Investment News Briefs
With our investment news briefs, Money Morning provides investors with a quick overview of the most important investing news stories from all around the world.
WSJ: Motorola to Sell Network Business; Macy’s Shares Fall After Forecast Misses Estimates; China’s Prices Fall, Trade Surplus Grows; Gold Price Records Continue; iPhone Posts Strong Sales After Debut on Second U.K. Carrier; Britain’s Central Bank Open to More Asset Purchases; Geithner: U.S. Wants Strong Dollar, Lower Deficit; AIG CEO Threatens to Leave Amid Pay Frustration; H-P Buys 3Com for $2.7 Billion in Cash
- Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is considering selling its set-top box and mobile phone network equipment business for about $4.5 billion, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Private equity firms as well as other communications-gear makers were reported as possible buyers, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) are said to be advising Motorola on the sale. Declining sales in Motorola’s mobile phone unit this year made the set-top box and mobile phone network equipment business its largest division, with sales of $2 billion. RBC Capital Markets Corp. analyst Mark Sue says a sale of any of Motorola’s other businesses could hurt Motorola’s struggling mobile phone business. “The mobile devices business still needs the rest of the businesses to fund it operations,” Sue told Reuters. “It hasn’t really recovered fully yet so it would be a little too early to cut off the lifeline.”
- Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) said it expects fourth quarter same-store sales to fall between 1% and 2%, and earnings of $1 to $1.05 per share, far below estimates of $1.17 per share by Thomson Reuters Corp. (NYSE: TRI). The retailer expects a less severe drop for its full-year same-store sales, forecasting a drop of 5.4% to 5.7%, compared to a prior outlook of a 6% to 8% decline. Macy’s third-quarter net loss narrowed to $35 million, or 8 cents per share, compared to $44 million, or 10 cents per share in the same period last year. Sales dropped 3.9% to $5.28 billion. Shares of the company fell 8.08% to settle at $17.86 yesterday (Wednesday).
- The consumer price index (CPI) in China fell 0.5% in October from a year earlier, narrowing the 0.8% drop in September, government data showed. China’s producer price index (PPI) dropped 5.8% last month compared to a year ago, slowing from September’s 7.0% decline. Its trade surplus grew to $24 billion in October, almost double the previous month’s $12.93 billion.
- Gold futures yesterday (Wednesday) settled at a record of $1,114.60, up $12.10 on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) after upbeat key Chinese economic indicators and continued expectations of loose monetary policy throughout the world. “As long as the U.S. dollar is trending down, the gold price is unlikely to soften meaningfully,” analysts at Commerzbank AG (OTC ADR: CRZBY) wrote in a note to clients.
- U.K. wireless carrier Orange said it sold 30,000 units of Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone on its first day of availability Tuesday. While that’s a far cry from the 146,000 units sold in its first weekend in the United States, Orange is actually the second carrier in the United Kingdom to carry the handset after O2. The news will likely bolster calls for the iPhone to move to a second carrier in the United States. AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is the exclusive iPhone carrier in the United States, but its contract with Apple is set to expire next year.
- Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said he has an “open mind” on new bond purchases, adding to the United Kingdom’s currently planned purchase of $331 billion (200 billion pounds) in assets. The news comes after the United States said it will ease its purchases of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in the first quarter and the European Central Bank said last week that some long-term financing auctions will end in December. Australia and Norway have already started to raise their key interest rates. “This cautious tone is aiming at keeping the options open for the Bank of England,” said Sarah Hewin, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank told Bloomberg News. “They obviously still do feel that there are risks out there.“
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reaffirmed his belief to maintain a strong dollar and reduce the United States’ record-high $1.4 trillion deficit in Tokyo yesterday (Wednesday), addressing concerns in export-heavy Asia. “We bear a special responsibility for trying to make sure that we are implementing policies in the United States that will sustain confidence … in investors around the world that as growth recovers and growth strengthens that we’re going to bring our fiscal position back to a sustainable balance,” he said.
- American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche, frustrated with the executive pay limitations the federal government imposed on his company told the board he is considering stepping down, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Benmosche last week told directors that he was “done” but gave it a second thought after other board members reacted with shock, the people said. In a meeting with the Obama administration’s pay czar Kenneth Feinberg last week, Benmosche discussed difficulties of complying with the government’s pay policies and retaining talent at the company. Still, the executive told employees yesterday (Wednesday) that he and AIG’s board “remain totally committed to leading AIG through its challenges.”
- Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) has entered a definitive agreement to buy 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS) for $2.7 billion in cash, or $7.90 per share. The move underscores PC makers’ diversification away from their core business amid eroding margins on computers. H-P, the world’s largest PC maker said the merger reaffirms its next-generation data center strategy “built on the convergence of servers, storage, networking, management, facilities and services.”
