Americas

Apple Inc. (AAPL.O) delivered a rare earnings disappointment to investors in the second quarter of 2012, but the signs are that the company is poised to compensate for that with a healthy positive surprise in Q3, thanks the to the success of its brand-new iPhone 5. It’s iPhone season again – in other words, it [...]

Investors appear reluctant to own higher-risk investments, but on the margin are also exiting money market funds that can’t offer much in the way of yield, the most recent data from Lipper reveals. The bumpy end to the third-quarter seems to have taken a toll on investors’ willingness to own equity mutual funds, as withdrawals [...]

While drug stores remain a drag on the index and the performance was less robust than in August, September’s same store sales came in squarely in line with what analysts had been anticipating, with apparel retailers once again leading the way. Same store sales in September came in on target, with the Thomson Reuters Same [...]

From the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, to the UK’s double-dip recession and China’s potential hard landing, it is not difficult to find bad news in today’s economic landscape. The financial crisis in 2008 led to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and four years on, it is clear that this has not [...]

Analysts forecast a modest 1.6% gain in SSS for September; although excluding the impact of drugstores raises that forecast to a more respectable 3.6%, the pace of growth is expected to slow from August’s back-to-school surge. In the wake of an unexpectedly robust 6.1% jump in same-store sales for August (excluding the results of drug [...]

NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) appears likely to report disappointing earnings, as a calmer market environment limits volatility and curbs hedging and trading activity. Two of the major characteristics of the recent market environment – interest rates at their lowest levels in more than a generation and investor uncertainty that never managed to become acute enough to [...]

Tesoro is poised to once again beat analysts’ expectations when it reports its third-quarter earnings, while a recently announced strategic acquisition may produce even more benefits in the coming months. U.S. oil refining companies have generated healthy returns for investors during 2012, delivering stronger earnings and increasing their dividends amidst a highly favorable environment. As [...]

The length and depth of the employment market’s recession continues to haunt U.S. politicians on the eve of the November elections. Like the Energizer Bunny, the “job market recession” just keeps going, and going, and going… It has been years since the stock market revived in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and since [...]

The stock market may have lost ground, but equity exchange-traded funds still appeared to be alluring to investors. After rallying for most of the last three months, the S&P 500 stalled in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s announcement of a third round of quantitative easing, as investors focused their attention on the negatives that [...]

Like many of its peers, mining company Cliffs Natural Resources is seeing a slump in demand from China create an oversupply situation – and trigger a freefall in raw material prices. That’s grim news for the company’s ability to measure up to analysts’ earnings expectations. China’s economic slowdown is grabbing headlines around the world, and [...]