| "Cliff" concerns give way to earnings focus Posted: 05 Jan 2013 06:10 AM PST  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors' "fiscal cliff" worries are likely to give way to more fundamental concerns, like earnings, as fourth-quarter reports get under way next week. Financial results, which begin after the market closes on Tuesday with aluminum company Alcoa , are expected to be only slightly better than the third-quarter's lackluster results. As a warning sign, analyst current estimates are down sharply from what they were in October. ...
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| Obama says U.S. can't afford more showdowns over debt, deficits Posted: 05 Jan 2013 07:54 AM PST  HONOLULU (Reuters) - Fresh from the long legislative fight to prevent a "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts, President Barack Obama warned on Saturday that the United States could not afford further budget showdowns this year or in the future. Obama, who returned to Hawaii for a family vacation shortly after the House of Representatives passed a compromise bill on Tuesday, said in his weekly radio and Internet address that the new law was just one step toward fixing the country's fiscal and economic problems. ...
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| Lawmakers asks Fed to delay foreclosure deal for review Posted: 05 Jan 2013 09:19 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. congressional oversight panel asked regulators to delay a multibillion dollar mortgage settlement with 14 large banks so that the lawmakers could review the deal, according to a letter made available on Saturday. "We would like more information about how the potential settlement amount is to be determined in light of the potential wrongdoing identified to date," said the January 4 letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry. ...
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| SAP CEO says China to become as important as U.S.: paper Posted: 05 Jan 2013 06:22 AM PST  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German business software maker SAP sees potential for one million new customers in China, five times the number it currently has world-wide, German weekly paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said. "China will be as important for us as the United States," SAP's co-Chief Executive Jim Hagemann Snabe told the paper, according to an advance extract. Snabe said SAP wants to open the Chinese market by securing a deal with authorities to allow cloud computing services. "We want to find a solution with Chinese authorities this year if possible," Snabe told the paper. ...
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| France won't buy troubled Petroplus refinery: Hollande Posted: 05 Jan 2013 08:15 AM PST  VAL-DE-REUIL, France (Reuters) - France will not take over insolvent Swiss refiner Petroplus' oil refinery in Normandy, but could help the plant financially once a suitable buyer is found, President Francois Hollande said on Saturday. About 500 jobs at the 161,000 barrels-a-day Petit-Couronne refinery are at risk, the latest industrial headache for the Socialist leader who has vowed to stem rising unemployment by the end of the year. "It's difficult to find a serious buyer. ...
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| BASF's Hambrecht to delay comeback until 2014: paper Posted: 05 Jan 2013 04:01 AM PST  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Juergen Hambrecht, the former chief executive of Germany's BASF, will delay an attempted comeback to the world's largest chemical maker by sales until 2014, he told German weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Hambrecht, who left the CEO post in 2011, has sought to get a seat on BASF's board of directors, a body known in Germany as the supervisory board. German law prohibits an immediate move from management to the board of directors, demanding that executives undergo a two-year "cooling off" period. "BASF has a very good supervisory board. ...
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| BMW to pare back car discounts in Germany: magazine Posted: 05 Jan 2013 06:13 AM PST  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BMW will cut back on sales discounts in Germany and focus on maintaining profit margins rather than market share, Chief Executive Norbert Reithofer told German weekly WirtschaftsWoche. "We have decided that this year in Germany we will not defend market share at any price, and that profitability must come first," Reithofer told the magazine. The volume of discounts will therefore be pared back substantially. "We're not just talking 5,000 cars," Reithofer told the magazine. ...
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| Austria plugs regional finance loopholes after scandal Posted: 05 Jan 2013 05:57 AM PST  VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's finance minister played down the risks to regional finances on Saturday after a Salzburg civil servant gambled hundreds of millions of euros of taxpayers' money on high-risk derivatives. Speaking a day after federal and provincial officials agreed on steps to curb speculative use of public funds, Maria Fekter said in a radio interview that local authorities had already acted to reduce deals that had potential to blow up. ...
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| Portugal does not need debt restructuring: IMF's Lagarde Posted: 05 Jan 2013 03:41 AM PST  LISBON (Reuters) - Any restructuring of Portugal's debt is out of the question and the country's bailout program is progressing well, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Saturday. IMF chief Christine Lagarde told Portuguese weekly Expresso that she was also confident Portugal would not follow Greece into a spiral of economic recession. The European Union and IMF gave Portugal a 78-billion-euro ($102-billion) bailout in 2011 and the lenders have praised the country for meeting most of their terms. ...
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| Fed officials suggest possible end to asset purchases in 2013 Posted: 05 Jan 2013 12:39 PM PST  SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve could halt its asset purchases this year, two top Fed officials suggested on Friday, a view also gaining traction among economists at Wall Street's top financial institutions. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, a voting member of the Fed's monetary policy panel in 2013, said a drop in the unemployment rate to 7.1 percent would probably constitute the "substantial improvement" in the labor market that the central bank seeks. That's the bar for the Fed's policy-setting committee to halt the current round of asset purchases that it began in September. ...
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| WSJ says Hostess in talks to sell bread brands Posted: 05 Jan 2013 01:50 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — The makers of Thomas' English muffins and Tastykake snacks are emerging as the two of the bidders for Wonder Bread and other Hostess bread brands as the company tries to sell off its assets under bankruptcy-court oversight, a newspaper reported Saturday. |
| Obama wants action on government's borrowing limit Posted: 05 Jan 2013 09:23 AM PST  HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama is hailing a last-minute deal that pulled the country back from the "fiscal cliff," but says it's just one step in a broader effort to boost the economy and shrink federal deficits.
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| Merkel highlights economy in German election year Posted: 05 Jan 2013 05:40 AM PST BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted Germany's economic strength as she kicked off campaigning Saturday for an important state vote that comes months before national elections, and she brushed aside worries about the weakness of her party's coalition partner. |
| House panel asks to see foreclosure settlement Posted: 05 Jan 2013 02:59 PM PST A House oversight panel wants to review a proposed settlement between 14 banks and federal regulators over improper foreclosure practices. |
| Missoni scion on plane missing in Venezuela Posted: 05 Jan 2013 03:18 PM PST  CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Rescue crews used boats and aircraft on Saturday to search for a small plane that disappeared off Venezuela carrying the CEO of Italy's iconic Missoni fashion house and five other people.
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| Depardieu flies to Russia, may receive passport Posted: 05 Jan 2013 07:43 AM PST MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says French actor Gerard Depardieu has flown to Sochi, where he is likely to meet with Putin and receive a Russian passport. |
| Starbucks enters entrenched Vietnam coffee market Posted: 04 Jan 2013 11:46 PM PST  HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Nghiem Ngoc Thuy has been slinging coffees to thirsty Vietnamese for 20 years in her colonial-style villa with peeling shutters, and she and her customers aren't too worried that the imminent arrival of U.S. giant Starbucks will alter their time-tested coffee traditions.
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