| | |
| U.S. chief executives can't break cost-cutting habit Friday, Jul 26, 2013 03:16 PM PDT By Lewis Krauskopf, Patricia Kranz and Lucia Mutikani (Reuters) - A disconcerting trend lurks beneath the recent round of solid profit forecasts announced by companies ranging from United Technologies Corp to Wendy's Co : More than three years into the recovery, CEOs are still relying on cost cuts to prop up earnings. While the cuts are not as severe as those that followed the 2008 financial crisis, companies remain cautious, mindful that revenue growth is still tepid. ... Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: JPMorgan's physical commodity trading Friday, Jul 26, 2013 02:51 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co. has expanded into the physical commodity markets aggressively over the past five years, first with the purchase of Bear Stearns in 2008 and most significantly with a $1.7 billion deal to buy RBS Sempra's global oil and metals business in 2010. On Friday the bank - which had become Wall Street's biggest trader in commodities - announced that it was putting the physical trading operations up for sale, quitting the business after months of intensifying pressure. ... Full Story | Top |
| Father of fracking George P. Mitchell dies at 94 Friday, Jul 26, 2013 02:51 PM PDT By Anna Driver HOUSTON (Reuters) - George Phydias Mitchell, a petroleum engineer who transformed the natural gas industry by using hydraulic fracturing to pull the fuel out of shale formations, died of natural causes at the age of 94 on Friday. A native of Galveston, Texas, who rose from modest means to become a billionaire philanthropist, he was the chairman and chief executive officer of Mitchell Energy & Development Corp, which was sold to Devon Energy Corp for $3.5 billion in 2002. His death was announced on the website of his foundation. ... Full Story | Top |
| Halliburton plea may help BP in spill liability battle Friday, Jul 26, 2013 02:34 PM PDT  By Braden Reddall and Mica Rosenberg (Reuters) - BP Plc appeared to gain an edge in the battle over liability for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill on Friday, after Halliburton abandoned one of its arguments that tried to paint the British oil company as unconcerned about well safety. Halliburton, which did the cementing work for BP's well, on Thursday pleaded guilty to destroying evidence of internal tests it conducted showing there was no difference between the effectiveness of putting six or 21 casing centralizers on the well. ... Full Story | Top |
| Oil's drop, Fed fears yank TSX to one-week low Friday, Jul 26, 2013 02:15 PM PDT  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index hit a one-week low on Friday with falling oil prices fueling a decline in shares of energy producers and a Federal Reserve meeting next week reviving worries about the fate of the U.S. central bank's stimulus program. The Toronto market fell for a fourth consecutive session and declined on the week after four straight weeks of gains. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. FDA proposes food companies verify safety of imports Friday, Jul 26, 2013 01:42 PM PDT  By Carey Gillam (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed rules on Friday that would require food companies to verify that the products they import meet certain safety standards. The rules are the latest in a series proposed under the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was signed in 2011 and represents the most sweeping food safety reform in more than 70 years. More than 3,000 people in the United States die each year from food-borne illnesses, according to federal data. One in six are sickened and 100,000 hospitalized from illness tied to pathogens such as salmonella, E. ... Full Story | Top |
| TransCanada confident Energy East line will proceed Friday, Jul 26, 2013 12:38 PM PDT CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp , which earlier reported a 34 percent jump in second-quarter profit on Friday, said it expects its proposed Energy East pipeline will receive sufficient support from potential shippers to allow construction to proceed. The company, which is also backing the controversial Keystone XL project, said the planned 700,000-barrel-per-day project, even as it awaits results from a open season process, where shippers sign long-term contracts for space on the line. Those results are expected within two weeks. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. appeals court upholds $105 million Exxon payout in NYC case Friday, Jul 26, 2013 12:25 PM PDT By Mica Rosenberg NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld a ruling against Exxon Mobil Corp ordering the company to pay $105 million in damages for polluting New York City's groundwater with a toxic gasoline additive. