AstraZeneca hikes guidance April 29, 2010 ASTRAZENECA’s first quarter profits soared by 29 per cent, helped by sales of its cholesterol drug Crestor and schizophrenia medicine Seroquel. The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker smashed expectations and has upped its profit target for the full-year following the sharp rise in earnings. Emerging market sales were also behind the strong results, the company added. “We saw [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS April 29, 2010 GLAXOSMITHKLINE Citi Group Global Markets maintains a “buy” recommendation on drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as it says the group’s sustained delivery of top-line growth should allow expansion into a number of treatments. Citi remains bullish on GSK’s opportunity to drive revenue growth through the consumer business. BP Despite the Macondo spill, Bank of America Merrill [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS April 29, 2010 Aviva The insurance giant has appointed Tim Harris as its new deputy chief financial officer and chief capital officer. Harris is currently chief financial officer of Aviva’s European business. He has also been the group’s chief accountant and, before that, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Aviva has also appointed Richard Dewar, the chief financial officer at [...]
Shire is bolstered by new drugs coming to market April 29, 2010 DRUGMAKER Shire posted better-than-expected first quarter earnings yesterday, as new drugs offset losses of exclusivity for its blockbuster medicine Adderall XR, used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder. Shire has bolstered its franchise with new drugs Vyvanse and Intuniv, as Adderall XR wanes in the face of generic competition from Israel’s Teva. The company is also [...]
‘BIGOTGATE’ GAFFE HITS GRINNING GORDON WHERE IT HURTS MOST April 28, 2010 SPREAD betting firms always pride themselves on having a finger on the pulse, so it’s a bleak lookout for Gordon Brown if general election seat spreads yesterday were anything to go by. Brown (as even strictly cloistered Martians will know by now) yesterday committed a political gaffe of monolithic proportions, simpering to the UK’s newest [...]
FIRST GREECE, NOW SPAIN, WHO NEXT? April 28, 2010 EUROPEAN markets were yesterday left quaking after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain’s sovereign credit rating, the third debt-stricken eurozone nation to receive such treatment in just 48 hours. Fears of contagion spreading to other European countries catapulted the EU into action, with one politician letting slip that a revised bailout package for Greece could be [...]
Disaster for Labour as Brown insults a voter April 28, 2010 LABOUR’s re-election campaign was thrown into chaos yesterday, after the Prime Minister said an old-age pensioner was “bigoted” because she raised concerns over immigration. Gordon Brown’s unguarded comments were picked up by a radio microphone that he forgot to remove following a televised campaign stop in Rochdale. Minutes after telling Gillian Duffy, 66, it had [...]
Fed upbeat but rates kept low April 28, 2010 THE FEDERAL Reserve issued a positive outlook for the US economy and employment forecasts yesterday despite keeping to its promise of holding interest rates around zero. Benchmark borrowing costs were kept in a zero to 0.25 per cent range as the US central bank said consumer and business spending was picking up. The Fed, which [...]
Bigotgate overshadows fiscal crisis April 28, 2010 SO FAR during this election campaign, only two events, both televised, have had a real effect, capturing the public’s imagination. The first leaders’ debate triggered the vertiginous rise of Nick Clegg, whose LibDem party gained over ten percentage points in the polls in just 90 minutes without him needing to say anything new; and then [...]
Senate to debate reform April 28, 2010 DISCUSSIONS in the US Senate over landmark banking reform are set to begin today after the Republican and Democratic parties, which had been at odds over the proposed legislation, reached an agreement last night. The move came after Republican Senator Richard Shelby and Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, a Democrat, reached an agreement over [...]