MID-DAY UPDATE: Goldman Sach announces lower profits, the world reacts to U.S. downgrade from Standard & Poor’s
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MID-DAY UPDATE: Goldman Sach announces lower profits, the world reacts to U.S. downgrade from Standard & Poor’s
Here are today’s top headlines from the Marketplace Morning Report and from around the web.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs said today its profit over the last three months was down by more than 70 percent.
The U.S. government said home construction rebounded a bit in March. Housing starts were up more than 7 percent.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Tuesday voiced disagreement with Standard & Poor’s negative outlook for the U.S. AAA credit rating, telling CNBC that political prospects to bring down long-term deficits were improving.
The Gap plans to open its first Old Navy stores overseas by the end of next year to accelerate an international push aimed at reducing its reliance on North America, where sales have been declining.
Strong demand for luxury brands from developing markets drove a 33 percent rise in fourth quarter sales at Burberry, sending the British group’s already buoyant shares to a new high.
SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewer, says that lager volume sales grew by 3 percent in the fourth quarter, excluding the impact of acquisitions and disposals.
Mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson is the latest economic victim of the Japan quake. It says profits fell 48 percent last quarter because of supply chain disruptions.
Harley-Davidson reported a wider quarterly profit Tuesday on higher income from the company’s financial services division and a 3.5 percent increase in sales of new motorcycles.
Johnson & Johnson reported stronger-than-expected sales and earnings despite product recalls that hurt sales of its consumer products, and slightly boosted its full-year profit forecast.
Fast food chain Subway says it will cut sodium levels in all of its sandwiches by 15 percent. Subway says that’s in response to consumer and government pressure and will eliminate 450 tons of sodium in its food each year.
GM is raising the cost of a car by a little more than a $100. And Delta Air Lines is going up on its fares at least $10. Higher oil prices to blame for both. Oil’s at $106 a barrel.
A closely-watched list of the top restaurants in the world — the San Pellegrino list — is out. Chicago’s Alinea restaurant is again the top U.S. restaurant on the list at number 6 in the world. The winner this year is a restaurant in Copenhagen called Noma. For $210 there you can get a seven course menu that includes: Beef cheek and pear, potatoes and milkskin and oyster and ocean. That, by the way, is the lunch menu.
Readers of the Consumerist website have voted for the worst company in America: It started off like March Madness with companies like Wal-mart and Delta Air Lines facing off in the first round. In the end it was returning champ Bank of America looking for a repeat. But one company stood in its way the winner of the worst company in America? Uh, drum roll please? BP. Tomorrow, by the way, is the anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
You can read the rest of today’s Marketplace Morning Report stories here.
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