In 2007 Daimler, the maker of Mercedes-Benz lead over BMW as its market valuation was 39 billion euros more than that of BMW. Currently the gap has dropped to 700 million euros. Despite diminishing gap, BMW employs only about 50% Daimler's 270,000 workforce and produced 38% less revenue in 2010. Declining value gap mirrors Daimler's defeat in Germany's luxury vehicles' market.
In November Swiss unemployment level remained at record low in last three years indicating that labour market is stable despite cooling economic growth. The jobless rate in November stayed at 3%, the smallest since January 2009, reported State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. New jobs openings dropped by 1,355 reaching 17,395.
Canadian dollar rose second day in a row against its US peer after Bank of Canada officials told the growth in US and home economy is sounder than expected. Canadian currency gained 0.6% against greenback reaching C$1.0100 per US dollar in Toronto evening trade. Loonie is the November's second best performer after Japanese yen. USD/CAD currently is trading at C$1.0072.
Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor is likely to stick to its current benchmark interest rate at 2.5% as global economic outlook worsens, predict economists questioned by Bloomberg. In case the country leaves interest rate unchanged, it will join Indonesia and South Korea that keep holding their benchmark rate at record low.
The 17-nation currency appreciated against US dollar and Japanese yen amid investor hopes that European leaders during summit will agree on bailout fund expansion to support most troubled countries. Euro gained 0.3% against greenback on Wednesday Tokyo trade reaching $1.3436 and advancing 0.3% against Yen, to ВҐ104.43. EUR/USD currently is trading at 1.3450 and EUR/JPY is trading at ВҐ104.48.
Italy's biggest lender, UniCredit SpA announced its plans to reduce the number of bank's corporate offices by more than 50% over next four years, saving €50 m ($67 million) per year starting from 2015. UniCredit SpA is considering cut 85 of its 160 main offices (292 000 square meters) by shutting rental contracts and selling portion of its real-estate.
Greek PM Lucas Papademos gained parliamentary approval for the country's 2012 budget. Premier's plan is aimed at reducing the deficit shortfall close to 50% from a debt write-off and ensuring Greece stays in the Eurozone. The motion was approved by 258 in favour and 41 against in 300-seat Parliament. Next year budget predicts 5.4% deficit of Greece's GDP in comparison with 9% deficit in 2011.
European leaders are considering creating and operating 2 bailout funds to boost region's capability to tackle debt turmoil. Discussions are concentrating on the possibility permitting Euro regions' 440 bn euro worth fund to stay in operation until a new €500 bn facility is implemented in 2012. The idea of double firepower will be introduced during Friday's EU summit.
Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup Inc. announced the bank is planning to eliminate about 4,500 jobs beginning in the 4th quarter. Padit expects that job reductions will be executed during the next few quarters. Citigroup is going to undertake a charge of the $400 m in the 4th quarter linked to those cuts. CEO also told the bank is going to return capital to its
Australia's economy soared the 3rd quarter boosted by a rapid expansion in mining business. Gross domestic product gained 1% compared with 0.8% increase previously predicted by economists, said Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. Growth in GDP reflects rapid escalation of mining investment and robust household consumption, though outweighed by declining public demand.
The China's government issued 1st white paper outlining the country's success in stimulating foreign trade and China's positive contribution into the global trade. Country foreign trade has made a significant progress during the last years. Trade volume grew at the annualized rate of 16.8% from 1978 when the country opened barriers to foreign trade. The value of trade approached 2.97 trillion USD in 2010, according
Asian stocks edged up on Wednesday as investor optimism on forthcoming European summmit returned. Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.9% and South Korean Kospi suged 0.5%. Australian S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.7% while Japanese Nikkei Stock Average jumped 1.5%. Markets remain positive ahead of European meeting on December 9, said BNP Paribas strategists.
Stricter budget control rules can be introduced without amendments in the previous treaties, announced Herman Van Rompuy, European Council President. He proposes fast-track fiscal measures that can be adopted without time-consuming ratifications needed for treaty changes. However, Germany and France still insist on including tougher rules in the treaties.
Chinese rich people are getting more risk-averse due to weak real estate market and stock market's sentiment, according to industry survey. Almost a half of wealthy family's liquid assets are in bank deposits with the investments in stock market contributing only 20%. However, still 75% of family wealth is made up by property despite being in the highest risk in case of property prices tumble,
India's parliament restarted its work after it was announced the country suspends retail reform aimed at opening the sector to large foreign retailers. The decision was postponed till it would be possible to reach a consensus, reported parliament. The conflict arose as the opposition claimed the new reform would destroy thousands of jobs and small businesses while supporters insisted it would bring wider choice and
China's court rejected Apple's accusation of Proview Technology, China's technology company, of infringement trademark of iPad. Proview has a legally registered iPad trademark along with other 2,000 trademarks in countries including China, the court claimed. Meanwhile, Preview also brought a complaint against Apple's infringement of its copyrights on 10 billion yuan, reported Caixin Online.
Barclays Capital cut China's GDP growth forecast from 8.4% to 8.1% for 2012 citing the downturn in the euro-zone. Investments are expected to fall next year but domestic consumption will play a role of stabilizing factor, reported Barclays. CPI is expected to ease from 5.5% projected in 2011 to 3.2% in 2012 due to decline in exports and risk of overcapacity, Barclays added.
Australia's LNG projects worth A$130 have to be completed in the next five years before the natural gas supplies becomes oversaturated, according to Australian Financial Review. The final investments should be done and the projects have to be placed on the market in the next five years, confirmed Dick McIlhattan, head of LNG at Bechtel.
The fall in the yuan value for the five consecutive days is a natural response of the market to declining trade surplus in China, claim analysts. The yuan value is likely to be balanced in long-run, they add. China's trade surplus tumbled by 36% in October on an annual basis weighting down on the country's currency value that fell essentially against the greenback to
European officials are negotiating probable boost the euro-zone members' capability to combat with spreading debt crisis by running two bailout funds, reported Financial Times. The new measure stipulates the euro-zone countries being able to access 400 billion euros bailout fund currently available and adding new 500 billion euros facility in 2012. The policy may be adopted along with revision of the treaties to impose stricter budget
China plans to increase its nuclear energy capacity and make nuclear energy a foundation of the power-generation structure in the next 10-20 years, according to senior official. China is going to expand its energy capacity by 2 billion kW in corresponding period with 300 million kW being generated from nuclear power, said Shi Lishan, deputy director of the National Energy Administration's department.
Southwest Airlines announced the increase in traffic by 2.5% pulling the revenue passenger miles to over 8.28 billion as compared with 8.07 billion in 2010. The capacity in November also increased by 0.7% to 10.14 billion available seat miles. The revenues are expected to rise by 9% in November.
Expenditure on buying Christmas trees in US will surge 3.1% this year, the record high since recession in 2008, said IBISWorld. Americans are planning to paid about $800 m for 25 m real trees and another $2.6 bn on 10 m non-natural trees during the Christmas time, predicts IBISWorld. Americans spent $3.14 bn to purchase Christmas trees in 2008.
On Tuesday's premarket trading Nasdaq, Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 futures float around breakeven as investors stay prudent after S&P European rating warning. US equity futures edge higher in advance of opening indicating direction for the morning trade. US stocks advanced on Monday but fell of their highest levels after S&P report.