Opt for Bigger Cut

(Bloomberg) -- The yield on Brazilian local- currency bonds fell as investors speculated the central bank may cut the benchmark lending rate by more than a quarter-percentage point at a monetary policy meeting resuming today.

``There are people betting the central bank may surprise the market with a half-percentage point cut today, with a decision that may not be unanimous like we've seen in recent meetings,'' said Octavio Vaz, investment manager at Foco Investimentos, an asset-management firm in Rio de Janeiro.


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Europe's Cold-War Divisions Re-Emerge Over U.S. Plan for Missile Shield

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. plans for a missile-defense shield are reopening Cold War-era cracks in Europe, with politicians warning of a new arms race, Germany's government split and Russia growling about American aggression.

The U.S. will use meetings with NATO and Russian ambassadors tomorrow in Brussels to defend its plans to build an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying the West needs a hedge against the threat of Iran developing nuclear warheads.


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Mirant to sell its Caribbean business to Marubeni

(Reuters) - Net proceeds to Mirant are expected to be about $565 million, said the Atlanta-based company. Mirant expects to realize a pretax gain of about $65 million.




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E.ON Plans to Halt Oskarshamn-1 Reactor in Sweden for Repairs Later Today

(Bloomberg) -- E.ON AG, Germany's biggest utility, will halt power production at its Oskarshamn nuclear plant in Sweden later today for ``required maintenance,'' the company said in a message distributed by Nord Pool ASA.

The 467-megawatt reactor in southeastern Sweden will stop generating electricity at 5 p.m. local time today, according to today's statement from the Nordic power exchange. It didn't say when the unit will restart.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

UPDATE 1-Avista Q1 profit drops on loss at energy unit

(Reuters) - The company's earnings on a preliminary basis fell to 26 cents a share, compared with 64 cents a share in the year-ago period, it said in a statement.

On April 17, the Spokane, Washington-based utility said it agreed to sell its Avista Energy unit to Coral Energy Holding L.P., a unit of Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell .


Read more at Reuters.com Market News

UPDATE 1-JPMorgan nears Canary Wharf move decision -sources

(Reuters) - LONDON, April 18 - JPMorgan Chase & Co expects to decide by mid-May whether to move its London investment banking operations eastwards to Canary Wharf from the City, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

One of the sources, who requested anonymity, said any move was unlikely to happen for another four to five years, and would not affect JP Morgan's treasury and securities services or asset management operations.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

UPDATE 1-Police hunt for Virginia Tech killer's motives

(Reuters) - BLACKSBURG, Va., April 18 - Police on Wednesday pored over the writings of a student who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech university, searching for further clues as to why he went on the worst shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

A chilling portrait of Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old South Korean, has emerged from accounts of fellow students and teachers and from writings for his English degree that were dominated by disillusioned, violent characters.


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

UPDATE 1-A.O. Smith posts higher 1st-qtr profit, backs '07 view

(Reuters) - The company said it is concerned that the weak housing market in the United States may linger into the second half of the year but stood by its 2007 earnings outlook of $2.75 to $2.95 a share.

"We continued to experience reduced demand in a number of housing-related market segments," Paul Jones, chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.


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JPMorgan earnings rise, boosted by investment bank

(Reuters) - JPMorgan shares are up 3.9 percent so far this year, outperforming the KBW Banks index , which was down 1.9 percent for the same period.

The No. 3 U.S. bank has been focused on growth, changing course from its previous focus on cost savings from a series of previous acquisitions and mergers.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

UPDATE 1-Retailer hhgregg Inc. files for $172.5 mln IPO

(Reuters) - The Indianapolis, Indiana-based company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers are the lead underwriters for the IPO.

Wachovia Securities, UBS Investment Bank, Piper Jaffray, and KeyBanc Capital Markets are assisting in the underwriting.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

UPDATE 1-US home loan demand drops for fifth consecutive week

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, April 18 - U.S. mortgage applications fell for the fifth consecutive week, largely reflecting a drop in demand for home purchase loans, an industry trade group said on Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and purchasing loans, for the week ended April 13 dropped 2.5 percent to 630.6.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

European Stocks Decline, Led by Nokia, Atos Origin; Adidas Shares Advance

(Bloomberg) -- European stocks fell for the first time in four days after earnings from U.S. companies including Yahoo! Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. disappointed investors.

Nokia Oyj and Atos Origin SA led technology-related shares lower. Adidas AG rose to a record after Financial Times Deutschland reported Apax Partners Worldwide LLP may buy a stake in the world's second-largest sporting-goods maker.


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UBM's Vintage buy boosts US regulatory business

(Reuters) - LONDON, April 18 - Publishing and exhibitions group United Business Media said on Wednesday it had bolstered its U.S. regulatory disclosure business with the acquisition of Vintage Filings for $38 million in cash.

UBM said it would pay up to a further $15 million over the next four years depending on certain unspecified targets.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Soros raises stake in JetBlue to 11.5 pct-filing

(Reuters) - The filing did not provide details such as when Soros bought the shares or their price. It also did not reveal the purpose of the transactions.




Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

BOJ to say Japan's inflation will accelerate-sources

(Reuters) - Based on that assumption, the central bank will probably forecast a core CPI rise of 0.2 to 0.3 percent for the current fiscal year that started in April, and 0.5 to 0.6 percent in 2008/2009, compared with almost zero growth in the previous fiscal year, the sources said.

The BOJ will release the outlook report on economic and price developments on April 27. In that report, nine board members provide their estimates for economic growth and prices.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

Dutch central bank says rival ABN bid may be risky

(Reuters) - By Reed Stevenson

AMSTERDAM, April 18 - The Dutch central bank said on Wednesday that a joint ABN AMRO takeover offer led by the Royal Bank of Scotland could entail "strong risks and complications", giving a slight boost to Barclays' chances of clinching a deal to buy ABN.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Copper Trades Above $8,000 for Second Day on Indonesia Rally; Tin Drops

(Bloomberg) -- Copper rose in London, trading above $8,000 a metric ton for a second day, on speculation a protest by workers at the world's second-largest mine will disrupt supplies.

About 5,000 employees at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s Grasberg operations in Indonesia held a rally at a nearby town to demand pay increases. Representatives from Tongoi Papua, the group behind the rally, have been meeting company officials, a group spokesman said. Freeport said production is normal.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

GLOBAL MARKETS-Dlr at multi-decade lows, European stocks hit

(Reuters) - The dollar's broad-based slide -- sparked by expectations of interest rate cuts in the United States in contrast to prospects for more monetary tightening in other countries -- boosted gold prices which tend to move inversely to the greenback.

Expectations for a U.S. rate cut from 5.25 percent in coming months were fuelled on Tuesday by weaker than expected core U.S. inflation figures for March.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

China FX swaps a key tool against liquidity -PBOC

(Reuters) - The central bank has long been silent about its dollar swaps since an inaugural $6 billion transaction in November 2005. Deputy central bank governor Wu Xiaoling acknowledged late last month that currency swaps were among its policy tools, but she did not elaborate.

Zhou's comments, made last week, are the clearest signal yet of the swaps' significance to the People's Bank of China .


Read more at Reuters.com Bonds News

E.ON's Brokdorf Reactor Reports Switch Incident; Operations Not Affected

(Bloomberg) -- E.ON AG's Brokdorf nuclear reactor had a problem with a switch on April 13, the company said.

The incident, which was rated ``0'' on the International Nuclear Event Scale, didn't affect the plant's operation, the Dusseldorf, Germany-based company said on its Web site.


Read more at Bloomberg Energy News

ASE shares hit 7-yr high after Carlyle deal scrapped

(Reuters) - TAIPEI, April 18 - Shares of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering rose more than 2 percent on Wednesday after the world's top chip packager called off plans to be bought by private equity firm Carlyle [CYL.UL].

ASE shares initially opened up by their daily 7 percent limit at T$43.85 in Taiwan before falling back to T$42.00 around noon, outpacing a 0.41 percent gain on the broader tech sector and a 0.34 percent rise on the main TAIEX .


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

FTSE down on rate fears; sterling also weighs

(Reuters) - Britain's top share index fell early on Wednesday as lingering concerns over higher UK interest rates weighed on banks, but Barclays rose on relief that it may be outbid in the race for ABN AMRO.

"It's just the concern of interest rates," said David Buik of Cantor Index. "If you look at the sector that is suffering it is basically the banks."


Read more at Reuters Africa

UPDATE 1-Carlyle to pay $12.6 mln for Japan chip firm stake

(Reuters) - Nakaya, which is based in Kyushu, Japan's southernmost main island, assembles and tests microchips for chip makers including Toshiba Corp. , Japan's second-largest electronics conglomerate.

Carlyle's investment in Nakaya will be completed by the end of the month via a private placement. It will then have board representation and plans to help Nakaya expand by assisting with recruitment and evaluating acquisition targets.


Read more at Reuters.com Mergers News

Commodity Shipping Costs on Panamax Vessels May Rise on Supply Shortage

(Bloomberg) -- The cost of transporting coal, iron-ore and other so-called dry-bulk commodities on medium- sized ships, at its highest in more than two years, may rise because fewer larger vessels are available for hire.

An Indian tax on iron-ore exports is prompting Chinese buyers to travel greater distances to buy the raw material, boosting requests for so-called capesize ships, the largest vessels that haul commodities.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Dollar Falls to Lowest Since 2004 Against Euro as Yield Advantage Shrinks

(Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell to $1.36 against the euro for the first time since December 2004, on speculation slower U.S. inflation will spur investors to seek fixed-income assets in nations where interest rates are climbing.

The U.S. dollar dropped against 14 of the world's 16 major currencies after a government report yesterday showed consumer price gains eased, contrasting with the outlook for prices in countries including the U.K., Germany and New Zealand, where investors are betting on central bank rate increases.


Read more at Bloomberg Currencies News