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2009 jury verdict that found Exxon contaminated water supply wells when methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) leaked from its underground storage tanks in the borough of Queens. The appeals court rejected Exxon's arguments that it was required to use the additive under the federal Clean Air Act. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. court permits generic version of Teva MS drug a year sooner Friday, Jul 26, 2013 11:20 AM PDT By Diane Bartz and Ransdell Pierson WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' $4 billion-a-year multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone will lose its patent protection in 2014 rather than 2015 because of a ruling from a U.S. appeals court on Friday, making it potentially prey to cheaper generics next May. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its decision in a patent fight that pits Teva against two teams developing cheaper generic forms of Copaxone: one with Novartis AG and Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc and another between Mylan Inc and Natco Pharma Ltd. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nigeria's Forte Oil say H1 profit up 57 pct Friday, Jul 26, 2013 08:46 AM PDT LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian fuel marketer Forte Oil said on Friday its half-year pretax profit rose by 56.6 percent to 1.66 billion naira, compared with 1.06 billion naira in the same period of last year. Forte Oil's revenue grew to 59.9 billion naira in the six months to June 30, from 49.7 billion naira in the same period last year, it said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| China slows, iron ore rises. But for how long?: Andy Home Friday, Jul 26, 2013 08:05 AM PDT By Andy Home LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese Slowdown is the dominant market narrative for the base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME). It's why the price of copper, the bellwether of the LME pack, is trundling along in a tight range either side of $7,000 per tonne. It's why the price of other metals such as nickel and aluminium are now eating into the top end of the global cost-curve. ... Full Story | Top |
| Europe backs new dual-action Novartis lung drug Friday, Jul 26, 2013 07:50 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis won an important endorsement of its new inhaled medicine for chronic lung disease on Friday when European regulators recommended approval of Ultibro Breezhaler. Also known as QVA149, the once-daily medicine belongs to a new type of dual-action treatments that are expected by analysts to become major sellers and is the first in the class to win such a green light. The green light from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) paves the way for full marketing authorization in the next two or three months. Approval in the key U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Chinese firm Sepco III to build coal power plant in Morocco Friday, Jul 26, 2013 07:34 AM PDT  Rabat (Reuters) - Chinese firm Sepco III has signed a deal to build a 318 megawatt coal-fired plant in Morocco, as the North African kingdom seeks to meet a growing power demand, state power utility ONEE said on Friday. Sepco III won a 3 billion dirhams tender launched by ONEE last year to build the second coal-fired power plant in the city of Jerada near the Algerian border, where protests erupt frequently over unemployment since the closure of the coal mines there in 2001. The construction will be financed by Chinese Exim Bank and the plant will start operating by the end of 2016. ... Full Story | Top |
| Eni completes stake sale in Mozambique assets to China's CNPC Friday, Jul 26, 2013 04:16 AM PDT  MILAN (Reuters) - Italian oil and gas group Eni said on Friday it had completed the sale of 28.57 percent of Eni East Africa to China's CNPC at a previously agreed price of $4.21 billion. Eni East Africa holds 70 percent in the Area 4 gas field off the coast of Mozambique, it said in a statement. The deal was first announced in March. Following the transaction, CNPC holds an indirect stake in Area 4 of 20 percent. Eni has 50 percent, while other partners in the project are Mozambique's ENH, Kogas and Galp Energia with 10 percent each. Full Story | Top |
| EU regulator finds no new safety issues with diabetes drugs Friday, Jul 26, 2013 02:36 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - European drugs regulators have found no new safety concerns with diabetes drugs known as GLP-1 and DPP-4 therapies after concluding a safety review of possible links to damage to the pancreas. The class of drugs - known as glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists and dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors - includes Merck's $4 billion-a-year Januvia franchise, Novo Nordisk's Victoza, and Byetta and Onglyza from Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca, among others. ... Full Story | Top |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment