Bank of America Tops Citigroup November 29, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, finance , comments closed
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Air Berlin Places $5.7 Billion Boeing Order November 28, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, manufacturing, transportation, finance , add a commentOne week after receiving a $5.5 billion order for 25 aircraft from Korean Air, Boeing received a $5.7 billion order from German airline Air Berlin.
The company said it would purchase 60 of the 737-800 model, extending Boeing’s lead over Airbus, which has been having problems with design and production on its commercial jets as of late.
The aircraft are to be delivered by Boeing between 2007 and 2014.
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Ford Looking for $18 Billion November 27, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, manufacturing, transportation, finance , add a commentNumber two U.S. automaker Ford Motor Company said it plans to acquire approximately $18 billion in financing to help with near- and medium-term negative operating cash flow and with funding for its restructuring.
After the transactions, which Ford expects to close before the end of the calendar year, its “automotive liquidity” will be about $38 billion. The company lost $7 billion between January and September and has said it won’t return to profitability until 2009.
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$26 Billion Deal to Create Largest Copper Firm November 21, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: wholesale, business, finance, mining , add a commentFreeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold announced it will pay $126.46 per share in cash and stock to purchase Phelps Dodge, creating the world’s largest publicly-traded copper company.
From Reuters:
“This kind of big merger could raise the company’s ability to take advantage in price negotiations, therefore this should be positive for copper prices,” said Naohiro Niimura, director at Barclays Capital Japan.
“In the current bearish trend, the market is not too sensitive about buying copper actively, but in the medium- and long-term it should be positive.”
Phelps Dodge has mines in North America, South America and Africa, while Freeport-McMoRan operates the Grasberg mine in Indonesia, said in terms of reserves to be the world’s largest copper and gold mine.
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Deere Profit Estimates Worsen
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, finance, forestry , add a commentProfit at Deere & Co., the world’s largest farm equipment manufacturer, will fall below analysts’ estimates in 2007, according to the company.
Total net income of $150 million to $175 million for the first quarter was the company’s prediction, resulting in 65 cents to 76 cents per share. Analysts on average were expecting 97 cents per share.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Lane is limiting production to prevent excess inventory due to higher fuel and fertilizer costs which the company expects will hurt farm budgets.
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Wages Rise for U.S. Workers November 20, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, construction, real estate, retail, finance, management , add a commentFor the first time in years, paychecks in the U.S. rose faster than the cost of living. The pay increase amounts to four percent over the past twelve months, a gain that hasn’t been seen since 1997.
From Christian Science Monitor:
“The striking feature of this expansion has been that … real wages for the typical worker haven’t risen that much,” says Richard Berner, US economist at the investment bank Morgan Stanley in New York. But with real incomes rising, he says, “you get a picture of an economy that can weather this housing storm.”
The risk of recession hasn’t disappeared, he and other economists say. But with a fairly tight job market and low unemployment, many expect that paychecks will keep rising solidly in 2007.
Add fewer layoffs this year and the economy might just have something to be thankful about this Thursday.
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Federated Sells Bridal Business November 17, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, retail, finance , add a commentFederated Department Stores has agreed to sell its Bridal Group to two separate transactions for a total of $850 million.
Leonard Green & Partners LP, a private equity firm, will purchase the David’s Bridal chain and the Priscilla of Boston chain, totaling 279 stores for $750 million.
In a separate transaction, Men’s Wearhouse Inc. will acquire After Hours Formalwear, the nation’s largest tuxedo rental chain, for $100 million.
Both transactions are expected to close in the first quarter of 2007.
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Housing Starts Lowest in Six Years
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, construction, government, real estate, finance , add a commentOctober starts of new homes plunged a whopping 14.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.486 million, the lowest since July, 2000, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
Building permits also took a hit and were down 6.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.535 million, the lowest in nine years and the largest percentage drop in seven years.
The retreat by home builders led many experts to abandon hopes of a quick recovery in the housing market.
From MarketWatch:
But Stephen Stanley, chief economist for RBS Greenwich Capital, saw a silver lining in the October data.
“We see this as an unambiguously good thing,” he wrote. “The faster builders address their bloated inventories and bring the pace of home construction down, the quicker the housing correction will play out and the economy can return to a more normal footing.”
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Nonresidential Construction Still Growing November 16, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, construction, public utilities, real estate, retail, finance, architecture , add a commentDespite lackluster sales in the residential arena, nonresidential construction spending has risen for 15th consecutive month, leading to an overall construction spending increase of 6.6 percent in the first 9 months of 2006 over the same period last year.
From Architectural Record via BusinessWeek:
Hotels and resort-related construction spending saw a 48 percent gain over the first nine months of last year; retail stores, shopping centers and malls were up 37 percent; hospital spending grew 25 percent; and manufacturing increased by 23 percent. Multifamily construction, meanwhile, was up 18 percent year-to-date, as a surge in rental facilities is offsetting a dip in condominium building.
Highway and street construction, meanwhile, rose 16 percent year-to-date over 2005, while educational construction increased by 7 percent. Other positive growth areas include sewage and waste disposal and transportation facilities. Nearly all of these categories are expected to grow in 2007, due to a fundamentally strong economy.
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US Airways Bids for Delta November 15, 2006
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, transportation, finance , add a commentUS Airways Group has made an offer of $8 billion in cash and stock for Delta Airlines, Inc. The deal would create one of the world’s largest airlines and provide Delta’s unsecured creditors with $4 billion in cash and over 78 million shares of US Airways stock.
If the deal goes through (though Delta has said it intends to emerge from bankruptcy as an independent airline), the airline would operate under the Delta name, with some 85,000 employees and more than 350 destinations across five continents.
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