TRAVEL NOTES April 11, 2010 Get a perfect beach body in St Lucia The plush resort of Cotton Bay Village on the Caribbean island of St Lucia has launched a series of “diva boot camps” for ladies to get in shape in beautiful surroundings. The week long courses aimed at solo travellers or small groups of friends include tailored nutritional [...]
Apple launches mobile ads April 8, 2010 APPLE chief executive Steve Jobs yesterday began a war with Google after he laid out plans to launch a phone operating system with a new advertising platform to compete with its rival. Jobs, speaking at the company’s California headquarters, said the iPhone 4.0 operating system available later this year – also available on iPads this [...]
Pink power April 7, 2010 T HE tangiest of British vegetables, so long relegated to fools and crumbles, stepped into the (pink-tinged) lime-light last week. Rhubarb made headlines when Waitrose suddenly found itself entirely sold out of the British variety, thanks to an advert featuring Delia Smith and a rhubarb and ginger brulee recipe. In just four days, the supermarket [...]
ANALYSTS TAKE THEIR GAMBLE ON WORLD CUP April 7, 2010 WORLD Cup fever is starting to grip the City in earnest ahead of the summer in South Africa, as evidenced by the latest analysts to have a pop at the business impact of the tournament. Sanford Bernstein’s Trevor Stirling, Joao Valli and Melissa Yates yesterday released a missive on the effects of the World Cup [...]
S&P 500 boosted by lift for bankers April 6, 2010 THE S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose modestly yesterday as the banking sector got a lift from positive analyst comments, while minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting eased concern over rising rates. The minutes suggested the central bank could keep interest rates at ultra-low levels longer than investors have anticipated if the economy worsens. Lower [...]
Samsung sees profits up and demand hike April 6, 2010 ELECTRONICS giant Samsung is predicting a surge in flat screen television sales as consumers recover their appetite for spending this year. The world’s largest semiconducter and flat-screen TV maker, which has forecast a record first-quarter profit of 4.3 trillion won (£2.52bn) and sales of 34 trillion won, predicts it will improve its figures in the [...]
US markets flourish as positive news floods in April 5, 2010 Shares of natural resources companies led the gains on expectations that an improving economy would drive up demand. US front-month crude oil futures topped $86 a barrel and gave a big lift to energy shares, with Exxon Mobil Corp up almost 1 per cent and Chevron Corp up 1.3 per cent. The S&P energy index [...]
Wall Street rallies on growth spurt April 5, 2010 The bulls were out in force in the US markets yesterday as its economy received the strongest sign yet that it is on the road to making a full recovery. The Dow Jones soared close to the 11,000 mark, reaching its highest point in over 18 months, following five weeks of consecutive growth. It climbed [...]
iPad mania grips US as sales begin April 5, 2010 APPLE’S latest must-have gadget stormed into US homes yesterday as more than 300,000 people snapped one up on its first day on sale. The highly-anticipated iPad tablet notebook pushed Apple’s shares to its highest ever level after it rose 1.1 per cent. It attracted the usual flurry of add-on sales, with users downloading over 1m [...]
Report of a new Apple iPhone boosts US stocks March 30, 2010 US stocks rose in a slow session yesterday on data showing more stabilisation in the economy, while Apple rallied on a report that it was developing a new iPhone. With the S&P 500 now up 73.4 per cent from the March 2009 bottom and on track for a fourth straight quarterly gain, investors chose to [...]