The Dow climbed 274 points to 10,018 today as investors were encouraged by retail sales in the U.S. and the fact that stress tests are to be done on European banks. Those tests are supposed to show how banks will hold up if they get hit with bad debts from weak European countries such as Greece and Spain.
Filed under: International
Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
CME Group plans interest-rate clearing in 2010
CME Group Inc, which runs the world’s biggest clearinghouse for futures contracts, plans to start clearing over-the-counter interest-rate contracts in 2010, an executive said on Wednesday.
A sweeping financial regulatory reform bill that won passage this month in the House will require trading and clearing of a swath of derivatives currently traded away from regulated exchanges. CME is among several clearinghouses that aim to take advantage of the new requirements. Get the full story »
UAL, Ford, ADM CEOs appointed to Export Council
President Barack Obama is scheduled to unveil a report Wednesday showing the U.S. is on track to double exports in the next five years and name the chief executives of United Parcel Services Inc., Walt Disney Co., Pfizer Inc. and other firms to a presidential advisory board on trade issues.
Other large, publicly trade companies that will be represented on the council include Metlife Inc., UAL Corp., Dow Chemical Co. , Ford Motor Co. , Verizon Communications Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland Co. Get the full story »
Kraft selling Cadbury’s Romanian unit
Kraft Foods Inc. reached a deal to sell Cadbury’s Romanian operations to investment fund Oryxa Capital for an undisclosed amount. The deal — involving the Kandia-Excelent chocolate, soft cake and sugar confectionery business — is the last sale required by European regulators as part of Kraft’s $19 billion purchase earlier this year of Cadbury. Get the full story »
Ford’s first-half China sales rise 53 percent
Ford Motor Co. sold a record 301,524 vehicles in China during the first six months of the year, up 53 percent from the same period in 2009, the company said. The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker said its passenger car joint venture, Changan Ford Mazda Automobile, sold a record 205,563 vehicles, up 46 percent for the six-month period. Its commercial vehicle venture, Jiangling Motors Corp., sold 88,363 vehicles, also a record.
Source: GM plans to file IPO in mid-August
General Motors Co. plans to file its initial public offering in mid-August, a source familiar with the situation said Friday.
General Motors is also in talks with banks for a revolving line of credit worth $5 billion. Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley each have agreed to provide $500 million worth of credit. Get the full story »
GM sells more cars in China than U.S.
General Motors’ first-half sales in China, the world’s biggest auto market, exceeded sales in its home U.S. market for the first time, according to data released on Friday. GM’s China auto sales jumped 48.5 percent to 1.21 million units in January through June, compared with the 1.08 million light vehicles it delivered in the U.S. over the same period, company data showed. Get the full story »
WTO panel slams European Union aid for Airbus
The European Union and some of its states paid prohibited export subsidies to planemaker Airbus and must eliminate them rapidly, a World Trade Organization dispute panel said on Wednesday. The ruling marks a big setback for Airbus, but is not the end of its battle with rival Boeing over subsidies in the market for large civil aircraft worth $3 trillion over the next 20 years.
Boeing hailed the WTO ruling, which did not back all U.S. claims, saying it proved that Airbus had only been able to take market share from Boeing — nudging it out of number one place in the process — because of subsidies. Get the full story »
Dow slides 268 as recovery slows
Stocks and interest rates tumbled Tuesday after signs of slowing economies from China to the U.S. spooked traders who were already uneasy about a global recovery. The Dow Jones industrial average fell about 320 points in late afternoon and dropped below 10,000 for the first time since June 10. The Dow and broader indexes fell more than 3 percent.
Kraft picks ‘power’ brands for developing markets
Kraft Foods Co. is revising the brands and countries it will focus on in developing markets as a result of its acquisition earlier this year of Cadbury Plc.
Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates, Halls lozenges and Trident gum, three Cadbury brands, make the list of 10 “power” brands getting the bulk of the marketing money in developing markets, said Sanjay Khosla, Kraft’s president, developing markets and global categories. They join Oreo cookies, Milka chocolate, Lacta chocolate, Jacobs coffee, Tang drink mix, Club Social/TUC crackers, Biskuat/Tiger biscuits, Khosla said. Get the full story »
Dubai may postpone Boeing, Airbus orders
Dubai’s financial woes may force majority state-owned Dubai Aerospace Enterprise to renegotiate some 220 aircraft orders with Boeing and Airbus, French daily Les Echos said on Monday. The debt-laden emirate has chosen to turn part of its deliveries into new contracts for airline Emirates, the paper said, without citing a specific source. Get the full story »
Google to try again in China
Internet giant Google Inc said it plans to stop automatically redirecting users of its Google.cn site to its Hong Kong page, in a bid to secure renewal of the company’s China service license. Get the full story »
Caterpillar breaks ground on new China plant
Caterpillar Inc. said on Monday that it had broken ground in Xuzhou, China, for a plant that would build large excavators and that it had opened a plant there to make small and medium-size excavators.
Excavators are modern-day steam-shovels. They often have buckets and are used by builders to dig in confined areas.
Get the full story »
Airbus calls for trade talks as ruling nears
Airbus is calling for talks between the United States and the European Union to end the trans-Atlantic fight over subsidies to aircraft manufacturers. Airbus says it’s the only way to end the costly six-year dispute.
