Glencore half year profits jump 50pc August 25, 2011 Commodities trader Glencore met forecasts with a 50 per cent rise in first-half profit thanks to rising commodity prices and rosy oil trading conditions in the first months of the year, and said it remained optimistic on global growth. “The short term volatility caused by renewed bearishness on sovereign debt in developed markets is of [...]
Diageo beats forecasts in tough climate August 25, 2011 Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits group, beat forecasts with a 16 percent rise in annual earnings and despite a fragile global economy set targets for 10-percent plus earnings growth going forward. The British maker of Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whisky said on Thursday that emerging markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia grew strongly, [...]
STEVE JOBS QUITS AS APPLE’S CHIEF August 24, 2011 STEVE JOBS last night resigned as chief executive of Apple, telling the board he is no longer able to meet his duties. His shock departure heralds the end of an era for one of the world’s biggest firms and most colourful chief executives. The decision follows a seven month medical leave of absence, during which [...]
Gold drops by more than five per cent as equities spring back August 24, 2011 GOLD plummeted by over five per cent yesterday — its sharpest decline in nearly three years — as some investors cashed in on its recent surge and switched to equities ahead of Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke’s hotly-anticipated speech at Jackson Hole. The precious metal – which soared to over $1,900 an ounce earlier in [...]
Libyan rebels start with oil August 24, 2011 LIBYAN rebel leaders have already called workers back into the nation’s oil refineries and say pre-conflict levels of production could be reached within a year. The country’s Transitional National Council (TNC) said damage to its oil infrastructure is not as bad as previously feared, adding resumption of its 1.6m barrels a day output is an [...]
It can’t be wrong to work for a living August 24, 2011 HOLD the front page – or rather, please don’t. Page 2 will do just fine. What I’m about to “reveal” is only news to a small, close-minded elite of out of touch politicians, left-wing academics and social engineers. Believe it or not, but given the choice, people will pick a well-paid job with a less [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 24, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES COULSON LEGAL PAYMENTS COULD BE STOPPED News International’s senior management has met to consider stopping payments to Andy Coulson’s legal team. Mr Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World who was arrested in July as part of an investigation into phone hacking, is taking legal advice on the testimony he [...]
Google in $500m payout August 24, 2011 Google has agreed to pay a $500m to settle a probe into adverts it displayed for Canadian online pharmacies illegally selling prescription drugs into the US. The settlement, one of the largest ever in the US, represents Google’s revenue from Canadian pharmacy advertisements to US customers through its AdWords programme and Canadian pharmacies’ revenue from [...]
Hulu draws lots of bid attention August 24, 2011 The deadline for initial bids in the auction for US television service Hulu was extended from yesterday until the end of the week to allow interested parties more time to examine the online video site’s financial information, according to people familiar with the situation. Yahoo, Google, DirecTV and Amazon were among the parties preparing to [...]
Oil price trading case nears end August 24, 2011 High-frequency trading firm Optiver Holding has set aside $19.3m to deal with one of the biggest oil-manipulation cases ever brought by the US futures regulator, according to a copy of the private firm’s annual report. The three-year-long case, brought by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against the Amsterdam-based firm, may now be heading [...]
