Stock Market News: Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Microsoft Corp. (NYSE: MSFT), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM)
Antitrust and International Trade Commission probes in the U.S. tend to focus on tech companies such as Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) and IBM (NYSE: IBM), and now the Justice Department is making another visit to IBM to investigate whether it has employed monopolistic practices in its mainframe business. IBM is said to have invented the mainframe; the company launched its System 360 line in 1965 and many of today’s most powerful computers are decedents of that product. –AOL Daily Finance
A new supply contract with China for liquefied natural gas, as well as spot demand from India and China, has taken up the slack in LNG demand, the chief executive of Malaysia’s Petronas said on Thursday. Malaysian LNG facilities are running at capacity, Tan Sri Hassan Marican said at a press conference at the World Gas Conference. –Reuters
Consumer debt levels fell again in August for the seventh month in a row. Facing continued instability in the job market, people are paying down their debt, as a way to protect themselves. Savings are up, and borrowing is down – which could weaken the recovery. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of economic activity in the United States. Total consumer debt outstanding dropped by $12 billion in August, according to the Federal Reserve, reflecting an annualized rate of 5.8%. Reality outpaced Wall Street’s expectations, which were around $10 billion. In July, consumer debt outstanding fell $19 billion (9.1%), which was the largest in hard-dollar terms since 1943 and on a percentage basis since June 1975’s 16.3%. -BloggingStocks
Alcoa, the first company in the Dow average to report earnings, jumped 5 percent to $14.91. The New York-based company’s profit excluding certain items was 4 cents a share. That beat the average analyst estimate for a 9-cent loss, as metal prices climbed and the company cut jobs. –Bloomberg
U.S. bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) said on Thursday it expects lower same-store sales for its current quarter and full year after adjusting its financial reporting period to reflect a recent acquisition. The company expects comparable store sales to drop 1 percent to 3 percent for the period. For its new fiscal year 2010, from May 3 2009 to May 1 2010, it expects same-store sales to fall between 2 percent to 4 percent. The company expects full year earnings per share of 59 cents to 89 cents, including transaction costs and purchase accounting adjustments. For the second quarter, it expects a loss per share of 45 cents to 55 cents, including one-time transaction costs. –Reuters
The European Central Bank and Bank of England held their key interest rates steady at historic lows Thursday, as widely expected. The ECB kept its main refinancing rate at 1% and announced no changes to the regimes governing the nonstandard measures it has used to support the euro-zone banking system and economy since the global financial crisis intensified in the autumn of 2008. ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said the region’s economy is recovering and consumer prices will start to rise over coming months. –The Wall Street Journal
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) , the largest banks to repay U.S. bailout funds, will probably post the industry’s biggest third-quarter profit gains while Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) still gripping its government lifeline, reports another loss. Earnings at JPMorgan may have almost quadrupled to $2.05 billion from the height of the financial crisis a year earlier, according to analysts’ average estimates in a survey by Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs’s profit probably almost tripled to $2.3 billion. Citigroup’s expected $2.58 billion loss would mark its sixth unprofitable quarter in the past eight. -Bloomberg
-Jutia Group
Posted By: Alfa Spartan
News Syndication by Ramberg Global Content News.