Business

Hyundai Motor unveils small SUV concept for China, to launch this year

By Hyunjoo Jin SEOUL Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:52am EDT (Reuters) – South Korea’s Hyundai Motor on Sunday unveiled its small sport utility vehicle (SUV) concept targeted at the Chinese market, planning to join a flurry of rivals in tapping the growing segment in the world’s biggest market. Hyundai said it had picked popular Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun to promote the subcompact SUV ix25, to capitalize on the Korean pop culture boom in wooing Chinese […]

BMW in final stages of decision on potential new factory

BEIJING Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:26am EDT (Reuters) – Germany’s BMW is getting closer to deciding whether it will build a new factory, its board member Ian Robertson said on Sunday, as the luxury carmaker expands capacity to meet demand in key markets. “We are in the final stages of deciding where the plant will be,” Robertson told reporters at the Auto China show in Beijing on Sunday. Robertson said several locations were under consideration, […]

Toyota to launch China-made Corolla, Levin hybrids in 2015

By Yoko Kubota BEIJING Sun Apr 20, 2014 12:14am EDT (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp plans to make and sell hybrid versions of its Corolla and Levin sedans in China next year, fitting them with locally-made components, in its first bid to entirely manufacture gas-electric hybrids outside Japan. The backdrop to Toyota’s plans are efforts by foreign and domestic automakers to kick-start sales of hybrid cars in China, as the world’s largest auto market warms […]

Compensation battle rages four years after BP’s U.S. oil spill

By Jemima Kelly Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:37am EDT (Reuters) – Four years after the Deepwater Horizon spill, oil is still washing up on the long sandy beaches of Grand Isle, Louisiana, and some islanders are fed up with hearing from BP that the crisis is over. Jules Melancon, the last remaining oyster fisherman on an island dotted with colorful houses on stilts, says he has not found a single oyster alive in his leases […]

Disney sees operating income growth at cable networks

LOS ANGELES Thu Apr 17, 2014 6:25pm EDT (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s cable networks are expected to record high single-digit growth in operating income and domestic affiliate revenue from fiscal 2014 through 2016, Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo told investors on Thursday. “We feel very good about the long-term growth of our cable business,” Rasulo said at a meeting for investors at its the company’s ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. Disney’s cable operations reported […]

Japan, U.S. trade talks in stalemate, ministers to meet again: Japan

By Krista Hughes and Kaori Kaneko WASHINGTON/TOKYO Fri Apr 18, 2014 12:28am EDT (Reuters) – U.S.-Japan talks aimed at a trade deal seen as vital to a broader regional pact are in stalemate, Japan’s economy minister said, as negotiators struggle to narrow gaps ahead of a summit between the countries’ leaders. A U.S.-Japan agreement is critical to the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation grouping that would stretch from Asia to Latin America. The TPP […]

Wall Street Week Ahead: Spring fever brings hope for U.S. earnings

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK Thu Apr 17, 2014 7:20pm EDT (Reuters) – Earnings season shifts into high gear next week, and with nearly one-third of S&P 500 names set to post results, investors hope the news provides a catalyst to buy stocks and leave the market’s recent weakness in the dust. Several behemoths, including Apple, the largest U.S. company by market value, as well as Microsoft, McDonald’s and AT&T, are due to report earnings. […]

Dollar hurt by Yellen’s low rate stance, pound at four-and-a-half-year high

By Anirban Nag   LONDON Thu Apr 17, 2014 5:20am EDT (Reuters) – The dollar fell against a basket of currencies on Thursday after Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen reiterated an accommodative monetary policy stance in comments which gave the euro and the yen a lift. The dollar’s weakness lifted the pound to its highest level against the U.S. currency since late 2009 as investors continued to price in expectations for a UK rate hike […]

Obama announces $600 Million (USD) U.S. Job Training Program

  (Reuters) — U.S. President Barack Obama, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, announced an initiative on Wednesday (April 16) to devote $600 million (USD) to address a central challenge of today’s economy: how to train workers for skills they need for jobs that are open but hard to fill. “Today I’m taking two significant actions that don’t require Congress,” Obama announced during a visit to the Community College of Allegheny County in Oakdale, Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. “First, we’ve […]

Leash on expenses helps AmEx counter muted user spending

By Aman Shah Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:41pm EDT (Reuters) – American Express Co’s (AXP.N) quarterly profit beat analysts’ average estimate as a tighter control on expenses helped make up for slower growth in consumer spending in its key U.S. market. The world’s biggest credit card issuer said an unusually severe winter caused billed business in the United States to rise 6 percent in the first quarter, lower than the 9 percent growth in the […]

IBM’s quarterly revenue sinks to 5-year low as hardware sales fall

By Supantha Mukherjee and Soham Chatterjee Wed Apr 16, 2014 7:10pm EDT (Reuters) – IBM Corp reported its lowest quarterly revenue in five years on Wednesday as the company struggles with falling demand for its storage and server products. Shares of Big Blue fell about 4 percent to $188.20 in after-hours trade. Total revenue fell 4 percent to $22.5 billion in the first quarter, below analysts’ average estimate of $22.91 billion. “They have had eight […]

Google misses revenue target, ad prices slide

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO Wed Apr 16, 2014 8:05pm EDT (Reuters) – Google Inc’s first-quarter revenue fell short of Wall Street targets and margins narrowed as the price of its ads continued to decline, underscoring the challenges Internet companies face as the world shifts toward mobile devices. Shares of Google were down 3 percent to $539.80 in afterhours trading on Wednesday, after initially sliding roughly 6 percent on the news. The number of “paid […]