Thursday, March 18, 2010

“Guess 4Q profit up 80 percent, sales improve - KTVZ.com” plus 3 more

“Guess 4Q profit up 80 percent, sales improve - KTVZ.com” plus 3 more

Guess 4Q profit up 80 percent, sales improve - KTVZ.com

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 12:31 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Guess Inc. said on Wednesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose more than 80 percent on sales increases throughout the apparel maker's business segments.

In the three months ending Jan. 30, the company earned $86.6 million, or 93 cents per share, compared with earnings of $47.9 million, or 51 cents per share, in the same period last year.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned $89.3 million, or 96 cents per share.

Sales rose 14 percent to $642 million from $561.1 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected 81 cents per share in profit on sales of $601.7 million. Analysts typically exclude one-time charges from their estimates.

CEO Paul Marciano said the company's performance exceeded its expectations, with each business seeing improvements. He said the company also is controlling its costs and is doing well despite the economic climate.

"This was a year in which we expanded our international business, improved the profitability of our new businesses, fully restored our operating margin structure and generated strong cash flows," he said in a statement.

For the fiscal year, the company earned $242.8 million, or $2.61 per share, up from $213.6 million, or $2.25 per share in the prior year.

Sales rose slightly to $2.13 billion from $2.1 billion.

Guess said it expects its first-quarter revenue to range from $495 million to $510 million, and earnings per share to range from 46 cents to 48 cents. Analysts predict income of 47 cents per share on revenue of $485.1 million.

Shares rose $1.02, or 2 percent, to $47.70 in after-hours trading. The stock earlier added 7 cents to close at $46.68.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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RPT - TABLE-Phila Fed business conditions 18.9 in March - Reuters

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 07:05 AM PDT

Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

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Business briefs - LoHud.com

Posted: 17 Mar 2010 11:26 PM PDT

February wholesale prices drop 0.6%

WASHINGTON: Prices at the wholesale level plunged in February by the largest amount in seven months as a big drop in energy prices offset higher food costs. The Labor Department said Wednesday that wholesale inflation dropped 0.6 percent in February, much larger than the 0.2 percent decline economists had expected. Excluding food and energy, prices edged up 0.1 percent, in line with expectations. The deep recession and weak economic rebound are keeping inflation at bay and giving the Federal Reserve leeway to maintain record low interest rates in an effort to build momentum from stronger economic growth.

Bernanke: Let Fed keep banking duties

WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged Congress Wednesday to let the Fed keep all of its banking oversight, arguing that information gleaned from that process helps the central bank guide the economy. Testifying at a House hearing, Bernanke waged a fresh battle against Senate efforts to scale back the Fed's role in overseeing the nation's banks. The Fed boss argued that policymakers factor information they get from the Fed's role as bank regulator into their decisions on interest rates. And, Bernanke said its banking duties give the Fed insights into the health of the entire banking system.

New CFO says GM can turn 2010 profit

DETROIT: If the economy cooperates and auto sales recover a bit, General Motors Co. has a reasonable chance of turning a full-year profit in 2010, its new chief financial officer said Wednesday. Former Microsoft Corp. CFO Chris Liddell, at his first meeting with reporters in Detroit, said the automaker is making money in Brazil and China, in the middle in North America and struggling in Europe. A full-year profit for GM, which left bankruptcy protection in July, would be the company's first since 2004 when it made $2.7 billion. It has posted more than $88 billion in losses since then.

Two indicted in Madoff fraud case

NEW YORK: Two former employees accused of helping fraudulent Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff program an old computer to generate false records have been indicted. Wednesday's indictment accuses computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez of conspiracy, falsifying records of a broker dealer and falsifying records of an investment adviser. The men originally were charged in a criminal complaint before the case was presented to a federal grand jury, which returned the indictment. O'Hara and Perez remain free on $1 million bail. Madoff, 71, is serving a 150-year sentence after admitting his multi-decade Ponzi scheme cost thousands of investors billions of dollars.

Kraft Foods to cut salt in products

PORTLAND, Ore.: Kraft Foods Inc. said Wednesday that it will cut the salt in its products that are sold in North America by an average of 10 percent over the next two years to appeal to health-conscious consumers.

The changes at Kraft, the largest U.S. food maker, will affect more than 1,000 products and eliminate more than 10 million pounds of salt each year, the company said. Kraft and others have cut their use of sodium in recent years. Among other cuts, the company said this latest move will cut the salt in Oscar Mayer Bologna by 17 percent, Easy Mac Cups by 20 percent and Velveeta by 10 percent. The excess is dangerous because salt contributes to high blood pressure, which can lead to stroke, kidney disease, heart disease or heart failure.

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Business News - Am770chqr.com

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 07:31 PM PDT

WASHINGTON - A group of 14 U.S. senators unveiled legislation Tuesday that seeks to increase pressure on China to let its currency rise in value against the dollar, saying Chinese "currency manipulation" is hurting the U.S. economy.

The bill calls for stiff trade sanctions if China does not act.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the legislation is a sign of how strongly China's trading partners feel about the issue. In an interview on Fox Business Network, Geithner said that he believes Chinese officials "ultimately will decide it is in their interests to move."

Geithner declined to respond directly to a question of whether the Obama administration would support the bill backed by Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and 11 other senators.

"We are sending a message to the Chinese government," Schumer said in a statement. "If you refuse to play by the same rules as everyone else, we will force you to."

He said the issue is of critical importance at a time of high unemployment in the United States.

"There is no bigger step we can take to promote U.S. job creation, particularly in the manufacturing sector, than to confront China's currency manipulation," Schumer said.

American manufacturers contend that China's currency is undervalued by as much as 40 per cent and is a big reason for the huge U.S. trade deficit with China, which totalled $226.8 billion, last year, the largest imbalance with any country.

A stronger yuan versus the dollar would make American products less expensive in China, while making Chinese goods more expensive for American consumers.

The Obama administration is hoping China will resume allowing its currency to rise in value against the dollar as a way of narrowing that gap. China allowed its currency to appreciate until mid-2008 when the global recession began to cut sharply into its exports.

The Senate bill marks the latest escalation in tensions between the two nations.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday rejected American pressure on China to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar, saying such efforts amounted to a kind of trade protectionism. His comments came after President Barack Obama in a trade speech last week said that China would make an "essential contribution" to rebalancing the global economy by moving to a more market-oriented currency regime.

On Monday, a group of 130 House members sent a letter to the administration urging the Treasury Department to cite China as a currency manipulator in a report that is scheduled to be released next month. The group also called on the Commerce Department to impose trade sanctions on China on the basis that its currency system is an unfair trade practice.

Asked about the upcoming currency report, which the administration is required to send Congress in mid-April, Geithner said it had not yet been decided whether to cite China as a currency manipulator.

Such a finding would trigger talks between the two nations with a threat of trade sanctions if the talks failed to resolve the issue. The Obama administration, following the lead of the Bush administration, has so far refused to cite China as a currency manipulator, believing that the more productive course would be to convince the Chinese that it is in their own interests to allow their currency to rise in value.

Geithner said he believes that China needs to realize its currency policy is "not just an issue between China and the United States, it's an issue for the world economy as a whole."

The issue is a complex one for the United States because China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury bonds. The United States must depend on foreign investors to keep purchasing those bonds at a time when it is running record federal budget deficits, including a $1.4 trillion imbalance last year.

Content Provided By Canadian Press.

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