On Friday January 21, 2011, 6:37 pm EST
GE boosts 4Q income 52 pct
NEW YORK (AP) -- General
Electric Co. said Friday that fourth-quarter net income increased 52 percent as
the company made more money in both its lending and industrial businesses.
The lending arm, GE
Capital, drove the company's results in the final three months of 2010 as it
dealt with fewer loan defaults. Risky loans hammered the company during the
financial crisis, forcing GE to book huge writedowns.
Industrial sales also rose
during the fourth quarter and orders for equipment, an indication of future
business, jumped 20 percent.
The results show that
rising energy and raw material costs so far haven't cooled off global demand
for consumer products.
Facebook raises $1B more
from non-US investors
NEW YORK (AP) -- Facebook
said Friday it has raised $1 billion from non-U.S. investors, which combined
with an infusion from Goldman Sachs and Russia's Digital Sky Technologies in
December, brings the haul from its latest round of funding to $1.5 billion.
The investments value the
social networking site at $50 billion, more than the current market values of
Yahoo Inc. or eBay Inc., but below those of Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc.
Facebook did not say Friday
how it plans to spend the $1.5 billion.
As anticipated, Facebook
also said it will start filing public financial reports by April 30, 2012.
While that doesn't technically mean an initial public stock offering, that is
the most likely outcome because Facebook will have to make many of the same
disclosures of a publicly traded company anyway.
German business confidence
hits two-decade high
BERLIN (AP) -- German
business confidence has risen to a new two-decade high, exceeding expectations
as an increasingly broad-based recovery in Europe's biggest economy shows no
signs of slacking, a closely watched survey showed Friday.
The Ifo institute's monthly
confidence index rose to 110.3 points in January from 109.8 in December. It was
the eighth consecutive increase, the highest figure since Ifo started measuring
business confidence in reunited Germany in 1991, and exceeded economists'
forecast of a slight rise to 109.9.
The German economy
rebounded strongly in 2010, growing by 3.6 percent as a recovering global
economy fueled a surge in exports -- a traditional German strength -- and
domestic demand showed signs of improvement.
Citigroup gives CEO Vikram
Pandit a big raise
NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup
Inc. is giving its CEO a big raise.
The New York-based bank is
lifting Vikram Pandit's base salary to $1.75 million from just $1 a year
effective immediately, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on Friday. The announcement comes after Citi reported its first full
year of profits since Pandit took over the top job in 2007 and the bank exited
government ownership.
Citi was one of the
hardest-hit U.S. banks during the credit crisis, and received a $45 billion
government bailout. Pandit in 2009 pledged to take a $1 salary until the
troubled bank returned to profitability. The government sold off the last of
its stake in the bank in December for a profit of $12 billion.
Greek austerity program
gets thumbs-up from Fitch
LONDON (AP) -- Bailed-out
Greece is doing better than anticipated in getting a handle on its debt
problems but could still face another potentially damaging downgrade if the
economy doesn't start growing again this year, a leading credit ratings agency
said Friday.
Greece is on course to
having reduced its budget deficit by a massive 6 percentage points of GDP last
year to 9 percent at a time when the economy has contracted a further 4
percent.
The country was bailed out
to the tune of euro110 billion ($148 billion) last May by its partners in the
European Union and the International Monetary Fund as its borrowing costs in
the markets surged to unsustainably high levels, effectively preventing it from
raising money in the bond markets.
In return for the bailout
funds, the Greek government, led by Prime Minister George Papandreou, has had
to enact a series of budget cuts, tax increases and reforms to large chunks of
the economy.
The reforms have not been
easy to push through. The country has been crippled by strikes as workers
protest against the austerity measures, but so far the government has managed
to deliver on its program.
French court convicts
Warner head, ex-Vivendi boss
PARIS (AP) -- A French
court, in a surprise ruling, on Friday convicted and fined Warner Music Group
chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. for insider trading and former high-flying
Vivendi CEO Jean-Marie Messier for misusing company funds and misleading
investors.
Bronfman, a former
executive vice president of Vivendi Universal, was fined euro5 million ($6.7
million) and given a 15-month suspended sentence for insider trading around the
Vivendi media conglomerate when he was a top executive there. Messier was
handed a three-year suspended prison sentence and a euro150,000 fine.
The unexpected convictions
came despite prosecutor Chantal de Leiris' recommendations that the two men and
other ex-Vivendi executives be cleared of all charges for lack of evidence that
they duped investors.
Bronfman and Messier said
they would appeal the verdict, which deals a blow to the two men once
considered masterminds of massive mergers in the media and telecommunications
sectors.
Caterpillar urges stronger
US-China trade ties
NEW YORK (AP) -- Heavy
equipment maker Caterpillar is urging a stronger trade relationship between the
U.S. and China on the heels of the Chinese president's visit to the U.S.
The Peoria, Ill., company,
the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, said Friday it
inked a memorandum of understanding as part of the U.S.-China Trade and
Economic Forum that it hopes will support greater U.S. exports from Caterpillar
in the future.
China is already one of the
largest export markets for Caterpillar products, with more than $2 billion in
products delivered there in the last five years. Caterpillar has more than
7,700 employees across China.
UK retail sales volume flat
in December
LONDON (AP) -- Retail sales
in Britain rose 2 percent by value in December compared to a year ago, less
than the rate of inflation, while volume was flat, an official report said
Friday, adding to indications that the nation's economic recovery is slowing.
Banks, meanwhile, reported
that gross mortgage lending hit another 10-year low in December.
Snow during the coldest
winter in a century helped knock sales volume down 0.8 percent from November,
the Office for National Statistics said Friday.
Sales volume by
predominantly food stores fell 3.4 percent compared to a year earlier, a record
fall, while nonfood store volume was up 3.1 percent, the Office for National
Statistics said.
The non-store retail
sector, including internet sales, was up 14.5 percent both by volume and value.
The report reinforced a
view that next week's preliminary estimate of fourth-quarter GDP will show the
recovery slowing down -- the consensus is that growth will be 0.4 percent, down
from 0.7 percent in the third quarter and 1.1 percent in the second quarter.
By The Associated Press
The Dow Jones Industrial
average rose 49.04 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 11,871.84.
The Standard & Poor's
500 index gained 3.09 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,283.35.
The technology-focused
Nasdaq composite index slid 14.75 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,698.54. It lost
2.4 percent for the week.
Benchmark oil for March
delivery fell 48 cents to settle at $89.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile
Exchange.
In other Nymex trading,
heating oil rose 2.76 cents to settle at $2.6508 a gallon, and gasoline added
3.64 cents to settle at $2.4589 a gallon. Natural gas for March delivery gained
5.1 cents to settle at $4.743 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude rose
$1.02 to settle at $97.60 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.